The Foundations of Productivity

I’ve been thinking a lot about foundations lately, so I decided to start the year at Whole Life Productivity with an article series about the foundations of productivity.

I remember watching my husband pour a concrete slab. He cleared the ground, removing the grass and rocks, then used a tool to pound the dirt flat. It was a lot of effort, and I asked him why. He replied, “Without a good foundation, everything on top will crack.”

Why Foundations Of Productivity Are So Essential

One of the things that medieval warriors would do to breach a castle wall is to undermine its foundations. Without those blocks, the wall couldn’t stand.

Foundations of productivity, just like the earth my husband prepared, must be solid in order for the things that rest on top of them to be at their peak performance. Everything we do is rooted in our foundations, good or bad, and the end result is a direct reflection of those foundations.

So in order to have the best productivity, with little wasted effort, you must have those foundations in place.

This article series will take you through ten of the foundations of productivity and show you how to build them up to increase your productivity, whether at work or at home.

What You Can Expect From The Series

• Don’t Fiddle. Why fiddling with something that isn’t broken makes you less productive…and how to approach change in a productive manner.
• Use Tools Appropriately. How using the wrong tool for the job just creates more work…and how you can find and use the appropriate tools.
• Know What You’re Doing. Why you need to know what you are trying to accomplish with everything you do…and how to recognize when you’re not.
• Focus on One Thing. Why mono-focus is so important to productivity…and how to get there.
• Start As You Intend To Continue. Why arbitrary starting dates for self-improvement don’t work…and how to avoid failure and procrastination.
• Build Your Habits. Why habit are so important to productivity…and resources to help you build them.
• Lasting Change Isn’t Sudden. Overnight success is never overnight…and how you can build lasting change.
• Complete or Abandon. Why you should never stop a project mid-way…and what to do instead to skyrocket your productivity.
• Eliminate the Unnecessary. Why and how efficiency is a key component of productivity…and how to get the boosts of getting rid of the unnecessary.
• Don’t Rethink. Why rethinking things is a waste of time and energy…and how to avoid this productivity killer with two simple procedures.

With the foundations strong, anything you build will have a solid grounding. The same applies to productivity, and we will explore these ten foundations over the coming weeks.