We’d all like to increase productivity, right?
To have more to show for our efforts and and less time and energy wasted?
Then you’re in the right place.
Today I’m reviewing Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg and I guarantee you’ll walk away with a brand new outlook on motivation, goal setting, and more.
You can listen here or by clicking the link below.
Or keep reading the post below:
Duhigg digs into the concepts of productivity, motivation, and goal setting, and I want to discuss how those are applicable to your life no matter what you’re trying to do.
What is Productivity
Duhigg defines productivity as the name we give our attempts to figure out the best uses of our energy, intellect, and time, as we try to seize the most meaningful rewards with the least wasted effort.
The first step to increasing productivity is to be targeted in how you approach the things you are trying to accomplish and realizing that you can get things done without sacrificing everything else that you care about along the way.
The most productive people have developed habits that push them to think more deeply about the choices they make through these three steps:
they come up with big goals and then break them into manageable parts,
they scrutinize how they spend their time to make sure that it aligns with their priorities,
and they learn about new topics that inspire breakthroughs.
You are likely familiar with setting big goals and taking time to learn new thing, but step two may be a little outside of your comfort zone.
If someone were to take your computer or planner and dive into where and how you are spending your time, would they say that your time is spent focused on the things you say are important or would they find that you’re more focused on other areas.
If it’s the latter, this realization can feel a little uncomfortable at first, because you’re essentially admitting that those big goals really aren’t as important as you say they are.
If you want to increase productivity, you will have to flip the script and refocus your attention on the big goals.
What is Motivation
When you hear the word, motivation you likely think of it as a feeling, but Duhigg pushes back on this and suggests it is a skill that can be learned.
So many people have the underlying belief that what they do doesn’t matter and that life is just happening to them, but that’s not how it works.
The prerequisite to developing the skill of motivation is believing that you have authority over your actions and surroundings.
When you feel like you’re in control, you will work harder, push more, have more confidence, and be better able to overcome setbacks faster.
One way to prove that you have control is simply to start making decisions. This reinforces that you are in the driver’s seat and that you do have self-efficacy.
When you give yourself the opportunity to make choices, you are developing a sense of autonomy and self-determination and that triggers motivation.
You need to see our choices as affirmations of your values and our goals, and also link smaller tasks to those larger aspirations.
For example, it seems like in the day-to-day, this one workout doesn’t matter, this one meal doesn’t matter, and, yes, it’s ok to take a day off every now and then, but when you’re not making the connection between these individual choices and your end goal you won’t consistently do the things enough to get the result.
Reactive Thinking
Reactive thinking is when you fall back on a reaction that you’ve practiced repeatedly.
I typically refer to these as your default thoughts or default behaviors when faced with a difficult situation.
This is how you build habits and decide how to allocate your attention.
You can’t focus on all the things that are happening around you all the time, so you need to take advantage of that more automatic instinct that you’ve developed.
To help cultivate this sort of reactive thinking and increase productivity, you can create mental models, or visualizations, of things that may happen so that when a situation occurs you already have a plan in place.
The Importance of SMART Goals
First, what does SMART mean?
SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based
Setting SMART goals is the difference between hoping something happens and actually figuring out how to do it.
Without SMART goals, you run the risk of becoming obsessed with achievable but inconsequential goals. You find yourself in the mindset of crossing things off your to do list, instead of asking yourself if you’re actually doing the right things in the first place.
It’s easy to get distracted by something that you know you can do easily and feel good about that instead of recognizing that it’s not helping you make meaningful progress towards the actual goal.
Instead of an increase in productivity, you find yourself continuing to spin your wheels with no real results.
One of the reasons, we have our EA Coaching clients focus on the Big Rocks is because they’re typically the behaviors that that you don’t want to focus on but can have the most impact on reaching your goals.
In addition to SMART goals, it’s ok to have stretch goals, as long as you are willing to break them down into smaller parts. You want to be inspired to challenge yourself, but you also want to feel like what you’re trying to accomplish is within the realm of possibility.
When you’re ready to set your goals, ask yourself the following questions:
What realistic progress can I make in the next day, week month?
What are the specific short-term steps along the path to bigger success?
Once you have your goals broken down into SMART goals and you start implementing the steps to help you reach them, begin collecting data so you can gain awareness of your current choices and whether or not those are supporting your bigger goals.
If you are interested in learning more about how our EA Coaching programs can help you through this process, check out our Gone for Good group and 1-on-1 coaching options.
