Do you ever wonder if you suck at being productive?

There are a few individuals in this world that are gifted with being naturally organized, full of energy and almost always productive (even when they are relaxing).  Then there are a few more that have learned how to be productive through necessity. I fall into this second category. However, the vast majority of executives and business leaders fall into the third category. They SUCK at being productive and getting things done.

Now bear with me. You aren’t totally inept. You wouldn’t have managed to get as far as you are by not being able to manage your own time or the time of others. In fact, as a whole, most executives tend to be more productive than the average population (based on my totally unscientific observations).

While having a slightly better than average ability to get things done often helped you get where you are today, the increased amount of demand on your time means that, what has worked for you in the past, likely just isn’t enough anymore.

WHY you truly suck at being productive…

You are constantly being bombarded by the demands of other people. 

As you climbed the corporate ladder, you had less people to manage and/or report to. As you climbed higher, this number grew along with the need to be more aware of what was going on.

You stay up way too late!

Odds are, it’s been a while since you’ve actually gotten a full 8 hours of sleep. You are too busy trying to get shit done at night that you didn’t have time to get to during the day.

You eat like crap.

Admit it. Eating is not high on your list of priorities and you are usually lucky if you can grab a quick bite to eat between meetings. Unfortunately, eating this way does nothing for your energy levels, one of the foundation pieces to being more productive.

You depend on the ideas and suggestions of other people.

“Did you hear that Jane discovered a new app to manage her to-do list? I’m going to try that one out.” Look, doing a Google search for productivity tool results in 34 MILLION results. How do you know which tools are going to work best for you? And, honestly, today it’s Jane’s tool, tomorrow it will be Sam’s…

You think coffee is the best productivity tool.

This one relates back to No 3. If you are trying to stay energized by drinking coffee so you can get more done, you end up staying up later and later. This burning the candle at both ends results in dramatically reduced productivity. You get less done and even what you do get done takes longer than normal.

You think multi-tasking is the second best productivity tool.

Multitasking has long been proven ineffective and the longer you resist giving up this habit under the guise that you are getting more done, the longer you will suck at getting stuff done. Multitasking doesn’t really exist. You can’t simultaneously do two cognitive tasks. Instead, what you are doing is switch tasking. Think of this like switching back and forth between tabs on your browser. You can’t have two open in the same screen at the same time.

You consider not doing anything as THE WORST way to be productive.

If you try too hard to be productive you might actually suck at being productive because of it. Sometimes the fastest speed is slow motion. A lot happens when you take time to recharge, whether that is through mediation, a hobby or a vacation. You regain energy, come up with brilliant insights and get remotivated; all keys to improving productivity.

You believe it isn’t possible to get any more done than you are already doing.

You are already so overloaded with stuff to do that, short of hiring an assistant, you just don’t know how you can fit in time to implement being more productive.

I’ll never tell you that being productive is easy. It is simple, but simple does not always mean easy. The first step is giving up on old ideas of what getting more done is supposed to look like.