How to Be Productive When No One is Watching
I went through a phase where I started to hate the word “productive,” it was just another buzzword being thrown around by the 80-hours-a week, overworked, “hustle til you drop” crowd. It just seemed so reckless, always staying busy as a validation of your productivity. Just because you could produce something didn’t mean it had any real value, it seemed to lack intention. But recently I have started seeing this word through a different lens. In doing some self-reflection I realized that one of the things that leads me to self-satisfaction is building and well, producing. I find real value in stepping back and reviewing the fruits of my labor. It is not because being productive is always fun, or easy it is because it is hard. One of the words in the definition “productive” is “useful,” and that is just it, being productive makes me feel useful, and being useful makes me feel valued.
Now being productive can always offer its challenges, maybe you are uninspired or just overwhelmed. Chances are if you work in a traditional environment you have outside sources pushing you to produce something. Maybe you have colleagues waiting for you to finish a paper or your direct boss is expecting you to turn in sales numbers at the end of the week. But what do you do when you don’t have any of those external forces? What do you do when the only driving force behind the productivity is you. Well, now you have a challenge in discipline.
Why is it hard to be productive even when it is something you really want to accomplish? I can think of lots of reasons. You have other things to do that seem more urgent in the moment. You don’t have a clear plan. You are lacking attention. You haven’t established any habits that allow you to focus on this project.
If you are someone sitting at home ready to tackle a new project, how to do you accomplish produce when your back isn’t up against any wall? I am going to focus less on what you are going to do and more on how you are going to do it. Let’s say you are interested in building a new skill, you want to start learning how to use the design program illustrator.
Put a Plan in Place
Be careful of over planning, this can be a big trap. The planning phase is an easy place to spin your wheels. If you want to learn how to use illustrator you could become completely overwhelmed trying to determine which is the perfect online class to take to get started or which aspect of illustrator would be most useful. It is easier if you find a small endpoint to shoot for. Say you are throwing a birthday party for your 5-year-old and instead of using Canva you want to design the invitations yourself. Great, now you have a finish line to work towards. You can ask yourself if the course you are looking at taking will allow you to complete that small project.
Track Progress
Being productive when no one is watching means you have to continue to internally motivate yourself. It is important to validate that the effort you are putting in is working. There are a couple of ways to do this. You can layout the very specific steps you need to take to get from no birthday invitations, through designing, and then printing. Then mark them off as you go. Or if you like to work more organically you can create as you go, but write down every small step you are taking. I highly recommend this because not only will it validate you, you will be thrilled you wrote down your steps next time you go to do something similar.
Develop Time Blocks
When are you going to get after this project? No one is holding your feet to the fire on this. You don’t even have work hours. This is where we let time (and our attention) slip through the cracks. Sit down on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning and carve out when exactly where in your week you are going to block hours to take an online course and then work on your project. Try to find 2–3 hour chunks of time if possible. Even if you say “oh I have all day Thursday” you still need to schedule this time in. This is what I like to call “do not disturb” time. You need this to anchor your project.
Become Accountable
If you aren’t accountable to anyone how do you reach completion? After all, you can just go buy birthday invitations, no one is really expecting you to design these yourself. Being accountable to yourself is hard, you have to determine what drives you to completion. Do you enjoy being able to share completed work with a friend or spouse? Can you imagine the excitement on your 5 year old’s face when you have made him the perfect invitation? Maybe you like personal rewards like a small outing at a favorite coffee shop to get work done. Don’t be afraid to find a way to “burn the ships.” Go ahead and spend the money you would have spent on invitations on something else then you have to reach completion on this project.
Create a Habit
Even something as small as this needs a habit. The outcome from deciding, “I am going to spend at least one hour a day working with illustrator” will lead you to far more than just focusing on a birthday invitation. You don’t want to stop once you accomplish that small project. You will want to continue improving on the skill. Find a way to record your success in keeping with this daily habit (I offer a fun habit tracker if you need one). As Warren Buffet says, “The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”
It is hard to be productive when you don’t have any external forces pushing you. But the self-satisfaction and value in producing are so fruitful. Recognize that you are still building value even when you don’t necessarily have a tangible outcome. It is hardest to stick with the things that you can’t see, so at some point give yourself a benchmark or project to realize your progress.
