How lying to ourselves kills our productivity!
Posted on April 09, 2020 by Megan Sandwick, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.
Help you be completely open and honest with yourself, to figure what habits, productivity processes and resources you will actually use regularly!
If we are open to it we truly can learn lessons just about anywhere! Last week while settling into a remote team project kick off meeting, reality challenged me to stop telling myself lies about my productivity. The meeting opened with the ice breaker activity “2 truths & 1 lie.” As the activity got underway instead of paying attention I realized since our cameras were off I had at least 5 -9 minutes when I could quickly work on something else… so I made a mad dash to one of my in-boxes thinking I could get through some messages. Maybe you have experienced a similar situation?
As I moved forward trying to respond to a message with a brilliant solution to resolve an issue with an overdue deliverable from one of my freelancers, I was jarred back to the meeting when everyone started laughing really hard at the explanation of someone’s truth or a lie. Whatever it was seemed really funny and included snorts. Drats! I had missed out on the humor and would not be able to ask for clarification without looking foolish, I realized while I was trying to be more productive in this few minutes…. I was actually telling myself 2 lies and a truth about my productivity!
The 2 truths I needed to tell myself were 1- I am not more effective when doing two things at once, and 2- no one expected a response to the message in this moment with a miracle solution, I was putting this pressure on myself. There was no need for me to rush to complete a second task at the expense of being present to the task of being at my team meeting.
What do I mean by being productive? It’s the process and set of habits you incorporate into your professional and personal life to get stuff done. Let’s be honest we have more to do now than ever before. It’s time to use how we are productive to our advantage so we can enjoy the life we’re working hard to create. Unfortunately when it comes to productivity we tend to tell ourselves more lies than truths. Instead of being realistic with how we are going to be productive we tell ourselves lies so we can move on to the next task. Choosing not to be honest with yourself hurts yourself and your productivity.Being completely open and judgement free about what you need for your productivity is critical. Productivity habits need to be personalized to meet your needs and likes. While learning what tips others use is valuable and a great guide. Remember just because it works for someone else it may not be right for you.
Working with clients as a Strategic Productivity Partner, one of my primary goals is to help clients be completely open and honest with themselves, to figure what habits, productivity processes and resources they will actually use on a regular basis. When we move past lying to ourselves and focus on the judgement free truths of how we can be productive the quality of our output and work will amaze us! Are you ready to start being honest with yourself? Let’s take a look at some of the lies we can tell and how to start focusing on reality and true productivity. TOP LIES WE TELL OURSELVESLIE #1
“I must do this now!” Creating a false sense of urgency that everything must be done now.
TRUTH
Sometimes it is easy to caught up in the hurried momentum of our remote lives we forget to slow down, look at our big picture and honestly ask ourselves if this must be done now. The reality of our fast paced, connected world where we can have access to people and information 24 hours a day is both a blessing and a curse for our productivity. The good news is we have the flexibility and access to work when we need. The bad news is how easy it is for us to forget that not everything has to be done now and that we are not expected to be available or produce work 24 hours a day.
Instead of jumping into automatic reply mode we must ask ourselves how this task fits into our bigger picture priorities and deliverables. Effective productivity means constantly identifying what needs to be done next and re-prioritizing when needed. Before doing ask yourself, what is the one thing I can do right now to make everything else easier.
LIE #2
“I’ll do this while I’m doing…” Thinking we need to be super human completing multiple tasks simultaneously while providing our best quality output.
TRUTH
We are humans, not machines and can truly only focus on one at a time if we want to do it well!
It is time to sabotaging ourselves with setting an expectation of completing multiple tasks at the same time resulting in subpar work. Telling yourself you can do more than one thing at a time is setting yourself up to fail and not be at your best! This is one time when we need to trust and believe in ourselves and know taking the time to focus on one thing at a time actually increases the quality of our productivity and work.
Lie #3
“I’ve got this, no problem!” Not taking time to make sure you have access to resources and tools needed to complete a task.
TRUTH
Take a minute to be honest with yourself… Do you really have this and is it really going to be no problem to complete? This is not a time to try and impress anyone because it is all about you and how you want to experience getting your work done. Before you say you’ve got this make sure you are clear on the expected deliverables and have access to the resources needed to complete the task. In order to increase productivity we need to stop writing checks our asses can’t cash. The truth is we are only bankrupting our momentum when we are not honest with ourselves!
Taking time to intentionally plan and confirm you’ve got everything is the best way to have no problems
LIE #4
“This is easy and will only take 10 minutes !” Not setting realistic timeframes to complete tasks.
Truth
Be honest. How long will your task actually take. Effective productivity is not just about identifying what you need to do but in making sure you have a plan for how it will be done. Just as in Lie #3, we need to set realistic expectations of how long tasks will take and make sure we have focused time dedicated to complete the task.
Before jumping to answer ‘This is easy’, take the time to gather the information needed to come up with a realistic and intentional answer. This includes remembering to give ourselves a time cushion to account for challenges and stuff that comes up. We set ourselves up for stressful moments when do not allow for enough time to complete tasks and a response time for challenges when creating timelines. It is time to face the truth and make our life a bit easier.
LIE #5
“I can do all of this including meetings today. No problem!” When planning our day we over estimate how much we will actually get done.
TRUTH
Being honest with ourselves requires being realistic with what we can complete in a set period of time. This starts with looking at the big picture when planning our time. Before identifying what tasks we will complete in a day we need to look at available task time.
Hint: If you’ve got 6 hours of meetings planned in a day, your list of things to do should not be 100 actions long.
Before starting your day take the time to create an expectation of available task time, meeting time and life time remembering you have 24 hours. Setting yourself up for productivity success means being realistic with the time you have available.
A TRUTH CHALLENGE FOR ALL OF US!
While telling some truths and a lie is a great way to get to know others, it is not the best and least stressful approach to increase our productivity. Taking the time to be honest with yourself while taking control of your productivity will increase your ability to enjoy life and make sure you don’t miss out on funny moments with others.
CHALLENGE
Choose to tell all truths and no lies for 2 weeks and watch your productivity increase.
