Feeling Stuck? How I’ve Learned to Stay Productive

By: Neal Hoover, Associate Consultant

No matter how hard-working you are or how self-motivated you can be, it can sometimes be hard to motivate ourselves. Production while working from home is something that isn’t always the easiest to achieve, I think everyone can admit to that — especially with the current events happening in our world (stay positive everyone, there’s light at the end of the tunnel).

Find Your “Why?”

If you have worked at Veeva for less than a day, I’m almost positive you’ve heard the phrase “captain your own ship”. But what do you do when the waters become troubled and the waves come crashing in, making it hard to steer in the right direction? First, I want to point you to a Ted Talk maybe some of you have seen before, but nonetheless a great one. Simon Sinek talks about finding your “Why?” and how to build not only a successful business but a successful self.

How great leaders inspire action | Simon Sinek

Simon’s video is one that I’ve seen many times, but when you digest it and personalize it, it makes it easier to remember why you need to stay motivated. Whether your why is for the customer, an internal/personal reason, or maybe even for your family or something else you’re working towards maintaining that productivity level becomes easier. Don’t ever lose track of your why.

Now that you have your why and you have a plan of action to get there what else do you need to stay productive? That answer is one that you can only find yourself. While it’s not the first thing most people think of when they think of production, taking a break is the most effective way to keep your drive high and production even higher yet.

In a 2017 study, it was found that only 37% of the workday was spent on actual work, and 2018 a study of 2,000 workers showed that the average human is only productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes of their 8-hour workday. You might be asking yourself, “Neal why are you making me feel bad about taking breaks?”, or “I’m not like the average person, don’t tie me in with those 2,000 people!”. The purpose of these statistics was not to shame those of you who enjoy your breaks or make anyone who knows they work more than the average amount of hours feel bad; rather it was to combine the two statistics and explain how I allow myself to balance work and life and keep production up.

As consultants, managers, no matter what area of expertise you find yourself in with Veeva, we as a company have values that encourage us to work hard for our customers, coworkers, and ourselves. I don’t believe anyone at Veeva would be a part of that 2 hours and 53 minutes of production a day. I know how hard everyone here works and our customers do too, but that’s because one thing we encourage as a company are those necessary breaks throughout the day. Production doesn’t mean sitting at your laptop for hours on end without getting up. Take the time to make yourself lunch, take your dog for a walk, talk to your family members who might be working at home (some of us might be looking forward to the world going back to “normal” to shed a few of those excess “coworkers” at home. My mom hasn’t quite figured out to sing along to her music without everyone on my Zoom meeting hearing.) Whether you’re enjoying the extra company at home or not, natural distractions throughout the day are a good thing.

Creating Balance

The work-life balance you create will not only keep your mental health intact but also allow you to become a harder worker. Production doesn’t stop with Veeva, employee success means making time for yourself and allowing time for your hobbies outside of the workplace. We work very hard here at Veeva, which means you need to set your boundaries and work just as hard on your happiness outside of work! Make sure you’re devoting time to those activities or people that maybe you haven’t had enough time for. There’s always enough time in the day, setting a schedule and making time for yourself will allow you to not only be a happy and successful Veevan, but also a happier and more successful person!

Staying Human

I’d like to leave you with one last piece of advice I learned that I’ve always carried with me. Every day no matter what you’re doing, take the time to do your “3 things that make you human”. Whether it’s reaching out to an old friend you haven’t talked to in a while, going to the gym, reading a book, really anything that you enjoy and feel you don’t spend enough time doing. Take that time to achieve it every day and make a habit of it. It’s very easy to get caught up in a routine and forget to make time for yourself. Allow yourself to be a “human”, whatever that means to you, and start incorporating those three things into your daily schedule.

At the end of the day, your happiness is going to drive the production that is required as a member of the Veeva team. Find your ‘why’, make time for yourself, and allow yourself to be “human” and you will see your day has more hours in it than you think, and you’ll notice working hard doesn’t have to mean working at all times!