I’m scatterbrained.
I jump between tasks.
I often struggle with motivation.
I can’t stick to a rigid schedule and tracking habits just isn’t for me.
I’m bad at doing things a little bit at a time.
Most of the productivity tips I’ve come across simply haven’t worked for me, not
in the long run.
Instead, I’m someone who gets bursts of motivation.
I can sit down and work on something for hours and not even notice the time passing by.
And, I mean, I get things done.
And I get them down well.
I always have.
Today I’d like to talk about some of the things I’ve personally come to learn about
productivity, what hasn’t worked for me and what I do instead.
The reason I want to talk about it is because, since starting YouTube, I’ve had this idea
of what productivity and being organized is “supposed” to look like, and I've wasted
so much time trying to *fix* myself to fit into that mold.
I’ve idolized people who live by strict schedules and routines and rules, things like
“eat the frog” and “break big tasks down into smaller tasks” and “timeblock”.
I’ve tried it all.
The apps, the systems.
Some have worked for me, most of them haven’t.
What I’ve landed in is the following: as long as what needs to get done, gets done
and I’m enjoying myself, why does it matter how I get there?
By the way it was literally my mom who made me realize basically everything I’ll be
talking about today, so thanks mom.
This video is sponsored by Notion.
Notion allows you to create a unique workspace that works for you and there are endless possibilities.
To me, it’s my home for almost everything and has been my go-to for years now.
It syncs across all my devices, and it’s completely free to use.
To try it out yourself, use the link in my description box to sign up!
Keeping it simple
I love the idea of having different apps for everything, and I’ve tried it.
I’ve had one app for cleaning, one for mental health, one for to-do’s and so forth.
I always end up feeling overwhelmed and abandoning most of it.
What works for my brain is keeping things simple.
I have a couple physical notebooks that I keep for different things, and then I have
a digital notebook, which is Notion, and that’s where I keep a lot of the things I need.
But even in Notion, I remember when I just started using it a few years ago, I got so
excited because there’s so much you can do.
You can build super advanced systems if that’s what you want and need.
And sure it was fun to build, but not very useful for me personally.
I keep it minimal, and I’ll show you as we go.
The calendar
I’ve experimented with being the type of person who schedules everything and who lives
by a calendar.
In the beginning of this year, I scheduled things like script writing, editing, and even
things like cleaning days and grocery days.
For example, I had scheduled “write between 09-12 every monday to friday”.
I think I stuck with it for three weeks.
Here’s why:
Firstly, I thoroughly enjoy writing, but I’m a bit rebellious in the way that when I feel
like I need to do something, it often de-motivates me and sucks the fun out of it.
Secondly, I suffer from this thing called not-working-on-the-thing-that-I-should-be-working-on
for three or however many days, only to sit for twelve hours on the fourth day and finish
it.
And it’s not even like that fourth day of intense work feels stressful, it’s that
I love getting into the flow state, and I rarely do if I work on something a little
bit each day.
Instead, I’m more likely to hyperfocus if I sit for an extended period of time.
So, instead of scheduling the exact hours I should be doing something, I just write
the deadline for when something needs to be done, without micromanaging exactly when I
need to sit down and work on that thing.
So for videos, I just put in “upload video” on Sundays.
And then it doesn’t really matter how I get there, as long as I get there, and I thrive
on having that freedom.
Before I had accepted that this is how I do my best work, I’d guilt myself into sitting
by my desk and stare at an empty document.
So even if nothing got done, I still somehow felt better just sitting there, because that’s
what I was “supposed” to be doing.
My mom then made me realize that “work” isn’t just using your hands to create stuff
or sitting on your desk clicking away.
Work is also thinking, reflecting, digesting.
Work is building up excitement and curiosity.
Work is going out in the world and being inspired.
For instance, let’s say I’ll listen to a podcast, in the podcast they may talk about
some psychological theory that may trigger an idea for me.
Now, if I were to tell myself that “I need to have written an elaborate post about this
by Wednesday'' (unless, of course, that is an actual deadline) it would instantly sucks
the joy out of it and it also wouldn’t turn out well.
Instead, for the next few days, I’ll do some casual reading about the topic.
I may write down a few notes, talk to a few people, and reflect on my own personal connection
to the topic.
By doing this, I get myself excited, and it makes me feel like I’ve been mentally preparing
for the writing process by collecting data points.
And so, when the time comes to sit down and do the work, it tends to be more fun and go
more smoothly.
Now, this is not to say that I walk around aimlessly and just do whatever whenever I
feel like it.
For the past few months I’ve been using the Eisenhower Matrix, which, so far, has
worked well for me.
It's basically a time management tool for prioritizing tasks, so you split things into
how important or unimportant they are, and whether they're urgent or not.
The reason I really like this and why it works for me is that there’s no time blocking
for when I need to do certain things, but there is a deadline.
So, for example, I don’t need to write the speech on Tuesday at 11 am, but it does need
to be done by Friday.
Now, I know that this way of doing things isn’t for everyone.
Some people thrive on rigid schedules, calendars, habit trackers and to-dos.
And some people are also required to be very structured and do things a certain way.
I know I was when I was working my 9-5.
I get that.
Now, let’s talk about habit building and habit tracking.
In the beginning of the year, I made a video showing you all my Notion setup.And in that
video, I showed you a page I had created called “Self-nurturing” where I was going to
keep track of self-care habits.
And I did it for a little bit and then I stopped.
I know a lot of people find habit-tracking and ticking things off lists both rewarding
and helpful, but to me, it started feeling like a chore; like I had to do these things
in order to be able to check it off my list and feel good about myself.
Then I just kind of realized that checking off that I had done Yoga or whatever it was,
didn’t really do anything for me.
What I’ve found works best for me in terms of building habits is to simply take note
of the things that I find rewarding, fun, helpful or otherwise good for me somehow.
And then, I’m likely to want to do more of those things, without consciously thinking
about intentionally building a habit out of them.
So, for example, some morning habits I have are: drinking a big glass of water, doing
my skin care routine, making a latté and going on a walk.
But it’s not because I’ve told myself I need to do these things or that I’m crossing
them off a list somewhere, it’s simply because I’ve tried doing these things and they made
me feel good, and so I continue to do them.
I do, however, like making lists of these things, for no particular reason other than
documenting them.
For example, in Notion, I have a list called “Ro” which essentially means “calm”
in Swedish.
And on there, I’ve just listed a bunch of things that I think are calming and that I
like doing to relax.
There’s no pressure to do any of them, I’m simply storing information.
The same goes for my Bookshelf page in Notion.
I don’t list those books because I have a goal of reading one a week or something
like that.
It’s just like a digital library.
I just love using Notion to store information, basically.
Having it all in one place is a must.
Some final words on productivity
I think the point here is that when it comes to work, productivity, anything, really, there’s
no one-size-fits-all.
And someone else's way of doing things isn’t necessarily better than your way of doing
things, and vice versa.
I’ll never be the person who has an elaborate system they follow religiously, and that’s
okay.
I’m a bit more messy, a bit more spontaneous, and that’s okay.
It works for me.
I also want to end by saying that, in my opinion, no productivity tip is going to work unless
you’ve got your base in order.
A good mood, enough sleep, nutritious food, moving your body.
Those things come above all else.
That’s the best productivity hack.