Procrastination: The Enemy of Productivity

procrastination flowchart

procrastination flowchart

 

Procrastination can have many manifestations but ultimately it impacts heavily on your productivity.  Some authors suggest that procrastination is putting off important tasks in favor of less important tasks or doing tasks you enjoy rather than tasks that will lead you to your goal.

There are many reasons why we procrastinate.  In my personal productivity course I discuss fear of failure and fear of success as possible causes.  In this blog post, I will look at procrastination in terms of pursuing our preferences, over doing what we should do in order to be productive.

[Image credit: Procrastination Flowchart by jean-louis zimmermann]

Procrastination: doing what you love rather than what will make you productive

One of the manifestations of your procrastination could be that you avoid the mundane, routine tasks that are necessary to realize and maintain your goals.   If you are a creative-type person, you will find yourself spending time on creating new things – new websites, blog posts or other endeavors – at the expense of doing things that are necessary to move you closer to your goals – things that would enhance your productivity in terms of goal achievement.

Sometimes we can become productive in the wrong things – we can concentrate on the 80% of things that don’t lead directly to our goals and ignore the 20% of tasks that do.  Yaro Starak describes this 8o/20 rule in the following terms:

… the important thing to understand is that in your life there are certain activities you do (your 20 percent) that account for the majority (your 80 percent) of your happiness and outputs.

If you focus only on the things that you enjoy, then you will avoid the things that are less exciting but that contribute more to your goals.  In fact, one of the things that have been identified about successful people is that each day they do first the things that they don’t like doing but see as necessary for goal achievement (before they do the things they like).  This daily discipline is a way they overcome procrastination to improve their productivity and achieve their goals in life.

So if you want to improve your personal productivity, it pays to look at the important tasks that you tend to avoid because they are routine or boring.  Ask yourself how you could give them a new priority, instead of leaving them to last (when you invariably have no time to complete them).

It may be you are putting off social bookmarking, writing that important blog post, updating your browser or making simple (but important changes) to your website – all in favor of enjoying endless interactions on websites such as Facebook or Squidoo.  Alternatively, you may be avoiding engaging on these social networks because you find logging in, reading and commenting boring tasks. 

You really have to take a close look at your procrastination and determine what is going on for you, if you want to improve your productivity.

7 Ways Focus Improves Your Productivity

Improve productivity through focus

 Improve productivity through focus

I’ve been reflecting on how focus has helped me to improve productivity with respect to blogging.  Over the last 3 months, I have written 80 blog posts for my Small Business Odyssey blog (from 400 to 1000+ words each), while in the previous three months I wrote only one blog post.  This improved productivity is the result of focus. 

One of my early posts on this blog was about the benefits of focus for small business marketing.  In this current blog post, I want to discuss how focus improves productivity – as it has obviously done for me with regard to blogging. 

[Photo credit: Close Focus Lens by SqueakyMarmot]

7 ways to improve productivity through focus 

There is no doubt in my mind that focus was one of the key means that helped me to improve productivity.  In reflecting on this, I identified 7 key ways focus contributed to my productivity improvement: 

1. Focus builds momentum 

Early definitions of ‘momentum’ described it as ‘the power residing in a moving object’.  You know yourself that once you get a heavy object moving, it gains momentum and is a lot easier to push (e.g. trying to push a broken-down car).  For me, momentum is the key benefit of focus.  Once I decided that I would focus on writing a blog about small business marketing, I began to overcome the resistances (the heavy objects) that were residing in me – the barriers to productivity.  Once I started writing blog posts with my new-found focus, I began to gain momentum – writing blog posts became easier and I looked forward to writing them. 

2. Focus is motivational 

Once you become focused, you start to achieve things that seemed impossible before.  You become more disciplined, avoid distractions and build sound habits that help to improve productivity.  The sense of achievement you gain is motivational – it provides the intrinsic reward, a sense of satisfaction, that keeps you going.  Extrinsic rewards, in the form of increased traffic and revenue usually follow, but it is the inner sense of achieving a worthwhile goal that provides the initial impetus.  Focus enables you to gain this sense of achievement and the resultant motivation that leads to improved productivity

3. Focus channels energy 

Focus brings an alignment of your energies (mental, physical, emotional) so that you are able to pursue a single goal or direction with increasing energy.  You know yourself that a lack of focus dissipates energy – you are ‘all over the place’.  Focus, on the other hand, results in harnessing energy towards a single goal.  I think of the analogy of using a magnifying glass to focus the energy of the sun’s rays to burn a hole in a piece of paper (as we used to do as kids).  The sun’s energy is there all the time, but it is unfocused unless you capture it with a magnifying glass (or nowadays with solar panels to produce electricity).  It is the focus (or the focusing instrument) that channels and concentrates energy.  This channelled energy helps you, in turn, to improve productivity. 

4. Focus creates a new significance 

Lou Tice, famous organizational psychologist, used to talk about the power of organization vision to ‘create a new significance’ – visioning is about focusing on a desired future state that you want to work towards achieving.  He explained that the process of visioning, focusing of some desired future, activates a part of the brain called the RAS (reticular activating system) which is responsible for arousal and activating the conscious mind.   So, for example, you may be driving to work in a ‘mindless state’, almost on remote control.  Then suddenly you see the rear lights of the car in front of you turn read (the brake light).  It is the RAS that tells your body to take evasive action (your brain has recognised the significance of the red light – you are going to crash if you don’t stop or swerve away).  TheRAS brings you back to a heightened state of consciousness.  And so it is with focus in any arena of life, especially in small business marketing.  The consequence is that you start to see things you did not notice before, new resources come to your attention, and you recognise new resource people – your brain has created a new significance around your focus and this new consciousness helps you to improve your productivity because you become better resourced and informed. 

5. Focus attracts productive people to you 

Other people value focus because it demonstrates commitment and achievement – a goal that many people aspire to but cannot achieve.   People who have achieved in life are attracted to other productive people and recognise their expertise.  Here’s a simple example from my own experience.  I decided a few years ago to spend a year acquiring expertise in Squidoo and eventually attained the level of Giant Squid100 (100 excellent Squidoo lenses determined by Squidoo itself).  This enabled me to write many blog posts about Squidoo and create an e-book on Squidoo Marketing Strategies which I sold via Paypal.  As my expertise developed I came to the attention of Mari Smith, Facebook expert, who asked me to run a webinar for her on Squidoo for her Social Media Certification Course.  This gave me increased exposure and access to resources and contributed substantially to my visibility, branding, motivation and productivity.  Mari is a great example of how focus attracts others, builds expertise and increases personal productivity.  

6. Focus improves efficiency 

Efficiency is about achieving more in less time – the hallmark of productive people.  With focus you are able to avoid distractions and use your time better.  You can overcome information overload because your focus gives you the basis for ignoring, or attending to, the endless bits of information that you are bombarded with.  You can sift through information quickly and attend to only those things that further your goal (your primary focus).  As you become more time efficient through your focus, you improve your productivity in terms of achieving your goal. 

7. Focus taps emotional energy 

It is very difficult to sustain a focus unless there is some emotional attachment to the goal underlying your focus.  So in my case, the focus on small business marketing contributes to two key goals of mine – the promotion of my own HR consultancy business and the development of a future stream of revenue when I wind down from running workshops.  I have a very strong, emotional commitment to both these goals which are interrelated and intertwined.  This enables me to tap into the emotional energy involved in my focus and to improve my productivity.  The positive emotional energy sustains me when the going gets hard – writer’s block, downtime on my computer, the pressures of my offline business and illness.  A key lesson here is to align your focus with a goal you find emotionally energizing and your focus will help you to sustain and improve your productivity. 

For further information on ways to enjoy the benefits of focus and learn to improve productivity in your small business marketing, subscribe to my free e-course on how to be productive

 

Improve Efficiency and Productivity by Reviewing Your ISP Contract

ISP - ETISALAT TOWER 2 - DUBAI

ISP - ETISALAT TOWER 2  -  DUBAI

One of the great boosts to our efficiency and productivity of late has been the new business contract we have established with our ISP (Internet Service Provider).

Over the past 12 months, the competition between ISP’s in Australia and overseas has intensified.  One result of this is that ISP’s are now starting to bundle up services and products to attract new customers or retain existing customers.  There can be real benefits for your cost efficiencies and productivity

(Photo credit: ETISALAT TOWER 2 : DUBAI  by UggBoy)

Research ISP contracts to improve productivity and efficiency

My wife, Anne-Marie Carroll, did the research for our home offices and located a great package that covers the four computers we have between Anne-Marie, myself and our two sons living at home.

Not only do we get faster upload and download and increased data access but we have our phone services integrated as well (at a greatly reduced cost).  The net result is that we not only improve our productivity but also our cost efficiency.

The package we chose is called the Fusion Package for AUD$109 per month:

  1. Unlimited standard local & national calls to fixed lines within Australia
  2. Unlimited standard calls to Australian mobiles within Australia (this is a great cost saving  for me as I can make up to 20 calls a week to mobile phones around the State because of my organisational consulting work)
  3. Line rental included
  4. Up to 500GB broadband data per month included – then speed limited to 256kbps (our earlier limit was 16 GB and our service would be slowed down considerably when we exceeded this quota around the end of the month)
  5. Premium Speed (up to 1,000 kbps download speed), WIFI cable modem included with built-in Router for four Internet cable connections (we had a separate Router before with all the issues with drop-out occasioned by the cable connections to the modem)
  6. $0 connection fee & delivery 
  7. High definition digital Set Top Box that lets you record multiple channels simultaneously – Pause, Rewind and Record Live TV.

Besides improving our entertainment options, through this new package we have reduced our combined Internet and phone costs (landline and mobiles), expanded our data access, increased our upload and download speeds and save ourselves time and angst.  The WiFi modem with integrated router works really well and enables us to access the Internet via wireless when we are using a laptop.  This give us greater flexibility and mobility when we work at home (most days for me).

So I would strongly recommend you re-visit your ISP contract and look at ways to improve your cost efficiencies and personal productivity – it’s a buyer’s market at the moment.

Sometimes You Have to Stop to Move Forward: A Montville Break

View from Montville

 View from Montville

Over the weekend, I spent two days in a cabin in Montville, a mountain village on the Blackall Range in Queensland, Australia.   It was great to take in the mountain air and the glorious vistas and to stroll through Montville village, an arts and craft centre that I featured in one of my Squidoo lenses.  

I had deliberately left my laptop behind on this trip and took a real break from computers, the Internet and work generally.  There are times when you need to stop to move forward – to slow the momentum of your body and your mind.

Improve your blogging productivity with a rest

Without rest and relaxation, you can become stale in what you are doing whether it is article writing, social media marketing or writing blog posts. 

With a break, you can return to your daily blogging with renewed energy, insight and enthusiasm.  A break can also improve your productivity through the energy renewal and new perspectives you gain.  Often you will find that the solution to your current issue or problem lies in front of you – you just need time out to see it.

 This is particularly true when you are engaged in running a small business offline.  The daily demands can mean that you are constantly ‘chasing your tail’.  Eventually, you can’t ‘see the wood for the trees’ – you are blind to the bigger picture because of reacting to small things. 

Stepping back, taking time out, is essential to develop a new perspective.  You could take a weekend away to refresh your mind.  The beauty of a place like Montville can be really invigorating.  

View from The Potter's Place Montville
View from The Potter's Place Montville

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Time seems to stand still when you stop – minutes turn into hours and hours become days.  This is in stark contrast to when you are busy chasing deadlines. 

I was able to take heaps of photos on my Samsung Galaxy S11 Camera (8 Megapixels) on my Montville break and now I have these available for blog posts (see images in this post) and for creating videos via Animoto.

I was also able to identify ways that I could add more content to my personal productivity membership site:

  • Re-purpose articles I have written for Ezinearticles.com
  • Create a series on MP3’s on productivity and energy levels
  • Expand productivity tips from some of my Squidoo lenses
  • Develop a series of promotional videos for the membership site.

By taking a two day rest at Montville, I am now able to resume my blogging with improved productivity through an increase in energy, resources and ideas.

The Challenge of Daily Blogging and the Need for Improved Personal Productivity

3Cs of blogging

There are many things that work against you when you attempt to achieve daily blogging

However, the effort to maintain a daily blogging schedule is well worth it.  I noticed that since I have missed a few days of publishing Small Business Odyssey, the Alexa ranking has changed from 860,000 to 1,100,000 – in other words, my web traffic has dropped.

 Daily blogging enables you to build momentum both with your writing and your blog traffic. 

 Photo Credit: cambodia4kidsorg

Creating a related blog – How to be productive

Sometimes you may need an infusion of new ideas or a new perspective on your blogging.  This can come through creating a related blog and using a drip-feed automated process.

Over the past week I’ve been building another WordPress blog, a productivity membership site:

http://www.how-to-be-productive.com

 Whilst the membership site was pre-built in terms of its drip-feed content, I decided to develop audio content for the first 9 lessons via Audacity.  Again, once I gained momentum in creating these recordings, I found the task easy and enjoyable.  I was able to produce the audios (MP3’s) for the membership site on personal productivity  in two sittings – one involving three recordings, the other six.

The associated task of inserting the audios into blog posts was made so easy by the very clever, free software, podPress, discussed in an earlier post.

So while I was not writing and publishing on my Small Business Odyssey blog, I was developing and refining my productivity membership site hosted on a WordPress blog. 

Personal productivity and daily blogging

 While the creation of the new productivity site may seem like a diversion from this blog, I believe that it actually reinforces the Small Business Odyssey blog.  Personal productivity underpins much of what I am writing about on Small Business Odyssey.  Fundamentally, if you can’t improve your personal productivity as a small business owner, you will have real difficulty engaging in any form of small business marketing.  Worse still, you may end up doing the wrong kind of work (e.g. wasting hours on Twitter, reading and writing Tweets).

One of the core challenges involved in daily blogging is, in fact, finding ways to improve your productivity. To make the time to achieve a daily, published blog post (a minimum of two hours taking into account locating images and editing), you need to find ways to improve your use of time. 

There are numerous things that can distract you or consume your time as a small business owner and it is easy to fall into old habits ( e.g. reading emails for hours) – with the net result that you do not make time for blogging.

Over the past three weeks, for example, I have been engaged with others in creating four tender submissions for our human resource consulting business. a mind-numbing task but essential for business survival and growth in the current economic and political climate.

It would have been very easy to give up daily blogging but I had to find a way to schedule my blog writing at a time when my productivity and creativity were at their best – early in the morning. 

To engage in daily blogging, takes a huge commitment but it is rewarding both intrinsically (personal satisfaction and sense of achievement) and extrinsically (increased web traffic and income).