0:00

Today, we're going to talk about productivity.

0:02

More specifically, we're going to try to understand

0:05

why we procrastinate, what we can do

0:07

about it and how we can be more productive

0:10

in our day to day lives. Get excited because

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on the App Store.

1:10

At Kroger, we know the minute a tomato

1:12

is picked off the vine, the fresh timer starts.

1:15

The sooner we get our produce to you, the fresher it is.

1:18

That's why we've completely overhauled our process

1:20

to shorten the time from harvest to

1:22

home for our tomatoes, strawberries,

1:25

and salads. Because we know how much you love

1:27

fresh produce, we give you more time

1:29

to enjoy your tasty fruits and veggies at

1:31

home. So whether you're shopping in store, picking

1:34

up, or prefer delivery, we're committed

1:36

to bringing you the freshest produce possible.

1:38

Kroger, fresh for everyone.

1:41

Welcome to another episode of

1:43

Tiny Leaps. Big changes

1:46

where I share simple strategies to help you live

1:48

a more intentional

1:50

life. My name is Greg Clunis,

1:52

and today I want to talk about

1:55

productivity. I think it's something

1:57

that we all struggle with. It's something that we all

1:59

know. need to be more

2:01

of in our day-to-day lives, especially if we're

2:04

working towards specific goals. But

2:06

it can be really challenging. It can be difficult to

2:08

actually follow through and be productive

2:11

when we need to, especially if

2:13

we've had a hard day or if we are

2:15

just not in sort of the right mental place.

2:18

And so that got me thinking, what is it that

2:20

we actually need to do? What are the

2:22

things that allow us to be more

2:24

productive when we need it in the moment,

2:28

regardless of what's going on for us?

2:31

And I think I found a

2:33

handful of tools that can help. And

2:35

in a moment, I want to share those tools with you.

2:38

But before we jump into that, I

2:40

think it's important that we start with an understanding

2:43

of procrastination. More specifically,

2:45

why do we procrastinate? There

2:48

are a handful of reasons why

2:50

I procrastinate, and I think they might

2:53

be the same for you. So I'm

2:55

going to talk through each of those reasons, and

2:58

hopefully there'll be something that you

3:00

can sort of take in and look

3:02

for in your own day-to-day life. So

3:04

the first big reason is lack of engagement.

3:07

And this is where the task at hand is just not something

3:09

you're that interested in. Like, you have to

3:11

do it. It's important. Maybe your boss asked

3:14

you to do it. Maybe it's for

3:16

like a chore that you just don't really care

3:18

about but needs to be done. But you're not

3:20

that interested. You're not intrinsically motivated

3:23

to move towards that action. And

3:26

this, I think, is often

3:28

the reason. This is probably like the most

3:29

common reason for procrastinating,

3:32

is that you just don't want to do the thing.

3:35

It happens all the time, and it's

3:37

okay. It happens to everyone. But

3:39

it is a massive problem, especially if that

3:41

task needs to be done. And

3:43

one of the things you can do when you find yourself not

3:46

as engaged, not as interested as

3:48

you need to be in order to move this task

3:50

forward, is to try and find

3:53

some other way to put pressure on yourself.

3:55

So for example, you could try

3:57

to focus on the part of that thing that

4:00

you are engaged with and interested in. Maybe

4:02

you're not interested in the outcome, maybe you don't care

4:04

about the task, but there might be a piece

4:06

of it that's important to you. Or you

4:08

could add an external sort

4:11

of source of pressure, some kind of extrinsic

4:13

motivator like a reward, or something

4:16

that works incredibly well for me is to just put

4:18

on a timer, give myself some time

4:20

pressure to focus on that thing.

4:22

And we're gonna talk about some of these strategies in a

4:25

moment. Now the second reason that I've found

4:27

is a lack of confidence. And this is

4:29

typically a skill issue. You

4:31

do not feel that you are capable of

4:33

accomplishing the task at the level it needs

4:35

to be accomplished. And that

4:38

may or may not be true. It might be

4:40

that you can actually do that. The problem

4:42

isn't whether or not you actually can,

4:44

the problem is how you feel about

4:46

it. So you are missing sort of self-confidence

4:49

or you haven't been sort of given the confidence

4:51

you need because you don't

4:54

have the resources or because you don't have the support

4:56

or whatever it might be. So this lack

4:58

of confidence piece is something that

5:01

what we end up finding is if

5:03

we don't feel like we can accomplish the goal

5:05

to the level it needs to be accomplished, we

5:07

find ourselves sort of drifting away

5:10

from it, sort of putting it off constantly,

5:12

not because we're not interested. We want

5:14

to do the thing, we want to move forward on it,

5:17

but because we don't feel like we

5:19

can, because it feels like what's the point

5:21

of starting if we're either not gonna be

5:24

able to finish, we're not gonna be able to finish it in time,

5:26

or it's not going to be good enough. And

5:28

there's another piece of this where it feels like others

5:31

maybe don't value that task

5:33

as much as you do. And so it's important,

5:36

it's something that you're driven to do and

5:38

intrinsically motivated to take action

5:40

on, but others outside

5:42

of you may feel that it's not

5:45

that important and they may share that with

5:47

you, which then leads to a lack of confidence

5:49

in whether or not you should move that thing forward.

5:52

Because at the end of the day, it's hard to argue

5:54

for something that you think is important if

5:57

others, especially those above you

5:59

are telling. you. It's not that important. So

6:01

when you find yourself struggling with this reason

6:04

for procrastinating, one of the best

6:06

things you can do is to try

6:08

to figure out where that's coming from. What

6:11

is the reason for the lack of confidence? If

6:13

it's a lack of skill, then you need to commit to

6:15

trying to sort of fill that gap at

6:17

least to a small degree. The more

6:19

skill and knowledge you gain here, the more

6:22

confident you'll feel. If it's a lack of support,

6:25

then you need to start having conversations. You

6:27

need to speak to the people who could

6:29

be supporting you, who should be supporting you, and

6:31

start to figure out what's missing. Why aren't

6:34

they? Is it that it's truly not important,

6:37

or is it that they're just not as engaged

6:39

and interested as you are? And then

6:41

the third reason for procrastinating is

6:43

also one I suffer from, which is the lack

6:46

of energy. So this comes

6:48

when you find yourself wanting to do something.

6:50

You know you can do it, but you just

6:53

can't get yourself the focus. You can't get

6:55

yourself to stay

6:57

engaged long enough. And this also

7:00

comes from physical factors like not

7:02

getting enough sleep, not eating well enough,

7:04

not having the

7:06

sources of energy that you need

7:09

in order to follow through on

7:11

the task. And this one, thankfully,

7:14

is sometimes the easiest to solve

7:16

because it just comes down to

7:19

fixing those like physical problems.

7:22

Getting yourself enough sleep, making

7:24

sure that you're eating however you need to eat

7:26

in order to feel energized, making

7:28

sure you're drinking more water, doing the things

7:30

to take care of your health that allow

7:32

you to be engaged with the task.

7:35

But before we move on to talk about

7:37

the three techniques that I'm going to share with

7:40

you in this episode, I want to point out that

7:42

each of these problems, each of these

7:44

reasons for procrastinating, are solved

7:47

by one thing, and that is

7:49

more organization. So

7:52

the idea is whatever your reason

7:54

for procrastinating, oftentimes

7:56

the best solution is to simply create

7:58

a plan for it. Now that That plan might

8:00

include new tools and

8:03

practices and techniques to help you

8:05

move past the not taking

8:07

action phase, or it might just include

8:10

the work you do before you sit

8:12

down to try and work like eating

8:14

healthier, getting to sleep, so on and so forth.

8:17

But organization and systems

8:19

are typically the solution for

8:22

productivity and procrastination problems.

8:25

And I want you to keep that in mind as we go forward because what I want

8:27

to talk about now are four specific

8:29

tools

8:29

for tackling procrastination

8:32

and being far more productive

8:34

utilizing

8:36

organization and systems.

8:38

At Kroger, we know the minute a tomato

8:40

is picked off the vine, the fresh timer starts.

8:43

The sooner we get our produce to you, the fresher it is.

8:46

That's why we've completely overhauled our process

8:48

to shorten the time from harvest to home

8:50

for our tomatoes, strawberries, and

8:53

salads. As we know how much you love

8:55

fresh produce, we give you more time

8:57

to enjoy your tasty fruits and veggies at

8:59

home. So whether you're shopping in store, picking

9:01

up, or prefer delivery, we're committed

9:03

to bringing you the freshest produce possible.

9:06

Kroger, fresh for everyone.

9:08

So

9:08

the first is to help with

9:10

prioritization, and it's called the Eisenhower

9:13

box. Now if you're familiar with the show, I've

9:15

talked about the Eisenhower box before. It's

9:18

a phenomenal way to help you identify

9:20

what you need to be working on next.

9:23

So here's how it works. You take a piece of paper

9:25

and you draw a square on it. Now

9:27

within that square, you're going to subdivide

9:30

it into four smaller squares.

9:32

So you just draw a line down the middle and a

9:34

line down the middle in the other

9:37

direction, whether horizontally or vertical. You

9:39

divide that larger box into

9:42

four smaller boxes. Now

9:44

you're going to want to label those boxes. So in the top

9:46

left, you're going to label it important and

9:49

urgent. In the top right, you're going to label it

9:51

important but not urgent. In

9:53

the bottom left, we're going to label it not

9:55

important but urgent. And then

9:57

the bottom right, we're going to label it not important.

10:00

It's not important, but not

10:02

urgent. And what you end up with is

10:05

a very simple system where you

10:07

can now take the tasks that you are

10:09

working on and you can drop them

10:11

into each of these sections

10:14

based on how you evaluate them.

10:17

Are they important? Is there urgency attached

10:19

to them? Place them where they need to be. And

10:21

what you find is it becomes crystal

10:23

clear what you need to work on and

10:26

what order to work on them. So the things

10:28

that are important and urgent, obviously need to be done

10:31

immediately. The things that are important but

10:33

not urgent maybe need

10:35

to be done after the things that are

10:38

urgent but not important. And that's not always

10:40

going to be easy to see until

10:42

you use a system like this. Now

10:44

you can take things further by

10:47

actually adding a rule to this where

10:49

anything that falls into that not

10:51

important and not urgent box

10:54

just completely gets dropped. We

10:56

no longer worry about it or think about it.

10:59

We'll revisit it if it ever becomes important

11:01

or urgent. But if it's not important and

11:03

it's not urgent, it really shouldn't be done. And

11:06

there are a thousand other things we need to do.

11:08

So using something like the Eisenhower box

11:11

can help us to get a better understanding

11:13

of what actually needs to be worked on as

11:16

we're planning out our tasks for

11:18

the day. And it also adds some additional

11:20

context to those tasks so

11:22

that as we're working on them, we can

11:25

keep that in mind. If something is important

11:27

and urgent, it's significantly easier

11:29

to stay focused on it if we

11:32

know that ahead of time rather than just

11:34

working off of a to-do list and just seeing

11:36

a task on a page. Now the next

11:39

tool is called time blocking. And

11:41

this is something I've been doing significantly

11:43

more in my personal

11:45

life. And it's the practice of taking

11:48

a calendar and blocking out time

11:50

for specific tasks. And you

11:53

can do this based on the task or

11:55

you can do it on the category. So you

11:57

may have a two-hour block to work on.

12:00

something like video editing, or you may have

12:02

a two-hour block that is marked content

12:04

and it could include scripting or recording

12:07

or video editing. Whichever

12:09

approach works for you, I think it's worth

12:11

testing both and seeing. It's also

12:13

possible that some days it'll make

12:15

sense to go based on the task, and

12:17

other days it'll make sense to go

12:20

based on the category. But whatever your

12:22

approach is, taking that

12:24

calendar and blocking out time specifically

12:27

for those things allows us

12:29

to prioritize that work. It

12:32

frees our thoughts up so that we don't have

12:34

to think about that thing anymore because it's

12:36

been considered. The work is going to

12:38

get done, it's scheduled in the calendar. And

12:41

so we don't have to worry about it. It doesn't have

12:43

to be on our mind anymore until that

12:46

time comes. And it also

12:48

gives us the advantage of being more flexible

12:50

throughout the day. Because something is scheduled

12:52

ahead of time, if we find that

12:55

we're going to need to move that block,

12:58

we can do so. We can shift

13:00

it by 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes in

13:03

either direction and give ourselves

13:05

the time still, give ourselves the focus

13:08

for that specific task or category,

13:10

but be flexible to the needs

13:12

of the day as things pop up. The

13:15

next technique I want to talk about is the Pomodoro

13:17

technique. Now this is something I, this

13:19

is a thing that I love. Like it's

13:22

probably my favorite productivity

13:24

tool ever. I talk about

13:26

it all the time and I could not recommend it more,

13:29

but it's specifically while you're

13:31

working on the task. So the other

13:33

tools are about like organizing

13:35

the task and sort of choosing when

13:38

you're going to work on something, what you're going to

13:40

work on. This is during the actual

13:42

work and it's much more about how

13:44

you work. So the Pomodoro technique for anyone

13:47

who isn't familiar is the process

13:49

of setting a timer for 25 minutes, working

13:52

for those 25 minutes and then taking

13:55

a five minute break. After that, you'll reset

13:57

the clock, do another 25 minutes followed by... another

14:00

five minutes and you'll repeat that for

14:03

five sessions. After

14:05

those five you can take a longer break.

14:07

Now here's what I love about this. There's a few things.

14:09

The first is that you have dedicated rest

14:12

time. This is something that I think we often

14:14

don't think about when we consider how

14:16

we're going to become more productive. We're

14:18

just focused on doing the work but

14:21

we forget that a massive part of productivity

14:24

is giving ourselves the space we need to

14:26

rest. Rest is huge when

14:28

it comes to productivity. It ensures that we

14:30

have the energy to dedicate to that

14:33

task which allows us to avoid

14:35

that problem of lacking energy

14:37

when it comes to being productive. It also

14:39

helps us to stay engaged with the task

14:41

over time and and continue to

14:44

sort of enjoy that thing rather than feeling

14:46

burned out. So it builds rest

14:48

into the work process by giving you

14:51

those dedicated five minutes. That

14:53

also then serves as a reward. It's

14:55

much easier to stay focused for the 25 minutes

14:58

because you know this rest is going to

15:00

come. You know this break is built

15:02

into the process. You don't need to

15:04

reach for your phone during the work session because

15:07

you'll have five minutes to do it as

15:09

soon as you're done. And then the third

15:11

thing that I think it's helpful for is time pressure

15:14

by giving you this sort of restricted

15:16

period of time for work these 25 minutes

15:19

and then setting a timer counting

15:21

down for those 25 minutes that

15:24

you can typically see the countdown

15:26

happening. The time pressure helps

15:28

you to stay locked in and I can't

15:30

tell you how many times that I've started to

15:32

drift and I've started to wonder like, why

15:35

am I doing this? What am I doing? And I see that

15:37

clock counting down and I see that it says 15

15:39

minutes left or 12 minutes left and

15:42

I feel like yeah okay I can keep pushing.

15:44

And this happens for any of you who go

15:46

to the gym or do any kind of like at home workout.

15:49

This happens when you have a timer

15:51

working for you in the gym as well. If you're

15:53

taking a class, you're in the middle of that

15:55

class, it feels tough, it feels difficult

15:58

to push through and then you see that you

16:00

actually only have eight minutes left of the class,

16:03

it all of a sudden becomes easier to find

16:05

the energy you need to keep pushing.

16:08

And part of it is because the energy was always

16:10

there, but because

16:12

you felt like you just were on this endless

16:15

treadmill, you couldn't tap into it. Once

16:17

you saw that there was an end in sight

16:20

and you were making progress towards that,

16:22

you were able to activate that sort

16:25

of built-in energy that you weren't accessing

16:27

before. And if you're interested in that topic

16:30

more, I'm gonna be talking about it over on my

16:32

personal YouTube channel. Link is in the description.

16:35

But the last tool that I want to talk about

16:37

is called the two-minute rule. And this one

16:39

is interesting to me because it's about

16:42

the action piece of things. So

16:44

it's kind of a rule for how we determine when

16:46

something comes in what we're going

16:49

to do as far as how we work on them. So

16:52

the two-minute rule states that when something comes in, if

16:54

it can be completed in under two minutes,

16:57

we just do it immediately. The value

16:59

here is that oftentimes when

17:01

we're working off of a to-do list or a project

17:03

management system or any of these sort

17:05

of like methods of working, we find

17:08

ourselves with this endless list

17:10

of things that need to be done, either

17:12

from ideas we have or requests from other

17:15

people. And this list can build up over

17:17

time into this massive source of

17:19

stress and anxiety. And this can actually

17:22

contribute to our second reason for

17:24

procrastination, which was that lack of confidence.

17:26

It feels like we can't tackle this

17:29

mountain, so we're just not gonna start.

17:32

And one of the things that the two-minute

17:34

rule allows for is if something comes

17:36

in and it's gonna take less than two minutes, we just get

17:38

it done immediately. We no longer add

17:41

to the pile. What that also has the effect

17:43

of is everything that's left in our like task

17:45

list is going to be focused on those bigger

17:48

projects that can't be done in two minutes.

17:51

And so we give ourselves the the

17:53

space to track those projects. Meanwhile,

17:56

these two-minute tasks get knocked

17:58

out immediately. Now there is a

18:00

sort of second level to this technique

18:03

where we can add this rule

18:05

that says if something is going to take

18:07

longer than two minutes, we have

18:09

the option to start it immediately

18:12

and work on it for exactly two

18:14

minutes. Now this feels stupid

18:17

on the surface, right? Like what's the point? The

18:19

point is, and I've talked about this in the past

18:22

on the show, it is significantly easier

18:24

to return to something, something

18:26

that you've already started, something that you've already been working

18:28

on. It's significantly

18:29

easier to go back to that than

18:32

it is to start something new.

18:34

And I've talked about this in the past in relationship

18:36

to like our identity. Like I've said in

18:39

the past, it's easier if you identify

18:41

as a runner, it's going to be easier to get back into

18:43

running than if you're brand new

18:46

to running and want to get started. And

18:48

a reason for that is because it's sort of tied

18:50

into who you are. You are a runner

18:53

and so running happens by default.

18:56

A similar thing happens here where

18:58

you've started the task, it's much,

19:01

much less overwhelming to go back

19:03

to it and work on it from this micro

19:05

sort of level. Then it would be

19:08

thinking about the entire thing and

19:10

getting overwhelmed by everything that needs to happen

19:13

and just never starting. So adding

19:15

this additional rule can sometimes

19:18

make it easier to get

19:21

things moving so that it doesn't

19:23

just sit there forever, especially when it's one

19:26

of those bigger projects. Now I don't

19:28

love this rule and the main reason for

19:30

that is because you end

19:33

up with a lot of like big projects

19:36

that have been started and it also

19:38

makes it difficult to prioritize

19:42

like, okay so I'm going to start this thing for two

19:44

minutes, I'm going to start that thing for two minutes, but when

19:46

am I ever working on these things? But

19:49

I think if you take that rule and you combine

19:52

it with the time blocking where you've

19:54

got scheduled time for things, I

19:57

think it could become a really powerful

20:00

But you'll have to try it out and let me know

20:03

what you think. If you enjoyed this episode and you want

20:05

to join the conversation, head over to YouTube

20:07

if you're not already watching there and leave a comment

20:10

on this video. The podcast

20:12

YouTube is there. You can also, if you're watching

20:15

this on Spotify, just respond to today's

20:17

question. I'd love to hear your thoughts. If

20:19

you want to watch this podcast again, but seriously

20:21

condensed, I've actually started doing

20:24

three-minute podcasts. So I take the entire

20:26

podcast episode. I cut out everything that's

20:28

not absolutely critical and I release

20:31

it in full over on TikTok and Instagram.

20:34

So the links for those can be found in the description

20:36

of this episode or it's Instagram

20:39

at tinyleaps and TikTok at tinyleaps.

20:42

But super worth watching,

20:44

super worth sharing with a friend. It's probably

20:46

the most digestible version

20:48

of these podcasts. So check them out. Let me know

20:50

what you think. And with that said, thank

20:53

you so much for being here. My name is Greg Clunis

20:55

and remember that all big changes come

20:57

from the tiny leaps you take

21:00

every day.