- Apart from all the digital tools and systems we use,
if you're looking to improve your productivity,
what you actually need
is to better understand human behavior,
the ways we trick ourselves into feeling productive,
and the common traps we fall into over and over again.
So I wanna share four rules for productivity
that have really helped to reshape how I work every week,
how I plan for both big projects and small ones,
and how I make sure that I'm not just feeling productive
but I actually am productive.
Let's get into it.
This video is brought to you by Squarespace.
I'll share more about them later in this video.
All right, so rule number one,
plan for things to take way longer than you think.
The biggest myth that's perpetuated
about productivity is that you can get to a place
where work always feels effortless.
And once you unlock that secret,
you'll never procrastinate again,
you'll have an infinite source of motivation,
and you'll never fall into a slump.
But that's not the case.
The truth about productivity is that,
it ebbs and flows.
There are gonna be those weeks
where we feel like we're really on top of everything.
We might even get ahead for the first time in a while.
And then there are gonna be those weeks,
maybe even months where we fall behind,
where we feel like we can't keep up
with the amount of things that we had set out to do.
And this really happens for two main reasons.
One, there are so many unexpected things that will come up.
Our lives are filled with the unplannable.
We get sick, our kids get sick,
we get sick of working so we pretend like we're sick.
There are so many things that we can't plan for.
And therefore, when those things pop up,
we inevitably fall behind in our schedule.
And the second thing I'd say is that,
just overall, we're really bad at planning
how long something is gonna take us to do.
And when it comes to my own videos,
I've been a filmmaker for over 10 years,
and I've made hundreds, thousands of videos,
but I still couldn't give you a really accurate estimate
to how long my next video will take to make.
There are so many details, questions,
and problems that will come up within that
that we can't foresee when we first get started.
And so regardless of the fact that I've done it before,
that I've made tons of videos in my life,
I still will have a really difficult time planning ahead
and meeting all the little deadlines that I set for myself.
I think the biggest problem with this is that,
we are left feeling unproductive
when it's actually completely natural to have weeks
or months where we're not getting as much done
as we had planned to or set out to.
And I think the best way to really work
around this is to plan buffer into every project we make,
plan for the unplannable.
A good rule of thumb is to double the amount
of time you think it's gonna take you to do
a particular project.
If you're somebody who actually works with clients,
this is so important to manage the expectations
of the people that you're working with.
Even if you wanna give a deadline for your boss,
double the amount of time you think it's gonna take.
It's so much better to get it done quicker
in a shorter amount of time than to need to push back
the deadline once, twice, three times.
And of course, it's okay to push back those deadlines
even if we fail to estimate it,
especially for those bigger projects.
But when I plan in buffer,
when I plan for those unplannable things,
I find that it's much better on my mental health.
I feel so much better about the things that I do get done,
and I'm not always continually letting myself down.
Rule number two, process similar tasks at the same time.
Rapid task switching is one of the all-time best ways
to feel productive without actually being productive.
We convince ourselves that we can multitask,
we can do a lot at the same time
and switch back and forth between these tasks.
We can check email while we're watching TV.
We can listen to a podcast
while we have deep and meaningful conversation
with our partner.
God, I love this podcast.
- Excuse me?
- God, I love how you talk fast.
- Okay, so anyways, when I was talking about-
- [Podcaster] The monkey interaction thing
is still not very good.
- But this approach to work only splinters our attention
and affects how much we can actually get done
and how much focus we can have on any individual project.
Instead, when we focus on one task at a time
and then batch all those tasks together
at the same time each week,
we can fly through them with much more ease.
You might even choose to bucket your weekly tasks
into categories like communication,
creation, and maintenance.
Communication would be things like phone calls,
video chats, and presentations.
Creation would include things like writing,
painting, and photography.
And maintenance would include things like emails,
taxes, chores, and polishing your framed photo of The Rock.
The hidden power behind this approach
to scheduling our days is the fact
that different tasks require different types of energy.
And so a phone call is very different
from writing an email.
And so if I choose to schedule, say, five phone calls
on Monday morning back to back to back,
then I can get warmed up.
So that first phone call,
I might feel a little bit tongue-tied.
I might not be really great at communicating my ideas.
By the time I get to that fifth phone call, I'm warmed up.
I'm feeling as if my brain is processing
my thoughts much better,
which is a surprisingly difficult task for me.
And I just feel better about all of those phone calls.
Maybe not the first one,
maybe that first one was just a warm up.
And I think this obviously goes for everything else,
so writing emails, responding to people,
getting into that mindset where you're writing,
getting into this mindset where you're editing a video,
or doing photography, something creative,
making sure that you're conserving your energy
and you're really using it in the right way
at the right time.
Rule number three, increase uninterrupted work hours.
We've got meetings, meetings to plan meetings,
open-office floor plans, constant interruptions,
water cooler conversations.
Is that a thing?
Do people still do water cooler chats?
That seems like something from the 80s.
I've never had a job, if you can't tell.
But regardless, whether you're working from an office
or working from home,
I'd say actually, especially if you're working from home
and have roommates, a wife, a partner,
there are gonna be so many interruptions,
none greater than the people around you.
- Hey, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt,
Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, hey, Matt.
What you doing?
Oh my God, this is crazy.
Yes, I tried the whole organic thing,
but what I found out was that,
my vagina just doesn't take it well to organic tampons.
What's RedTube, oh my God,
no, this is actually crazy.
Is this annoying?
- Yes, okay, I'm gonna be fair here.
It's definitely not Natalie
that's the only person that does this.
(Matt laughing loudly)
Ah, that's funny, that's funny.
- What's funny?
- Oh, nothing.
So ever since we moved into this apartment in early January,
Nat and I have been working together
in this room right here.
Literally, Nat would sit on the floor in the corner.
I don't know why she chose to work on the floor.
I guess she was just more comfortable that way.
I'd be here at this desk.
This is like everything.
That's the kitchen, the living room,
there's a bedroom down the hall there,
but that's literally it.
It's a tiny apartment to live
and to work from with two people,
and so we found ourselves constantly talking about work,
constantly interrupting each other,
never finding a time to switch off.
And that was actually a really big detriment
to our own productivity
because we never got a chance to rest.
And so us working together
from this space together affected our productivity.
It affected our relationship in a negative way.
And it wasn't until Natalie decided
to get a co-working space just a couple weeks ago
that we realized what a big problem it was.
Because all of a sudden, we felt so much more free.
We felt so much more productive.
There's a huge difference between work hours
and uninterrupted work hours.
You need to make as much time in your week
for deep work as you can.
You might choose to proactively block out this time
on your calendar each week,
especially if other people have access
to your availabilities.
I've got one more rule to get to
before I wrap this video up.
But before I do,
this video is brought to you by Squarespace.
Squarespace has been a partner on this channel all year,
and I've chosen to include them as a sponsor
because I truly get value from their platform.
And I have been using them for years.
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And you can buy your domains
and set up your G Suite email accounts
directly in Squarespace.
You don't need to stress out
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And finally, rule number four,
don't put off your most difficult tasks.
Being productive for the long run is very different
from being productive for just a one-week sprint.
When you're trying to be productive week after week,
it really requires you to conserve your energy.
This is so important.
And so when I talk about
not putting off your most difficult tasks,
I'm not talking about the difficult things
from a technical perspective
or a problem that needs to be solved.
I'm usually talking about those things
that are weighing on your shoulders.
Those are the burdens that you carry around
that can't help but intrude every other project
and every other thought you have.
And when it comes down to it,
the things that we constantly put off week after week,
the most common culprit are difficult conversations.
There were many instances early on in my career
as a filmmaker where I put off difficult conversations
with clients or collaborators because I was worried
about what those conversations might lead to.
Will I lose the client?
Will I let someone down?
Will I embarrass myself?
But what happens when you put off these difficult tasks,
these uncomfortable conversations?
It builds up.
It continues to build up
the longer that you don't resolve it.
And it really affects your creativity,
what you can bring to each project.
If you find yourself in this situation
where you're constantly putting things off
because you're afraid of that confrontation,
ask yourself what would happen
if you tackled that problem first,
if you did that immediately,
if you put it to the top of your to-do list,
especially if it's something that can be resolved
in 30 minutes or less?
So you have a 30-minute conversation,
it will be unpleasant,
it might be a little bit awkward.
But then after that 30 minutes,
it lightens up the rest of your week.
Suddenly, you're able to release the pressure valve
and free up your creativity
to truly find that focus that you need
to be more productive.
And so you clicked on this video hoping to feel productive.
And I hope that that worked,
but I also hope that you got a little bit more
of a deeper perspective of what it means to be productive
and the common traps that we fall into on a regular basis.
Now, like I said earlier in this video,
I'm no productivity guru,
I don't have it all figured out,
and I don't think anybody really does.
I think people that say that they've got it figured out,
they've got the perfect productivity system,
and they never slack off,
if they say that, then they're absolutely lying.
I don't believe them.
There are gonna be weeks in the months
where you don't feel productive,
when you're not getting much done.
And I think that you need to just pay attention
to how you're feeling.
Plan for some moments of stillness to be able to reflect,
and determine whether right now you just need to slow down
and you need to give yourself a freaking break,
or you actually need to kick up the arse
because you're procrastinating
and you've been doing it for months
and you need to actually get to work.
And so you need to figure out where you are.
I can't tell you where you are right now, but I do hope
that this video helped you gain some perspective
and learn some ways to make your days more productive.
I'll see you guys next time, bye.