Are You on the (Productivity) Spectrum?
How far are you willing to go to actually get $hit done?
Want to be more effective at work, but at the same time you don’t want to change a lot of things about the way you work? Maybe you don’t want to give up all the social rewards of busy-ness, but you still want to improve your productivity.
Or maybe … you’re ready to be the most effective business owner you can possibly be, and you’re ready to do whatever it takes to get there. Even if you have to change up routines or create new habits that might seem uncomfortable.
Or maybe … you’re somewhere in between.
At the same time, you know that when you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.
The current environment for productivity in the US
Here’s where we are in terms of “normal” workplace culture.
Hustle culture dominates.
Busyness, or at least the appearance of it, is critical.
Many people believe the idea that knowledge work output is linear to the input, meaning that one hour of work produces the same output in terms of quality and amount, no matter how many consecutive hours you put in.
Even though the average American is inundated with emails every single day, many feel that they’re required (by bosses, vendors, and clients) to reply immediately. No matter what the content of the email is.
Many companies ask for people to multitask because there’s so much to do, even if the work is mostly busywork such as answering emails.
So-called productivity gurus encourage every person to get up before the break of dawn to start their day, because that implies you’ll get more done during the day.
The problem with everything I listed above is that it either doesn’t work at all, is literally impossible (multitasking), works only for some people (getting up super early), and/or drives people to burnout (all of the above).
Yet this is our culture. And what that means is that the more effective and productive you want to be, the more norms you have to break.
I’m a contrarian, a Gen Xer, and an only child. So breaking norms for me is no big deal. I personally haven’t had email notifications enabled for over two decades – on any screen – but I get the biggest pushback on the email issue.
I understand that not everyone is ready to take a big leap into superpowered productivity. But are you ready to take a step towards working smarter instead of harder? Everyone can do something to be more effective.
The biggest productivity booster for business owners, hands down
The tool that business owners most often use, no matter what their business is, is right between the ears. Yep, your brain. You likely use computers as well, but you make the ultimate decisions about what to do in your business.
Maybe you use AI to help you brainstorm, or develop content, or survey the users that are key to your company. You still have to make your own judgements, decide who to communicate with and when, and so on. That’s all your brain.
And that’s part of the reason trying another “productivity” app or AI algorithm doesn’t help you be more productive. It’s another thing you have to deal with, and adds more tasks to your day. It doesn’t get at the root cause of effectiveness, but plays around with some of the symptoms.
You will see a massive and sustainable improvement in productivity when you align the time your brain is best able to do the difficult “thinky” work like planning, strategizing, crunching numbers, etc. and marry that time with that kind of work without interruption.
The phrase “without interruption” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here! Because it’s not sufficient to just make that time available. You will power through your tasks when you know what your priorities are and can give them your full attention during the time when your attention is at its sharpest.
If you wanted to max this out – which will put you on the super productive end of the spectrum – you need a lot of preparation and communication to make it happen.
You’ll need to know:
When your best “thinky” time is during the day
What your priorities are that will really move the needle for your business
What your team’s priorities should be if you have a team, and ideally their “thinky” times as well
How you will use the time you reclaim (if you’re just going to waste it on scrolling, what’s the point?)
The best way to get the thinky time without interruption is to block it on your calendar, ideally on a daily basis. You’ll need to be able to time block on your calendar. And more importantly, make sure the time block doesn’t move around: it stays on the calendar for the time that your brain is best at this kind of work.
And how do you do that?
Set boundaries around who gets to move that block (no one except you, and only for emergencies)
Set boundaries around what’s an acceptable interruption (nothing short of zombie apocalypse or fire, basically)
Turn off all notifications. For everything. Phone, email, laptop, whatever: no beeps, gurgles, chirps, rings, vibrations, 1812 Overture, anything.
Communicate that you are not able to be reached during this time.
Are you willing to do all that? It’s a lot! I’ve developed my methodology over time, so it’s not like I did all this in a week myself. I did it one step at a time.
Some of this probably seems to be doable for you, and some of it isn’t. The more you can do, the more effective you’ll be. But if you can’t do it all, you can do some, and that will give you a productivity boost.
Whether you want to go hard on effectiveness or not, the first place to start is when during the day your brain is best able to handle the work. You will need to ignore the supposed “virtue” in rising early.
Your sleep chronotype will give you a guide as to when your brain is ready to tackle thinky work. There used to be two (morning lark, night owl) but in reality there are three or four chronotypes, depending on the system you use. The important thing to note is that rising early is only one of the chronotypes; all the others get up later.
If you are a lion (early bird), then you’re an early riser. But if you’re not, you’ll just be more tired if you try to get up early. Do what works for you. (Don’t know your sleep chronotype? Take the quiz here.)
A couple of hours of focus work is good to start. If you want to go hard, schedule that every day; otherwise, schedule it for once a week. During that time, turn off your notifications, and don’t do any other work like admin, calls, emails, etc. This time is only for you to do the thinky stuff.
And that’s how you get started.
The other side to productivity
When your brain is your biggest asset, you need to take care of it. It needs lots of rest, including sleep, to work most effectively. You probably know already that exercise or some form of physical movement, good nutrition, and hydration are necessary for health.
In addition to that, it needs social bonds (less for introverts, more for extroverts) and fun. Yes, having fun is good for your brain and helps you stay productive because it gives the “thinky” part of the brain some rest.
Productivity is not a goal in and of itself. I started so I could work in a way that let me achieve my results but also have time for other things in life. I have different interests and ideas and no matter how much I love my job, it’s only one facet of what I like to do.
I contain multitudes, as American poet Walt Whitman said in Song of Myself, and so do you.
Focusing and being more productive gives you more time to go see the art exhibit/sporting event/theatre performance whenever it happens. Or time to spend with your kids or partner or pets (or all three!) plus any other friends and loved ones, without worrying about work the whole time. You’ll have achieved what you wanted to during the day, so your time off can be guiltless.
Having a life outside your work gives you an offramp for when you need to retire (and you will need to slow down and then stop working at some point.) It also provides more joy while you’re working.
The more important work you can compress into a smaller space of time, the more time you have for other things. Without losing your profitability or momentum or scaling possibilities.
To get started…
If you currently think your life is too full for exercise, your task is to carve out time every day to move your butt. Starting right now. Drop cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring kids, whatever if you need to and identify who or what will take it over (Roomba? Housecleaner? Spouse/kids?)
This is not about physical health, so you can’t just cram 150 minutes of activity on the weekend and think you’re done with it. Your brain needs oxygenated blood every day to function at its best, and you get that through physical movement. GO.
If you’ve got movement locked in, here’s a challenge.
Think of something you’ve always wanted to do, or used to do as a kid and then gave up. It doesn’t have to be anything big, but it absolutely cannot in any way be related to your work. No networking and calling it socializing.
For example, I take cello lessons regularly and (I’m very excited about this) I’ll be taking a local improv class for a couple of months. I’m not saying you have to take a class. Maybe you bring out the sewing machine, or the woodworking tools, or maybe you just really want to join the rec center softball team. Whatever.
Ideally you would do this thing on a weeknight. Why a weeknight? Because you’ll think more carefully about your work when you know you need to leave at a certain time to do the thing. And if it’s something you want to do, you’re more likely to actually go do it even after a busy day.
Try it for a little while. See how it feels. If it doesn’t feel like joy, try something else. If you love it, don’t let it go.
Recap (tl;dr)
Productivity is a spectrum, and the more you ignore work culture, the more effective you’ll be. Fun activities outside work help your brain recharge, so make sure you’ve got something going on.
You now know you get the biggest bang for your buck by matching thinky time with thinky work. But what if you don’t know what your thinky time is? Click here for your free chronotype quiz.
Photo by Content Pixie on Unsplash.