Transcripts
1. Where your Productivity Begins: Welcome to the course and
thank you for stopping by. Now if you want to
get more productive, most probabilities, this is
where you're looking for. You want to get productive. How can you get productive? You're looking for tools,
gadgets, applications, approaches, techniques,
morning routines, eating habits, all
that sort of stuff. In order to help you
become more productive. When we say productivity, it means to be able to
utilize your resources and the best way possible to get the best outcome
out of them. But there's a problem with
our approach to productivity. And this is what we're
going to be discussing in this course with further detail. Instead of looking
for things that you need to do to
get more productive and trying to dig for the
solutions or the routines, the to-do lists, or the
applications that you need to download to support your efforts and becoming more productive. You should be rather looking for the reasons why you are not productive in
the first place. Because let me break it to you. No matter what no matter how many to-do list
that you have, you can have the best
gadgets in the world, who can have the
best applications? You could have a
secretary organizing your day one slot at a time. You can have the best
tools, mechanisms, morning routines, we cannot 5M working like 15 hours a day. All of these things
literally will get you nowhere if you do not solve the root cause
of the problem, the things which are getting in the way of you being productive, things which are hindering your productivity efforts
in the first place. This is where we're going to
be tackling in this course. We're going to be learning
at the habits which are determined to your
productivity efforts. Literally they destroy
every single effort, every single approach to
becoming more productive. In this course, we're not going to be providing you with a tool. We're not going to be
providing you with an app or an Excel sheet with
the to-do list and how to structure your to-do
list and get things done. Rather that we're going, we're going to be
hitting the nail on the head by identifying the root cause behind the failure for all of
the productivity efforts. Most probably you've
come across this yourself when you try to
implement a new program, when you try to promise yourself that you're going to be more
productive than next day. You're going to wake up five AM. You're going to
have a to-do list. You're going to download
this application. You're going to take notes
before a project, old stuff. Let's say you stick
to it for a day or two before you know it, you're back in
square number one. Most probably you're
feeling way negative compared to the state you
are at in the first place. It's because all of these
efforts simply got you nowhere. You did not achieve your goals. You did not get to the point
where you want to get. You didn't accomplish anything from the stuff that
you have on your mind. Anything from that to-do list that you have been creating
in the first place. What's probably a huge list with nothing ticked
off from the list. What we're going to be
learning in this course, we're going to go through the habits that every single one of us at 1 in time faced. And they got into the way of
becoming more productive. This is the course
that we're having right now which addresses productivity destroyers it
wherever you want to call it. These are the things which are determined determinant
to productivity efforts. You could have the best stuff to support you and your growth. But if you do not resolve
these key problems, you are going to get
back to square number one with the whole
chapter of productivity. So if that's of interest to you, if you want to tackle
the root cause behind the things which
are determinants of productivity efforts, then this course is
definitely for you.
2. Your Project: The project for this
following course would be a thorough reflection
on your journal. Obstacles that are getting in the way of your own
productivity goals. What you need to do
is the following. You're going to take a look at the checklist that
I've attached for you. Now this checklist is basically a very simplistic list where you're going to be writing down what are the key obstacles
that you have noticed that possibly be getting
in the way of your own productivity goals based on what you have
learned in the course. Let me give you an example. Let's say after
taking the course, you've realized that you tend to procrastinate more than you've realized that you are
quite too fixated on that. I, I know everything mentality, instead of having potential for growth or growing mentality, that lack of growth aspect
who are going through right, every single one of them down. And then you're going to try to arrange them
in an order from the most severe till the
least severe and your own perspective
and you have to be quite honest with yourself, what could possibly
be the main reason for your lack of productivity? Keeping in mind
that this exercise requires clear,
straightforward application. You have to be very
transparent with yourself. You have to be very
honest with yourself. Because at the end of
the day your main target is to fix the problem and isolate the main causes or reasons behind your
lack of productivity. This exercise, you
simply have to ride them five key obstacles. Now if you don't have
five, That's perfect. You can just write three. These obstacles are
the ones which you think based on what you
have studied in the course. The main reasons that you need to deal with that
you need to fix in order to take your
productivity to new heights. So the project is quite
straight forward. You're going to take a
look at the attached list. And within this list
you're going to be writing down by rank, most severe to the least severe. The key factors that
you think based on the course are influencing
your productivity efforts. This is step number one. Step number two,
you're going to write down the corrective
measures that you're going to be trying to implement in order to
rectify that problem. Let me give you another example. Let's say you tend to
procrastinate quite often. How would you try to
rectify the problem? Now I've shared with
you a couple of insights within the video and try to map them with
based on your own life. Let's say you're going
to be taking on a task. You're not going to
be thinking about it excessively rather
than you're going to analyze the task
and commit to doing the task in case you feel
like procrastinating, not going to push yourself to actually execute the
task day in and day out. You're going to be
overcoming that problem. The project is based
on two aspects. First of all, identifying
the key obstacles, drug getting in your way in
terms of being productive. That's one. Two, writing down an action plan
that you want to implement in order to rectify this problem and feel
free to post it as well. Just simply to have the
community chip in and give you that push that you need in order to help you
reach your goals.
3. The Wheel of Time: This is one of my
favorites when it comes to the reasons why you're not being productive
in the first place. And it's simply
because of not having sufficient time to do
whatever you want to do. Now, every single one
of us has quite busy. You got stuff to
do with your life. You got thanks to attend to, you gotta drop to have
it could be 95826, whatever schedule that you have. Most probably it could be having two or three jobs.
You're doing shifts. Irrespectively. When you are trying to
put some perspective, sheds some perspective
on your goals and the things you want to
get off that to-do list. The first thing that
many of us tend to say, we do not have sufficient time to accomplish what we want to accomplish
in the first place. But think about it this way. We do have time to do a lot
of things throughout the day. You do have 24 hours
throughout the day. Let's say you sleep eight
hours throughout the day. You end up having the rest of the day to do whatever
you want to do, spreading the time between say, go into a gym, eating, going to work, all
that kind of stuff. You might end up having
an hour or two despair. And this is where
we all of us tend to utilize these couple of hours in different manners with addressing the key important
stuff that we want to do. What we want to tackle. The problem with that is
basically the lack of priority. We are not able to set
the priorities right? And when you are trying to
allocate time to do things, the first thing that you should
be doing is you should be classifying things
in terms of urgency, the things that you
need to get done first, the things that you need
to get done quickly, start with the high
priority items and you go to the least
priority items. That way, you are able to have some perspective on the
things that you need to focus on throughout the day
and put stuff that are, let's say, not that important to other days for you
to deal with them. But the key problem
though we tend to face is that once we are trying to tackle
a task which is, let's say, quite
personal to you. Something you have set, something that you want to do. We tend to go for either
all or nothing approach. Either we are going
to find time to, It's simply sit
down and just focus on many things at the same time. Or we just simply throw in the towel and literally
called quits. But there is a middle ground. There is a fine
line between both. You're able to utilize your time in an effective
manner if you are going to spread those tasks
into small, sizable bites. Think about it this way. You're able to spare 15
minutes to 20 minutes a day to accomplish at piece of the
task that you want to do. Let's say you're planning
or writing a book. Obviously, whenever you just
commit to writing a book, the first thing you do is okay, I'm going to finish the book, all of it today. Then you end up being frustrated because he didn't manage
to run a couple of words. Then you throw off the towel and then you contemplate
about the fact that, okay, I don't have time to
write a book, but you do, you do you need to
break down the task to microscopic levels
even if it just simply involves writing
a single paragraph, two lines,
fast-forward, 30 days, a few doing the same thing
over and over again. By the end of the 30 days, you'll end up having
a couple of pages done and so forth for the upcoming month
and the upcoming month. And by the end of
three to four months you have a book reading. Now the difference
between the approach is that the first case, it's either you have a chunk of time available to do
wherever you want to do, or you're going to
utilize that time to do nothing at all and just
deviate from the task. This is a problem that
we all tend to face. When you are taking on a goal that you're quite interested, then a goal that you
want to achieve, you dive in fully and you lose perspective where
you want to break down that goal to sizable
bytes and go through it one night of time and you've
got to think about it long term instead of thinking
about it short-term. Saying, Okay, I want to
get the results right now. That way it makes it quite
easy for you to handle. It makes it quite achievable. And it's quite smart approach because in case if any problems you are
able to rectify them. If you find yourself working or trying
to get things done, the first thing they come
across is that okay, I don't have time to do
any of those things. Well, you've got to set
your priorities first. Is the thing that you want
to achieve more important than kicking back
watching TV, for example. Is going to the gym more important than
playing a video game. Set your priorities. If you want to work on
your personal project, you want to have a business, you want to start a company, you want to write a book, you want to create a website. Is that more important compared to going out for dinner
this weekend, for example? You have to set your
priorities because we have an endless list
of stuff to do, especially nowadays with
access to many options, whether eating,
watching, exercising. All of these are options
and our brains by default, if you give them
too much options, this is where the
decision fatigue comes in and you end
up doing nothing. This cycle keeps repeating
over and over again. What do you need to do is to acknowledge the
fact that one of the productivity destroyers is the statement which says there's no time to do
whatever you want to do. On the contrary, you have
sufficient amount of time, you got an abundance of time. You have to utilize it well, if a task seems so big to
achieve in that time frame, try to break it down
to microscopic tasks, small ones every
single day try to achieve a bit offered by the
end of a couple of months, your goal will be achieved. This is a great way to
view every single task. That way you are motivated to achieve the
task now where you are motivated to stick to your goal and become
more productive. This is the first, let's say, Keep problem that destroys
your productivity efforts. Just assuming that
you don't have time to do whatever
you want to do. Now, during the
duration of the course, we're going to be
tackling an array of productivity destroyers
that surely every single one of us at 1 in time you're faced whether you
realize that you face such a destroyer of
productivity or now you're watching this
course and it's shed some perspective and help. You realized that you know what, you get a problem
that you need to fix. Because fixing the
problem could be the root cause behind
delaying your productivity. It could be the root
cause behind why you're not getting things
done in the first place. You don't have to be looking for applications, best fixes, morning routines,
things that you need to adopt or apply in order
to become more productive. You couldn't be the most
productive individual out there. But those things that are
going to be talking about, they have been getting in
your way since day one. You'll be working on resolving this thing that we're
going to be discussing throughout the duration
of this course to help you just shed that fat, which is getting
in the way of all of the efforts
that you have been doing by resolving that, by resolving these
problems wherever effort that you put or channel to becoming
more productive, it will surely materialize.
4. It's Your Fault: And one key
determinant habit for productivity that
gets into the way of your efforts and
becoming more productive. Which is cross blaming. During my career, I've witnessed a lot of this basically
whether you're working on a project or you're working with a team and you're trying
to achieve a certain goal. And this is basically the productivity
determinant effect, effect of that aspect. At a team level also applies
to you as an individual. Cross blaming is the terminal, because if you keep on blaming others for
your lack of success, for not getting things
done in the way you want to get them
done in the first place. You will end up being in the
same spot every single time. And it's an indirect way for you to take off the responsibility. Think about it this
way if you keep on blaming every single person for you and not being successful for not getting things that you want to
get in the first place. We're not getting that job
for not getting that project, for not getting those grades, for not getting leaner, for not eating well. And the list goes on. And you'll be blaming this
and it will be blaming that. And you end up going
back to square one. That full sense of
achievement or false sense of there's nothing that you can do because it's not your
fault in the first place. This is an indirect, let's say, psychological way
for you to stay in the comfort area and the comfort zone where you don't
want to get things done. You're fine where you are, but you know that you have
some stuff you want to do. You know, you, they have
some stuff you want to achieve but you're
not willing to get uncomfortable and
approach and tried to achieve those steps because
of the potential failure, because of the potential risks that you're going to encounter. So you end up blaming this, that for the lack
of success that you are witnessing within your life. How do we fix that problem? Well, let me break it to you. Everything in your life, certain point, you
do have a choice in. Even if you think that
you don't have a choice. It could be at choice at a microscopic level or
at a macroscopic level. The simplest choice
that he can make. You just simply
say yes or say no. Simple as that. If you have time
to do something, you can say yes. If you don't have
time to do something, you can say no. And we always have the choice. You always have
the responsibility that accompanies that choice. You have to be responsible
for whatever course of action that you choose
to do within your day. If you wake up and you just simply don't want to
work on your project. You don't want to exercise. You're not going to be
cross blaming anyone. You're not going to
be blaming anyone for your choice that you have taken during that
specific point in time. On the contrary, a
productive effort or productive approach would be acknowledging that
you made a choice. And most probably it could be either the right choice
or the wrong choice. And on both ends
of the spectrum, you should be okay with that. Because that cycle
of cross blaming, it's an endless cycle
where you keep on dusting the responsibility off your back and putting
it on others. And assume that I 1 in time. Things will get aligned
in a magical manner for you to get things done
because they will not. You should have a focused
approach that okay, I do have a choice and
listen, listen this, that and that and
that I'm going to be a setting my
priorities, right. Going to be a taking responsibility
for the things that I have to do in case
I'm able to do them, I'm going to be working on them. But at the end of the day, it's either my success where
my failure, no one else's. That's a very important
point to keep in mind. You want to avoid cross blaming others for your lack
of achievements. You have to own up
those achievements. You have to own up
that responsibility and show up and do the work. And that's the, let's say the foundation for
getting productive, for getting things done. Take responsibility,
set priorities right, and then tackle what comes next.
5. How about tomorrow ?: This is one of my favorite. Things aren't quite
determinant to productivity. And all of us, I won't point
in time may inclusively. We tend to do this with
them to procrastinate. Procrastination is literally a destroyer
for productivity. Betting on the future, assuming that you can
guaranteed tomorrow. This is a huge risk
that you're taking on debt expense of your ambitions and the things that
you want to achieve. All of us, let's say
four are faced with an obstacle or something that
we have to do right now. We know that we have to
achieve this right now. We end up delaying it
for, let's say a no. Once the hour to half-past these two hours or our two
and they become a day. You end up saying, okay,
I'll do that tomorrow. Tomorrow comes. They end up postponing it for another day and another day for
a week and a month. Then before you know, it, time has passed and you
haven't done anything yet. And that's the slippery
slope of procrastination. You cannot guarantee that tomorrow you'll end
up doing the task. First of all, because
the circumstances and your current day, let's say, are quite subtle
In a way for you to be able to achieve that task. You cannot guarantee
the same circumstances. Tomorrow. Things will, most probably will not align in the sense that
you want them to be aligned. In order for you to
get that job done. There's a sandwich goes if you want to get things
done through it now, if you want to have
something on your mind, you want to achieve you I
goal you want to pursue. You have a task which is quite
urgent. Do not delay it. Hit the iron while it's hot, because once the iron gets cold, you have to forge it again
in order to be able to bend it or use it in a
way that you want to use it and get the same outcome. Do you have to focus on? Is? First of all, once you realize that you have
something that you want to achieve or something that
you want to accomplish. If something is quite urgent and you have the
means to do it right now, by all means, do it. Your brain, once you get into the decision-making
state where you say, You know what, I'm
going to do it right now and you commit to doing yet, you will actually get it done. You will have that sense
of fulfillment because of dopamine burst that comes in because you crashed a task and you are one step
closer to your goal. But if you delay it, your brain is like deprived. And it will give you that
sensation that you are way behind and you haven't done
things that you need to do. So it has a counter effect. And it's a cycle that many
of us tend to get in. Whether it's eating
healthy, exercising, finishing up that task, replying to the e-mail, working on that project. If we are given the
space or the room to procrastinate in order to stay at the comfortable state that we are at the point now, most of us are going
to procrastinate. And this is what we want
to, we want to avoid. Because think about it this way. All of us, we tend
to operate if we are subject to
external pressure, a boss or a manager, I'd be telling you XYZ
you have to do the day. And all of a sudden, you'd drive to get that
energy because you're being pressurized by
an external factor. That external factor is the drive behind
your productivity. If you think about it, this is not the approach or the proper way to go about
your dreams and your goals, where you are waiting
for an external factor to pressure you to
get things done. Call it your manager, call it your boss, call it a whatever it is. You shouldn't be waiting for
external circumstances to apply pressure on you in order
it forced to do something. And if there's nothing happening
on the external and you end up being procrastinating
wherever you want to do. Because if you keep on life, you keep your life subject
and external influence. All of your goals are tied up
to that external influence. And you don't have that innate
drive to get things done. If you find yourself in
that position where you are procrastinating and you'll find yourself trying to
avoid a certain tasks. You've got to pause for a second and you have to realize that no productive efforts whatsoever are going to be beneficial
unless you try it, unless you rectify that problem. Because if you are continuously waiting for some external
pressure to get things done, once though the external
pressure has gone, you'll be cocooning and that comfort area
or comfort zone. And just waiting for the next external pressure to push you to get things done. You want to do the
work around this. You have to find the source
of pressure from within. You don't want to have the
external pressure imposed on you by external circumstances
or by external individual. And whether a manager or a boss, that's not quite helpful to
you or read it does not care about your progress rather than the one I get things
done for their own good. So you want to be accountable. And the way to go about this, you have to be your own boss, you have to be your own manager. You have to push yourself to get things done and know that you are the one in
control of the outcome. You are the one to plan and execute the things
that you want to do. Not someone else's job, Do not wait for your
manager to tell you. Here you go. Here's
your to-do list. You have to do this
and this and this by the end of the
day or you're fired. And if you are in that
position, trust me, the first thing
you'll be doing is you'll be knocking that goal. Those goals one-by-one, is
simply to avoid being fired. Here you go, You are
the most productive UR throughout that specific
period of time. Why? Because you're in that
position where you have to get things done or you've
got a lot to lose. I would like to ask
you that question. How come your dreams or your
goals or your projects, your ambitions are not
that important to you, such that they are not applying that pressure on you to get
things done in the fastest, best way possible without
any procrastination. If you are not able to
do that from your end, try to have someone, a friend or relative, someone who's going to hold you accountable for the things
that you have to achieve. Someone to keep up with
you on the things that you have to get done in a specific amount
of time to have that external source
of pressure the same way your manager
has been applying on you for you to get things
done for their own benefit. But the flip side would be, you're going to be subject to that brush to get things
done for your own benefit. There's a world of
difference between the both. One of them is just simply achieving the goal
of someone else. While the other is simply you
achieving your own goals. You have to work around 0. You have to either
be your own boss, you are the one to hold yourself accountable for every
single task that you have to do to get more
productive and achieve more. Or you need to hire someone or ask your
friend or relative. Irrespectively someone who
is going to push you to get things done for
you. Simple as that. These are the two ways
that you're going to find that pressure if you are not driven by yourself
to get things done, obviously, if you
are just one of those individuals or has to be pressurized to get things done. And you're not motivated. Many of us are not. But there's a workaround and
I'm sharing it with you. Two things that you can do to help you avoid procrastination. Find that external
source of pressure, either from your own self, push yourself to
get things done, or have someone pushed
you to get things done for your own good and
be accountable for it.
6. Not today but sometime soon: If rectify the previous
problems and you are ready to go and start
getting more productive. But there is still more
than you need to get to. You want to resolve all of these root causes
once and for all. And then you can
go ahead and get whatever application
you want to get, wherever to-do list you want to use to help you
support your progress. Because these problems are going to be walking you through. They are determined
to what effort, whatever productive effort
they going to be applying. The current destroyed the
current productivity destroyer is the lack of discipline. You have result the
procrastination issue. You have got the wheel
spinning and you are going to accomplish
one task at a time. Let's say within
a couple of days everything is working
perfectly fine. You are doing your job, you're getting the task done. You are pushing yourself
and something happens, let's say, throws
you off the wagon. This is where the lack
of discipline kicks in. Either you are feeling
tired, you're feeling lazy. You're not motivated,
things going on at work. You're hungry, you're
whatever it is. Those external
circumstances which are imposing themselves on you, the expense on the things that you have to do for
your own good. This is where this
up link accent. Because no matter
how skilled you are, how smart you are, how driven you are, whatever resources
that you have, whatever manpower that you have, whatever anything that you have. Literally, if you
lack discipline, you are not going to
stick around long enough to see your
goals into fruition. You're not going
to it around long enough to have your
goals get achieved. And you're not going to stick
around for long enough to see the results for all of the things that had
been trying to do. The way around this is through long-term thinking,
long-term, long-term mindset. Especially nowadays,
everyone is trying to get the best results as
quickly as possible. As fast as possible. No one is willing
to work anymore. No one is trying to put the
effort anymore and just simply give me the results
with minimal effort? Well, it's possible, but
with a minute percentage. Normally, you have
to put in the work, you have to put in the effort. You have to break a
sweat in order to at least have a shot
of achievement, or have a shot at success, or have a shot at the
things that you want to achieve or tried
to accomplish. With that discipline. You are not going to commit to the process of learning,
growing, developing, pushing, failure and
repeating and failing again and again and again to get to that point of success, the pinnacle of success. Just simply climbing that hill to get to wherever
you want to get to. You are going to give up at the first obstacle
that comes along. And the cure to that problem
is the long-term mindset. Think about it this way. If I tell you you have to build the business by
the end of the week, you'll be running back and forth and most probably
you're going to be failing and then
you're going to throw the whole concept or the
whole goal of the bunch, because you don't
have sufficient time, you don't have
sufficient resources, or you have done all of that. And you didn't stick to it long enough in order
to achieve that goal. But if I tell you two years to Stuart and
achieve a business, and you have to stick to
it for that duration. Some of you or some of us are going to be quitting
within the first one to two weeks still ended up getting lost
with other parts of their life and lose sight or
lose focus on the end goal, which is after two years. Others are going to be pushing for that goal for a
couple of months. And again, they're going to
follow with the previous ones and I'm going to call it quits
after a couple of months. Only a few are going to stick around for the period
of two years and see the outcome whether
it thinks worked out the managed to succeed
in the business or not. The main point from this analogy is if you
have a long-term mindset, if you have a vision
for the long term, you are able to break down your tasks to smaller
chunks or goals, which you're going
to enjoy doing. What you want to do is you want to have a
long-term mindset. You want to have an acceptance
that things need to take time in order for
them to actually happen. Just like planting a seed
and you're going to wait for the seed to sprout
and grow into a plant. And you're going
to see what kind of a plant are you getting. You cannot just simply in
fact the outcome right away. You have to put in the
effort day in and day out whether or not you're going to succeed because let
me break it to you. You cannot guarantee success and you cannot predict failure. You have to try things out whether they work
out or they don't. But if you fail a 100 times, it's means you have figured out a 100 ways not to do
the same mistake again, which makes you a step
closer to succeeding. Better than not trying or
doing anything at all. If you think about stuff that you need to accomplish
in that sense, that you're going to think about the long term you're going to put in the effort and the work. If they're going to learn from your failures or if you
succeeded the break, you've got to build on that. And it's a long-term
mission that you're on. Things become way easier. Your perspective
changes your Nolan.
7. Seedless Plant: So we've talked about
the lack of discipline. Basically, it will
get into the way of your own productivity
efforts or the progress that you want to achieve if you want to become more productive. So no matter how
skilled you are, no matter how smart you are, if you lack the
aspect of discipline, you're not going to be
utilizing your resources effectively over and over again in order to
achieve results. Now that being said, speaking off using
the resources, which leads us to this
following obstacle in terms of your productivity
efforts which lack of growth. What I mean by luck of growth, it's that it's like a false perception that
we know everything. If someone's going to be
giving you an advice in order to do something
in a better way. The first reaction would be, I know how to do things. Or you want to do everything
by yourself and you don't leave the opportunity
to learn something new. And sometimes we get to a point, no matter how smart you are, how skilled you are, you always need to keep a
door open for a growth. It could be on one aspect related to something
that you're working on, something that you're doing. Or it could be something, let's say a personal level
where you want to become more, let's say emotionally
intelligent, you want to become more confident that public
speaking, whatever it is, those molds, skill sets, you're going to be adding
them on and no one is born perfect,
That's for sure. Every single one of us. You have to acknowledge
that all of us, we do have shortcomings. None of us are perfect, and none of us are able to do everything at
the same time and handle every single
requirement in order to be productive and
successful from the get-go. Know it's a certain point that
you have to achieve and it requires some work
on your end to do. The key important
thing to keep in mind when we're
talking about growth. It couldn't be a multiple ads. How can you, how can we
resolve that problem, the lack of growth,
by simply growing, by asking questions,
by trying to learn, by being honest with yourself on figuring out
your shortcomings. The things which are basically, you know, that you need to work on and you personally lack them. You should be quite
honest with yourself. That's you lack those
skills and you need some growth in order to
help you get to that level, the next level of your development of your
productive efforts. Let's say for example, you are doing consulting
for a company, for example. And you have a certain
knowledge base off stuff that you are, the people that are asking
you to help the width. Now if you keep on at the
same level of information, time passes by and
before you know it, your knowledge will be outdated on someone
new is coming to overcome you and to overthrow you with the recent development. So this is the key
thing to keep in mind. You should always
keep room for growth, for development because
you did not know maybe that extra
level of knowledge is all what you need to take your productivity efforts
to a whole new level.
8. Sailing without a Compass: Now let's say you have gotten the discipline aspect
quite spot on. And you are developing this mindset for growth
and development. Now what you need to do in
order to make sure that your productivity
efforts actually going to take you somewhere. You need to plan. Because if you do
have the aspect of discipline and you do
have the skill sets, you can just simply
act randomly at trying to achieve wherever you want to achieve in terms of your goals. But without upset solid plan. Well, let's not
fix it on the word solid because plans
tend to change. It's an iterative process. Let's say you're trying to a
book by the end of the year, maybe a finished in six months. It takes you longer
than your planning every single part of the book
that you want to write in terms of getting the covered
on getting the chapters, the outlines, writing
the whole book, and then reviewing it
and editing and coming up with a first draft
and so on and so forth. Then during that process, you're going to lay down
the key important point that you want to deal with. The key milestones you have to achieve within
a period of time. And that would be like a basic
framework for your plan. If you lack planning and
you're trying to be productive randomly where you
want to do this on that without a solid
plan, without a quiet, having a framework, let's say
because frankly speaking, I'm not a solid fan of having specific time slots for every single thing
that you want to do. Because some days
things do happen. Let's say you're not
feeling like working, which goes back to the
whole discipline phase, but you're able to
fixate on your plan. You're able to focus
on your plan if you don't do such an activity, I would say at two PM you're
going to be doing it, let's say five PM. But you have to be flexible, but at the same time, it doesn't mean that
you lack planning. What I mean by
planning, it says, setting down criterias, the things that you
want to achieve. Setting down steps, tasks, blueprints to help you
get to your goals. Now, these do not have to be
written in stone for sure. They are subject to
change as you go about applying or chasing those tasks that you want to be, they want to do in
the first place. Let's rephrase the whole thing. You have the
discipline and check. You have the mindset for growth and all of the key points
that we have talked about. But you lack planning. If you come up plant properly. It's like driving in a fog and the entire path is basically fog and you have no idea
where you're going, where your skillset will
take you and you have no idea what are the steps
that you need to follow, what path you should stick
on in order to get from destination or from point
a to destination Z. Now I don't want to be, let's say, fixating on
the planning aspects. And especially if someone, let's say a student
who's going to be watching this
course right now, they would assume that you have, you should have a solid plan. You should do a, B, C, and D and this specific time
and at this specific moment, everything should be
clearly laid out to have a solid complete plan
or nothing at all. On the contrary, planning
to do something, just having one step forward is better than having
no plan at all. Try to list down your goals. What are the things you
want to be achieving? What is it? What is it they want
to be productive at? What is the whole point
of view being productive? What do you want to get
to in the first place? Frame your goal and
break it down two steps. These steps are basically
the milestones, the milestones that you're
going to try to achieve. And you're going to develop
this whole sense of being productive in order
to get to those goals. Now if you skip a
deadline or two, if you skip a day or
two, that's okay. You have to be flexible
to a point where you have sufficient
resiliency to get back on track quite often once we have this to-do list
where we want to figure out 1234 and just get everything
checked off that list. And if we deviate a bit
from whatever is on the list or we don't adhere
to the timeframe we have set. To a certain point, many
of us are going to call it quits and just assume
that the whole plan, the plan was a failure. And just simply throw their
goals out of the window. And that's it. They're no longer in the mindset to achieve wherever
do you want to achieve. On the contrary, having
specific goals, having a plan, even though it could
be like a rough plan, is good enough to help get you started and get
yourself on track. As you go about your plan, where you are going to
utilize your discipline, your growth level,
the whole mindset, at all the key points
we have covered so far. You will develop
that resilience in case your plan
does not work out, you will be flexible enough to adjust and carry on forward. This is what you want to do. This is the thing that
you should develop. You don't want to be subject to a plan which is so stringent, which is so lacks flexibility. Such that if something
happens and this is life, things do happen
and plans do not always work out in the same sequence that
you want them to. They could work out way
better, away, worse. But as long as you
keep pushing forward, as long as you are being
resilient and focused. Eventually they're going to
be working out whether or not you intended to follow
these exact same steps. So the key takeaway, you should have a plan, but you should be
resilient enough such that if your plan does not follow through the
same way you want to, you're resilient
enough to adjust the sales and push
forward and go through with your entire
modified version of the plan. At which the whole
thing is quite interlinked where you
want to be productive. V1 and a half that discipline. You want to have that focus. You want to have the
mindset for growth. And all of these, these
are the fundamentals. These are basically
the stepping stones for you being productive. It's not on another
to-do list or checklist or an
application or software, or waking up a specific time or having a specific routine. These are core stuff
that you have to deal with from within in order to launch the
ship of productivity. Whatever tool you
want to use them, the road you are free to
use it because you have the exact essentials to
support your progress. So the key takeaway is planned, but don't fixate too
much on the plan. Have some flexibility along the way and develop
that resilience in case your plan
fall short to pick up whatever has fallen
off and push through.
9. Dependency: The following point
is quite well, it's not that obvious, but it should be quite
obvious, which is dependency. Now, during the roads, if you're trying to achieve
a specific outcome, we want to get this
specific point. This is quite obviously you
need the support of others at one thing or a
couple of things. But if you are too dependent
on the circle around you or your external
circumstances or external factors that
are beyond your control. And you're expecting the
impulse to come from outside towards the inside and then for you to get going
and become more productive, then that's the complete
opposite of becoming productive. This is counterproductive. This is unproductive
because you are just simply waiting for everything which is beyond your control. Whether people where there are circumstances, where
their environment, whether wherever it is, that you are simply depending on in order to get yourself going. It shouldn't be the
other way around. You shouldn't be in a
position or a mindset to try Ignite independency
on your own self. These are quite linked to everything that we
have been talking about from the previous segments
where you should develop that focus discipline mindset
for growth, planning. Now, the picture
is getting clearer for you because all of these, they are not dependent on the external factors
rather than, than they are dependent on you. If you are dependent
on things to get aligned for you to get going. That it's a waste of time
and a waste of effort. How can we fix that problem? You have to
acknowledge and accept the fact that you do have a choice and setting
the sales and trying to get your ship moving in whatever direction
you want it to move. Now, some directions that
are easier than others. But at the end of the day, you have to depend on yourself. And along the way you
can ask others for help or try to utilize
external factors for help. But you should not be
solely dependent on external influences to get imposed on you in
order to get moving. So you see this aspect
in many professionals. The are trying to look for
the next productivity fixed. You want to be
productive yet they are too dependent on many things. They are dependent on their job. They are dependent on
their alarm clock. They are dependent on their
lunchtime in the art, dependent on their
circle of friends. They are dependent on their salary at the
end of the month. These are factors that
could cloud your efforts. It could cloud you're thinking. It could just get in the way a few becoming more productive. Like noise at the back of
your head telling you, okay, I want to be productive. I want to move forward. I want to have those goals achieved by the end of
this month, that month. But I should wait for my
manager to give me that race. I should wait for my friend to work with
me on that project. I should work for
my other friend is going to be helping
me with my marketing. I should wait for the
other friend in order to help me with writing the
script for the book. So as you see this pattern, many individuals tend to
have it where the depend, I'll just simply
throw the stuff on the external environment and
depend too much on that end. And just simply wait for
things to get aligned for them in order to
be pushed forward and they just simply
acknowledge, okay. I'm being productive. No,
you're not because you are not taking charge of things in your own hands and you are
not trying to do anything. You are being subject to the alignment of
external factors. And if you're lucky enough, it will be aligned
in your own favor. If not, you'll end up waiting. So you want to avoid the
whole cycle of dependency. And the only acceptable
term for being dependent, it should be being
dependent on yourself, depending on yourself being responsible enough
to push yourself forward and at least attempt or try to get to wherever you want to get
to in the first place.
10. Negativity Spiral: It, let's say right now
you have managed to crush every single one of these points that we have discussed in the
previous segments. Now this is a hurdle on the way. You've been going
up, up, up, up, and then you have a huge stone that you want to
get over to keep on going up and get to the
pinnacle of productivity. If you should, do
everything that you can do. To avoid this or conquered this aspect, which
is negativity. You'll be surprised as humans, we are more susceptible to
negativity more than we think. Even though you can act
all positive and okay, it's all rainbows and sunshine, all that kind of stuff. But you are more prone to drift towards a negative mindset than drifting naturally to
a positive mindset. This is the human nature. There's nothing new about that, There's nothing
fancy about that. However, if you find out that
you are being too negative, too often, such that your mindset is just simply a
whole bucket of negativity. You have to hit the pause button and try to figure it out. You need to do your homework. You need to reflect and analyze your own
behavior, your own view, your own perception, because a negative mindset will never
yield positive results. Have you ever heard
about the example of a half a glass,
half-full or half-empty? Well, it's the same glass
filled to a certain point. Whether full or empty. It's a matter of perception. Some people that
view it as, Oh wow, the glass is half-full and
the others will view of, oh, my, the glass is half empty. But it's the same class for
two different individuals. One of them chose to view
it in a positive fashion. It's an actual selective effort. You choose to be positive. It's not something you're
born into or something, they just simply wake up
and okay, here we go. I'm a positive person. It's something you have to chase and do day in and day out. It's like exercising. You want to just simply
keep on engaging that positivity muscle
till it becomes a habit where your
mind will be in a situation which is simply
generating positive vibes. And if something goes wrong, it will have a hard time
switching to a negative mindset because it has
been trained to be positive over and over again. Which is the
complete opposite of the state that many it to be at, which is a negative mindset. You want to embark
on a new project, you want to start a new project, you have a new job, you haven't Eukarya,
you have your planning, traveling, whatever it is. The first thing that
comes to mind, okay. I'm not gonna do
well at the job. I'm not going to
like the manager. I'm not going to be quite solid and terms of the things
that I want to propagate, my current request,
the scope of works. Most probably
you're not going to get along with your colleagues or you're going to have an exam and then he'd say the first
thing that comes to mind, Okay, I'm going to
fail that exam. Well, all of these is just simply perceptions of things that could or
could not happen. But how about taking a conscious effort to
say, You know what? I'm going to have that job. Everyone is going to be grateful to actually knowing me as part
of their work environment. Everyone is going to be acknowledging my effort,
my capabilities. I'm going to have
that exam and I'm going to crush my exam. I'm going to do my best if
that's not enough, so be it. I'll try again and
again and again. But at the end of the day,
I know that I've tried. These are completely
different mindsets. You have the positive and
you have the negative. And the funny thing
is, it's your choice. You get to choose your mindset. He played the segment
over and over again by all means do at least
for it to sink in. You get to choose how you think, your perception, your
view, and your mindset. If you want to be positive about your own encounters
of being productive, then you have to welcome
and accept failure because this is the natural
part of the a process. As you try to become productive, you'll feel it once and
twice or three times. But with a negative mindset, possibly could fail once, twice before you call it quits. But with a positive mindset, we mentioned this aspect. That's 1 in the course. With a positive mindset,
you'll be thinking, okay, I feel once, twice, three times, a 100 times, but I'm getting closer
to where I want to get to one step closer to
where I want to get to it. This is a positive approach. This is a positive outlook on where you want to go.
What do you want to do? But on the other hand, if he just simply slash your own tires and
then call it quits. This is the end
result of negativity. You have to nip negativity
from the buds and guess what? You have the scissors. And all of that
is simply on you. Again, take a look at the previous segment,
being dependent. Yes, you do have a lot of
homework to do to help you build that foundation to
become more productive. Again, we're not talking about
applications, softwares. These are tools,
complimentary tools. But the whole engine of
productivity begins with you.
11. We want things right now : Now in this segment we're
going to be talking about a very apparent, yet uncomfortable
for many to realize. That in order to get to
wherever you want to get, even in terms of your efforts
to become productive. You need patience. You have to be patient. You have to lay down all of these steps that we have
covered previously. And you have to walk through that path patiently in order to get to wherever
you want to get. Today's world and the world
that we're living in, everything is expected
to happen right now. Like you want to order
food, you want to order it. If you want to plant a tree, you want to plant it white
now, you want to get the food, you want to get it right
now. Everything is solved. The express mode such that we have no patients anymore
to let things unfold. Which is quite problematic
because this is the unnatural way of life. If we are able to go ahead and buy something with a
click of a button, that's quite different
than simply watching our own efforts try and become a grow into something
that we want to achieve. If you're trying to
become more productive, putting the effort,
put in the work. Make sure your discipline, make sure that you
are focused and make sure that you are
trying your best. Well, some days are
better than the others, but you do have to be patient. With patients. Many obstacles in your life
couldn't be easily overcome. Because at the end of the way, this investment that you
have put into being patient, sticking through the basic
statistic into the essentials, the things that you
know you have to do in order to get
to the outcome, even though you do not see
the outcome right now. But you know that
you're going to be seeing you later. Possibly. You're going to stick
with the process. You're going to just simply put your best foot out out there. And even if you fail, you're going to be patient, you're going to
accept the failure. You go into dust yourself
off and you're going to attempt things one more time. You want to be productive. You want to learn how
to be productive. And one of the important
cornerstones in your personality of someone as someone who is known as a
productive individual. You have to be patient. Being productive, it doesn't
mean you just simply keep on running and keep on doing things and getting results
instantaneously. Productivity is
the ability to use your resources in the
most effective way. That's it. Now, the outcome does not have to
happen right now. Many people attribute
productivity with the outcome and being
more productive. So I should get my
outcome right now. Not really. Some things the do
need to take time. You're going to
plant your seeds, you're going to
water your seeds. You're going to nurture
that seed given the light, the space, the water, the nutrients, and it will grow. Keep doing that over
and over again. Be patient along the way. Eventually it will grow
larger, stronger, better, and as time passes by, the fruit that came along from you being patient will be right
there in front of you. Your patients will give you the results that
you want to get. Productivity is based on that. Productivity has nothing to
do with the direct outcome. And this is the key obstacle
that may tend to have a hard time wrapping
their heads around it, where we attribute being productive to
instantaneous results. If I finish ten tasks right now it means I'm going to
be getting a, B, C, and D. Well, you might be
getting a, B, C and D, but not necessarily at this
current point in time. Maybe one year down the road, maybe ten years down the road. But the only thing that
you have control of, the only thing that
you should simply be comfortable with
accepting is that you have done what you need to
do with whatever that you have right now on you're
going to be patient about it. And hopefully things turn out in the way that
you want them to. Patients, patients and patients.
12. The rabbit or the turtle ?: This is a great tool to use to help you overcome
many things in your life. Whether, whether
being productive, whether you want to lose weight, whether you want to
get all your grades, whether you want to increase
your financial means, whatever it is, consistency,
consistency, consistency. You could be the
smartest individual. You could have the
best skill sets. You are the best known person
to do a specific task. Yet, if you are not being
consistent with your efforts, most probably you're not
going to be seeing results. And this is based On a great example that is drawn from my
engineering background. As a mechanical engineer, one of the core
concepts that you learn is the concept of momentum. Now by definition from the
physics and engineering, and momentum is basically
mass multiplied by velocity. If you have something which is heavy and it's moving fast, you're going to have a
hard time stopping it. And if you have something
which is heavy, which is in current place
right now not moving at all, you're going to have a
hard time moving it. However, once the
motion is activated, it's difficult to
change that motion. If you're standing
still doing nothing. It's difficult to push you to do something because you have been doing nothing consistently. On the other end,
if you have just simply gotten up and you
are putting the effort, you are being consistent
over and over again, doing things over
and over again. You are putting the effort
day in and day out. You're becoming better,
stronger, faster. You have picked up momentum. You have a specific mass, call it your skill sets, your effort wherever
it is, you are moving. And it's difficult to stop you because you have
picked up momentum. This is from the engineering
and applies to objects. I got a box, push it as fast as it can. Now
get on the way. Tried to stop the box, difficult to stop it. Why? Because it picked up momentum to change estate from
one place to another. You need to put effort. Now if you are being
consistent with the effort, becomes easier down the road because you have
picked up momentum. The ball is rolling. It will take you more effort to actually be more difficult to stop your efforts that you have put it in
the first place. If you have put in the
work over and over again, day in, day out and let's
say it's slow bald. If you want to just simply
try and ruin your efforts, you will not be
successful easily because these things they've
had been doing a long period of time, they have picked up
momentum because you have been consistent with the work
that you have been doing. In order to change
your current state. You have to put in the work, you have to put in the
effort in order to help yourself pick up that momentum. And as the bold is rolling, it becomes easier and
easier and easier. The best example would
be going into the gym, eating clean the first
day if you go to jam, it's one of the most
difficult things that you want to do. You drag yourself out there, you barely finished
the workout day one, day two, day three, you
hate going and guess what? Do it for two weeks. After two weeks, it will
be quite difficult to stop going to the gym because you have
picked up momentum, you have picked up the habit, you're seeing results,
you are driven to go. If you force yourself not to go, you're going to feel off. Why? Because you have
taken your state from 1 to a different state
by putting all the work, putting all the effort
being consistent to pick up that momentum to
get the bolt rolling. Consistency is a crucial
factor to anything. Whether it's eating
clean, exercising, getting high grades in the
examination, whatever it is, losing weight, gaining weight, getting that job irrespectively, if you put in the work
day in and day out, just simply push
forward, be consistent. You will pick up momentum. Now, this engineering concept, this physics concept
applies to objects. And it definitely applies
to us in terms of effort. If we are putting the
work day in and day out, eventually we will
pick up the momentum, will pick up the speed, and you will be very
difficult to stop.
13. Pac Man of Productivity: It's probably not see
this one coming through, which is binge eating. Now it might seem like a complete site
topic, but it's not. If you take a look
at all of the stuff that we have covered so far, you've noticed that we're
talking about some habits, some psychological stuff that you should take into account to help you when the whole
productivity game and avoid the destroyers
of productivity. One of the key destroyers is basically binge eating or
the improper nutrition. If you're an entrepreneur or
someone working studying, you have a busy schedule. And once you are done with that, the first thing that you
do, once you're hungry, you want to grab
something on the go. Junk food, let's say your productivity level will just simply plummet over time. Why? Because the quality of
the resources that you are using have a direct impact on your energy levels and
your productivity levels. If you don't have energy, you're not going
to be productive. Even if you force yourself
to be productive, you are not going to be as
productive as you could be while working on
sub-optimal energy. Best exemple, let's say you have a Bugatti car and you just simply want to take
you for a drive. The filled the whole
tank with diesel. Well, this is a wrong thing to do is going to
ruin the engine. For sure. The car will not function
as it should be. It will not go as
fast as it could be. Definitely you might break
the antigen down the road. The same analogy applies. You could be having
the strongest mindset, the best work ethic. And you consistently
have the patients and all that kind of stuff that
we've been talking about. But you are not ingesting
the proper fuel to feed your body to
support you along the way. It's like you're driving with three tires
and one slash tire. It will be difficult to get
you to your destination. You might get there, but you're not getting there
as fast as you could be. Taking care of whatever
you're eating. Whether quality food
and nutrition stuff. Let's say getting a
optimal vitamin D level is getting some sunlight. These things, they play
a role because you don't want to be operating with
high cortisol levels. Out-of-control insulin. Your dopamine is simply out
of spectrum serotonin level, just simply all over the place. All of these stuff that
affects your brain chemistry, they're essential to your
own productivity levels. Because literally a healthy mind needs a healthy body
and you should be able to work on both in order to reach that optimal productivity.
14. Jumping Ropes : The final destroyer
of productivity. It is the cycle of distraction. Take all of the stuff
we have talking about. Combine them, equip
yourself with them. If you're not focused, this is one part
of talking about and you're easily distracted. They mean literally nothing. Why I chose to seperate focus
from the distraction cycle. Because focus is like
an thing that you do. You try to focus, you
put in the effort. But when we talk about the
strike distraction cycle, it's actually taking yourself out of the environment that's going to impose distraction
and challenge your focus. Let's say you've got
everything nailed down. You have equip yourself with
all of the skill sets and gutter width of all of these productivity destroyers
that we have talked about. Yet. Wherever you get to work,
you want to do a task, you get a notification, you
get distracted with that. You get an email, you start
looking at the email. Someone gives you a call,
you pick up the fault, you get hungry, order some food. You run out of gas and go
fill up the gas attack. All of these distractions are
simply external and you are focusing on these distractions rather than focusing
on your work. So if you have
gotten the principle of focus into the
proper application that we've talked about. You should avoid challenging your focus by
external distractors. That could be notifications,
phone calls, emails, and noise, or whatever it is that could impose
instruction on you. You should be quite
straightforward yourself. Ask yourself whenever our
trunk to achieve a task, what are the things which
are simply getting in the way of me doing that task. Do I check my email quite often? Do I pick up the
phone quite often? Do I get hungry halfway through? And if I myself
distracted looking for what I'm going to eat, or they have too
many coffee breaks. You have to be careful with that because this thing is
they do leach time from your entire schedule and this simply leech energy from your productivity levels and all of us will be
fall short of that. And at 1 in time, including
myself, no one is perfect. Now all of these
things that we have talked about in the previous, in the previous segments that we should not assume
that all of us are, let's say, are perfect and we know these things,
know including myself. We do have these challenges. Whether it's comes to avoiding, let's say, e-mails at work. Or you want to try to
focus on the task at hand with minimizing distractions are taking too many coffee breaks. Let's say I'm a fan of
coffee. I love coffee. And I do take a lot
of coffee breaks, which is something that
needs to be worked on. Because I realized that okay, too many coffee breaks
are simply getting my energy levels depleted that I could be using on
something more productive. Not to mention, overly consuming coffee affects your
adrenal glands, which plummets
your energy levels and plummets your
productivity levels. These things. As you go about the process
of becoming more productive, you tend to discovered them, you tend to realize them, and you tend to work on them. And guess what, you become more resilient than you just
simply modify your plan. You sharpen your focus. And you keep the whole thing
moving by being consistent. And by adding a sprinkle
of patients do dentin over the entire combination of ingredients that will help you get to that
productivity levels. If you replay that part, you wouldn't notice by
simply going through these sequence of concepts or going through the
sequence of destroyers and acknowledging that they are stuff that will hurt your
productivity levels. And realizing how to deal with them in an
effective manner. We'll just simply shoot your productivity
levels sky-high. Once you encounter a
difficulty down the road, you'll be able to
relate it to one of these destroyers and deal with it in order to get
to that next level.
15. Final Words that you need to Hear: Basically starve your
distractions, feed your focus. Be patient, be consistent. Have an open mindset for growth. And just simply push
through one step at a time and be responsible. And you have all the time
in the world to make sure that you get to
wherever you want to get. By simply depending on
yourself putting the effort, being patient, being
consistent, eating clean, focusing on the tasks
that you want to do, having that growth mindset, all of these things
combined will help you get to that level of productivity that you have
been trying to get to. Not the application. It's not a task list, it's not a routine. It's not a magical approach or a productivity hack
know, before, before, before looking at
all of these things, why do you need to
do is try to resolve all what we have
been talking about in the previous
segments of the scores. And make sure that none of these destroyers are actually getting in the way of
your productivity.
Engr. Hussein Attié, Entrepreneur I Engineer I Educator
