Friday Feature: 10 Ways to Work Less and Get More Done

Today, I could not get started. The only thing on my schedule was a delightful (no, not sarcasm) phone call with an old friend at 11AM. After that, I should have been ready to jump into my day.

Only I wasn't.

This happens sometimes, and I've gotten better at just going with it. I used to catastrophize, somehow believing these bursts of non-energy were the beginning of the end of my motivation for all time. Luckily, experience has proven to me that is not the case. Instead, these "I think I'll just sit here a while longer" spells are usually a sign that I've gone too long without downtime. Too many days where my body was sitting still but my brain was still going full steam ahead lured me into thinking I hadn't done much when my body knew otherwise.

We need down time, but we also love productivity. Luckily, as I've asserted here before, downtime plays a key role in productivity. In fact, people who work more than 55 hours a week don't actually get more done than people who work fewer hours.

55 hours a week is a lot of hours. Imagine spending that much time on things we truly wanted to do.

Or, better yet, stop imagining and actually do the things. In his article "10 Ways to Work Less and Get More Done," author Travis Bradberry cites relaxation, exercise and disconnecting as three of the things that actually make us more productive.

Whether you're looking forward to a productive weekend or dreading that same ongoing productivity, check out the article. You might just change your plans.

Friday Feature: The Best Way to be Productive

Okay, you're a busy person. You've stopped to read this, my third productivity-related post of the week, so I won't keep you in suspense. The best way to be productive is to do nothing.

Huh?

Yep. I was first captivated by the subtitle of this CNBC piece ("The psychology behind why being lazy is actually good for your brain"). I mean, who wouldn't be? How could we not be in favor of being good to our brains, particularly if all we have to do to accomplish this is to be lazy?

I'm in.

But the article hit home in serious ways as well, most notably finding it difficult to actually relax. I don't know about you, but I find that even my downtime isn't really downtime. By the time most of us get to that point in the day, we end up in mindless pursuits which, like a big meal at 9PM, can be delicious while we're consuming it while offering endless echoes of regret later on. I have so many hobbies I'd love to get to. What if they were actually the key to productivity?

La Petite Femmevia Pixabay

Our brains need down time and, when we honor that need, they work more efficiently. My favorite line in the article was this payoff of productivity: "getting more done in a less amount of time [sic] means more opportunity to relax." Like, actually, relax, rather than crashing, guilt-ridden in front of endless syndicated sitcom episodes.

So, whaddaya think? Are you up for a little laziness?

Meet you there.

The Productivity Beast

Peggy Marco via Pixabay

One night last week, I went to bed feeling "out of sorts" as my dad says. It had been a good day -- a productive day. I'd revamped the small closet in our bedroom so that it was uncluttered (for the first time in longer than I can remember) and more accessible. I'd spent over an hour on a writing project I'd been avoiding and I'd had a Zoom call with a group of old friends. Why did I feel so...off?

Upon reflection, it occurred to me that although I'd checked a lot of things off my list and I'd even socialized, I'd moved parallel to my family in the process. It was an everyone-doing-their-own-thing kind of day and, on that particular day, it bothered me.

So, the next morning, I chose a word to represent the new day -- something to keep in the the forefront of my mind. I'd seen people do this on January 1 for the coming year, but I'd always avoided it because a single word seemed so small to capture 365 days. But that morning, it seemed perfect. My word?

Connect.

What I meant at the outset was to connect to family -- to those closest to me both physically and emotionally. But, as the day wore on, my chosen word in the forefront of my mind, I found other examples. Texting a friend. Connecting my iPad to the newest software so it would stop flashing notifications at me every time I picked it up. Connecting online through blog posts, event planning and my Facebook page. Playing Words with Friends with friends I can't currently see in the real world. These things, if not done carefully, could quickly overrun the true intent behind my choice. Sprinkled in throughout the day, however, they could enhance it, weaving relationships of all kinds into the fabric of my day in a way I hadn't really thought about.

A funny thing happened on this day that wasn't dramatically different from many other days: I got a lot done. I'd gotten a lot done the day before, too, but it had left me feeling out of sorts, I'd been driven to accomplish, and accomplish I had but, at the end of the day, all I could see was what remained to be done.

Productivity is a hungry beast. Rarely satisfied with what we feed it, whether it's a major project or a succession of items from a to-do list, it always wants more. It's a bit of a bully, too, insisting on its way, lurking in the corners of our minds, ready to tear us down it we don't meet its impossible standards.

Our desire to accomplish, achieve, and thrive works in concert with the productivity beast. Dangling "more" and "better" before us like a carrot and threatening us with the stick of labels like "lazy," it pairs up with productivity to drive our fears of amounting to nothing if we opt for an apple instead of the carrot. Together with the productivity beast, it is quick to remind us not of what we've accomplished, but what still remains to be done.

geralt via Pixabay

When these two pair up, we can forget that we're in charge. We can forget that a daily dose of carrots, while good for us, isn't enough. Sometimes, we want an apple or a cookie or a T-bone steak and, when we indulge these desires and broaden our options, we can indeed grow stronger and -- ironically -- more productive and accomplished.

We can even thrive.

I've read many times that each of us gets the same 24 hours every day and our happiness and success depend on how we spend those 24 hours.

How will you spend yours?

What word will define you today?

It Wasn't Just the Hangers that were Bent out of Shape

AnnaliseArt via Pixabay

One of the topics I've been reading about lately is mindfulness. In related news, I hate when people mess with my laundry room set-up.

Not related, you say? That's what I said, too.

Until one morning earlier this week. Bear with me, and I'll take you there.

When you write a book about organization, the topic tends to infiltrate your life. I pride myself on devising neat, efficient ways of doing things and, once I get a system up and running, I want Easy Upkeep (the E in STYLE) to kick in. When other people mess with my system and I have to redo things the way I like them, I get cranky because, first of all, it slows me down and second of all, re-doing something I'd already set up in a workable way feels like a waste of time.

Which brings me to laundry. I have a thing about hangers being stored in such a way that I can grab a hanger one-handed while holding an item of clothing to be hung in the other hand. When someone (and I'm not naming any names here) comes along and squashes all the hangers together, that simple task becomes impossible. I have to put down the damp item of clothing, untangle the hangers and resume my task, which has now taken three times as long. Not only that, but it begins a whole "why do people have to mess with my systems?" monologue in my head, which was already engaged in a more productive monologue about the multitude of things I'd do when I finished hanging up the laundry.

I hear all of you laid-back, laundry-room-on-the-first-floor folks tsking me and shaking your heads. And I can't say you're wrong. In the scheme of things, it's not that big a deal. I mean, it's a hanger, right?

But the hanger is a symptom, not the problem. When I go down to the basement to do one of the (seemingly endless) steps in a laundry-related task, I'm often interrupting something else to do said task. I want to get in, get it done, and get back to business as soon as possible. I do not want to wrestle with hangers, move wayward laundry baskets or find that some other helpful person has left a load of clothes in the dryer. All of these tasks add unnecessary obstacles, ranging from the minuscule to the downright annoying -- obstacles that I must clear before I can get back to whatever it was I was doing before laundry so rudely interrupted my life.

Earlier this week, as I was muttering to myself about someone messing with my hangers, I heard myself. Anxious (as usual) to complete the laundry task before me as quickly as possible, I was allowing myself to get all bent out of shape over a molecule in a drop of water in a wave in the ocean.

Pixabay

I'd read on more than one occasion about doing tasks, even -- and perhaps especially -- the most mundane ones, in a mindful fashion. Turning off the endlessly looping "gotta do this next" tape, focusing on the simplicity of the task itself, and, perhaps, taming my mind in the process.

So I tried it. And it actually worked.

Oh, I still had to rearrange all the hangers and complete what I'd set out to do before adding the massive task of hanger rearrangement to my burgeoning to-do list but instead of doing it with gritted teeth and muttered accusations, I just, you know, did it. I focused on the moving and the folding and the hanging and, in short order, a rhythm developed.

And it was soothing. It bore no tension or accusations, and freed my mind to unclench. This was surprising in no small part because I hadn't realized that my mind had been clenched, let alone that it could even do something like that in the first place.

If this were a fairy tale, it would end with me happily hanging laundry à la Cinderella, with chirping birds and sunny skies, a song in my heart and life in a castle on the horizon.

Life-of-Pix via Pixabay

This is not a fairy tale. There are no birds helping with the laundry and the people who help are sometimes less than helpful, although they are well-intentioned. Usually.

But if I have to do laundry in the first place, maybe it's not such a bad idea to do it with my mind
unclenched. After all, the best ideas come when our minds are open enough to welcome them. I am, for example, open to the idea of relocating our laundry room to the ground floor of our house.

But that's another story.

Friday Feature: Happiness, Productivity, and Technology

Lately, I've been reading a lot about happiness. I finished Shawn Achor's The Happiness Advantage and have now dug into his sister Amy Blankson's The Future of Happiness, in which she talks about balancing productivity and well-being. Much of Blankson's work is at the intersection of happiness and technology.

Today, I decided to look up some of her work outside the book I'm reading and I found an article she wrote last year for the National Day of Unplugging. (I didn't know there was such a thing!)

The National Day of Unplugging is the first Friday in March but really, except for the solidarity of not being alone without one's phone, couldn't it be any day?

Well, maybe not today, you're saying, because....

Yeah. Me too. While wrapping up my online classes might be a legitimate excuse not to unplug from my laptop, I could still unplug from my phone. Or my iPad. How much unplugging are we talking about here?

This is the kind of stuff Blankson writes about. She's not out to take your phone away -- in fact, she has a lot of good things to say about technology and all it has to offer, and she's upfront about liking it herself.

So, even though I might have spent a little too much time on the Hubspot Out of Office Email Generator -- or maybe, in part, because of that, I'm going to keep reading.

Friday Feature: Destressing During Self-Isolation

As I approach the one month mark of my time at home with only a daily trip to the mailbox and one rogue trip to the grocery store, I'm grateful for a lot of things (including the fact that my husband does the grocery shopping).

Still, like everyone else, I have good days and bad days. Most days are somewhere in the middle but, occasionally, a tough day where sleep and peace seem to be just out of reach creeps in, shaking my already tenuous equilibrium.

Just me?

As a retired school counselor, I've thought a lot about what I need to do to create my own sense of peace, and I've done some reading as well. This article from A Life of Productivity is one of my favorites. It has the usual recommendations, but also a few I hadn't heard of (you mean all this iced tea is making me more stressed?) and each suggestion is a little bite-sized piece of information that seems do-able.

After browsing this site, I'd like to add a corollary to the suggestion to have hours where you disconnect. When you're on your computer, control what's on your screen by choosing reading that is ad-free. I found this article on a site that doesn't have ads and it's amazing how much calmer the whole site feels. There was one pop-up at the outset, but once I exited out of that window, it was only articles, as far as the eye could see. It's nice to read something where ad-bombing isn't an issue, and it reaffirmed my commitment to keep my blogs ad-free as well. 

These days, when the C-word is everywhere, it's easy to feel info-bombed when we least expect it and even when we're trying to take a break from it. I know that ads can be a necessity to keep sites up and running but, if we look for them, we can find sites where ads are sparse, or even nonexistent.

Come to think of it, maybe this is a perfect time to add your favorite blogger to your reading list :-)

Stay well.

Friday Feature: Drawing a Line

I seem to be on a productivity roll -- at least when it comes to the articles that attract my attention. Last week, I wrote about a seven minute start to the day touted for increasing productivity (Tried it. Liked it.) but, in the same post, I commiserated with a commenter who'd had enough suggestions on productivity.

And yet, here I am again this week. Partly, it's January but, mostly, the semester starts next week and a lack of productivity is no longer an option. Perhaps most important, this article by Gwen Moran not only addresses the elephant in the business section from the start ("There is no shortage of advice about and strategies for performing optimally and enhancing productivity"), but goes on to share two pieces of information that I seriously need to take to heart: do one thing (the research on multitasking is clear: don't do it) and stop working all the time.

I can give you a million excuses about why my work days bleed into evenings and weekends, not the least of which is that neither writing nor teaching is not a nine-to-five job, but all that does is reveal how embarrassingly difficult it is for me to draw the line.

I'm working on it. Both of those things, as a matter of fact.

If you, too, are "working on it," check out the rest of Gwen's Fast Company article. Your top pieces of advice might be different than mine or you, like me, might just find a cool new name for your favorite kind of day ("serendipitous days"). Either way, making it a point to develop a better relationship between ourselves and our work is never a bad idea.

Friday Feature: Is Covey Still Relevant?

Every fall, I teach a first year seminar and every fall, we study Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This fall, I realized with a jolt just how many years before my students were born this book was published. Does it hold up?

I think it does. In fact, I'd go one step further, asserting that, in a class where we focus on defining and achieving a personal definition of success, Covey is required reading. Or, as I approach it, required studying.

I'm not alone in my opinion. In her article, "Revisiting the Habits of Highly Effective People," Melody Wilding brings Covey's 1989 text into the 21st century, pointing out that in our highly distracting, fast-paced world, some of Covey's considerations are more important than ever. Personally, I think that in my Year of No, "Put First Things First" might just take on even more significance than before.

The funny thing is, I was a hard sell. My Covey training was mandatory and on my own time, which placed two strikes against it from the outset. But the trainings were better than I expected and the thing I came to like about Covey is that he's not trying to sell productivity at all costs. He was proponent of work-life blend before we were debating the terminology.

Next week, my students present Covey's habits. I can't wait to see how they bring them into the 21st century -- the only century they've ever known.

Friday Feature: Extroverts, Introverts and Ambiverts

Would you describe yourself as an introvert or an extrovert? Or, perhaps, are you a little of each?

Most of the time, I look like an extrovert, but I identify most with the ambivert label -- someone who has traits of both introversion and extroversion. For me, these two styles show up in the fact that I  am someone who recharges both in a group of trusted friends and when I have time to myself.

I never really thought about connecting productivity and introversion/extroversion, though, until I came across this article in Medium. One of the best articles I've read on this topic, it doesn't stop at just the label (introvert, extrovert, ambivert), but looks at the nuances, which leads into how they connect with productivity.

It's a quick read, and, just for fun, connects to an assessment by Adam Grant so you can determine whether you're an introvert, extrovert or, like a big chunk of the population, an ambivert. I wasn't surprised by my results, but, then again, I've been talking about this with students for a while now.

How about you? Introvert? Extrovert? Ambivert?

Friday Feature: Should You Kiss Your Digital Diet Goodbye?

How many times a day do you check your phone? E-mail? Social media? Here in the U.S., we check our phones close to 50 times a day -- and that statistic comes from combining age groups. In addition, 90% of employees admit to checking social media at work.

Is eliminating social media the only option?

Not so fast. In his Inc. piece, "Will Deleting Social Media Make You More Productive?" Larry Alton looks at the pros and cons of this drastic measure. While few of us would be surprised by the potential pros (better sleep, better mental health, more time), it's easy to overlook the cons, particularly on a day where we feel particularly tethered to our devices. And, for many of us, stepping away completely isn't an option.

Before you read this piece, take a moment to consider your own habits. Who's in control -- you or your device? Keeping that information and your personal media habits in mind can help you read more objectively and determine a course of action (ditch it all? take one small step? do nothing?) that's a good fit for you in our media-dependent culture. While I'm pretty good at staying off electronics during meals and denying my apps the pleasure of notifying me every time something happens, I'm not so good at shutting electronics down at a reasonable hour.

One thing that Alton makes clear in this piece is that our use of social media isn't merely a bad habit. Because social media has benefits as well as drawbacks, the key here, as with so many other things, is to make sure social media serves us and not the other way around.

So, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to show my phone who's boss.

Friday Feature: Distractions and Productivity

Yesterday, I had a project to do -- one that defied completion, leaving me to get creative. Other days, I settle in and get on a roll, excited by what I can accomplish with an idea and sufficient time.

Whether distractions come from the inside or the outside, they can be incredibly frustrating. But do they mess with our productivity? This article in The Economist takes a look at that, reaffirming that the few seconds or minutes we lose to distractions can actually take up a lot more of our time than we realize. And, it takes the discussion one step further, considering the effect digital distractions, in particular, have on our happiness.

I know that reading the article made me happier -- it was nice to know that there's a reason I get so cranky when I get interrupted incessantly -- and it was nice to know that maybe, from a productivity perspective, my frustration in those situations is justified.

Now, if you'll excuse me, the house is quiet, so I'm putting my cell phone on mute and getting some work done.

Friday Feature: 10 Habits that Hinder Productivity

Yesterday was the last day of spring semester classes. Today is Reading Day, that miraculous day where I don't have to set an alarm and, when I get up, I have the whole day ahead of me to plan as I wish. I want to be productive as I have a number of deadlines looming, but today is also the perfect day to strive for balance.

While any day is a good day to do that, I find it harder to achieve this in days that are scheduled for me. Today, I get to choose and organize my priorities. For me, this is often a recipe for not only success, but also a feeling of accomplishment.

Several months ago, I saved an article from Success magazine about habits that hinder productivity. From the first tip (stop saying yes when you want to say no) to the last, the article (which takes less than five minutes to read), has great advice not just for productivity, but for balance as well. I'm working on that first tip, and I've definitely made some progress, simply by making it a goal. I've also gotten better at prioritizing my day (#10- another goal), and though I've become more mindful of some others like protecting my recharge time (#8), not multitasking (#5) and striving less for perfection (#7), I definitely have room for improvement in those areas as well.

Don't get me wrong. I don't intend to use this article to start a "what's wrong with me" party -- more like a "how can I make myself less stressed?" assessment. I don't fully agree with all ten items all the time, but overall, the advice is worth considering and, in some cases, implementing.

Revisiting this article reminded me that I let the beginning of May slip by without setting my monthly goals. Later on today, I look forward to settling in with a cold beverage, my calendar and this article to plot out the rest of the month. I've got lots of things to look forward to in May, along with a number of deadlines, and maybe adopting some of these habits will enable me to enjoy both more fully.

What detracts from your feelings of accomplishment?

Friday Feature: Remarkably Simple Habits

Ah, a day off. A day in the middle of the week all to myself means skipping the schedule and meandering through the day, right?

Not if I'm smart.

When I read Peter Economy's article, "5 Remarkably Simple Daily Habits that will Change Your Life," I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I was doing (almost) all of them. True, my vacation day schedule looks quite a bit different from my work day schedule, but each begins with the same routine -- and with a list. From there, some meandering definitely takes place, but sticking to some semblance of structure -- albeit a loose one -- really does make the day more productive and more relaxing.

Although I have to work on what I'm staying hydrated with (more water, less caffeine) and I will never be a "wake up early" kind of girl, according to this article, I'm on the right track to changing my life.

Or at least keeping things running smoothly.

Friday Feature: Productivity Perfectionism, Part 2

Monday's post about productivity perfectionism inspired me to do a little reading. Although I was well aware of the connection between perfectionism and procrastination, I wanted to see what was out there about perfectionism and productivity.

Quite a bit, as it turns out.

After scanning several pieces, I landed on this piece on the downsides of perfectionism from KNote, a new source for me.

And, just as I suspected, productivity is a tad overrated and sometimes, good enough is good enough.

The Battle of Planning and Flexibility

Peggy Marco via Pixabay

My desire to be productive is interfering with my productivity.

Like most people, I wear many hats. Consequently, my head spins with the possibility of all the things I could be doing at any given moment.

I write. Not just blogs, but articles and books, too, and in order to keep doing that, I promote my work and seek new writing and publishing opportunities.

I teach. Outside of class, I do research and planning so that when I show up for class, I'm armed with something besides a bunch of empty PowerPoint slides and a smile. Oh yeah -- and I grade papers, too.

I sell Thirty-One Gifts. Running any kind of a business, whether it's direct sales or an entrepreneurial endeavor, requires time and attention.

Oh, and then there are those pesky household obligations like cooking and laundry and organizing and keeping the house from devolving into chaos. Kind of.

I know I'm not alone. Still, I find it ironic.

It's a tenet of time management -- and life, too -- that saying "yes" to one thing means saying "no" to another -- or a bunch of others. And so, being productive in one area inevitably means being unproductive in another.

All around me, projects call out. Succumbing to the siren call of my desk means ignoring the laundry.  Cooking dinner means not grading papers. Spending time on social media, whether for business or pleasure, means not spending time elsewhere in face-to-face contact.

It's a dilemma. And a frustration. I want to do it all.

And so planning and flexibility co-exist, sometimes peacefully, sometimes duking it out in a most unsightly manner. Sometimes these fights are amusing, but usually, they're annoying. Sometimes, they're almost physically painful, coming at the cost of sleep and peace of mind.

StevePB via Pixabay

I'm not sure what the answer is. Scale back? Maybe. But I like all of the things on my list, and would be sorry to see any of them go. Writing has already nudged out theatre, for the most part. A full course load this semester has wiped out leisure reading. The empty nest has reduced my laundry load, but hasn't added any additional hours to the day.

So, I'll keep making lists, trying to satisfy both planning and flexibility and trying to get as close to doing it all as I can.

Let's hope planning and flexibility don't plan a sneak attack.

Friday Feature: FOCUS

Photo: clconroy via Morguefile

Are you one of those amazing people who sits down to begin a task and keeps at it until it's finished? Do you manage to get from start to finish without any interruptions or distractions?

Then this week's article isn't for you.

But if you, like the rest of us, find that your path from Point A to Point B is more often jagged than linear, you might want to check out Next Avenue's 8 Ways to Beat Work Distractions and Be More Productive. A compilation of ideas from a workshop by Sam Horn and Danielle Faust, the piece offers tips on conquering work woes from persistence to procrastination.

I have only one complaint: I wish the article wasn't so prominently peppered with links to other relevant articles. Good for the web site and bad for the distractible reader -- which is actually kind of ironic.

I had to read the Jerry Seinfeld link. How about you?

Saturday Special: Carson Tate's Productivity Styles

Today's Saturday Special isn't about physical organization. Instead, it's about productivity. Why the switch? Because I read this cool article about productivity styles, which led me to this other article about productivity styles (because it had a chart, which always appeals to we I need to see it people), which led me to take the quiz. What was I supposed to be doing while I was article-hopping, you ask? Coming up with topics for my Saturday Special. So, yes, I was on-task.

There is a connection between all this productivity information and my recent Wednesday posts. For one thing, understanding more about how your personal productivity works leads to better time management (theoretically, anyway), which is, after all, the organization of your time.

But what really drew me into all of this was the concept of styles. If I believe there are organizational styles (which I obviously do), then why wouldn't I believe there are productivity styles? The psych instructor in me needs to do a bit more research, but the counselor in me just had to explore this.

www.carsontate.com

Which style am I? Well, within ten minutes of completing the quiz, I got two emails. One says I'm an arranger (like Chopin, Gandhi and Mother Teresa -- pretty impressive company) and the other says I'm a visualizer (like Picasso, Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein -- no slouches there either). Apparently, Carson Tate and I agree that it's possible to be a mix of styles.

I think my true style has elements of both. I'm definitely a visualizer, but I suspect that when it comes to the actual arranging, I sometimes drop the ball if left to my own devices. Fortunately, my desire to work in teams (who keep me honest) minimizes that risk.

Interesting stuff. I'm not sure it will be life-changing for me, but like identifying a personal or organizational style, it may free me to be myself, and worry less about whether or not my productivity looks like anyone else's.