In this video
I'm going to share with you five productivity hacks that
have worked especially well for me. Watch this video.
So before I get into it, I want to stress that the following
tips are designed specifically with the creative in mind.
It's important to make this distinction because the type
of work that creatives and non creatives do tends to be different.
Creativity is the process of making something new and useful
or valuable. So, practices like writing, programming, generating
ideas, solving problems, designing, illustrating-
these are all creative processes. Bricklaying, data entry and
filing cabinets are not. So with that said, let's get right
into it. Hack number 1: Lower your expectations. I swear
I'm not trying to be like a meta physical asshole here.
Just hear me out. When you think of a productive day,
what does that look like to you?
Most people imagine eight to 10 hours in which they're absolutely
laser-focused, just crushing it the entire time. But what
if I told you that the average worker is only productive
for about three hours a day and the top 10% of performers,
aka the highly detective people, only average about six hours
of quality work a day before they've exhausted their mental
reservoirs. Tip number 2: Focus less on time spent working
and more on achieving focus.
There's a concept called "Deep work" that was made famous by
Cal Newport who is a computer science professor and author
of the book "Digital Minimalism". Deep work is the ability to
focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.
It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information
and produce higher quality results in less time. And there's
an equation for this! Which I freaking love, because I love, I freaking
love equations.
The equation for deep work says the amount of work produced
is a function of time spent times intensity of focus.
Most people will look at that in our first inclination is
just to increase the number of hours that we're capable of
working a day, but as we've learned from the previous point
everybody hits a limit, even the best of us, and that's again,
six hours a day.
So what we should be doing instead is focusing on achieving
intensity of focus.
How do you do this? For one, remove distractions. Actually be
interested in what you're doing and just start. Hack number
3: Batch your time and plan your flows.
Nothing kills creative flow more than having to get up to
complete other tasks, or if you're like me
just knowing that you have to get up can really ruin your
ability to get into it.
So what do you do? Chores, errands, meetings...
these are all things that you can't really avoid altogether,
but there is a way of scheduling them into your week such
that you're still able to optimize your productivity in the
long run.
This is where the practice of time batching comes in. Batching
is the act of grouping similar activities together so that
you can complete them more efficiently while keeping
the cognitive switching penalty to a minimum. The cognitive
switching penalty refers to the cognitive price you pay to
switch from one task to another. A practical example of batching
for me looks like this. On Mondays,
I film. On Tuesdays and Thursdays,
I work with my production assistant. On Fridays,
I run errands. And everything else is reserved specifically
for creative work, including weekends. Hack number 4: Establish
a daily meditation practice. I never for the life of me ever
thought I would be that person to sit here and recommend
meditation to you. For one, up until the time
I actually started taking meditation
seriously
I had maybe meditated like five minutes tops my entire life.
Essentially held at gunpoint by my therapist and it was not
pretty. But then this pandemic happened and suddenly I was
left with more time
to myself that I knew what to do, with so I finally took the
opportunity to give the whole meditation thing a shot.
I use an app and I do it every day and it's been over a month
and I've meditated over 700 minutes. At first I started with
10 minutes and then 10 minutes each morning and each night
and very shortly afterward,
I started to really notice the benefits. It's kind of wild
to think that you can wind up doing more by doing less, but
the biggest benefit that I noticed was this. Meditation has helped
increase the level of awareness that I bring into everything
I do throughout the day. When I'm more aware, I'm less reactive.
When I'm less reactive
I get pulled in two different directions less frequently.
And when I'm less distracted, I have more time to invest
in the aspects of life that I actually am interested in. Number
5: Leverage habit cues. Many creatives work from home or for
themselves. So they have the liberty of setting their own
schedule and this can be an awesome thing if you're self-disciplined
and can stick to the schedule, but if you're like me, you'll
still have days in which you feel a lack of motivation to
get started. The problem with relying on that feeling of motivation
to kick-start you into your work
of course is the fact that motivation isn't always consistent
and it's not something that you can flip a switch on to get
yourself into.
So what I do instead is I use habit cues. A habit cue is anything
perceptual that is specific and actionable that automatically triggers
you into the habit that you want to cultivate. Whether or
not we're conscious of it,
every habit usually begins with a cue. An alarm going off would
trigger you into jumping out of bed. Feeling bloated after
dinner would trigger you into going for a walk around the
block. Sometimes, maybe. When you work from home you have fewer
cues to rely on to trigger you into work.
So this is where you have to get creative and proactively create
your own cues.
One thing that I always look forward to is having breakfast
in the morning.
I'll usually eat a satiating breakfast and take a mindful
moment. And then when I'm satisfied, I know that it's time
to launch myself into work.
So instead of looking forward to working in the morning,
which I mean blah, who does? Unless your workaholic.
What I look forward to instead is breakfast because it's
consistent. It's actionable and honestly, like never fails.
I always always look forward to eating breakfast.
And then after I'm done, I know it's time to get into work
and it's gone to the point now where the two are inseparable
to me.
It's automatic breakfast work breakfast work.
I can't have one without the other and it's my way of tricking
my brain into embracing a habit.
Okay, so those those are my 5 productivity hacks for creative
people. Now
I want to know what you think! Which one of the hacks
did you like the most and which did you not like if there
were any? I tried to be thoughtful about what I shared with
you and I didn't want to just feed you know, the same old
same old turn off your phone.
So yeah, I would love to hear what you think.
And if you could leave a comment that be super awesome, of
course hit the subscribe button
and the bell notification if you haven't already and I'll
see you in my next video.