Productivity Arata! This video is for you who are trying to accomplish a thousand things at once in multitasking mode.
If you work like this, you probably realise that the more things you do, the more things appear on your to-do list. In fact, the more you work, the worse it gets.
IMPORTANT: This is not a video criticizing hard work. It is about the negative aspects of rushing without a clear goal in mind.
1. Any activity will require a certain level of concentration.
When we multitask, it is as if we are balancing various objects. It may work for a short period of time, but the problem comes when one of the items ends up falling—we freak out, and everything else falls apart. And our anxiety increases.
Our brains cannot handle multiple processes running at the same time. If there are many parallel streams of information, it is naturally difficult to process everything in an effective manner.
2. Start by controlling your anxiety.
The first thing is to control your emotional state—your haste, your desperation, your anxiety.
Remember that you do not exist alone in the world. So pay attention to other people. Notice the types of signals that you are sending to the people on your team, the message you are conveying to your employees. What kind of message are you communicating to your family and the people you love?
Being anxious will only reduce the whole team’s morale, and this will have irreversible consequences.
3. Work less and produce more.
When you wonder if you are actually doing work that matters, try to do less and focus more on quality. See our video on Kaizen, which is continued improvement, in this link here.
Eliminate what is not needed. Reject worthless projects. Stop accumulating things. Focus on what really matters.
Remember the word quality. Not quantity. It’s quality.
When you do things well, with above-average quality, you gain the respect of people around you, and you will be better equipped to say NO when you receive requests that push you beyond your capacity. People will understand that you produce less quantity, but higher quality.
For this, you have to figure out the essence of your work. What really adds value to what you do? Eliminate everything else. Learn to delegate. Learn how to improve your communication. Learn how to train people and share your knowledge with them.
4. You do not need a completely full schedule.
Leave more empty space on your calendar instead of filling it with one meeting after the other. This buffer time is necessary. When one of the meetings ends up stretching into overtime, you won’t feel desperate because you’ll be late for the next appointment.
Say no to activities that you do not want to participate in. Do not feel guilty that you don’t take part in everything. Learn to value the times you say YES by respecting those when you say NO.
And discover the value of communication on all fronts—it’s how you connect to the people who matter. Fewer emails, less social media, more real conversations. Define what is really important to you. Identify the moments you want to dedicate to connecting with people who are important to you. Set aside that time. Write this commitment on paper.
5. Take care of yourself first.
Rest well and sleep well. If you are not in good condition, if you are not feeling well, if your emotional health is fragile, you will not have the endurance to cope with the demands of your work. All those things you’re trying to balance will collapse—first one of the objects will fall, and then all the others will follow.
In the advanced Productivity Ninja course, we teach you, step by step, to rethink the way you respond to the demands of life.
In Productivity Ninja you will learn to deal more effectively with things that are important to you. You’ll be more productive by being able to control the focus of your attention.
Always being extremely busy is not a sign of virtue. Actually, haste is a serious sign that something is very wrong. Anxiety is exhausting you mentally. It’s a cry for help.
If you are not yet a student of Productivity Ninja, visit this link to enrol now. Get out of this state of chronic anxiety and regain control of your life with more productivity!
And if you’re already a student of the course, log in to watch our new bonus class that contains practical exercises on what we talked about in this video today.