Time is a word we use so often today. And the major complaint that most of us put on the table is that time is insufficient. With the rise of responsibilities in the workplace and the pace of work, along with the influx of new technologies, it’s not getting better but developing for worse. The more technological advancements we see, the fewer results we will face.
In today’s world, there are more than thirty different techniques and paradigms to save time and be more focused and productive. The POMODORO is one of them, but so are techniques like the Johari window. They all proclaim how to be organized, what to do, not to lose focus, and deliver more within a limited time. Most of these techniques work well if people put more willpower into following and implementing them in the long run. But our brain doesn’t work by only stimulating what is good and forgetting everything else. In the dynamic environment and daily agendas, many things come to distract us and slow us down while we try to show our best sides. However, by personalizing these strategies, you can regain control and empower yourself in your productivity journey.
Now, you may ask yourself – WHY IS THAT HAPPENING? After all, so many people have studied productivity and provided us with helpful tools to be more productive. Or maybe there is another question popping into your mind> “WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?” or another one like, “AM I THE ONLY PERSON WHO IS EASILY DISTRACTED AND INAPPROPRIATE?”(This last one is powerful if you have a high level of self-criticism). Understanding the root of these issues can be a relief, a step towards enlightenment in your productivity journey.
All questions come to mind to help you get better and more organized, and allow you to speed up your productivity further. In most cases, speeding up constantly means people move from the ordinary performer to an overburned and slowing performer with a negative attitude. Sorry, folks. The sad truth is that continually speeding up with significant steps does not lead to more productivity but instead destroys what you have already built in terms of completing tasks and responsibilities. However, by finding a balance in your productivity, you can reassure yourself that you’re on the right track.
More often consultants and trainers help us create our TO-DO lists. And this is not without any intention. Psychologists trust that people naturally want to stick to the positive side of anything. And this looks good at first sight. You can see it in recommendations for daily routines. Here is one for you to see:
Get up at 05:30 AM = start your day early to have time for yourself
Make your bed = the order in your bedroom gives you the feeling that you can bring everything in order
Brush your teeth = the cleanliness feeling comes to say to you that every small step creates happiness
Meditate = Steal your time from the day that will allow you to focus your energy
Read 15,20…pages = Show yourself that you make progress and upgrade yourself daily
Eat a healthy breakfast = give yourself your reward for sticking to the plan of building happiness
Does this sound familiar?
Or maybe another situation where you must build a food and supplementation plan to get in shape. Your steps are probably something like:
Contact an expert to confirm what you already see = external validation boost energy
Build a plan that includes healthy foods only, based on your calorie needs, to show determination and focus on a specific target.
Track progress every week = boost your happiness and internal motivation by looking at numbers.
Change your plan if you see a Plato = show yourself a commitment to build engagement.
Include a cheat day = be kind to yourself and include sweet rewards that mean something to you.
This can continue with different plans or agendas.
Consultants, trainers, and people as a whole focus more on what is good and what to do because the mind accepts the positive more than when you have something to run from.
The sad truth is that positivity can help along the way. Still, with so many distractions around us, it’s hard to focus on beating the situation and achieving positive outcomes by creating a plan of action. And here is where another plan of that plan to succeed loses points and struggles. With all the distractions around us and people using those distractions right in front of our eyes, we struggle to stick only to the positive TO-DO agenda we’ve built.
People try and often fail to fight biases and allurements around them because they start on the wrong foot. Denying everything else except the simple, positive-filled plan of several steps and content can’t be more wrong. Because, actually, we want to be seen as valuable members of a social group we belong to. And here is where the definite NO turns against our hidden wills and may ruin the top-notch positive agenda we are building.
By creating the what to stick to or our TO-DO list, we also need to think about what to include in another list – our personal DON’T-DO list. This list is a good add on to the original TO-DO list. It holds all the things that impact our lives professionally and personally. And guess what? – This list isn’t universal and can’t be built into universal categories. It is personal, holds information relevant only to the person, and has a unique order. Still, there are some categories of actions and principles to use when building the DON’T-DO list to help you achieve your personal goals.
Here are some of the things and areas you should pay attention to when building your DO-NOT-DO list to help you stay more productive, efficient, and happy.
DON’T allow social media to interfere with your productivity.
An HBR-published research from 2023 explains how this element impacts the daily agenda. According to researchers, notifications on our phones and laptops from logged-in social media accounts are causing some thirty-six percent of distractions in Generation Z and Millennials, and twenty-nine percent by older generations. Somehow, people feel the need to look at what is popping up on their devices. It may be a “quick look” that turns into ten minutes or even longer.
DON’T allow chats to come in the way.
Now, I expect you to think about how this could be possible. After all, companies are widely implementing instant messaging and meeting software that send messages instantly, and the sender can also see if the receiver has read it and add additional actions to the messaging list. But this is not the case here. Software like MS Teams, WhatsApp, Zoom, Skype, Viber, and Facebook Messenger has been around for many years. What has changed over the years is not the software; it has similar functionalities, but the patience of people using it. While in the past, this software has been seen as an additional option to the traditional way of communication, now it generates tension and a stronger willingness to respond instantly to “save time”. But if you move to the side and look at them with a critical eye, you can easily see how they distract. Doing something and being interrupted by a message popping up shifts your attention and makes it harder for you to return to the original tempo of what you were doing before the message. It is a prerequisite for more mistakes and delayed results with low quality. So, think again about how not limiting the use of instant messaging apps impacts your daily agenda and what you should change to keep your productivity high and your stress low.
DON’T set an “all-time open door policy ”
I love the paradigm where people can always ask me what they need. “I need one minute from your time” is a regular phrase you may often hear. Now, think through a day and analyze how frequently that minute is coming to you and what the actual longevity of the minute is. For example, I have had to invest this “one minute” to answer a colleague dealing with an auditor. What seemed like a short answer turned into a fifteen-minute explanation. It was a lesson well learned, and I stopped this policy immediately, but the time invested was already lost. So, prioritize your agenda first and DON’T allow others to take a prominent place in it. This is a good step in the direction of managing your day better.
DON’T make excuses to turn to your old habits.
What people efficiently do is to stick to what they know best. Psychologists call it a “comfort zone”. It is tempting to stop what you have started and return to the sweet spot where you are familiar with everything around you: no unpredictable results or situations and no nerving elements. But to stick to what you want best is to stick to the past and not move forward. Every challenge or uncomfortable situation is here to teach something and build a better version of the current person in the future. So, do you think that “I can do it like I always did it” will lead you forward? Or it is just setting the environment for mediocre and predictable behavior and reasonable but not promising results with no growth or personal satisfaction.
DON’T skip newly built habits and schedules.
Feeling uncomfortable in a new environment can lead to thinking about how to return to the old, better-known version of ourselves from the past. People often give up on the latest things. I have started this several times, especially with foreign language learning. Starting without a structured course myself, I have failed more than ten times by starting to learn a particular foreign language from a widely known and highly rated online platform. My excuses were time, effort, other engagements, etc. After the last unsuccessful attempt, I asked my father what was wrong with me. Once back in time, I focused on learning new things, and I got good at two languages. Now, the third one was somehow slipping between my fingers. My dad, who owns several companies and has built several businesses in different industries from scratch, told me: “It is not the effort that makes you quiet, but the sweet spot that you can somehow survive without that third language. Now, get back and set a clear and demanding goal that you will dedicate particular time from your day to learning. No matter how long it will take, stick to it. ” And whoa, like magic, this worked. I dedicated 30 minutes daily to learning, and now I speak my third foreign language fluently. Sticking to the goal you want to achieve as a daily agenda task that is demanding and needs your attention is essential. And inform the surrounding environment that your allocated time cannot be replaced with something else.
DON’T do anything for free
Yes, I know how it sounds – selfish, not serious, childish. After all, you use this technique to stimulate children to learn and grow. But, and it is not surprising, this approach also works for adults. People are reward-driven creatures. We don’t do anything to survive, but to feel like winners and feel personal satisfaction with what we have achieved. There is nothing to reward without a clear plan and steps. However, forgetting this simple step or delaying it too long is not helpful; it predefines failure and rejection of the entire agenda you have built. Every change initiative should have a clear purpose and timeline for me. Set them as milestones and reciprocity activities. Or call them whatever you want them to sound, but with no apparent reward agenda, the progress you see during the initial planning step will lead you to failure in the long run—got that? Now stop, move back, and look at your DON’T list to identify where you need to sugar the results by implementing rewards.
DON’T do rewarding for the sake of it.
What fails us more often than we realize is choosing the wrong rewards. It’s not worth putting something as a reward if it holds no real meaning for you. The more things with low or no value are in the loop, the faster the person rejects the change and turns back to what they know best. There is a lot of advice pointing to the importance of the reward. Most will insist you make the reward an element structured and in specific periods. However, what many advice lists overlook is that this reward must be meaningful to you as a person. If it isn’t, then no matter how expensive or enjoyable it is, the effect on your engagement toward change will be zero.
DON’T stop the process because you achieved a milestone
A common pitfall in learning about DON’T is that it is demanding and does not create comfort. Part of the internal motivation to do the DON’T is to reach the end and either stop or reduce this discomfort. However, the truth is that if you want a constant process of present and future changes and upgrades, you need to sustain the DON’T process and elements as an essential part of your existence. The more you focus on the broader picture and a bigger final goal, and look at the milestones as steps in a long process, the more rewarding the process gets for you.
IN CONCLUSION:
The DOs and DON’Ts lists help organize and move professional and personal life in the desired direction. The more an individual focuses on just one of those lists, the less effective their action plan for change and growth becomes. Balancing between both lists to help your personal and professional development is a prerequisite for a sustainable, organized, traceable, and fulfilling path for moving from one state of body and mind to another with all the benefits from that movement and the growth it creates.
The Human place - a path from you to yourself 