HOW HAVING NO TIME MADE ME 10X MORE PRODUCTIVE
If you’re feeling unmotivated, unproductive and keep procrastinating on the important things you WANT to do, I think my story can help you. Here’s how being busy and having absolutely no time at all has turned me into my most productive self and the most productive person I know within the last 6 months.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
So it all started after I became a mom. I had a corporate job I didn’t enjoy a ton and I always knew I wanted to do something more. I just didn’t know how and what.
Then I got married, got pregnant and was really happy. But it seemed like all of my dreams, wishes and goals were left in the past or pushed to the far far future.
I seriously had no idea what’s coming at me with a baby in the house. It meant I had absolutely no time for anything. Brushing teeth, showering and wearing clothes that weren’t pajamas became a luxury. But I loved being a mom and spending time with my little baby. So I decided to take unpaid maternity leave for the first year. As I mentioned, I wasn’t crazy about my job and the thought of leaving my baby with someone else for “that” didn’t make sense to me.
Don’t get me wrong, becoming a stay-at-home mom wasn’t my goal and it also wasn’t a walk in the park. In fact, it was a struggle for quite some time. I felt overwhelmed and like I was failing to get my things together a lot throughout the first year.
THE CHANGE
Then, somehow, as my baby became more independent it all started to shift. I was still super busy, but at least I could sleep at night. And I started doing more.
I stopped feeling overwhelmed and I started feeling like I’m in a flow. Doing something, at any time of the day had become a habit now.
That’s how during the last six months I’ve been able to start and grow this medium channel, volunteer at least 5 hours a week, renovate and organize our house (even though it was flooded at some point), exercise 3–4 times a week while still taking care of my toddler (which honestly, should be a full-time job <- in the past I also thought people who said this were lazy and boring, but you live and well learn!)
So in a way becoming a mom has made me work on my goals and dreams. It helped me stop procrastinating and ultimately forced me to be super productive.
I know we’re always told that being busy is bad and actually unproductive. And if you want to get anything done — you better stay focused. But that focus, honestly — it was exhausting to me. That focus made me think that anything I do needs to be perfect. That I better have all my research together before I do anything. Well, being busy changed that. Turns out, when you’re not trying to be perfect, you become pretty productive.
Having no time at all and being busy, forced me to find time for the things I wanted to do with my life. Right now, I can’t even tell you what I was doing 2 years ago with all that “free” time.
Here are 7 ways being overwhelmingly busy helped me beat procrastination, so I can actually get things done. I really hope my experience helps you find some inspiration, so you can make time for the things you want as well!
HOW BEING SUPER BUSY MADE ME 10X MORE PRODUCTIVE
1. It Helped Me Set The Right Priorities. I’ve struggled with this all my life. People say, to achieve a goal — set priorities, no more than 3–5 a day.
Well, for years, I didn’t know what my priorities were for the day, the week, the month. I had specific goals in my mind and written down, but wasn’t clear on the process of achieving them.
But somehow having things to do all the time made it all clear. I was able to plan better, without overanalyzing, and I knew what I had to do every single day to get closer to my goals.
2. Made me find time. There are 24 hours in the day for all of us, and when you’re a parent of a small child, they aren’t all yours. You’ve got around 3–4 hours to work on your goals, and that’s only if you protect those 3–4 hours. So how I did it? I started waking up 2 hours earlier and was working through nap times.
If I didn’t protect those hours, I would easily spend them doing mindless tasks like cleaning, reading news, complaining, cooking or researching something nobody needs.
3. The Deadline Effect. Because I was making time, I didn’t have 6 hours to write a blog post, I had one. And that’s including editing, pin-making, keyword research and social media scheduling. I wrote so many posts, I don’t even remember I got them posted. If you can’t follow through, having a deadline will make you.
4. Made me more organized. The lack of time made me plan less, but organize more. I would start making better lists and would use those lists to make the most out of every free second I get.
If you’d like to get more organized, I highly recommend getting a planner. It’s the LifePlanner and it’s amazing. It will increase your productivity, can help you manage your time better, so you can do all the things that really matter.
5. Made me crave work! Working on something you want is kinda addictive. And when you see some progress and results you want to do more of it and that’s important to keep you on track. But if you’re a perfectionist like me, getting there is the really tough part of the journey. So the next point is for you.
6. Helped me stop overthinking. In the past, I’d always make these really detailed plans. Then I never, ever followed through, because deep inside I wasn’t sure if they were the right plans.
Being extremely busy left no time for overthinking and for perfectionism. I’d simply do and move on. The biggest change for me was that I wasn’t doubting my decisions anymore.
They were all good enough. I also realized there weren’t many things I couldn’t fix, even if I broke them.
7. Gave me new motivation. Being super busy, made me want to do my best every single day. So I can change the things I don’t like and be a good role model for that baby. I want him to be proud of me, but also to let him know anything he wants is possible.
I guess the moral of the story is: If you can’t get motivated, have a baby. Then on the other hand, I wouldn’t recommend starting something new in the first baby year. But that’s me and everyone’s different.
It really is true: If you want something done, give it to a busy person.
