Productivity

Hello and welcome to episode number eight of the Strategy Corner, where our goal is to get you to take action. I’m your host, Michelle Zink, the owner of Intentional Solutions Corp. Today’s strategy, productivity and how to increase it on a daily basis.

I started to focus on productivity this month. I’ve always scheduled and planned my days, weeks, and months, but actually focusing on what I was accomplishing on a daily basis is something new to me. Have you ever just get lost in the day with looking and responding to email? Never accomplishing anything? Well, I have been making it a point to focus on productivity over the last few weeks and I have to tell you it has been the most rewarding experiment I have done in a long while. Let me start by sharing the definition of productivity per the Googles. They say it’s the state or quality of producing something.

For me, looking at productivity in a new light and shifting my thinking just a bit to truly focus on what I produce every day, has made me more effective and efficient. When you look at productivity as only being measured by what you produce, it makes you look at what you’re doing daily with a finer lens. It also takes the emotion out of it because it’s just results. So all we need to look at is what we’re producing each day. That’s it. If focuses you to really think about your position, if you’re an owner or if you’re an executive or any position in our organization or even in your home, and what is most important to create? Then set daily goals on production based on actual output, not just answering emails or phone calls, but what did you actually produce? You could be producing an important email, you could be producing a phone call to an important client, or you could be finishing a project for a client.

Productivity isn’t your to do list where you’re spending time doing something. You’re actually going to your calendar and scheduling time to produce something. When you produce something, you have a result when you’re done, not just time spent. Let me repeat that again. What matters is what you produce and what the results are. That’s it. With this new way of thinking, it has helped me to get clear and more focused on what is most important to me based off the results I want to achieve. It has also helped me with my weekly planning, really looking at my to do list of things I think I need to do, want to do, and have to do and seeing if they align with the results and productivity I’m looking to create. If not, I look to see if I can give it to someone else like my husband or maybe it’s not important right now and I can move it further down my calendar, or I can also plan it earlier in the morning or evening to get it done.

I try to keep my early mornings for when I do a morning routine and then the evenings I try to keep open for family time, but if I really need to get something done, I can utilize that time to my ability if I need to. It’s also helped me to cut back on my consumption of social media, YouTube videos, getting getting into Facebook or Instagram during my work day, that those things don’t produce anything. Again, it’s just tightening up what you focus on and this helps you to get the results you’re looking for.

Another thing it’s done is it’s increased my daily energy and production over the last few weeks. I am actually moving into the afternoons where I’d normally be a little tired or exhausted. I have more energy and are really focused on what I’m actually going to be producing. By doing that, just keeps me going and going and wanting to continue to feel that excitement and energy, which makes me want to produce even more.

Finally, to take this whole concept home, there’s one thing that I want to share that I do daily. I write down every morning what I produced the day before. Again, I write down every morning what I produced the day before, and then what I’m going to produce that day. By doing this, it helps me see the results that I’m getting. I don’t know about you, but even when I go throughout my day and I set things on my calendar that are intentional, like going to Pilates, or producing an email to a client, at the end of the day and the next morning, I can usually forget about those things. Like forget about how I have intentionally scheduled self care and how I am taking care of myself, or how I have intentionally reached out to individuals that I want to connect with and how that’s going to help move my business forward.

This has been the game changer. Not only just focusing on producing and having that the forefront of my mind, but also writing it down every morning, what I produced the day before, and then what I’m going to produce that day keeps me inspired and excited about the day and also makes me feel proud of what I’ve accomplished. It also helps you to keep productivity in the forefront of your mind so that you can remind yourself every day how you want to be and who you need to be.

If we go back to one of my first episodes, I went into detail about what that actually means, but it helps you keep focused, so every day you have an opportunity to make a change, to really focus on what’s most important and to create and produce for the results that you’re willing and looking to achieve. It also holds me accountable to do what I say I’m going to do.

I’ve shared also in past episodes about this whole philosophy of doing what you said you’re going to do. It really helps your brain and yourself become self confident. Actually scheduling and doing what you’re saying you’re going to do is very effective in continuing your process of actually doing more and creating more. What do you think? Are you ready to try and up your productivity this week?

To start the strategy you need to first get clear on what results you’re looking to achieve. Are you looking to lose weight? Are you looking to increase your business? Are you looking to create more sales? What are the results you’re looking to achieve? Then once you’re clear on the results, go back and look at what you have scheduled on your calendar for the next week. See if the items you have listed are aligned with producing or doing. Those are the two distinctions. Producing means we actually get something like an output, whereas doing is just you’re just doing, like just checking emails or just looking on social media. This is where you get really intentional and you make sure that the things you have scheduled are things that align with the result you’re looking to do.

Now if there are too many doing items and not producing, you need to reschedule and adjust these things to get the results you’re looking for. You go back, look at your calendar, be really open and honest about yourself, or to yourself about if these items are really going to get you the results you’re looking for. I know for myself, when I made this switch, I had to go back and I got rid of some things and realized I just had them as placeholders to do things. I had to go back and update and then put new things in that actually, where I was getting the production done to get the results I wanted.

Then the next time you do your weekly download and planning session, you ask yourself what results am I looking to produce this week? Then back into what you need to produce in order to achieve and schedule them. I’m going to say that one more time because it’s kind of counterintuitive. It’s a different way of thinking, but the next time you do your weekly download and planning session, ask yourself first what results am I looking to produce this week? Then back into what you need to produce in order to achieve them and schedule that time. Okay?

Finally, you write down daily the things you produced the day before and what you plan on producing that day to hold yourself accountable for what you want to achieve. I hope that you find productivity as fun as I’ve found it. It’s really, again, helped me to create this momentum to keep me going forward and to utilize these next three months until the end of the year to produce amazing results within my company, within my personal life, so I’m really having fun playing with this.

Until next time, if you could please, go to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and subscribe to the Strategy Corner. I’d really appreciate it. You could also go to my website, intentionalsolutionscorp.com and sign up to get my weekly blog posts, which also has a link to the latest podcast. Until next time, remember through action and growth, progression happens. Let’s take action together. Create an amazing day.