For the past 10 years I have worked with hundreds of clients and the most requested outcome to every single audience is Increased Productivity for themselves, their employees, and their teams. There is a great need to have this personally and professionally.
So let me ask you a few questions:
- Would you like to have Increased Productivity?
- Are you as productive as you would like to be?
- Do you find yourself distracted and off task?
- Do you Procrastinate even with simple tasks?
- Have you found yourself placing blame or excuses for why your productivity is down?
The simple definition of Productivity is this: Productivity is being more effective at producing better results or benefits.
The Benefits of having your productivity raised are: increased self-esteem, raised confidence levels, happiness, receive promotions, accomplishment mentality, less stress, better health, more free time, increased abundance, and this list could go on and on! Doesn’t that sound like the life you want to lead? Absolutely. We all do! Let’s jump in to; “3 Ways to Increase Productivity” right now!
Way #1: TAKE ACCOUNTABILITY & RESPONSIBILITY
To be accountable means to be subject to giving an account or having the obligation to report, explain or justify something. To be responsible means to be answerable for something within one’s power or control. Notice the two aspects of this definition – the ability to control plus being able to answer for something.
When we take accountability to the next level we immediately have better productivity! When we add responsibility to it, it increases exponentially.
I like this story as an example to get you thinking…
There were four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was
Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody would not do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
When being in Accountability there is only One possible body. It is YOU. Why NOT YOU?
I Am Somebody!
Let’s summarize some of the scenarios that we experience on a regular basis:
- Placing Blame
- No Accountability
- Lack of Ownership
- Not taking Responsibility
- Pointing Fingers at Someone Else
ALL these scenarios have a negative effect on us both personally and professionally!
We also get to STOP THE BLAME GAME!!! Blaming others and pointing fingers is taking no accountability at all!
Way #2 – REMOVE PROCRASTINATION
What does Procrastination look like?
- Doing it later
- Not starting
- Quitting early
- Showing up late
- I’ll do it tomorrow
- Being irresponsible
- I’ll get around to it
- Pushing things out
- Extend the deadline
How does Procrastination effect you and your progress?
Procrastination creates emotions that sabotage ourselves. It creates a “putting things off” mentality that keeps us from abundance and joy.
Let’s talk about Motion vs Action.
Motion is like the circle in the picture with the arrows going around and around…Motion is planning, strategizing, organizing, delegating and learning….but does not produce a Result.
Examples:
- Going to the GYM and talking with a personal trainer VS actually working out
- Outlining a new book VS actually writing a book
- E-mailing several new leads VS having one person buy and gaining a client
- Writing out a to-do list VS actually doing the items on the list
Motion will never produce a final result. Action will. Action is the lines going in a line in the picture. When you are in motion, you are planning, strategizing, and learning. Those are all phenomenal things and are incredibly important! But they do not produce results. Taking Action produces Results!
Intentionally moving forward creates confidence, trust and vision, which will give us more productivity!
Way #3 – Identify & Overcome Fear
“Fear Can Stop You or Propel You….The Choice is Yours!” ~Kris Barney When you can push past your fears you can accomplish anything!
Story: The Rain Check
A few years ago, for my birthday, I could not for the life of me come up with an idea of what I wanted, so, I told my hubby I wanted a “Rain Check”. Our birthdays are
within 8 days of each other and our anniversary falls in that week as well. This particular year, I had three speaking engagements and my husband had his book launch and two events…needless to say, there was way too much going on and the idea of a raincheck was a great idea!
Two days after my birthday I get a phone call from my husband. As I answer it, he is all excited and blurts out, “I have decided what to purchase with your rain check for your birthday!” I am like, “Ok, what are you thinking?” He then says with all the confidence in the world, “I am going to send you Skydiving!” My immediate thoughts in my head were: what?!!! But what came out of my mouth was, “Are you NUTS? Why would I EVER jump out of a perfectly good working airplane?”
My husband explained how he thought it would be amazing, even though he had never had a desire to skydive before, look how we could PUSH PAST OUR FEARS AND ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING!
You need to know; currently I did not feel like I was in fear! But to top that off, we had gone through a lot of really hard scary things when we had had huge fear, like our son having cancer or adopting a child, major head surgeries, being business investors and even starting our own businesses and being entrepreneurs.
Being the smart person that I am, I told him, “Wait. I have pushed past my fears before, LOTS of times. I have done a high-end ropes course. I zip lined one of the highest zip lines in Mexico across water. I have parasailed behind a boat at Lake Powell; in fact, I have even walked on Fire! I do not need to jump out of a plane to push past fear!
Later, after thinking he was crazy and I would show him how crazy this was, I found this amazing picture of someone “Pushing” someone else out of an airplane. I typed up the whole birthday raincheck story and posted it with the picture on Facebook. In less than one minute, a female classmate jumps on and loves it, then comments, “Do it!! I did it last year and LOVED it!” Then posts pictures of her skydiving in Hawaii! Within 5 minutes I have over 50 likes and about 25 comments. Most saying, Do IT! Of course, there were those that said, “Are you crazy?” Over the next couple hours this post grew to about 300 likes, some shares and way too many comments!
What I know from doing several high-end Ropes Courses, Zip lining, parasailing, even walking on Fire is SOME OF THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE JUST BEYOND YOUR FEAR!
As I contemplated, “Why am I in resistance to Skydiving?” I asked myself this question; “Are my
reasons for not doing this, just excuses to disguise my fear?
I knew then, it was my time to go Skydiving!
Was there fear? Of course! Jumping out of a plane at 2 ½ miles above the earth can be a bit nerve racking!
But it was BEAUTIFUL. EXCITING, FUN, EXTRAORDINARY, EXCEPTIONAL, AMAZING, EXILERATING AND LIFE CHANGING!
Fear shows up for each of us in different ways. How we choose to deal with it is completely up to us! The tricky part to this entire thing is to be able to recognize when it is fear that is holding you back.
Fear can look like many things, such as:
- Stress
- Denial
- Scared
- Danger
- Anxiety
- Excuses
- Shyness
- Unknown
- Reasoning
- Insecurity
- Avoidance
- Depressed
- Judgement
- Aggression
- Acceptance
- Unqualified
- Nervousness
- Awkwardness
- Not Belonging
- Self-conscious
- Embarrassment
- Lack of Knowledge
- Lack Believing in Self
- What others might think
Each time fear can show up differently for each person and for each situation. The key is to get to know yourself well enough to know when you are coming from a place of fear and it is stopping you from progressing. Is it putting a damper on your productivity?
Fear was given to us as a protection. It was to be there for us in that “fight or flight” time in our lives when
adrenaline needed to kick in to save our life or the life of someone close to us. It was not supposed to keep us from achieving our goals or starting a business or not allow us to be all that we were born to be.
What is your fear doing for you? Is it stopping you from moving forward in a big way? Is it keeping you from taking that next big step in your life?
What is stopping you right now and getting in your way?
Let’s RECAP:
What Are 3 Ways to Increase Productivity?
- Take Accountability & Responsibility
- Remove Procrastination
- Identify & Remove Fear
Thank you for joining me for “3 Ways to Increase Productivity”. Watch the video and gain insight on these 3 areas. Also, if you enjoyed this, you should check out our BLOG. We put out content consistently that you would enjoy!