- I think we can all agree
that one of the most Googled things on the planet
is how to be more productive.
So why is this so hard for us?
If we all want it so bad, why doesn't it just happen?
Well, I don't know about you, but I wanna be productive.
I just don't feel like it.
Most of the time I don't feel like it.
So thus the cyclical search engine continues
because we don't feel like it,
but we do maybe pick up our phones
to look into how that might change.
When it comes down to it,
anytime you ask somebody who seems
as though they are much more productive than you,
gets more things done,
if you're to ask them what the deal is
there really is one secret
as to why things happen in their world.
And anytime I've been hyper productive in my life
and it ebbs and it flows, it's because of this thing.
And it is the thing that we need to do,
not because it needs to be perfect,
but because it's what gets us on the right track
and give us the best possible outcome.
Welcome to the Productive Professional on Amy TV
where we help ambitious professionals like you
be your most productive self and get things done.
So what's the big secret?
What is it that we're all missing?
The thing you gotta do that's never going to be perfect
that's still a must have if you want to be productive
even if you don't feel like it is a plan.
In order to break down what plan would actually help us
be productive in those moments where we're feeling
really weak and feeling like it's just not going to happen,
we just have to know what the goal is.
What is it that we want to achieve
so that we can reverse engineer that?
If you want to reach your goal,
you have to make decisions in advance.
A plan is decisions made in advance.
And so what are the decisions that need to be made
so that when you are groggy too early
in the morning or feeling stressed out
about a crazy situation that's going on
throughout your day when you're trying to get to your goal,
what decisions need to be made right now that will help you
in those moments when you're trying to decide
am I gonna be productive or not?
If you want to be productive
even when you don't feel like it,
if you want to be productive even when no one is watching,
if you want productivity to be the norm in your life,
it doesn't have to be perfect
but it does need to be planned for.
And a well developed plan could be written
on the back of a napkin
as long as some really critical decisions that you know
are gonna pop up in this situation
have been made in advance.
So I wanna share a couple steps that I walk through
in order to create that plan,
that decision making process
in advance of achieving my goals.
And I wanna take the sponsor for this episode of Amy TV,
and that is our friends at CleanMyMac.
Because when I'm trying to be productive with my computer,
when I make the decision that I will always
have a working functioning flawless machine to work with,
I have CleanMyMac working for me.
This is the go to must have app to keep your Mac running
at optimal speed and best performance.
This app is as productive as productive gets.
It is a MacOS cleaner, speed booster and malware fighter.
Ever since I started using CleanMyMac,
I don't have to worry about whether or not
I'm gonna be able to edit my next video
that I'm excited about because all the files
on my computer will be cleaned up
and my software is running beautifully.
This is a key decision you make for your Mac
so that you don't have to worry about the mess
and clean up when you don't feel like it.
And I wanted to tell you about it
because they don't do a lot of sales
but they are doing a Black Friday special.
So download it to try for free.
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Get more details in the description down below.
And thanks again to CleanMyMac
for sponsoring this episode of Amy TV.
The first question I ask when I'm feeling down on myself
for my productivity level is why do I want to be productive?
What is the actual goal?
The day you're watching this,
you might be spending a lot of time with family,
and those can be intense
especially if you haven't seen some people for a while.
There's gonna be a lot of questions.
What have you been up to?
What are you excited about?
What are you gonna do next?
Do you have anything big planned?
And all of that comes
down to what your standard productivity is.
If you are feeling like I just wish I was more productive
so I would have something better to say in those moments,
that's just not going to be good enough.
Do we want other people to think
that we have great things going on?
Sure, it makes us feel good,
but it's not enough to drive us internally.
Not all the time.
Even if it helps a little bit, it's not sustainable.
So why do I wanna be productive?
Why is it important to me?
What is the actual end result of my productivity?
Because as we've said already this year
and what we've learned in the last couple of years
is being productive for productive sake
is a waste of time.
So first, I have to have a very clear goal.
What is it that I want that would even make me think
about being more productive?
Whether that means waking up earlier, getting more done,
or just saving time on the stuff that doesn't matter.
And speaking of that, that's number two.
I look at my calendar and I say, okay,
what have I been spending my time on?
Now I'm really diligent about tracking my time.
That's something that's been a habit of mine
and that's a decision that I made a long time ago.
So that when I am not productive
because I don't feel like it,
I can look at my calendar and see why that is
because I've been so good at tracking my time,
thus a decision that was made to help me
in these moments of weakness.
So when I see things on my calendar that are like,
you know what?
That's a waste.
I shouldn't have said yes to that,
or, ooh, there's a whole lot of blank space here
that I can't account for anything getting done,
what does that tell me?
How many episodes of a show have I seen?
How many shows have I seen in their entirety?
A lot of my white space right now is with my baby.
And so it's really, really different for me
to look at white space.
But I know when I have not been productive,
I can tell you exactly what I have been doing.
Where am I spending my time right now
that I need to stop spending my time?
It's amazing when you make that call
and that's a huge decision.
I'm going to stop doing this.
I'm going to decide cold turkey, not doing this.
And what happens when you get that brain space back?
Oh my gosh, really,
when you stop doing the things that you hate to do
because you have the ability to say no to them,
and sometimes that's not the case,
but when it is and you get the brain space back
and the bandwidth.
And you're like,
I should be doing something with my hands right now.
What is going on?
That is such a beautiful feeling.
And you can't help to be more productive after that
because you're newly motivated by the space around you.
As a matter of fact,
you may look at your calendar and go,
my calendar is too full.
I want it to be free.
I want it to be open.
I want things on it to be floating
in the middle of white space.
If that's the case, then make a change.
What do you have to do to change that?
And now finally,
we just have to make some really tough decisions.
If I'm sitting here and I'm saying, okay,
my calendar's in a good place.
I know what my goal is
and all I have to do is wake up one hour earlier tomorrow.
Now we have to make a decision.
I will wake up earlier tomorrow,
and in order for there to be a fail safe,
I'm going to make decisions about it right now.
So tomorrow, let's say we need an extra hour.
I'm gonna set my alarm an extra hour.
Great. Where does that alarm live?
Is it right next to your head
where you can hit the snooze button 50 million times?
Or is it on your phone three rooms away on full volume,
gonna wake up the entire house
so that you can scurry your little butt over there
to turn it off?
That one works for me.
That one works really well for me.
What's gonna happen when you get there?
You're probably gonna have a harder time going back to bed.
But I hate it when people say that,
oh, when you go turn your phone off in another room,
it's so much harder to go back to bed.
No, it's not.
I didn't need to leave myself some breadcrumbs.
I can find my way right back.
So what are you going to do to make sure that,
that doesn't happen?
Is the phone next to the coffee maker
and the coffee's already brewing
'cause you set that alarm too?
What decision needs to be made?
Make it now. Take the actions now.
Your mornings start the night before
in this particular case.
But if the decision is something else make it.
Another one that a lot of people seemed to enjoy
was during my inbox tutorial video
about how to stay on top of everything
with the way email is,
and how I have an autoresponder set up
that says I don't check email very often.
That's a decision, I made it.
That email goes out every time.
Every time someone emails me, and sometimes I'm like,
man, they must be really sick of my autoresponder.
It's a decision I made for myself.
It's always there and it is the thing I need
to not have to look at my email all the time
and give myself permission to focus on the big thing,
the one thing, the highlight of the day, the focus.
So those are three very, very simple questions
to ask when you want to be productive
even if you don't feel like it.
And right now, if you're watching this and you're sitting
on the couch and maybe you're like,
"Eh, I don't feel like being productive,
but I'm gonna watch this video so I can figure out how,"
then all you have to do is this right now.
What is your goal?
What are you doing that's taking time away from that goal
to stop doing?
Decide that now.
Stop doing it.
And then what do you need to do to make sure you execute
on the thing that is going to move your goal
further ahead tomorrow or next week?
Whenever.
Make the decision now.
Set the autoresponder up now.
Schedule the time now.
Set the alarm now.
Buy yourself a whole alarm clock that belongs
in a separate room that will go off
at the same time every morning.
Do these things now.
And even though it just feels like lots of preparation,
lots of prep, lots of planning,
the plan may not always go right,
but it is much more likely to happen
if you've executed on it.
That's all for today.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I appreciate it.
As always, remember, subscribe for good vibes.
Kiss the ones you love, and go after the life you want.
See you on the next one.
Cheers.