Speak the language of productivity.
How you speak to yourself determines how much you get done
This past week I’ve had a poorly baby to tend to. And as many a parent will know; work must take a back seat when it comes to managing poorly children. Their needs just will not wait for your meetings to be finished, or thoughts to be documented.
When the weekend came around, and thanks to my husband being there, I was able to have some uninterrupted time alone to think about what I should have thought about earlier in the week.
But my husband asked me a simple question that I struggled to answer….
“How much time do you need?”
Huh?
How much time? I could have said…’Well, there are 10 video conference recordings, each 3 hours long that I need to watch, and another 5 hours’ worth of reading, so that would be 35 hours please, honey.’
But instead, my gut response, was…
“Well, how much time have I got?”
My natural inclination is to take the time that is available to me and squeeze every ounce of productivity out of it. His question was like asking me ‘how long is a piece of string?’…
If you give yourself 15 hours to clean the house, it’s going to take you 15 hours.
It’s the same with any other task.
If I only have 1 hour for a particular activity, then I will prioritise the most important parts of that activity to max out the hour. Otherwise, I would just end up drifting through the 15 hours and, sure, I might eventually get it done, but is that really the best use of time?
We’re all about Maximizing our Minutes here.
The moral of the story is that when you have something to do,
Create a timebox – the amount of time you will give yourself for the job (the more specific the time blocks, the better).
Identify what elements of the task you can do in that allotted time, spoiler: you can’t do it all.
and THEN begin your task.
It’s ok if the job isn’t complete. Really, you never get it done. Life is just a never-ending to-do list.
It’s like watching a film. I love films. I would watch them all day long if I could.
But if I’m tired, I don’t stay up to watch the whole thing, I’ll watch a bit one night, a bit more the next night, etc. It could take me a whole week to watch one film! What’s wrong with that?
Nothing.
Take notice of your language this week, is it helping you get more done?
-Selda
P.S. If you’d like to learn more about how to build a life you love, here are a few ways I can help you:
Personal guidance and coaching to find more hours each day:
Double your productivity and do more of what matters to you:
🚀Supercharge Your Productivity: Take the stress out of your week and juggle all of your jobs without working yourself to death
⚖️7 Proven Strategies to a Better Work Life Balance: Spend less time at work and more time on the things you really want to do
Image courtesy of DALL-E. Prompt: Powerful box of time, surrounded by iridescent light
This is such good advice! I love to do this when I really really don't want to do something around the house (e.g. fold and put away three loads of laundry): I set a timer for 15-20 minutes and I tell myself that I only have to do the task for that amount of time. I set my mind to it, the momentum starts flowing, and pretty soon the timer has long expired and the task is complete. Thanks for this article!