Let's Talk About Productivity, Let's Talk About You And Me

One of my favourite past times is to watch videos about productivity. If I'm too tired to be useful, I like to see how other people do life. Aside from the motivation, I've included a number of the ideas I've discovered this way into my arsenal, such as bullet journaling.

Recently, I watched the 'Productivity Masterclass' videos by Ali Abdaal on Skillshare. He goes into great detail about a number of principles and tools to aid with productivity. He discusses a number of books he has read, and things he has tried out over the years. I was surprised by how many of these things I'd 'discovered' on my own through trying to find the best ways to work, so I found it enjoyable to see them being explained by someone else.

As a little side note, I had a poke around at the other things Ali does. I'll be honest, I find him tremendously smug, but I think I would be if I was him. He's a doctor, he has some interesting hobbies and is making a decent amount of money from his web content. He has a youtube channel, he does a podcast with his brother, and he has recently been putting classes on skillshare. I don't want to be a doctor or do study with me videos, but I like a success when I see one.

Anyway, back to the Productivity Masterclass. I don't want to go into too much detail about the content of his videos as you should probably just watch them, but I did want to talk about some of the principles and tools that I have been employing already without actualising them.

Decision Fatigue

This term refers to the psychological phenomenon in which, as the number of decisions a human being makes increases, so the quality of the decisions decreases. A famous example of this is when business people reduce their clothing down to duplicates of one or two outfits so that they can use their decision making for something more useful in the day (something I have employed).

One of the ways I have been trying to combat decision fatigue is with the use of 'Today', 'This Week' and 'Someday' lists. At the moment I'm trialling asana for this; every time I have an idea or a task comes up, I add it to one of my lists under one of those three categories.

Another way is having rituals. In the morning, I fill out my habit tracker, check my asana 'Today' tasks, prepare myself for stand-up (what did I do yesterday, what am I going to do today) and try to do something for myself (learn something usually).

Making Things I Do More Enjoyable

This feels kind of obvious I suppose but it became really obvious to me when I started working from home over lockdown. Things like having your favourite drink, having your favourite music, wearing something you like, having a snack you like, rewarding yourself after tasks, going to the park with your laptop. Generally just doing nice things to help you enjoy what you're doing more.

I would note that it's easy to let this become a form of procrastination, so keep an eye. 

Reviewing My Process

When I started working at Bluefruit, I was really surprised by how many of the agile processes I already applied to my life. Every 6 months to a year (or every time I'm having a crisis) I sit down and review my progress. 'What went well?', 'What didn't go well?', 'Did I achieve my goals?', 'What are my new goals?'. And then I write a mission statement that I read to motivate me. I'll talk about this at some point in more detail.

That's an example of one of my processes. Every now and again, I look at the reviews of my personal progress and I compare them to each other. I sit and read on the internet about the best ways to assess your personal progress and I review my process. Am I asking the best questions I could be, is the mission statement the right thing to have? Could I be including anything else? 

I feel it's just as important to review my process as it is to carry it out in the first place.

Getting To The Point

I try to think in bullet points about tasks. I group them into categories like;

- What am I trying to achieve?
- Who is this aimed at?
- What would good outcomes look like?
- What isn't going so well?

You get the idea. It helps me in so many areas. I've got a presentation, get to the point. I'm working in a group to solve a problem, get to the point. I don't know what to do with my day, get to the point.

Little, Often, Makes A Lot

One day I was thinking about how in school, you do 2 hours of a subject a week, but over a year you end up learning quite a lot. I decided to try and employ timetabling into my week. Unfortunately, I expected too much of myself and had to remember that the only person I was doing it for was me.

I now have a different tact. I have a series of post-it notes with lists of things I could be doing if I find myself with nothing to do. That way, I'm not forcing myself to do anything, I can't fail for 'missing a lesson'. I record my successes and track my habits so that I can see I've been doing things, this motivates me to do more. If I have something important, I'll do that first. Otherwise, I try to spread out my time over different things, but mostly I just do what I feel is most enjoyable.

Many Small Tasks = A Big Task
This is about just doing little things when they come up rather than putting them off. If you just do something when it comes up, like tidying up after yourself, then it won't turn into a whole day you have to spend tidying up. I think working in hospitality really helped to solidify this attitude, any time you spend doing something now means you don't have to do it later when you want to be doing something else. Pretty simple really.

Focus On The Outcome
I'm slightly wrong in the head and actually enjoy tidying (though only if I made the mess). I always use tidying as an example because it's a big issue for a lot of people, a lot of people don't like it at all. To those people I say; instead of focusing on the idea of tidying, focus on the image of you laying down with a cold drink in your hand, basking in all the clean. If you're going on holiday, you don't focus on all the packing and the paying out money and the hours of travelling (if you do, I'm sorry, that sounds horrible). You can apply it to anything.

Steer Your Ship
At the end of the day, if you don't feel like something is part of a bigger picture, and that bigger picture is something you actually want, you won't do it. Every so often, I take a big look at my career, my home, my mental health, my social situations, my relationship (or lack of) and my hopes and dreams. I write them all down, weigh them up against each other and use them to chart my course. 

Relax
If you know me or you've read much of my blog, you might realise that I'm not very good at relaxing. I'm very aware it's something I ought to do more of, but at the same time my inner voice says "I'll sleep when I'm dead!". I have a few things I try to make myself do; lay down and slow my mind down (I suppose it's like meditation), watch T.V. or do something mindless like doodling.

I'm sure I'll think of some more things to add to this list, for now, cheers on!