Posts Tagged: productivity

productivity — 1 Comment
30
Nov 10

My Continued Struggles With Productivity – And What I’m Doing about It

Working from home on my own projects is much more difficult than I expected. Not because the work is difficult, but because it is difficult to maintain a high level of motivation without someone else telling you to get to work. I’ve overcome a lot of the problems that I have encountered since my first week of full time entrepreneurship, but I’m still jumping hurdles.

My level of productivity seems to fluctuate rather wildly during the week. On Mondays, I typically get very little done because it is difficult to get started. Strangely Thursdays are by far my most productive day of the week. By then I’ve gotten my momentum ball rolling and am motivated by the upcoming weekend when I won’t have the time to get much done.

This unsteady cycle would be fine if I was accomplishing my goals. However, by the measuring sticks I am able to use, I am really only producing between 30 to 40% of what I should be able to accomplish.  I’m not upset with myself, because I’m still figuring out this learning curve. As long as I keep making decisions to help myself in the future, then I know I’m still on the right path. However, this current pace simply won’t work, so I’m implementing more systems to fix it.

The main improvement that I have implemented over the last two weeks is asking a friend to help me out. He’s not helping me with work, but with motivation and productivity. I officially labeled him my CMO, or Chief Motivation Officer. Unfortunately, his new position is unpaid at the moment. What I’m basically doing is holding myself accountable by sending him a report of my measurable output for the week. With the guidelines we laid out together, he can then offer appropriate feedback. I think it is definitely going to help me produce more and solve some of my productivity flaws.

Other than that, I’m trying to even out my productivity more. Rather than do little for the first several days and then produce a lot for a day and half, I want to accomplish more to start the week. This will still allow me to have a big Thursday, but will give me a base level of momentum heading into it.

For example, if my productivity was measured in undefined units, then this is what my weeks have been looking like:

M-0 T-0 W-2 R-6 F-1
Giving a total of 9 productivity units for the week

To better explain, a zero day doesn’t mean I did nothing, but it means I didn’t do the important things that will get results. A 2 unit day is pretty easy to accomplish and I expect that eventually I should be able to bring myself up to 5 unit days every day of the week. However, right now, this is what I’m going for:

M-2 T-2 W-5 R-6 F-4
Giving a total of 19 productivity units for the week

This will give me more than double the output, without adding much extra work at all. By just doing a little bit each day, I would be dramatically improving my weekly productivity.

productivity — No Comments
15
Oct 10

Spartans! Prepare for Glory!

Today official marks the beginning of Fall Frenzy. Much like Summer Rush, it is a push for productivity and output through The Keyword Academy. Summer Rush had an awesome effect on my earnings, so I expect Fall Frenzy will accomplish the same. While employed full time, I managed to publish 100,000 words during the 92 day Summer Rush time period. My goal for fall frenzy is to publish 250,000 words in the 78 day period, not including those written as freelancing work.

“This is where we hold them! This is where we fight! This is where they die!”

So, why the reference to 300 in the title? Well, I joined a user group called the 300 Spartans because their initial goal was to publish 300k words each during Summer Rush. The groups did a bit of a shuffle for Fall Frenzy as people set different goals for themselves and I was able to sneak into the group.

I’m pretty excited because it is one of my favorite movies. I think there are some awesome lessons and philosophies portrayed in the movie, so I watched it last night to get inspired. If I can take on some of the characteristics of the Spartans for these 78 days, then my progress should be unstoppable.

“Remember this day, men. For it will be yours for all time.”

In a semi-unrelated note, I figured out what part of my productivity dilemma has been for the past couple weeks. I had primarily been trying to use the Simple Article Rewriter to create articles in groups of five on the same subject. However, this seems to create tasks that are too large and they create levels of anxiety that I couldn’t cope with, which caused procrastination. Wednesday, I decided just to try to write five articles without the tool and I was able to get started quickly and actually wrote the articles faster.

I’m not sure if it is because the tool causes you to have to do a certain amount of work before you can stop or if just the extra forced structure was just intimidating, but I’ve been very productive ever since. I think this was my biggest stumbling block that I’ve had to overcome. I think with my new daily structure and this new knowledge of task anxiety, I should be able to reach the levels of daily output that I was hoping for.

“No retreat, no surrender. That is Spartan law. And by Spartan law, we will stand and fight. A new age has begun: an age of freedom!”

Entrepreneurship / productivity — 2 Comments
6
Oct 10

Productivity Problems Working from Home

It is already Wednesday and I haven’t accomplished nearly as much as I wanted to. I have been very easily distracted and clearly have quite a bit to learn about productivity when working from home. It is difficult to balance the freedom that being self employed allows with actually getting work done. Although part of the problem is that I was just burnt out from working and running my business the last couple weeks, I also didn’t really have any structure in place to decide what tasks need to be done and when.

Building Structure
Everyone who has things to accomplish needs a bit of structure. It has become obvious to me that if I don’t have any structure, I will actually do very little work. Going into Monday morning, I didn’t really have a plan as to how I was going to attack the work that needed to get done. I didn’t have specific tasks written down or goals to accomplish for the day. I suppose this is a common noob entrepreneur mistake.

When I only had an hour or two to do work each night after work, I would just pick something to do (more or less out of a randomizer in my brain) and work on it until I couldn’t anymore. I would pick whatever seemed most important, relevant, or exciting at that exact moment. This worked well when it was a just a side project and my sense of satisfaction for the day didn’t really depend on it. The fact that I did something extra at all was usually enough to make me feel overjoyed at my productivity.

However, when you’re trying to work on something full-time, that supports your livelihood, there needs to be a little more thought put into which task you work on next. I needed a system and I failed to recognize that until today. I’m not upset with myself or anything; a learning curve like this was bound to exist and I really had no way to know until I gave it a go.

The Productivity Plan
Since late this afternoon, I’ve been drawing up a plan to put structure in place. The most important aspect I realized is that I need a daily goal that is production focused, not time focused. I mentioned in my last post that I was going to try a 9-5ish schedule. That will probably still work, but I can’t judge my productivity based on that.

Since this article marketing/niche website building idea’s main requisite is writing, I based my daily goal on an average number of words that I want to publish per weekday. Publishing is one thing, but actually writing is something completely different. The publishing goal is simply a measuring stick to figure out how much I need to write each day. Once I had that, I could plan what my particular goal is for which day of the week.

Now I have a schedule drawn up so that I know exactly what I need to accomplish each day of the week to be successful. I’m not saying I won’t slip up one day or need to rearrange it occasionally, but simply waking up and knowing what needs to be done should give me a huge boost in output and efficiency.

Self Improvement — No Comments
16
May 10

Introspection | Myself under a Figurative Microscope

Lately I’ve been analyzing everything about myself. I mean everything, from career to hygiene to hobbies. I think it stems from a feeling that something is wrong and I’m not sure what it is. My life seems in disarray (although it’s really not that bad). There is a lot I don’t have control over, which is probably causing higher levels of anxiety.

I’ve always struggled with handling anxiety so I’d imagine my brain goes into a high alert status. After some processing I’ve decided that part of the solution is solving the problems that I don’t have control over. For some of them, it means doing something differently or minimizing responsibilities. For others, it simply means coming to grips with my lack of control.

I wonder if it’s a part of some kind of quarter life crisis or else some sort of natural life phase.  In fact, I’m positive that has something to do with it, although I’m sure my discontent in several areas of life is what really brought about this level of introspection.

It seems logical that the first step of progress should be determining what areas I’m really having trouble with. I briefly worked through a Wheel of Life exercise on Google Docs (courtesy of Jenny Blake, Life After College) and came up with a pretty solid list of things I can actively change that I perceive will make me happier.  It will be pretty interesting to find out whether making the changes will actually improve my happiness.

The only to find that information out is to make the changes and see how it goes.  So, much like a thousand bloggers before me, I’m going to challenge myself to actively work on these items for one month and see how it goes.  At the end of the time allotment I can analyze how the different elements have affected me and whether each one is something that I want to continue.

I suppose that what sets this challenge apart from the dozens of others I’ve read in the past is that I’m attempting to make a bunch of sweeping changes rather than just one at a time. I think it will be an advantage because I clearly won’t be able to forget what I’m doing since this will be a fairly all-encompassing challenge to my daily routine.

So, the items that I’ve identified as weaknesses are as follows:

  • Cleanliness - It stresses me out when there is clutter everywhere, so it would only make sense to not produce as much clutter.
  • Hygiene (specifically dental) – I’ve never had good dental hygiene habits and have a mouth full of fillings to prove it. My teeth are fairly sensitive now and I have a lot of concerns about the road I’m on if my bad habits continue (although it’s too bad I can’t undue the damage that is already done).
  • Focus on side business – I often find myself burnt out after work and come up with excuses to not get things done. If I don’t put in the work, then it won’t be successful.
  • Getting enough exercise – I’m sporadic about exercising even though it’s something that I enjoy.
  • Waking up early/on-time – I’m frequently “late” for work (although they’re pretty flexible and I don’t get penalized or anything, I just have to work later before I can leave) and it starts my day in a bad mood. Plus I think it causes me to lose time that I could otherwise be productive with.
  • Television watching – I use it as a time filler.  If I don’t have something specifically on my mind that I want to do, I become a de facto couch potato.  I don’t enjoy most of what I watch so it just becomes time down the toilet.

I know enough about myself that simply saying I should improve these things wouldn’t be enough to sustain my motivation for more than a day or so. What I need are firm rules that I’m not allowed to violate and consequences if I do violate them. So, here are the rules:

  1. Put things away after I use them.
  2. If I see an area that is cluttered, I will de-clutter it at that exact moment.
  3. Brush Teeth, Floss, Rinse with mouthwash twice per day.
  4. Consume no soda or candy.
  5. Do a minimum of 2 hours of work on side business everyday.
  6. Get at least a ½ hour of exercise everyday.
  7. Wake up at 7am every weekday, even on days off.
  8. Watch TV only for special events or for dual processing (while doing something productive)

Consequences: If a rule is violated, I will have to proclaim it publicly on this blog and also not be allowed to check my adsense stats the following day.

Today is the 16th of May so I will hold these rules in effect until the 15th of June. I’ll keep you updated.