Build a Successful Foundation for Productivity in Easy Steps

Set yourself up for better productivity in the long-term!

We’re going to build a house in this blog post! Well… not literally, just as an analogy.

We’re going to build the foundation of our productivity.

Think about an actual house, what makes that house last long over the many years? A strong foundation.

The same with our productivity. What makes the “productivity last long”? We build a strong foundation.

If you’re a fan of analogies, great! You’ll love this. If you’re not, you’ll still love this 😉 because either way you’re going to learn how to build a foundation for your productivity that’s going to help you in the long term.

We’re going to go through three things to help you build that foundation:

• Letting Go of Excuses
• Adopting Behaviors
• Building the Skills

These concepts actually came from one of my favourite books, “Girl, Stop Apoligizing!” by Rachel Hollis… I just turned those concepts into productivity style :))

We’ll go through that three step process, along with other tips. These can be things that you can take away with you to improve your productivity!

LET GO of these

EXCUSES!!

Before we even start building our actual foundation, we’re going to first get rid of the things that prevent the foundation from being built. Just like how you want to get rid of anything that will prevent the foundation of a house from being built, we’re going to do the same here.

We’re going to be letting go of some excuses, myths on productivity… all those sorts of things that don’t really help us with our productivity in the first place.

We have both the obvious excuses and the hidden excuses. Obvious excuses are the ones we obviously know, but the hidden excuses are the one that can be disguised in a number of ways.

Either way, excuses are a killer to anything, not just productivity. In a productivity sense, some don’t realise that they have excuses that are actually hurting their productivity. We’re going to unpack them, and ensure that we let these go before we build our “productivity foundation”.

1 – STOP thinking what other people do as well

Something we first got to learn is that how every person becomes productive is different.

Yes, we can implement all the productivity tips that we get from books or videos, but at the end of the day, how we become the most productive and how another does are completely different.

Maybe we can’t wake up at 5am in the morning, but it doesn’t mean that we are not productive.

Maybe we can’t work an extra 4 hours on our goals after work, but it doesn’t mean that we are not productive.

Maybe we stay up late and wake up late instead, but it doesn’t mean that we are not productive.

Society had painted a picture that we need to be early birds, we need to work a certain number of hours, we need to sacrifice a few things in order to be considered “productive” but the truth is, it’s simply a picture. If we’re not even close to that picture it doesn’t mean that we are not productive.

This was something that took me forever to unlearn. You don’t have to be a working parent, an entrepreneur, a full-time worker, or work many hours of a week to be considered “productive”… that has nothing to do with it.

Sometimes, just simply being someone who follows through on the things that they say that they are going to do, already counts as being productive.

So don’t worry too much about what other people do, we all work differently, we also get things done differently… we work in different ways.

2 – STOP thinking that you’re not goal oriented

Here is something really important about becoming more productive – setting goals.

Maybe it sounds like the most overused word ever. Maybe you’ve heard it so many times, but setting goals is in fact very important when it comes to productivity. Here’s why.

To be productive, you have to actually accomplish and achieve work that you set yourself out to do. If you don’t know what you’re going to be working on, and what you need to accomplish, what’s going to happen? You’re not going to know what to do, you’re going to be doing a bunch of random things… not really being productive is it?

Having a goal gives you direction on what you need to do. You need a goal to know what steps, processes, and systems you need to do. Without the goal, you’re just going to be working on something without any reason for it.

Here’s a simple example. Let’s say that someone set a goal to bake a cake. To bake a cake, they need the ingredients, then the utilities, then of course, they need the proper steps to bake that cake. Since they had that goal to bake a cake, they know exactly what they need to do to achieve that goal.

Imagine if they didn’t have that goal to bake that cake. Without that goal, you’re probably going to find yourself buying random ingredients, using the wrong utilities, and end up baking or making something else. This is why it’s so important to have that goal! In order to know exactly what you need, and what you need to do, you need to have a goal in mind.

When it comes to being productive, we need to have goals set in place. It’s not going to be that productive if we’re doing random things that we think are making us productive. To be productive is to complete all the things that contribute to our goals, our projects… whatever it may be. Either way, you need an objective, you need a goal. So if you’re not a goal-oriented person, having goals may be something you want to consider for better productivity.

3 – Stop Being Terrified of Productivity Slip Ups

I’ll be the first to admit that a despised failure. I used to be so scared of failure, it was always a battle in my mind to prevent myself from failing.

However, I have come to learn how important it is to actually fail and make mistakes once in a while to learn and become better at what you do!

I wrote a blog post on the lessons that I learned about ‘failure’ and one of them was how it is so important to fail forward.

Failing forward means to accept the failure, see what you can learn from it, and simply move on. Moving on was the hardest part for me!

When it comes to productivity, there are going to be times when we do slip up. There are going to be times when we do end up procrastinating and doing something unproductive. There are going to be times when we go behind schedule. There are going to be times when we do something the wrong way….

But that’s all okay. The most important reminder to remember is that once it happens… it happened, it’s done. We all are going to have productivity slip ups once in a while, and the best thing to do is just accept it, see what we can learn from it, and move on.

For example, if we woke up a little later than usual, and as a result fell behind schedule and things were left incomplete, we accept it and see what we can learn from it. What we can learn from that productivity slip up is that we probably may need to sleep earlier so that we don’t wake up later. We make sure to schedule in proper rests and breaks, and split up our work sessions to get things completed. After we figured out what we can learn from it, we just move on.

Those productivity slip ups do happen once in a while… it’s 100% fine! Honestly, the more slip ups you learn from, the more that you learn. The more that you learn, the more that you become better. When you have that mindset of viewing those slip ups as lessons, you’ll stop feeling a bit more fearful of those slip ups and embrace them instead.

ADOPT these

productivity BEHAVIOURS!

Now that we had gotten the excuses out of the way, let’s start building some behaviors! When building a foundation of the house, we start off with the building blocks that are going to make the house strong no matter what. So even if there are some slip ups while doing the exterior or interior, or if the weather conditions are not the best, it won’t be a problem… the foundation is already strong.

That’s what this part is going to be about. We’re going to build solid behaviors for productivity. These behaviors are going to be strong, so that even when things go our way, or we have some “productivity slip ups” when building our skills, our productivity doesn’t get affected much.

You can implement many productivity tips, but it’s hard for something to stick if you don’t have the behavior set in place. For example, if you want to eat healthier, that habit is something hard to stick to if you don’t have that attitude set in place, the willpower set in place, and discipline. Same with productivity.

1 – Make Productivity About QUALITY and not QUANTITY

One of the mistakes I made when trying to be productive was thinking that productivity was about quantity and not quality. I measured my productivity based on the number of tasks that I did that day.

The behavior that you’re going to want to build is the opposite of that. You want to build the behavior of making your productivity about the quality of the work that you do, rather than the quantity of tasks that you are going to do.

If you get so caught up with trying to do as many things as you can during the day, you cost your focus. Because when you are switching from one task to another and another, your brain has to adjust each time.

And also, we actually do end up sacrificing the quality of our overall work. At the end of the day, what matters most is how effective your work turned out to be, rather than how much you got done.

That’s why, when it comes to planning your days, instead of trying to cram in every single task you possibly can, break them up and separate the tasks throughout the week. You’ll feel much better, less stress, and you’re able to work more effectively with the newfound focus.

2 – Include HEALTH as being productive

Another important behavior to adopt is including anything related to your health counts as being productive.

If you have noticed as well, people associate productivity with work-related tasks. Whether those tasks are office tasks, business tasks, study tasks… anything that involves things related to what you regularly do. Hence, their schedule is filled with a bunch of work tasks.

However, a productive day does not just include those work tasks, it also includes everything related to your health. From your exercise, your sleep, to the times that you eat… they contribute to your productivity!

Because what will happen if you neglect it, and then as a result your health declines? What will happen if you didn’t get enough sleep? Didn’t eat well? Didn’t make time for exercise? That ends up affecting your productivity anyway.

So you mind as well, include that in your schedule! You’re still being productive because your health contributes to your productivity.

This is an important behavior to adopt because it’s something that can easily be excluded in our days. We get caught up in including all those work tasks that we forget about include those productivity contributors in our schedule.

Remember that you have nothing to lose by prioritising your health in your schedule. You get move a lot of things around in your day, just make sure that anything related to taking care and maintaining your health is on there!

3 – Learn to Say No

This one is for me!!! Again, and again, and again.

Last year I had many days where I burned out, and looking back a big reason for that was because I was saying yes to everything. I was afraid to say no.

I’d say yes even if my calendar was packed. If there was even a bit of time I had on there, I will say yes. Most of the things I said yes to we’re all volunteer commitments, obviously meaning that I don’t get paid for it.

Now, I had gotten to the point where I become a lot more selective of the commitments that I bring out. If there is a volunteer commitment that I really want to do, I have to double check that it’s something that is really flexible, and that I’m not obliged to volunteer every time. I don’t volunteer as regularly as I did when I was in high school and in my first year of university.

I don’t volunteer as much anymore… a part of me is afraid of admitting that because growing up I was known for volunteering and doing lots of humanitarian work. For a long time I was afraid of losing that part of me.

Honestly, I can still say that I still have time. My schedule is packed, and there is still time that I can fit it in. There are many opportunities on there for me to volunteer for, because I have the time for it. But here’s why I don’t take it on…

My schedule is up for it, but my mind is not. Quite simple when you think about it.

One quote that I really like is “if it’s not a hell yes, it’s a hell no”. This pretty much means that if someone asks you to do something, and your immediate reaction isn’t hell yes, then you should absolutely say no thank you.

Maybe people will look at me differently now finding out that I don’t volunteer as regularly as I used to. I’ll be open about this though, my priorities are straight. I know exactly what they are, and I have learned to say no to anything that doesn’t relate to them, these include:

1. My faith and my personal growth
2. My family
3. My studies
4. My work as a tutor
5. My entrepreneurship endeavors – this includes this blog

Volunteering is no longer on the list. But this is not to say that it became a no forever. Sometimes it’s just a no for now.

Maybe that can be your new mindset, maybe you really want to do something but don’t have the capacity to do so. It can be a no for now.

Maybe while you’re working on your goals, many things outside of that can be a no for now until you achieve them.

Maybe you’re trying to be healthier, mentally and physically, many things outside of that can be a no for now until you feel better.

Maybe you’re trying to get good grades, many things outside of that can be a no for now until the semester is finished.

At the end of the day, you’re making the choices. If you know your priorities really well, you can know in an instant that an opportunity that comes up will relate to those priorities.

MASTER these SKILLS

Now that we had gotten the excuses out of the way, and starting to build those behaviours, we are now going to build very important skills! Going back to building a house, we had already gotten rid of the things that won’t be helping the foundation (excuses). We started the building blocks that are going to make the house strong no matter what (behaviors). Now we are going to start working on the interior and exterior of the house. The process isn’t always going to be smooth sailing… but as long as we’ve got our behaviors set, it’ll be easy to adjust (skills).

Remember that the following are skills to be built…. they are not talents! You are not born with them, these are something that is to be developed and improved on all the time. Just like how a house didn’t just start with a good-looking interior and exterior, your skills don’t just start once you are born. Overtime, they are just things that you improve.

So even if you don’t have those skills mastered yet, it’s okay! These are just things that you can always work on improving overtime!!

1 – Planning

I mean, “failing to plan is planning to fail” right? I mean, if you didn’t plan how the house is going to be built, how can we expect everything to go well?

From my personal experience with productivity, there are two important components that go with planning:

Organisation & Time Management (these two are separate blog posts which I definitely recommend that you read!)

Let’s start with organisation.

It’s funny how people are up their game when it comes to organising and planning their holiday! Like it’s planned down to a T, it’s amazing when you think about it.

But then when you estimate how many actually use that high organising game to organise their own life, then it’s significantly lower than that.

It’s interesting to think about considering how a holiday is something that is just short-term, but our life is… long term.

So if we use that same energy from organising and planning a holiday, to organising our life, imagine what that would do! Just remember that at the end of the day, organising is a skill to be built, and it’s something that will be improved on all the time.

Yes, my organisation is significantly a lot better than it was back in high school, BUT I still have small areas that I still need to improve with it. Especially as your life changes, the way you organise your time, days, and weeks need to change as well.

Getting everything together is important. You need to know exactly what your goals and priorities are, you need to organise what you’re going to be working on, your work space, and your systems! Read more of the blog post for an expansion on those organisation tips.

And then time management is another important one!

Time management is more than just having more time, it’s also more of making the most of the time that you have. It’s hard to get everything together when you always feel like you’re lacking time.

That’s why it’s important to know as well what your priorities are, that’s why you actually need to have a planned schedule, and implement time-saving strategies. Read more on the blog post for an expansion of those tips.

Overall, planning is key. Planning is key to making sure that we work as effectively and as productively as possible. Planning is essential, there’s no sugarcoating that.

Just note that we cannot absolutely improve our planning to a 100% level. Because the truth is that there are going to be changes into our life along the way that’s going to require us to adjust. When we adjust, sometimes there are those productivity slip ups, that we learn from and improve along the way.

The only thing we have control over is how we react and adjust… that’s why you properly plan those sorts of things!

2 – Self-Talk

My goodness, self-talk is a skill that took me so long to build!

Like a lot of things, it has improved significantly compared to when I was back in high school, but there is always room for improvement.

Self-talk is the way that you talk to yourself. Our self-talk is programmed through the words and statements we say to ourselves. It’s important for productivity, because our self-talk would eventually influence the actions that we take.

For instance, if our self-talk with productivity is positive, we feel more motivated and uplifted to keep going with our work.

If our self-talk with productivity is negative, we lose that drive and motivation to keep going.

I have a whole blog post on how to improve your self-talk that will help a lot. Self-talk is something that can work for us or against us. Obviously, we want the self-talk to work for us.

If our self-talk isn’t something that is helping us, then that’s when we need to change it. It will take time and practice, but with consistency you will get there.

Just note that just like planning, our self-talk cannot absolutely be improved 100%. Because like what was said earlier, we will go through changes throughout our life that can put us in different and new situations that’s going to require our self-talk to adapt and change.

For example, you can have 100% good self-talk with your studies, but then you’ll have to rebuild and adapt again once you graduate, and go into the workforce. Then you improve it again once you get a job, but then you again have to adapt again when you get a promotion or you have a big project you’ve never done before. It’s an neverending cycle.

But it’s all okay, it’s all part of growth.

Self-talk is a HUGE part of growth, and especially with productivity as well. Remember, your productivity slip ups will help you strengthen your self-talk when it comes to being more productive!

3 – Habits

Habits…. my favourite topic in the world.

But anyway, habits are going to make or break your productivity.

This is the most simple way to put it…

You have bad habits, it’s going to waste your time. When you waste your time, it hurts your productivity.

You have good habits, it’s going to save your time. When you save your time, it’s good for your productivity.

What are examples of bad habits? Well, there are many bad habits out there, but no matter what it is they will waste your time. Think of any bad habit out there, and really think about how that ends up wasting your time in the long run.

Think about the bad habits of watching TV and going on social media too much… you already know that it’s an obvious time waster right?

What about the bad habits of eating junk food or not exercising? Okay, maybe it’s not an obvious time waster, but what about in the long-term when you have to make up for it all?

Now let’s go to the good habits. Good habits are obviously great because they save your time. They save your time in the short term and in the long term.

For example, good eating habits save you from wasting your time trying to make up for it in the long term.

Good work habits save you time from making up for it in the long term…. and also the short term!

I have a blog post on how to build your habits and break them. And when it comes to productivity, habits are going to be our best friend here.

We need to have good habits set in place to help set ourselves up for success with productivity.

Habits are automated, we do them without even thinking of it. We do them without even knowing it sometimes, it’s automatic. That’s why when we have good habits that lead to success, we make things easy for us.

That’s why reflect on your habits right now. See if there are any habits that are not doing you any favors, and work on breaking them.

If there are any habits that are doing great for you, then by all means keep doing them! Think of any habits that you think would benefit you with your productivity! Then work on building them. Yes, it will take time and lots of practice, sometimes there are challenges along the way. But remember building habits are a skill that we can always improve on.

REMINDER: there’s always something to improve on

So I’m going to wrap up this blog post with this reminder – there is always going to be something to improve on.

Think about an actual house…. even after it’s full built and completed, there are always going to be improvements made to it. Think about how many times you’ve had to call an electrician, a plumber, or even painters to fix something.

An actual house will always have something that needs to be fixed, whether it’s on the interior or exterior, there is always something to work on. It’s the same with this foundation for productivity.

We can get rid of those excuses, adopt those behaviors, and build those skills. We can build a productivity foundation so strong, but we will always need to make improvements on it… and that’s 100% okay.

Those things help you learn, and what you learn helps you grow. You just have got to be patient with the process, and learn from everything you come across.

Just because you have to always improve on something, it doesn’t mean you’re bad at it. Sometimes it means that you just need to work on it!

-Lauren 😊

Share This Blog Post Here:

Related Articles:

Similar Articles You’ll Also Enjoy:

Click here for all the posts on productivity!

Mistakes People Make When Trying to Be Productive

Easy Productivity Tips for ALL Areas of Your Life

Things to Remember When Wanting to Be More Productive

Time Management Tips YOU NEED!

Organisation TIPS you NEED!

---

---

CONNECT with ME!! 🗯

Instagram:

@laurenlbarri (blog Instagram)

---

---