The Astounding Power of Intentional Productivity (And How You Can … – The Good Men Project

Tim Ferris is a pretty smart guy.

Most people know him as the clever brain behind the 4 hour work week, although hes a pretty productive entrepreneur overall. Note that I said hes productive and not busy theres an important difference between the two ideas.

The American author, podcaster, and entrepreneur extraordinaire is frequently quoted, but one of the best is this one:

Focus on being productive instead of busy.

Wise, succinct words. As a mom trying to raise two whole humans, a wife trying to keep her marriage alive, a writer trying to keep on top of my content creation, and all the other balls Im trying to juggle, life is a busy, crazy experience.

Perhaps unironically, the busier I get, the less productive I become. It just makes sense; busyness causes us to lose focus and misprioritize. But if I focus more on productivity than keeping myself uninspired by my craft through all my busyness, my writing always improves in both quality and quantity.

Taking the busyness out of your business can help you conquer your goals, and the best part? Youll end up with more time to do all the things you love.

Coming up with great ideas is half the battle.

Scratch that its at least 90% of the war. Ideation is a skill that takes practice to hone, and even when you have a billion ideas bouncing around in your head, you need to track them. If you blink, they might disappear.

As a writer, Ive spent some time looking at the kinds of ideas people love and which stories do better than others. Its a mashup, honestly sometimes, heartfelt stories do better than how-tos, but not always. Understanding the analytics of it all is tough sometimes; its kind of a soft science.

In general, people are looking to either be entertained or have a problem solved. So, the short answer here is to do one of those things. Preferably both. Its the only way to be intentional with your productivity the rest is pretty much just fluff.

The best way to track and utilize your ideas is personal, but I find the best way for me is a simple notes app on my phone. I track the ideas there as my busy days zoom by, and when I finally sit down to write, theres a goldmine waiting to be chipped away atno added busyness, no distractions, no time wasters.

You need the goldmine; if you dont have one, youll spend that valuable (and likely limited) time thinking of what to write about instead of writing.

We all have too much to do. I dont care who you are or what you do every day theres never enough time to do it all.

So dont try to. Instead, focus on the things you can get to, like writing, if thats your thing. Working on your business. Creating your product or service. Whatever it is, the point is that even if what youre spending your time on is the core of what you do, it doesnt have to take you all day. Sure, you could spend ten hours doing it, but you could also spend a mere hour if thats all you have to spare.

Sometimes all I can manage is 30 minutes, and I still get at least one or more articles out a week, a weekly newsletter, and even a semi-weekly blog post. Intentional productivity is about how you spend your time, not how much time you have.

I hated the idea of prioritizing when I was working full-time. I worked for the government, and it constantly seemed as though there was never enough time to do everything that needed to be done. It used to stress me out.

Heres the thing, though: Prioritizing is shockingly easy when you are a creator. You are in charge of choosing what you do first, what you do next, and what you skip. You cant do everything, so its best to scrap that mindset altogether. I only wish my old employers understood that concept.

If youve been brainstorming throughout your days like I have, you can skip that part of your process entirely when it comes down to prioritization. Ideas are always flowing if you are open to them, and you already have a goldmine full of them to pull from. All you have to do next is decide whats most important and do that thing.

I cant stress enough the value of building your idea goldmine. When it comes time to sit down and create whatever your thing is, it shaves off potentially hours from your time. If you write, you grab an idea and write. If youre an entrepreneur, take an idea and run with it. If you run a podcast I think you see where Im going here, so Ill spare you any more analogies. For the sake of time, lets just reiterate one crucial point: when it comes to prioritization and productivity, you get to be the one to choose what matters most.

After that, all you have to do is do that one thing. Worry about the rest when youve finished, but dont let it cloud your progress when youre on task.

Sometimes, the thing that needs doing is the least fun thing to do. Thats not always true (at least, in my opinion) when it comes to being a writer, but there are other aspects of my work that I despise. Take social media marketing, for instance. I hate that.

I stink at promoting myself and my work, and even after more than two years of writing online, I struggle every time I hit the share button. And as for maintaining a presence online?

Id really rather not, thanks. But I do it. Not excessively well, mind you, but Im doing it and working on improving that part of my business every day.

Sticking to the things that need to be done until theyre done is wise. Even if youre pursuing your passion, there are aspects of that pursuit that will always be dull. That doesnt make them any less important, however. Spending time being, again, intentionally productive meaning you focus everything on that one, tiny task will end up taking less time overall.

No matter what your thing is, your goal is to get people interested in that thing.

Take writing, for example. You want eyeballs on your work, or its just words floating around the web, never earning you any money or prospects to make money. Sure, you can write for fun (and I do that, too), but ideally, you want to make a living doing what you love.

No readers = no money. Its a simple, but depressing, equation.

You need to make a commitment to your readers (or your clients, depending on what you do.) You need to commit to them that you will answer the questions they have. For example, my top performing articles on Medium are ones that focus on building your business. That means that if I want to keep reaching my readers, I have to answer some pretty important questions, such as:

Simply put, start by asking yourself your own questions, and then you just have to find the answers. Write about that entire experience; youll be surprised how much that resonates with people. Whether youre writing a newsletter that will interest your clients and supporters, writing an article online, or baking a cake, you need to provide your clients with what theyre looking for, and more often than not, that means youll be providing an answer to a problem.

Answer the questions that people need answers to every time. Youll be more productive overall if you focus on that priority above all others.

Building a goldmine full of ideas is great, but if you havent found a way to hook your audience with those ideas, theyre worthless. The value of perfecting your hook-strategy is immeasurable. Its how you get your readers or clients. Its how you attract people to your brand, your product, or your work. Its how you gain revenue the more people you excite, the more money youll end up making.

Its important to remember the value of hooks if you ever hope to make something of your online endeavors. If you waste your valuable time writing amazing content all day that no one ever reads because you havent mastered your hook? Thats a productivity sinkhole if ever there was one.

Whatever you create, planning is your ultimate productivity tool. Theres another great quote that really applies here:

Its not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less. Nathan W. Morris

Distractions and a fuzzy brain are surefire ways to sabotage your productivity. Its a busy world, and with information available at our literal fingertips, its alarmingly easy to distract ourselves with the latest news, local and worldwide events, political dialogue, social drama, whatever your ex is getting into, and cute cat videos.

If you find yourself getting caught up in any of those rabbit holes, youre spending your extremely valuable time really poorly.

As an online writer, creator, or business owner, your success depends on your ability to be intentional with your productivity, so do just that. Take the busyness out of your work, because all that is doing is piling on stress and time that you dont have. Instead, optimize your time by strategizing priorities, brainstorming on the fly, spending energy on great hooks, and harnessing your intentional focus.

The power of that intentional, focused productivity might surprise you.

This post was previously published on ILLUMINATION.

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The Astounding Power of Intentional Productivity (And How You Can ... - The Good Men Project