Summary

The article provides strategies for enhancing productivity while working from home, emphasizing the importance of comfort, routine, and personal well-being amidst the challenges of remote work.

Abstract

The article "How to Turn Your Productivity Around for the Better" addresses the shift in work dynamics due to the pandemic, offering insights on how to maintain productivity while working from home. It suggests creating a comfortable yet structured work environment, setting clear goals, and adopting routines like taking cold showers for increased willpower and exercising to improve mental clarity. The text also advises on decluttering the workspace, dressing for work to foster a productive mindset, and prioritizing tasks effectively. It acknowledges the need for flexibility, such as changing work locations, and the importance of maintaining family relationships. The article concludes by highlighting the value of keeping a comforting item nearby to reduce anxiety during stressful times.

Opinions

The author believes in the power of simplicity and essentialism, quoting Leo Babauta on focusing on what truly matters and eliminating the rest.
There is a recommendation for the Wim Hof method of taking cold showers to build resilience and focus.
The article challenges the notion of constant hustle, advocating for a balance that doesn't sacrifice health and family relationships.
It suggests that dressing for work, even while at home, can mentally prepare one for productivity.
The author emphasizes the psychological impact of a clean and decluttered workspace on one's ability to concentrate.
Regular physical activity is encouraged to change one's emotional state and enhance productivity.
Changing or trading work locations within the home is seen as a way to maintain momentum and prevent stagnation.
The importance of doing the most important task first is aligned with Steven Covey's principles from "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."
The article promotes the idea of keeping something comforting close by as a means to cope with anxiety and stress during uncertain times.

How to Turn Your Productivity Around for the Better

Keep something comfortable close

Productivity, in its simplest form, is getting tasks done to meet goals.

“Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.” — Leo Babauta

Most people are working from home right now, even if it’s only until quarantine is over. If you’ve worked from home for your business, not much may have changed. But, a lot of people are home figuring out how to work, have a home life, and school kids all thrust together under the same roof, without separate environments and places to get “stuff” done.

If you are new to working from home, it will help to identify what has to get done and make a time frame to complete it. Let go of anything that doesn’t matter. Also, keep something comfortable close at hand.

How do you do productivity well?

That’s the million-dollar question.

The experts all suggest something different. They are good suggestions, but you can’t implement their success story in the same way they did and expect the same results unless the guru’s tips fit your life, patterns, and behaviors.

To be a success, choose actionable tasks that fit your lifestyle.

Take a Cold Shower

You can follow the Wim Hof method and take a cold shower first thing in the morning. The cold temperature awakens senses and creates a little stress on your body. A cold shower keeps you ready and focused. It fosters the strength of will. The increased willpower you’ve built up to do something uncomfortable over time, helps you deal with stressful times.

When stressful times come, you are already comfortable being uncomfortable and able to adapt to stressful situations better than others. If Wim Hof isn’t helpful, find something that is helpful, and put it to use.

Stop Grinding

There’s a time to hustle, and it’s not all day, every day. Hustling is good to meet a goal, but burning the candle at both ends morning and night, is detrimental to your health and hurts family relationships. Your family needs you too, and if you’re consistently letting them down by not meeting their needs or are mostly unavailable, then it’s time to re-evaluate.

Is the prolonged effort worth the cost of familial relationships?

If you want family, particularly kids around you later, don’t risk their relationships for gain now. Hustle for a time and be available too.

Declutter Your Workspace

A clean workspace is essential to complete tasks. If the place you work is full of things and unfinished projects, you’re unlikely to be productive. A sideways glance to consider a thought sees clutter and pulls your thinking away from your current task. Suddenly you’re thinking about what you ought to do instead of what you’re doing. A clean space allows mental clarity to focus and finish the current work task.

For me, it’s the kitchen that is the heart of the home. When the kitchen gets dirty and backed up, the rest of the house becomes disorderly. Wherever you work, make sure it is a useful place where work can get done.

Get Dressed for Work

Mason Donovan is an expert at work-life balance. In his book, The Golden Apple, he says it’s essential to put on your work clothes so that you feel like you’re ready to work. There’s value in not feeling too comfortable in your environment. When you dress for work, you’re in the right frame of mind to do the job and get more tasks done.

In today’s climate, I challenge the thinking to say also keep something comfortable close. Let’s face it; many people don’t have to go into the office right now. If the ability to work from home has you working in your jammies, you probably aren’t very productive.

You can’t show up naked. Except, in today’s work-life, you probably can be undressed, as long as you don’t have to attend a video call. I don’t feel dressed unless I have make-up on. Get dressed, whatever that means for you. A day when I have hair and make-up done on the same day feels like a formal occasion, but it means I have video calls on the schedule. If it’s thrilling for you to have a dress shirt on while wearing boxers, or nothing at all from the waist down, then go to work dressed for success.

Conserve internet usage for millions working at home by leaving the video off, if you can.

Move Your Body

Motion changes emotion. Move. Exercise outside, if you can, while keeping a safe distance from others. If you can’t go out, then use apps to exercise inside. Walk to the mailbox four times a day, if that’s the only way you get outside:

Walk a pet
Run the stairs
Do inclined pushups on your dresser

Think simply and move your body.

Change or Trade Work Locations

You started the day working on the couch, and that was a good stretch of productivity, but now you lack momentum. Change your location by working for the next few hours in a different place.

Lay upside down off the couch while reading the next report. Trade spots with the kid who was doing school at the kitchen table this morning. The kid can have a relaxed afternoon on the couch while polishing this morning’s work.

Move your favorite chair near a window to enjoy the sunshine, or to a completely different room to change the scenery.

Get creative, and whatever you do, do it in a new place.

Do the Most Important Thing First

This idea has a lot of popular variations. Steven Covey, in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, suggests doing the most important things first. Doing the hardest or most important thing first is even more relevant today because you will be interrupted multiple times.

Spouses or partners and kids are all working in the same place. Everyone has conflicting goals. Align work time so that family members work for a couple of hours and at the same time. If you’re a parent, plan on extra time to get kids logged in for school activities and prepare them to learn. Give kids a few tasks so that they know what to do next.

Create a schedule, roughing in for everyone that work or school time happens during the same hours. When everyone works at the same time, hopefully, you’ll have a better chance to focus on your own work.

Do the most important thing first, in case it’s the only thing you get done today.

And, this is the most important of all —

Keep Something Comfortable Close

The current global condition is anxious. What this means personally, is that you want comfort during hard times. During anxious times, a familiar object reduces tension and anxiety. Keep something comfortable close. For me, it’s fuzzy socks. I get a shower, get ready, and get dressed for the day, then put fuzzy socks on my feet. It’s the comfort I need to get work done.

What makes you comfortable?

Grab your favorite pillow or whatever makes you comfortable.

Kids often go through phases where they have a “lovie.” Maybe it’s a blanket or a stuffed animal that calms them in times of crisis.

Keep something close that brings you comfort.

When anxiety rises, there’s comfort in what relaxes you. Comfortable things reduce blood pressure and help a person relax. Maybe you tune into the news and the latest report raises your blood pressure. Grab a blanket.

For now, your best productive measures are increased by getting ready and having something close for comfort.

Whatever brings you comfort, keep it close.