Think of productivity as 2 parts:
Actions that you take=Improving your habits, things things that you do daily or often to reach your definition of success. Like workouts, eating healthy, business networking, etc.
Mindset: This is how you think about life.
So you need both to be strong: The right actions/habits and also the right mindset. So that you go in the right direction towards your goals.
- Focus on what you can control, and be aware of what you can’t control:
This will help you handle stress because now you are not focusing on things that you can’t control, you are aware of it but not spending time trying to change it. For example: Lets say the weather outside:
You can’t control if it rains or not but you can be aware of it and prepare, so you could wear an umbrella outside for the rain. But be aware that it is going to rain.
Same thing with your habits and life, their are many things that you can’t directly control in life. So its best to be aware of those things, and then put your time and energy into things that you can control.
Another example for my brand: I can’t control my views but I can control how much I post, and how much effort and quality I put into each post.
2. Focus on Momentum, Not Motivation:
Motivation comes and goes, but momentum will always be there to help you.
Think about it like a snow ball: pushing the ball up the hill is hard, but once you reach the tipping point, then it rolls down a lot easier on its own.
Its the same idea with momentum, you want to use motivation to help you get started, but then let momentum carry you, and make continuing on your habit a lot easier.
How do I get motivation?
Simple use this formula: 1. Write down the habit that you want to do. Ex: 1. Clean:, Then you want to set a physical or phone timer and see how long it takes you to do the habit. Ex: Clean: 20:53.
So that way its a fast and simple way to start motivation, without needing any motivational videos!
I would also recommend you track your habit progress, why?
Because when you save your habit tracking progress either on a paper or any habit tracking app, it keeps you self accountable because you know you are saving your progress and time tracking progress.
Remember this: Usually the hardest part of a habit is just getting started, but once you start you will notice its a lot easier because momentum is helping you!
You also don’t want to let your emotions control your habits, because most of the time you wouldn’t want to or be excited to start the boring self improvement habits like reading, networking, etc.
3. It’s not about how much free time you have, its about how you spend those free time minutes:
You can have all day of ” free time”, but if you are not spending those free time minutes on the right habits, then it wont get you much closer to your goals.
Think of these 4 main ways you can spend your time: 1. Entertainment: ( Video games, movies, social media scrolling,etc), 2. Doing Nothing: ( Like just sitting on a chair or a couch), 3. Being busy: ( This is things that you need to do but doesn’t give you much progress towards your goals: Such as working a low pay job, cleaning the floor, cooking, etc), 4. Success Habits: ( This is things that you do daily or often to get to your definition of success)
So Now that you know the 4 main ways you can spend your time, now what you want to do is to be aware of how you spend your time. You can time track your daily habits that take 1 minute or longer, or just being aware always!
Or what you can do is on a paper combine your habits that you want to do into ” groups”: Like work, cleaning, driving, etc. And then you want to give yourself an estimated time on how long you spend a day or a week on busy habits, entertainment, and just relaxing.
So lets say you are awake for 15 hours, 12 hours is for: Busy habits, entertainmnet and some relaxation. So now that leaves you with 3 hours a day of ” free time”. So the question becomes how are you spending that 3 hours a day? Are you wasting it or investing that time into success habits?
A good way to think about spending time is with ” Return on time invested” so a lot of people want to be smart with their money, and that is great. But you also need to be start with your time because you can make more money but you can’t make more time.
So for your daily free time block, each habit that you add you want to ask yourself ” what’s my return on doing this habit”. If I spend 30 minutes a day doing 36 networking comments on social media, then what’s my return on time invested?
That way you can make sure you are spending your daily free time minutes in the best way that you can, so you start making real progress towards your goals and dreams!
Action plan: On a post-it or online notes you want to write the 3 mindset changes down so that you remember them and so that it can help you, good luck!