I love productivity.
It’s the most important thing to have a fulfilled life, to slow down your stress levels, to enjoy every moment, and, finally, to enjoy a happy life.
Talking about productivity, there are two key factors I always have in mind:
- Organization
- Routines
1. ORGANIZATION
Knock, knock (and, unluckily, not on Heaven’s door…).
“May I come in?”, I said in a hesitant voice (I knew nothing good was to come…).
“Com’in, com’in, Paco. Listen buddy, I gotta tell ya somethin’ (sorry about this uncomfortable “slang situation”, but this guy talked like that…).
You gotta do A, and B, and C, and D… and Z. And I need it right now!”.
After a 2 hours meeting with my “slanged boss”, I get out of his office with more than 20 things to do.
- Which task should I start with?
- Are there any depending tasks?
- Which are the most important ones?
- How do I get rid of this f* situation?
Remember the first rule: DON’T PANIC and STAY CALM whatever the situation is.
And don’t forget the second rule: whenever our brain tries to manage more than 3 or 4 tasks, it starts to stress out. It doesn’t matter if it has 3 or 30.
The brain’s sensation is exactly the same.
You are going to feel overwhelmed.
So don’t worry and apply an organization methodology. This can sound scary, but I promise it’s the best (and only) solution.
There are hundreds (or thousands? Or millions?) of organization methodologies out there, but here, I will recommend the one that works best for me.
It was created by a genius (the world can perfectly be divided into “slanged bosses” and, fortunately, geniuses), David Allen, and its name is GTD (Getting Things Done).
I’ve used it for several decades and polished it a little bit to better fit my way of working, but, from my point of view, this methodology is clear, simple, intuitive, direct, and very easy to start to work with.
Having an organization methodology:
- will make your stress disappear (great!),
- will help you identify the most critical tasks (amazing!),
- will order your tasks (so you can focus in JUST ONE TASK AT A TIME!),
- and, finally, will take your performance up to the most you can do in the time you have available (glorious!).
2. ROUTINES
We have in our hands the best Swiss clock ever made: the human being.
We start with our heart and end with the million processes that happen inside us every day (fortunately, without conscious control over them).
Our body and our mind, all together, are build up into a machine that needs to be perfectly greased. And this is the point in which our conscious mind MUST take control because it’s all up to us.
I love change (did I ever say that?).
I love to do different things.
I love progress.
I love evolution.
I need to look back and say: “Wow, I did changed”.
I need the change to survive (that’s how I am…).
BUT this “blind faith” in change doesn’t have to go against such an important key factor to success as ROUTINES are.
Our body and mind love routines. The same hour to wake up, eat, sleep, and have sex (well, we can leave the latter in anarchy… Totally recommended…).
The more we adjust our lives to routines, the more our body and mind will appreciate it.
And life is usually fair: when you give something, you receive something. And that’s what our body and mind will provide us as a response to our routines:
- Healthy feeling
- No stress
- Peace of mind
- Accurate focus
- Energy
- Security
- Motivation
- Good humor
- Strength
- Willpower
- Better relationships
- …
Everything’s chained in life.
Routines center your mind, body, and soul, making everything compact, solid, and comfortable, as mother nature wishes.
We are inside an artificial life in which our natural life is offside. We need to come, at least, a little bit closer. The closer we get, the better we’ll be.
What about starting with a morning routine? Try it.
Start at that point and, step by step, making it easy, as always, insert routines into your daily life. They don’t go against your “spirit of change”. Instead, they make change happen.
You will see it.