4 Ways To Increase Your Productivity by Knowing Your Catalyst and Drains
Change your routine to change your life.

Have you ever made butter from scratch?
Fermenting cream is one step away from ending up in the trash bin. The same goes for wine.
Here are a few problems associated with making butter at home:
- It’s expensive and timely
- Unless you’re a pro, you’ll end up making soap.
- Warm water can make the butter hard to chew.
Making butter at home is confusing until the mixture tells me what I am doing wrong.
For the first try, it’s hard to analyze the catalyst and drains.
But who says we can never learn how to make butter?
Butter-making analogy best presents the productivity cycle.
We follow advice from different people without knowing if we are ready for the routine.
A simple example: Not all of us can exercise first thing in the morning. Not all of us can do intermittent fasting.
Either there are loopholes in our routines or the teachings we consume. Everybody possesses different habits. It’s time we understand and embrace them.
Below are 4 steps to analyze your catalysts and drains to increase productivity.
1. Sieve the time
From sundials to analog clocks, time never stopped for anyone. Clockmakers made variations in the style of the clock, but they couldn’t find a tool to stop time.
The first step to productivity is to find out the ideal timing. Chris Winfield, the writer at buffer.com, believes:
“The majority of people do hard work in the morning.”
What does hard work mean? In “Eat the Frog,” Brian Tracy tells us that it’s important to create a schedule and work accordingly. Fill each day with few hard work.
This helps us move out from our comfort zone.
To know if you’re a morning bird or night owl, analyze what time you feel alive. The crux is to do hard work at the time interval. Here’s what it looks like:
Scenario 1:(Morning)
Wake up → Hit the gym → Breakfast → Write an article → Check email…
Scenario 2: (Night)
Hit the gym → Watch Netflix → Eat your dinner →Write an article→ plan for the other day → Sleep…
Note: you can add variations to the timeline. Divide the majority of hard work across time.
When we eat our meals, we are most productive. This gives us leverage to do 3 major tasks after the meal ends.
2. Caress your genre
Stop fighting with your mind. Tell me which genre you like the most.
(Promise, I won’t tell anyone.)
Here are some of the popular Genre/topics:
- Self-improvement
- Productivity
- Psychology
- Politics
- History
- Movies, TV shows
- UI/UX/design
- Technology
- [Insert one here]
Whatever you like, be honest with yourself.
Read what inspires you. I read novels. But I do write self-improvement. How does that work?
Driving motivation and reading are *two* different things. Here’s what it looks like:
- Drive motivation: I read 20 pages before writing an article
- Reading: I spend the whole day reading novels
I don’t fight with myself or my brain. Reading my favorite novels inspires me with vision and fantasy.
To drive motivation and ideas, I read articles or books before writing.
Timothy Ferris also advises limiting reading that messes with your brain. Instead, read what inspires and makes you happy.
3. Ferment your focus
Famous self-improvement authors like Dean Graziosi, Ryan Holiday, and Timothy Ferris have their routines.
Having a routine and having a focused rhythm are different. Here’s what it means.
- Find out what you do best
- Multiply it twice of thrice
For example:
- If you love writing articles
- Multiply it twice and thrice in a day
Steve Harvey explains that when you find your gift, your passion which makes you least minimum dollars, what can happen if you multiply it?
If writing 1 article (per day) makes: 100$ per month
Writing 3 articles (per day) can make: $300 per month
So what’s the twist there? Focus on your gift and multiply it. It’s not that hard.
Try exceeding twice at once and thrice after that. Tim Denning writes 3–5 articles per day using the same approach.
4. Chill the pan
When you have churned the butter, it’s time to keep it in the fridge — it’s hard to wait.
My fingers can’t wait to feel the glazed butter…!
I am excited with joy. I can’t wait to test and try. With productivity, you can do the same.
To become productive, you can:
Step 1: Follow the Ivy Lee Method to write (6) tasks you want to complete the next day.
Step 2: Complete the list before sleeping.
Step 3: Make sure you add fun and rewarding elements, too, like cycling, jogging, and dancing.
Using this approach, our timeline is filled with excitement and fun elements every day.
Making a plan beforehand helps analyze and cut off runny nose habits. Having a (routine) timetable by your side lets you keep a nice flow and rhythm.
Final thoughts:
Just now, my mother was ready with the butter in her hand and wanted me to taste it.
The last butter was salty and mersh. As we live near the sea, climate affects our ailments.
Digging out the catalyst and band-aiding the drains allowed her to reach her maximum potential.
So, one and for all, I do not have to taste salty and mersh butter again, pretending it’s great.
Phew!
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