Category: Productivity

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I’m Actually Way More Productive on the Treadmill

It’s maybe a little ridiculous, but I built a desk and mounted a monitor over my treadmill. It’s all wired in to my regular work desktop and I can easily switch between my regular desk and the treadmill.

You’d think that walking while working would be really distracting, but I think I’ve found the opposite. I tend to be much more focused and, more importantly, my focus stays on important things. I find I’m much less likely to drift into things like reading the news or wasting time elsewhere, and if I do, I don’t linger long.

My mom used to always say that when I was a kid, I always had to be doing two things at once. It was the only way I could effectively do anything. I probably should do some more research here, but two thoughts come to mind on this topic:

  1. That sounds like a likely ADHD symptom. I should probably investigate that.
  2. Studies have shown multitasking is actually not an effect method of productivity.

Given #2, I’m not really sure why this works. It’s possible that the studies investigated more of doing two difficult, cognitive tasks simultaneously vs. a low-level task like simply walking. Or perhaps I do have ADHD or something and the studies only apply to people who don’t.

I’m not really sure!

But if it works for me, I should keep doing it. And clearly the health benefits alone are worth it, so I should really focus on doing it consistently.

I just wanted to get my thoughts down and also leave this here as a reminder that I need to keep using it. Especially since I already have it and it’s all set up.

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We Fill Up Our Time Until We Have None

It’s an interesting dilemna. If we have extra time, we slowly fill it up until we no longer have time for anything that’s not critically important.

Worse still, if you don’t have any extra time then you probably are deeming lots of things as “unimportant” even though they are critical to your continued growth and development.

Case in point: I haven’t really read any books or studied much Spanish in a while. I’ve been “too busy”.

It’s so critical to be deliberate in the use of your time, and I think most people put so little effort into it. It’s no wonder why most people are constantly stressed and totally unproductive.

If you’re putting out fires all day, you’re going to be stressed.

I’ve definitely been guilty of this to a large extent lately, and I need to be really careful and intentional about everything so I can reclaim it.

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Update: A Totally New (But Familiar?) Place

Things have changed quite drastically since I last wrote.

A month and a half ago, we were very much in a slow period. I had no active projects and really not much going on.

And then, all at once, everything changed.

Several prospective clients finally pulled the trigger. Some major projects and opportunities started with two new business partners (one old, one new), leading to a huge amount of new work.

And lots of existing clients came at me with new tasks as well.

To handle all of this, I needed to take on some new contractors. I immediately posted some listings on Upwork.com and within about a week, hired three new developers in addition to the three I’ve been working with.

And I’ve been working with them for a few weeks now, and it’s actually going great. I’ve been assigning basically all work to a contractor now and having them handle things.

I feel like I’ve finally taken a step back and embraced the project manager role.

It’s weird because I sort of feel like I’ve been here before, yet it feels totally different. At the end of 2018 and very start of 2019, it felt like nothing could go wrong. We had been consistently and aggressively growing, we were booked for months out, I had a full time employee, and all was well.

And then it wasn’t.

I grossly underestimated the hours to complete a massive new project, which sucked all of my resources for what seemed like an eternity (and was literally like a year). It prevented me from finishing or starting other, paying projects and focusing on growing my business.

And then, likely as a direct result of that project, my employee resigned, followed shortly thereafter by one of my two contractors.

I was living abroad at the time and loving that experience while everything else sort of crashed down, as is well-documented in other posts. But from then on, I vowed to do things very differently.

And I have.

I’ve been growing my business in a more sustainable way that allows for me to live the life I want to live. But I’ve also focused more on the fundamentals of running the business and growing it properly.

Whereas at the end of 2018 it felt like I was venturing in to a mysterious new world without really having a sense of what’s happening, this time it feels like I’m sailing through familiar waters. The foundation of everything is much stronger and I’m armed with more experience and insight into where I want to go and how to get there.

I’m managing the existing projects effectively without feeling like I’m just putting out fires or jumping around all day. Back then I just felt like I was getting burnt out and constantly getting pulled one way or the other.

Now things are more relaxed and controlled, and even though we’re doing way more work than then and making more money, I feel like not nearly as much is required of me.

To be clear, I feel that my own personal output far exceeds what it was then. But it’s much more controlled and I’m doing the right things and as a result, I don’t need to spend as much time doing everything. And I’ve minimized the types of issues that require immediate and constant attention by simply doing things right and being proactive.

We’ll see what the future holds. Perhaps I learned nothing the first time I was in a similar situation. But I’m thinking things will be a lot better and that 2021 will be a banner year.

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When We Don’t Have Time, We Waste It. When We do, We Fill it.

This post is really just an observation of human nature, and I’m certain I’m not nearly the first person to point this out.

Basically, I think that when we have lots of extra time, we tend to fill it with things. Without even thinking about what the very BEST use of our time is, we just fill it all up.

Obviously it’s not all conscious. If you’ve got a lot of time, you’re bored, and somebody comes to you with a questionable opportunity, you think, “why not?” And then you commit to that opportunity without really figuring out if it makes sense for you to be doing it.

And things just stack on top of each other. Before long, you’re super busy with everything. But it’s possible none of those activities are very important.

I’m sure this problem is even more significant in corporate America where people will accept any task if they have the time and then never question its value from that point on. They just keep doing it, thinking they’re doing a good job.

And then once you don’t have time anymore, it’s so hard to engage in new, important activities. You don’t have time to take a step back and think about your priorities. You’re just trying to keep up.

I remember all sorts of lengthy descriptions of this in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and other similar books. They basically just say that most people spend their entire careers/lives putting out fires, when they should be spending way more time figuring out which activities yield the greatest results.

So knowing that this is how people are, how can I avoid these problems?

I think one obvious way is to literally set aside time every week or even day to do some planning and analysis. Take a look at what you’re spending your time doing and what’s working. Focus on your planning and see how you can be more effective.

Obviously there are a lot of things you could be doing with that time, but the important thing is to be deliberate with your time and put some thought and planning into it. When you’re young and inexperienced and don’t know what you’re doing, I think there is great value in saying “yes” to every opportunity that comes your way.

But I’m much further along in my career and I can’t afford to do that. I think I do a good job of picking my opportunities and staying focused, but I don’t do as good of a job at literally sitting down and planning my business and monitoring how everything is going.

So that’s something I definitely need to work on.

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I Need to Always Be Improving One Thing

So I just read a rather depressing but very honest and introspective post from myself from February this year. In it, I explained how I felt like I hadn’t really been trying all that hard. But I felt like I had rounded a corner, and that 2020 was going to be nothing but good things!

Putting the soul-crushing irony of that belief aside, while the post did bring up some great points and present a good overall picture of where I was (am) at, it didn’t really provide any real strategies for improvement.

As much as I wish it were, “start trying harder” is simply not an effective strategy, no matter what anybody tells you. And neither is anything dealing with “motivation”.

So what do I do?

I’ve talked a lot about the “One thing”, the thing I need to focus on most in my business (or life!) to improve at any one moment. While I’m not strictly saying that I should just, “do that”, but focusing on one area is, in fact, what I’m saying.

I need to always be focusing on improving in one area. I’ve written at length about habits, and how I want to be building one new habit at all times, etc.

As strange as it is to say, the one habit that I need to be building, more than any other is… Building new habits constantly.

So… I guess to start, I’ll need to be building two habits at a time!

But that seriously needs to be it. Even if I’m doing a bad job building whatever habit it is I’m working on, I just need to be doing it. I need to focus every single day on it, and aggressively enforce what I’m doing.

And the reason for this goes beyond “habits are good”.

If I want to get to where I feel like I’m “trying hard”, it’s going to take a lot of work building up the habits and resilience that it takes. It’s going to be improving things, one step at a time.

I’ve written about sleep habits extensively, and so far have just been plagued by failures with those. Maybe that’s a good place to start and just double down on fixing that.

I’m taking a month-long break from alcohol and so this seems like a good time for it. I’ve tried to do just one piece at a time, but maybe I need all of the following to be in sync for this to work:

  • Going to bed early
  • Waking up at the same early time every morning
  • Not using the snooze button
  • Not napping

I have so many years of bad habits with all of these lined up, I may just have to do it all. I might be exhausted initially, but that exhaustion will help me sleep earlier and get better sleep, which will then help with not needing to snooze or take naps, and over time I should even start waking up at the same time.

So… I just need to focus on this, and then the next thing, and then just keep improving.

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Additional Thoughts on Having Systems in Place

In my last post, I talked about the need for some kind of system in my business to keep things going forward. After deeper thought, I definitely think that’s a must!

I just read one of my old blog posts here where I essentially described this blog as my “system”. It was the only place where I was reading over old thoughts and goals and it was the only thing I had that resembled accountability of any kind.

But the problem is that it’s totally informal and has no real rhythm to it. I read old posts whenever I have time, and they all get the same amount of attention. That’s not really a system.

So I need something in my business that can prioritize tasks, keep them top-of-mind, and make me accountable to them. It also needs to have some timings built-in that ensure things are continually addressed in a systematic fashion.

But I’m also thinking now that maybe I need better systems for other areas of my life, too. I’m always trying to develop new habits and improve things, but there is no real system to it. I try to develop a habit until it works, or sometimes I fail, and then just… Keep going?

Maybe I need to put a schedule together and record results for new habits. Once something is established, I can move on. I should probably review it and record the results at least once a week, or maybe even more often. That would keep me focused.

With the unprecedented and continued success of my weight training “system”, it has made me even more confident that this type of success could be applied everywhere else in my life if I can just develop or find the right systems.

So in the coming weeks, I’d like to work on searching for or developing new systems for myself. From there, I think I can really improve rapidly!

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The Power of Having a System

I’ve started seeing rapid gains in my weight-training. After something like 7 or 8 years of little-to-no progress, that really is something!

And you know what really changed?

I have a system.

Historically, I’ve always chosen a handful of movements, and basically just lifted until I couldn’t anymore. Next week I would try again, and hopefully be able to do more reps.

It worked great in the beginning, when it’s easy to grow your untrained muscles. But within a year or two, it stalled almost completely. And I had no system to get me through roadblocks.

But now I have one! It tells me how much weight to lift each week, how much to add for the next workout, and what to do if I fail. It anticipates those failures and outlines a systematic plan to alter the weight I’m doing, grow stronger, and then break past barriers.

And it has been wildly effective. In a month or two I’ve improved more than in the last several years. It really is incredible.

It turned out that the problem wasn’t lack of effort, diet, sleep, form, or any of the other tiny details that can be totally overwhelming. It was just that I needed a system.

Of course, once things start going well, you tend to do everything else right, too. I’ve been eating better, getting enough of the nutrients needed, and being much more consistent in my training. The success is extremely motivating and it’s easy to do the harder things when you know they are going to be successful.

But now I’m thinking: where else can I apply systems to my life to have these kinds of impacts? How can I apply it to how I’m running my business?

I mean, what is my system for improving my business?

That’s a rhetorical question. I obviously don’t have anything remotely resembling a system to improve my business. And that’s bad!

In fact, I think I’ve been relying on this blog to be my “system”, which is almost exactly like how I used to weight train. I have a lot of good ideas, things that can really help. And I’m trying things here and there, hoping something sticks. But ultimately, they don’t lead to results.

Maybe the one thing I’m missing is just a system to guide my actions and hold me accountable. I’m at the tail-end of many months of essentially doing nothing to improve my business. Maybe I just need some structure.

I know I’ve read plenty of books that outline specific systems for doing exactly what I’m describing. I think it may be time to dust those off and take them more seriously.

Because while things are actually going decently in my business (all things considered), I’m really not improving right now. And if I could replicate the success of my weight training with my business, I think it would be extremely motivating and actually lead to even more success.

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Successes Within the Last Year

I think I need to take a step back and acknowledge the successes I’ve had over the last year that maybe I haven’t really mentioned here too much.

Too often I only focus on the failures and things that need to be improved, while rarely pointing out all of the things that have gone well. That should change!

So here are some successes I’ve had over the past year or so:

  • Drastically reduced or eliminated time spent on social media
  • Drastically reduced time spent browsing the news
  • Eliminated non-productive time on my phone
  • Replaced it with productive activities
  • Learned the name, location, capital, and flag of every country in the world
  • Learned the name, capital, and location of every state/territory in Canada, the US, and Mexico
  • Learned every US president in order, including the years they served, their party, and their presidency number
  • Grew my English vocabulary by about 300 words
  • Put on a significant amount of muscle and figured out a new workout routine that is yielding consistently positive results
  • Got into the habit of running, and reduced my one-mile time from over 8:30 to nearly 6:30
  • Have greatly improved the time in which I get up every morning, and minimized how late I sleep when not using an alarm
  • Started drinking less
  • Played drastically fewer video games
  • Greatly improved Spanish skills with drills, continued practice, and watching Spanish-language television instead of English shows
  • Learned a lot of history from reading and watching documentaries
  • Finished renovating my house and rented out the bedrooms
  • Paid off student loans, all credit card debt, and a business loan
  • Purchased a company and successfully migrated all of the clients to my services
  • Started investing money for the first time ever
  • Improved my yard and lawn considerably and harvested my first black raspberries
  • Caught the biggest snapping turtle I’ve ever caught

Honestly there are way more things than I thought there would be when I decided to make this list! That’s why it’s good to do it, to really get a sense of where you’re at and what’s going right.

I can’t help but feel like, while I did all of these things, there are many other things I should have been doing but didn’t. And while there is always room for improvement, it doesn’t all have to come at once. I think most of these fall into the category of self-improvement which I firmly believe will roll into improvement in all areas.

So I think I just need to keep it up, and good things will come!

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Working Out Earlier in the Day

Okay, so not every post here has to be deeply profound. I’m all about improvements, no matter how small.

Lately, out of necessity, I’ve been pushing many of my workouts to early in the day instead of in the evening when I usually do them. And I’m realizing there are huge benefits to doing so.

Historically, I would basically get all of my important work done, and only then would I do a workout. This typically has meant not working out until 6, 7, or sometimes even much later.

But the problem with that, I’m realizing, is that when you put something so physically demanding at the end of the day, it acts as a sort of barrier, like a magnet facing the wrong way.

It is hard to get through the work you need to do, because you know you’re going to need all of that willpower to do the workout at the end. And that’s a problem.

Now that I’ve been doing it earlier in the day, I’ve noticed that not only is it easier to get going on the workout itself, but also that you feel much freer afterwards. You’ve already done the hardest thing for the day, so everything else is easy. You just finish the rest, and you’re set!

So I need to focus on doing the workouts early consistently, I think. I’ll get a lot more done, and probably be more consistent, too.

That’s just my thought for the day.

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It’s Amazing that I Still Don’t Have Time

I barely leave the house, and yet I still feel like I barely have any time to get things done at all.

My experience makes me feel like I have nothing in common at all with other people. Maybe it’s because  actual hobbies have become a dying pastime.

But I’ve been filling all of my days with work, learning/studying, exercising, socializing, house/yard work, and of course other hobbies like kayaking, disc golfing, etc.

And I feel like I’m really productive, but at the same time, there still just isn’t enough time. I’ve found that I’m never even close to bored, I’m never sitting around doing nothing (or even just watching TV for fun), and I rarely finish everything I set out to finish for the day.

And the bigger problem is that I’m not finishing some of the very most-important things I’m supposed to be doing. There are major, long-term projects in my business that are critical to my future success that I’m not getting done.

Maybe I just thought that with everything shut down, it would be easy to get all of these things done. But obviously that won’t be the case for me.

So now I’m left wondering if I need to start cutting some things out or limiting certain activities more, even if they are productive.

Or maybe it’s just a case of needing to delegate more in my business. I think that, along with the sense of “having more time”, I’ve started to take on more of the development work myself. That’s time that could fairly easily be freed-up by delegation.

Maybe the answer really is that simple. I guess I’ll have to think more about that.

Either way, it truly is important that I figure out how to get these important long-term things done. My career depends on it!