If you had to start being productive today, I would say it’s a waste of time. Even if you want to get into ultra-productivity. That’s why I bring three strategies that will prevent you from worrying about productivity.
1. Prepare yourself to launch
This world trains us to be perfectionists, which is a problem for being productive today.
Think about it, who likes to start, publish or launch something that they’re not 100% satisfied with? Wake up; you will never be 100% in agreement with what you do. You need to train this.
The problem is that we focus on creating something perfect instead of creating something that can see the light, as quickly as possible. Start practicing. Write an article every day and publish it. Or a podcast, or a video. None of them will be a masterpiece, but every day you will be giving space to your ideas, projects, and thoughts.
When you do something like that, you can’t worry about making it perfect. You have to think about creating and launching. Being a perfectionist goes hand in hand with overthinking, with procrastination.
If there’s something you want to do, stop thinking about it and start. Being productive today begins here.
2. Avoid time thieves
It applies to people and things.
- Focus on the “here and now.” To do that, avoid the following:
- Meetings of more than 15 minutes.
- Emails of more than two phrases.
- Watching TV.
- Consuming more than 2 items a day.
- Reading more than one type of press a day.
- Listening to more than one podcast per day.
- Watching more than 3 videos on YouTube every day (duration: 5/6 min. Per video)
- Check and respond to social networks one day a week.
- Attending tasks (and people) that are not in your agenda for the day.
When you do this, you use the time to perform the activities that you feel productive doing. It’s not about trying to do the most possible but trying to remain in a state of productive mentality. Then being productive today becomes a reality.
3. Press the action button for being productive today
In a contest, when everyone knows the answer, who is the first to win? The first one that presses the answer button.
This means that sometimes you have to press the button before knowing the answer. It seems like something unwise, many people don’t do it out of fear or embarrassment.
Nothing is further from reality. Pressing that button before the buzzer will give you the motivation to think of the answer.
A little pressure, even a lot (with intervals) can be good to react. Something that we have been testing and demonstrating in Stand OUT Program (next edition is in Chile). And soon in the Excellence Program for the Unemployed (participate here). I think that pressure is a good message. If you spend too much time waiting until you’re ready, what will happen is that you will end up losing your chance.
Being productive today is easier than it seems, forget books, manuals, and endless lists of tips. These three things are what you need most.
Photo credit: Stand OUT Program.