5 Ways To Snatch Your Productivity Back And Get Stuff Done

I don’t know about you but I kind of suffer from the New Years Yay-Boos. What is that you might ask? It’s this weird roller coaster ride I get on right around December 15 each year where I know I have to start goal planning for the following year and I get all excited and aggressive about ALL THE THINGS!

Here’s some of the stuff I get aggressive about:

• My word of the year (2018’s word is MAGNIFICENT)
• My big hairy audacious goals
• What I’m NOT about to do in the new year
• Cleaning (why? I dunno why because my space is already clean)
• My travel schedule
• My writing
• My health
• My child’s school/sports/social calendar

Listen y’all, when I first started writing this list of what I get aggressive about I had 25 things. TWENTY FIVE! Who has time for all of that? Enter the Yay-Boos! This is what happens to me. First, I get super excited and pumped about my new list because I close Kishshana & Co for 2 weeks and I just KNOW I can get it all done. I’m thrilled at my genius and organization and focus and the thought of finishing these 50-11 tasks I have on deck gets me so excited! YAY!!!!!

Wait...am I the only one who gets pumped by all this? Well hang on because it doesn’t last long.

After the initial excitement I get (slightly) anxious because I realize that even though I have a pre-teen who is juuuuuuuust at the point where she doesn’t want to hang with me; I still have to cart her around to her activities with her friends (and she’s off from school). Time is just slipping away, folks! Then I start cancelling plans because I don’t FEEL like I have time to do any of the social activities I just KNEW I’d have time for.

SN: You ever notice how everything always seems doable 4-6 weeks out and then that week everything feels like the world is ending and all you want is your bed? Hmph….

So once I start canceling plans, panic has officially started to set in and here enters the “boo” part of the program. I start making knee jerk choices about what needs to get done and how to do it and what happens y’all? My well laid plan slips like a mudslide down a mountain after a week of rain. And now it’s 3 weeks into the new year. WTF!!

Crap!

But I’m a fixer my friends. It’s what I do. So I set about figuring out how to fix this challenge I have and helping you fix yours too. Judge me if you want but let's face it; most of us are some kinda mess when no one is looking. So I took the best of what I know gets me back on track and getting stuff done and I am sharing it with you. It’s almost the end of the month and some of us have already let some New Year's intentions go. Here are 5 ways to get your mojo back and make this year magnificent!

1 - Perfection is an urban legend.  It doesn’t exist. Listen friends, we aren’t going to be perfect at much of anything. I would never suggest that living in the land of mediocrity is for you but if you are drowning at work or at home in the sea of “the perfect over the good”; here’s your floaty. Hold on tight and doggie paddle to shore! Work on having a clear sense of what success looks like. Take an extra few minutes to write this down and then say your goals out loud. You’d be surprised that when you say them out loud; you’ll automatically knock some things off. Do what you need to do to the best of your current ability and then MOVE ON!

2 - Quit multitasking because it sucks. Notice I didn’t say you suck (if you do it’s okay; no judgement). But having 19 tabs open on your desktop, a stack of projects on your desk and more meetings than time on your calendar do not help in sticking to your work and life goals. Instead focus on 1-2 big things at a time and carve out work blocks to finish them. You’ll find you have more time and more energy to get things done.

3- Get Moving. Exercise. One of the biggest zappers of productivity is...sitting still. “But Kishshana I don’t have time to exercise”. I hear you friend but being sedentary is keeping you from maximizing your time. How? Because when you’re exhausted nothing moves quickly. And you mostly want to...sleep. So walking each day and/or working up a good sweat puts a pep in your step and releases those endorphins that make you want to “work work work work work”.

4- Say No & Say It Often - Confession time. I’ve been known to be a people pleaser. I say “yes” to lunches and coffees. I say “yes” to happy hours and brunches. I say “yes” more often than I say no. So much so that when I started saying “no” to meetings, favors, get togethers etc. in favor of focusing on my own needs; folks got upset! But saying “no” is critically important to productivity because it forces you to prioritize what needs to be done. You aren’t rushing to get stuff done at 3AM because you were at another event or obligation. Added bonus: once you start saying no (and the initial guilt passes), you will feel like a 100 pound weight has been lifted off your shoulders.

5 - Kick unnecessary meetings to the curb. Oh meetings (insert huge sigh here). I have such a love hate relationship with them. Do we really need them? I read recently that the average office team member spends 5 days a month in meetings that go nowhere. And this is not just at work but in your civic organizations, board service...heck even the family reunion committee. So before you schedule your next meeting, ask yourself if there is another way you can accomplish the same goals or tasks. Email, phone, or Web-based meeting can make a world of difference.

I’m not saying it’ll be easy. And I definitely don’t think we will get it right every day (yes I am including myself in this one). But of all the strategies I have tried to brush the cobwebs off of stalled goals and kick my productivity into high gear, these consistently shine for me. So try these out for 21 days (after all it takes that long to get a new habit to stick) and I’ll check in on you.

Snatch your productivity back and keep pushing on your 2018 goals!

P.s. if this resonates with you and you need help with your professional development goals this year, I am offering 1:1 coaching for busy professionals who want to grow. Invest those PD dollars in something that will yield big results; YOU! Schedule a time with me here.