My 5 Personal Productivity Pitfalls
This is not the article I intended to write. But last night, when I realized, after reading most of the evening, that I still had an article to get out today, I put it off. It’s been nagging at me all day, and I tried several times to write the article I had planned.
It’s not that I’m not excited about the article I had planned (about making your own forms for digital planning). It’s not that I don’t know what to say. It’s just that I felt as if the rock from Indiana Jones was coming at me, and I was going to get smooshed.
I’ve been having a productivity slump. It’s been going on a for a few weeks. I attributed it to starting a new client, back to school for my daughter, the bathroom paint job that turned into a remodel, the death of our dog. The only thing that has kept me even minimally productive was knowing I was going to have to report in to my accountability partner (hi, Suellen!)
So I thought I would put my experience to good use. Today I will talk about my 5 personal productivity pitfalls, and brainstorm some strategies about how I can prevent them. And Thursday I will talk about my 5 personal productivity jump starts.
1. No List
Here’s the thing I’ve noticed…if I don’t write down my task list, it doesn’t exist. It isn’t enough for me just to look at the list in Remember the Milk. I physically have to write the words.
Not writing my list tells my brain it’s OK to do whatever I want, which usually involves complete time sinks, not even activities that refresh and relax me.
This is the worst on the weekends, particularly Saturday morning. The day when I have the most time to get my stuff done then descends into a pit of napping, surfing the web or shopping.
How can I get around this? Making a commitment to having a list written before I start my morning routine. I can tie this to taking my vitamins and meds in the morning, something I rarely forget because I know that it will really make me feel lousy later on. I can also do this the night before, when I have access to my computer (making it easier to decide on the tasks).
2. Not Checking The List
Even if the task list is made, it doesn’t mean I will check it. If I have written it out, there are times when I still don’t look at it. Last night was a great example. I didn’t read it over when I got home, so my mind decided that there was nothing on it. Ugh.
This has gotten better since I switched to a digital planner because it is always with me. Before I would have the excuse that the planner wasn’t around, so I couldn’t look. But now it is available on my phone, and I always have my phone within arm’s reach.
How can I get around this? Reminders would be good. I can set reminders on my phone, or on my Fitbit. Fitbit alarms mean it is on my wrist. I can ignore reminders on my phone. Perhaps having IFTTT send me a reminder via text would work, because then I can send a message to my Fitbit instead of just having an alarm go off.
3. Escaping
This is a horrid habit I got into while teaching, and it has continued to this day. If I start to feel overwhelmed, I will escape, usually into a fiction book. Then I will get caught up in the story and blow through an entire weekend day or weekday evening reading until I am done with the book.
It’s not like I am getting anything other than some mild entertainment out of the books. I’m not learning anything, and my reading pace is such that I’m not analyzing the book for use in my own writing. It’s just plain out and out consumption of brain junk food.
How can I get around this? First of all, the Kindle app needs to come off my phone (done as I wrote that last sentence). Second, the emails I get every day with book deals need to go right to the trash. These tempt me to buy books that feed the habit. Other than that, I think limiting my fiction reading to Sunday morning only (and that after doing my weekly planning) or some other specified time will work. Perhaps setting it into my schedule will make me delay my gratification.
4. Poor Food Choices
Due to a family history of early death from stroke and heart attacks, my doctor put me on a beta blocker last November. It’s been good, lowering my blood pressure to a normal range for me (which is still on the low side of “normal”), and relaxing me all around. The downside is that I feel blood sugar shifts intensely. I have no warning when my blood sugar is dropping, going from feeling OK to shaky in under 10 minutes, bypassing the phase where I used to feel hungry. I also feel the highs acutely if I eat sweets, and then the sugar crash afterwards flattens me.
Not eating enough will put me off for hours recovering from a low. Eating candy or cakes or ice cream will make me crash hard enough to want to go to bed.
I sometimes turn to caffeine to get me through those slumps, and that is just not good.
How can I get around this? Sadly, I am beginning to realize that I really do need to eat frequent small meals with low glycemic indices. Only small portions of dessert infrequently, and then only when I don’t have to be at my best mentally. Making sure I have good quality snacks is key, and I need to start carrying around almonds at all times, as well as having a small bit of protein when I get home from work.
5. Missing Weekly Planning
This one completely messed me up this week. I didn’t get through my weekly planning on Sunday morning, and as a result, didn’t get it done until Monday, which then destroyed my productivity both on Sunday and Monday.
How can I get around this? Streamlining my weekly planning will help. I can simplify both my calendar look, and my task load by eliminating tools I had been using for the paper planner. I can also do my weekly planning on Saturday night, before I go to bed.
6. Not Enough Free Time
I know, I said 5 productivity pitfalls, but this one I just realized is something that really makes me rebel inside. If I feel too rushed, too overscheduled, too constrained, something inside me reverts to a three year old digging her heels in, and a favorite word of “WON’T”. I have to guard my free time, not give it up to things that don’t matter, and most of all, stop resenting those activities and people who are on my schedule and who genuinely are good for me!
How can I get around this? I can actually put free time appointments in my schedule. This week Thursday is the only free night, and I can schedule some time in my writing studio to do some creative activities. I just need to give my own appointments the same weight as I do appointments with other people. I have to matter as much to myself as others.
Conclusion
As I was writing this article, I actually took some of the steps I brainstormed. I set up IFTTT timed SMS messages to remind me to look at my task list. I set up filters on my email to send the messages tempting me to buy new books to the trash. I deleted the Kindle app from my phone. I reminded myself that even though I am busy tonight and tomorrow, I will be seeing friends. I have blocked out 2.5 hours on Thursday and set reminders so I don’t get sidetracked. And I had a healthy snack and a glass of water.
I hope that this brain dump has been useful for you. If you want, please share it on your favorite social media platform!
