Fundamental productivity concepts every entrepreneur should know

Productivity is a constant battle for entrepreneurs. Getting “in-flow” is the light at the never ending tunnel.

All entrepreneurs understand that the success of a business in the early stages is primarily determined by the founders ability to think at a high level and execute quickly. But most do not understand how to condition themselves to do this consistently!

I want to share a few concepts and strategies that help me to seriously ramp up my productivity and prevent me from feeling under water.

I’m going to start by sharing the why behind the productivity hacks, then I’m going to tell you the what and how. Like anything in life, to truly implement anything properly you need to understand the why, otherwise the tasks are meaningless.

Ok, the mother of all productivity tips….are you ready for it…..

1. Do work that you are passionate about!

This is by far the most important ingredient for being highly productive. Improving productivity is all about managing energy levels, as you will read below. Working on your passions boosts your energy levels big time.

“Nothing saps your energy more than spending time doing things you don’t like. But when you’re enjoying yourself your brain produces a cocktail of positive chemicals that have a long-term effect on your energy levels. It’s like being permanently on Prozac. You’ll get out of bed fresher, sleep deeper and attack everything with more visor.” Dr Kerry Spackman, The Winners Bible

I know that you can’t always do the things that you love most. What you can do though, is reframe the way you think about a particular task — make it more aligned with what you are passionate about. For example, if you love a challenge, turn the task into a problem that you need to solve within a certain deadline. I love being at the beach so if I don’t feel inspired to read and write I head to the beach and do it there. That way it doesn’t feel like work at all!

We have been schooled to think that to be productive we need to do hard work i.e. it needs to feel hard. But you can choose to make work feel how you want — the better state you are in, the more you enjoy the work, the more productive you will be.

2. Manage energy, not time.

You only have a limited amount of time, but you can supercharge your energy.

With higher energy levels, more can be accomplished in time.

To help you understand the concept of energy determining productivity, think about a time when you’d been starting blankly at a computer screen for hours, making only the smallest amount of progress on the work that you were doing (but unable to pull yourself away from the screen). Compare that with a time when you were completely in the zone, with a feeling of energised focus, full involvement and enjoyment in the process of the activity — you were probably doing something you were passionate about. You would have been able to get the same amount of work done in 1/4 of the time. The difference between these two states is dependent on the relative energy levels.

The later state is often described as being in flow. The aim is to be operating in this state as often as possible.

In a state up flow you can up to 500% more productive! That’s 5x as much work done in one day! Imagine if you could be in that state consistently…. oh wait, you can!

3. Get yo systems in check

…. and by that, I mean your nervous system.

The nervous system is the control centre for your body and is responsible for a whole lot of functions, including your mood and thoughts. The nervous system has two divisions, the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous systems.

We (humans) are programmed to work in a particular optimal way and a lot of it comes down to the functionality of the nervous system. By understanding and working in line with this optimal state, productivity can be improved big time!

How? Balancing rest and exertion so you maintain the benefits of both. You want to have focus, clarity and rationality combined with intensity, high engagement and quick response time.

To do this, you have to combine periods of high pressure with periods of rest. Try working in a series of sprints rather than a marathon.

Your body actually has a natural rhythm called the ultradian rhythm which means you are most productive over a 90min interval (google it).

4. Manage stress levels

When you get good at balancing the two systems, you will become more capable of operating in stressful environments.

To be a successful entrepreneur you must continuously push yourself out side of your comfort zone — you must seek stress.

To be able to do this for a sustained period of time you need to be able to maintain balance through a routine that includes activities that allow you to rest and recuperate your energy. If you don’t you risk burn out.

Make sure you have regular breaks in your day (filled with parasympathetic activities), and longer term breaks too i.e. a holiday (shock horror). Sometimes a holiday can be the best thing you do for your business.

I head away for a couple of days every fortnight. It makes a huge difference to my ability to think clearly and make good decisions. Often the best work that I do is while I’m away.

5. The Four Dimensions of Energy

Understanding the 4 dimensions of energy is key to increasing your energy levels:

• Your physical energy — how healthy are you? nutrition, exercise, sleep, rest.
• Your emotional energy — how happy are you? positive energy, self-image, relationships.
• Your mental energy — how well can you focus on something? mindfulness, avoiding distractions, planning.
• Your spiritual energy — why are you doing all of this? What is your purpose? purpose, vision, mission, values, self-reflection, love, areas of strength.

These energy levels are stacked upon each other. You need to have enough physical energy to build emotional energy, then enough emotional energy to build mental energy, and so on.

Include activities that build energy in each of these levels in your daily ritual (more details below)

6. The importance of rituals.

I used to hate the idea of having structure and routine, but I quickly learnt that it is essential for conserving energy, having clarity and preventing unproductive downtime.

Why? Rituals create predictability which allow your subconscious mind and nervous system to pre-engage. This prevents your mind from wasting energy and time thinking about what the next task is going to be.

Also, by pre-preparing your mind for a task it is much easier and energy efficient to switch from one last to another. When your nervous system sets up for predictability, a lot of functioning can be optimised!

The subconscious mind is amazing. It is continuously solving problems for you. In fact, the subconscious mind is processing over 2million things at one time, where as your conscious mind can only process on average 7.

You will have noticed that all of these tips relate to managing energy as this is the fundamental concept behind improving productivity! You need to incorporate activities and work in a way that keeps your energy levels up, and eliminate energy output on non-productive tasks.

IMPLEMENTATION — Here’s how.

Doing the thing that you love (your purpose) is the best starting point for creating drive and encouraging productivity. Assuming that you’ve got that part locked down (if not, we need to talk, you can reach me here), here are some other recommendations for how you can set up your day for maximum performance:

Create a series of rituals:

• Start with the way that you end your day, as that sets you up for the next day.
• Close of each day by doing a reflection activity such as journaling. Go to bed at the same time every night (you should try to get 8hrs sleep)
• Wake up at the same time each day and complete a morning ritual.
• Include things in your morning ritual that build the four dimensions of energy. Consider including things like (everyone is different so choose the things that work for you): exercise, listening to inspiring content or music, reading an inspiring book, meditation, healthy breakfast, revisiting your purpose/mission
• When you are in an elevated, inspired state then get into your work.
• Start with the plan for the day. Set out the three things that you want to get done in the day (the boulders — the big chunky stuff that will make you feel much better about yourself once they are done).
• Try to get the 2–3 chunky tasks done before lunch time, as it will set you in good stead for the rest of the day.
• Work to the 90min ultradian rhythm, by working for 90 mins (or 60mins if you have a short attention span) then taking a 20 min break (or 10 min if you are working in 60min cycles). A good tool to use for this is the Pomodoro Timer. Do something to boost your energy levels in the breaks.
• If you feel yourself getting distracted or unable to focus take a break and reset yourself. Listen or watch something inspirational or go for a brisk walk to get yourself back in the zone!
• Schedule meetings according to how you function during the day. I’m the least productive in the afternoon, so I try to schedule my meetings then (people give me an energy boost). I also work well under pressure so I space the meetings out so I have an hour in between to quickly smash out some work. Other people prefer to put their meetings one after another so they get them all out of the way quickly, it’s up to you.
• Try to fit in some time for meditation, or mindfulness practice during the day as this will help your ability to focus.
• Scheduling an hour or two of thinking time is also really beneficial for some people! This time can be used for the strategic thinking and planning that is usually hard to find time for otherwise.
• Make sure you switch off from work at a particular time so that you have some time to rest and recover. You can still do tasks that will help you and your business, such as reading a good book or watching content. I dedicate the evenings to personal development time.

This is what I find useful. Everyone operates differently so try things on and only keep wearing the things that work for you. Find what works and repeat. Remember that habits take 30 days to build so you will have to consistently perform the tasks for them to become a ritual!

It is important to understand the WHY behind productivity — so how your mind works and why you behave in a certain way.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to productivity hacking. There is a lot more than can be done on the execution front. If you like this frame of thinking, please follow me or or join our community through the Mum’s Garage website.

Thanks to Nelson Shaw for sense checking this :)