Hello, reader! Today I am going to talk about some of the areas of my life that I've been actively working on. It's real, vulnerable, and hopefully encouraging to you.
I'm trying to increase my productivity in all areas of my life. What am I producing? Anything. These blog posts. verifying prescriptions at work. cleaning my house on my days off. Decorating each room until I'm satisfied with how it looks. I used to think productivity meant never sitting down. Now I know better.
There are different layers to this. Obviously, there are results or outcomes. I am working on this on multiple layers. I'll break them down for you.
1. Starting
Seriously, just starting. Sometimes this is the hardest part. It's the first and maybe most important step you'll take. Cleaning up the kitchen after cooking is probably my LEAST favorite thing to do (well, other than dusting, I super hate dusting). But lately, I've been starting before I can even complain to myself in a full thought. Just start. It will be over sooner this way. Setting a day aside to crank out my blog posts is becoming more and more difficult with my husband's and my work schedules changing this month. We both had some unusual days on and it really messed up my writing schedule. But tonight, I am starting it up again. The day where I crank out at least a rough draft of all 5 posts for the week.
2. Recognizing a natural or artificial break is necessary
Okay, I am actually very bad at this. I didn't really think of breaks as necessary. I thought if anything, you needed to earn the breaks. I don't know where this extreme idea came from. I went to public school where there were lunch breaks and two shorter breaks every single day. Sometime between graduating pharmacy school and now I decided that breaks were for the weak and I never really deserved them. This is all 100% self-inflicted. How toxic is that? I have recently started utilizing breaks. They are beneficial in so many ways. At work, I usually have some yarn or a book in my bag so I can do something completely anti-work on my break. I take breaks on my days off in between chores/tasks. I believe they help my mind to refocus for when I get back to whatever job I'm doing.
3. Results
This is obvious. What did I produce? What do I have to show for? I take a mini mind record of whatever I accomplished. I store it in my brain as data for future use. Maybe I changed one thing about how to verify more scripts per minute or maybe I learned that by having my appointments scheduled for the afternoon on my days off instead of the mornings means I still get to do my morning routine as is instead of moving things around (going to the gym, walking the dogs, quiet time, i.e.). I've mentioned Atomic Habits before, but in the book, the author suggests that habit stacking is a useful tool for creating a more successful habit leading to a more successful life. It's almost like following a formula or recipe. What worked well today, what can I add on (or subtract if necessary) to get even better results tomorrow? It sounds like a lot of extra work, but it really isn't. I try to think of it as training for a better outcome overall. You have to practice to get make something perfect. It's kind of like the movie Groundhog Day (one of my FAVORITE Bill Murray movies btw). He changed something small every day to get it right in the end.
I hope you found this post encouraging today! My hope is that you'll be able to apply what you've read to your everyday life, and maybe increase your productivity or results.
See you next time!
xoxo
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