Xpansion Code Radio
Maximize Your Day with Productivity Habits
Episode Summary
10 Habits That Supercharge Your Productivity! Discover actionable habits to make your day more productive. Learn how to optimize your routine for efficiency and effectiveness.
Episode Notes
Introduction: Unlock Your Productivity Potential
Hey there, fellow productivity seekers! Ready to kick your daily routine into high gear? In this newsletter, we're diving deep into habits that can transform your average day into a powerhouse of productivity. From morning rituals to evening wind-downs, we've got 10 essential habits to share that'll supercharge your day. Let's dive in and make every moment count!
Habits that will make your day more productive.
1. Rise and Shine: The Power of Morning Rituals: Start your day off right with purposeful morning rituals that set a positive tone.Early Bird Gets the Worm: Wake Up with Purpose: Rise and shine with intention! Whether it's setting goals or practicing gratitude, starting your day with a clear mindset can set the stage for success.
2. Mastering Time Management: Key to Productivity: Time is precious—learn how to manage it effectively for maximum productivity.
3. Prioritize with Purpose: Harness the Power of To-Do Lists: Stay on track with to-do lists that prioritize tasks and keep you focused on what matters most. Break down big goals into actionable steps for a sense of accomplishment.
4. Embrace the Pomodoro Technique: Work Smarter, Not Harder: Say goodbye to procrastination! Embrace focused bursts of work with the Pomodoro Technique to maintain productivity and prevent burnout. The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that helps you focus on a single task for short intervals, usually 25 minutes, followed by a short break, usually 5 minutes. The idea is to divide your work into manageable chunks and avoid distractions and procrastination.
5. Cultivating a Growth Mindset: Unlock Your Potential: Adopt a growth mindset to overcome obstacles and reach new heights.
6. Embrace Challenges: Turn Setbacks into Opportunities: View challenges as chances to grow and learn. Shift your perspective to see setbacks as steppingstones to success.
7. Continuous Learning: Expand Your Horizons: Commit to lifelong learning for personal and professional growth. Dive into books, courses, and mentorship opportunities to stay ahead of the curve.
8. Streamlining Your Environment: Set the Stage for Success: Optimize your surroundings for productivity by decluttering physical and digital spaces.
9. Clear the Clutter: Minimize Distractions Create a workspace free of distractions to enhance focus and productivity. A tidy environment leads to a clear mind.
10. Digital Detox: Unplug for Mental Refreshment: Take breaks from screens to recharge and foster creativity. Disconnecting from technology can boost mental clarity and overall well-being.
Conclusion: Elevate Your Productivity Today: And there you have it—10 game-changing habits to make your day more productive than ever! Whether you're a busy professional or just looking to optimize your routine, these habits will help you unlock your full potential. So why wait? Start implementing them today and watch your productivity soar!
FAQs
Q: How long does it take to form a new habit?
A: Research suggests it takes around 66 days, but everyone's journey is different!
Q: Can I adopt all 10 habits at once?
A: While it's possible, starting with one or two may lead to greater success.
Q: What if I fall off track with my habits?
A: Don't sweat it! Just refocus and keep moving forward.
Q: Are these habits suitable for everyone?
A: Absolutely! They're adaptable to any lifestyle or profession.
Q: How can I measure the effectiveness of these habits?
A: Try keeping a productivity journal to track your progress.
Q: Can these habits help with work-life balance?
A: Definitely! By maximizing productivity, you'll have more time for relaxation and fun.
Get started today and unlock your full potential with these powerful habits!
Episode Transcription
Ep-143.mp3
So I have a question. How are small business owners like us who are screening 60 plus hours a week working in our businesses are still struggling. To make ends meet. We have no time to spend with family, friends or the things we write the most in life. People trapped inside of our businesses and is consuming our lives. How do we get the freedom to? Be able to work on our businesses and not in them.
That is the question this podcast will give you the answer. My name is John Nichols, and this is expansion code. What's up, everyone? Welcome to today's podcast. My name is John Nichols, and this is expansion code radio. Well, folks, I'm really glad to be back. It's been almost an entire year. As of March 2nd was my last podcast. I did last year and this one will come out on February 29th leap year. And I'm really glad to be back and. Just sharing some content with you folks. So today I want to go back and kind of rehash an old podcast I did. It was episode 70. Productivity habits, and I really think this is such. A vital part of. Our days, especially as business owners. It's really hard for us to stay focused for us to get the most productivity we can out of our day. And to really be able to. Maximize what we do on a day in and day out basis. So I'm once again, I'm going to talk about some of these things. Some of the topics I'm gonna talk about, I've got 10 habits that will supercharge your productivity today. That's what the title is. Going to be. And in this. I really just want to dig into some of these topics. They will overlap from episode 70 and if you haven't listened to episode 70, please go back and download it. It is a fantastic episode and in fact it is my most popular episode I've ever created. Let's just kind of get into it. So unlocking your productivity potential. So the first thing I want to talk about is the power of mourning rituals. And this is vital. I'm starting your day off. On the right foot. If we may, if we set the tone. For the day. Our days normally go better and when we don't set the tone and just kind of. We are just kind of. Left to our own vices. Well, our days can get kind of screwy and so The thing is, is that. Whether or not you are a morning person or not, we all wake up in the mornings, and if you're not a morning person, I would suggest just waking up 30 minutes early. Nothing crazy, just 30 minutes earlier. The reason why is that before you get the day started before you get a shower, before you do any of these other things, you really need to take some time for yourself. Shake out the cobwebs and really kind of focus your mind about what's going to go on for the day. And you can start off with a bunch of different things, but it you know you can start off like setting goals. Participating like a gratitude journaling thing. Quiet time with God meditation. Yoga exercise. Something to kind of get your day started off and this needs to be a ritual. This needs to be consistent in your life. And it's vital that you pick something that you can start your day off, that it's positive. So when you have this positivity. That really leads your day to where? It needs to go. What happens is is that you can get super laser focused on the things that you want to do and also part of this morning ritual. And I mentioned this a minute ago, but you really need to take about 5 minutes and just kind of. Set your goals. Or if you do like me, then not before. I set my goals for what's going to happen for the next day. So this way when I jump into my day. I already have my task and what I'm going to be doing lay down. In front of me. And so let me give you a prime example of today for me. So I normally got. I got out of my ritual. I'm really not a I am normally not a early riser in the morning. I normally try to wake up about 30 minutes ahead of time before I get a shower and all. That fun stuff. And I'm only just kind of clear my mind and I like to spend quiet time about 30 minutes with God before I start my day off, and that may not be the case with you, but that's OK. You need to find something to start your day off. That is very productive and very positive, OK. But today, I didn't sleep well last night. My dogs, I have really big dogs. I have a Great Pyrenees and also have a Newfoundland and they both were in and out all night long. My my Great Pyrenees is the is my. Patrol where he. Patrols my property and barks and everything with the sun, but for whatever reason him and my other dog Sophie would decide to go in and out last night. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep and so today I for I for went my normal ritual waking up 30 minutes early. I did the wake up just in time. Today and it really kind of bit me in the ****. So what happened is I I just got up. I went to the bathroom, got a shower, got dressed, and then I took off and took my son to school today. Today was the last day I was I am teaching or was teaching a leadership class or John Maxwell leadership class to. My local high school. And it was a six weeks course on becoming a person of influence. It's a book by John Maxwell. Anyhow, I was teaching this book for six weeks and then today was my last one, so. I my day just got started off in a hurry. My mind was racing about things I had to do. I didn't plan for anything last night. I didn't do anything really well last night. And so. I everything was just jumbled and when I got up to do my presentation today and to teach on becoming a person of influence. Folks, I just didn't do well at all because I didn't prepare the way I should have prepared, prepared, not prepared but pre prepared. And the problem was is that. I wasn't focused. In my productivity on what I normally do. Was off. And so that's a big thing for me. And it really just messed my day up. And so if I had stuck to you and just. Got up when my worm went off. Did my normal morning ritual that I do. I would have had a better and more productive day today. And so that there is the first productivity habit you can do is create a morning ritual. I've got friends of mine that they wake up at 5:00 AM every morning and they. They have their own one and which one they spend the first two hours of their day. Doing their morning ritual mine is only 30 minutes, but you still need to carve out time to make a morning ritual and stick to it. The next thing is is learning how to master your time or schedule your time out correctly. It's a really big thing in in my household. Me and my wife and my kids, we all share a Google Calendar and then I have a separate work schedule calendar that I put stuff in and then I have a task sheet or a task log on things that I have to get done that day. And and and then in the next one I'll. Talk about it to. Do list but. And I think in this one, it's more than anything is that we really need to schedule out our time and we need to value our time. It is our most precious commodity. We'll never, ever get it back, whatever we. Whenever time goes by. We can never get any of that back. So you need to guard your time and make sure that you are. Doing everything that you possibly can to make sure that you understand that time is precious. And maximize everything that you do. So my suggestion for this is to get a Google Calendar or whatever platform you want to use whatever calendar platform. You want to use. And start scheduling out all your stuff and sharing it with other people. When you share with other people, they can help keep you accountable for making sure that you are scheduling and managing your time to have the most productivity you can have. The next one is is prioritize with purpose. Honor the power of the of the To Do List. Now this is a great thing because for me I'm I'm pretty much a free spirit, but in order for me to be super productive, I gotta have A to do list. I gotta have things work out for myself. I need to do this, this, this and I need to have them prioritize. To make sure that I'm doing the things that I need to be doing now, people have different ways of prioritizing things. Me, I normally like getting the hardest thing done first. Because I get that out of the way with and then the other things. I have are normally. Pretty doggone easy and so I always try to do the hardest 1st and then it's like a reward doing the easy things afterwards. But that's kind of what that's my philosophy. Yours may be just the opposite. You wanna get the easy things done 1st and then leave the the the most unenjoyable task for last. That's fine. Sometimes my task are time sensitive and so I have to base them on the time sensitivity. Plus, whether or not they are enjoyable or not. So these are some of. The things that I do in order to have a priority and purpose in my To Do List. The next thing is to work smarter, not harder, and so there is a technique called the Pomodoro technique. And what this does is that it kind of harnesses how you spend your time and how long you spend your time on different tasks and To Do List. And basically it is your way of saying goodbye to procrastination. So basically. It focuses your work. And and it it's like a burst mode. OK, so this is how it works. The Pomodoro technique is a time management method that helps you focus on a single task for a short interval, usually 25 minutes, and then you follow up by a short break, which is usually 5 minutes. The idea is to divide your work into manageable chunks and avoid distractions and procrastination like I said. You have a. You have A to do list, right? And then you have task needs to do this. So let's say that one of your items may take two hours to do well. Break that up into 25 minute chunks with the 5 minute break in between. That is what the Pomodoro technique teaches and. It's a really good way, especially if you get if you get if you procrastinate a lot or if you get bored. Easy. This right here will keep you focused because we can get really focused for 25 minutes and then just get up. Go outside, take a little walk or something. Go pitch your animals. I don't know. Just get up and move around. Get up and go. Do some jumping jacks or some push-ups or something. Who knows? Whatever you need to do to exercise or to get your mind kind of cleared and not think about what you're doing. Then sit back down. Be sure and write down when when you stop, write down what you're doing and where you're at, and then you can come back to this and pick right back up. But these five minute breaks in between really re energizes you so that this way. You can really maximize. Your productivity for that day. The next one is cultivating a growth mindset. You know you need to unlock your potential here. And The thing is, is that a growth mindset is this. It is always looking at learning from your mistakes that there's a growth mindset. It's always trying to. It's always a a mindset of trying to improve yourself, to make yourself better. It's always looking at things in a positive lot instead of a negative lot and I. Know that's hard. Folks, believe me. I really know that's hard. But it is a. Great attribute to develop and you have to be intentional with this to you know really grow that. Mindset of positivity. And you really have to be super intentional about how you do. So prime example today. We'll go back to my example and me getting up late, rushing through my stuff and everything else. I still developed a positive mindset and after I got finished teaching today and I was on my way home, I was just like, OK, what have I learned today from this and what can I do to improve? Myself from this and how can I move forward? Those were the questions I asked myself and that there is one of the ways is ask these questions of yourself what did what? What can I learn from this? How can I improve? What did I do wrong? And what can I do in the future to not make that same mistake? And this is all about that really positive growth mindset. The next one we're going to talk about is embrace change, turn setbacks into opportunities. That's kind of what I was talking about. We have challenges every day. And they are always what I call learning opportunities. And this is all about positivity. So the the last one and this one, the growth mindset is being able to let yourself. And understand that you need to be able to look at things in a different way. This one is actually application. So when you start asking yourself. What did I do wrong in this situation? How can I improve it? When really bad things happen in your life, I promise you this. There's a saying that goes around that says every dark cloud has a silver lining. It's true, but I always add a little something extra to that. So my saying is every dark cloud has a silver lining, but sometimes you really gotta look for that silver lining and figure out where it is. What that means is that. Positive things aren't always easy to see or easy to find, especially when things are going really bad. And so you have to have that awareness. You have to develop that awareness to be looking for the positive things even when you're having. Your worst day. And it's all about resetting your mind to look for positive attributes or things that happen because anytime you think bad happens. If there's normally some form. Of learning opportunity or some form of clarity about something about that situation that you just haven't looked for. So I really, really encourage you to do this. And this is, you know this is. You have to develop overtime. It's hard. You know. I used to yell at my son like me. My son. He's 15 now. He and I used to **** heads left and right, and I used to scream at him and yell at him. And the only thing I was doing was sitting back our relationship. I was, I was harming our relationship. And so I had to develop awareness of every time that I was getting upset because I'm gonna be honest. I've been doing it all my life, you know, whenever I get upset, I yell and all these things I've been doing, that they've been a habit I learned from my parents, from a very young age. And the crazy thing about it was, is that I started praying to God. God give me awareness for these moments when I am upset. So I realize I'm upset so I can make a better choice. So this really was a prayer I had that I went on and on. I mean, I mean, these these are awareness. Prayers are prayers. I have every day. And if you don't believe in God, that's OK. You can still be mindful. You can write these things down to be more aware every day. You can put your little post, it notes different place, be more aware and as long as you teach your subconscious mind to be more aware of about about different subjects. Then your subconscious mind will learn. These triggers, and then we'll bring them up saying this is a trigger. John, you need to understand what you're doing. Make it make. It make a different choice and so that's what kind of happened with me. So every time I would get upset before I would yell. My my subconscious mind would click and be like, hey John, you have a choice now on whether or not you want to. You're at your son, or whether you want to take a step back. Get calmed down. Don't let my emotions rule me. And then make a better choice on how I'm going to communicate with my son, or even if this is even worth being mad about. And so that there was. Something that I had to develop and it and it's basically awareness. You can train your subconscious mind. To be aware of triggers. That you have as habits. So that you can make better choices so you can take setbacks and turn them into opportunities. The next one is continuous learning. Expand your horizons now. This is a big thing for me. I make time every day to read. I make time every day. To do some form of education. You have to be very intentional. About doing this. When you're talking about continual being a continual learner. Because I am a continual learner and I will never, ever know everything, I'm always trying to improve myself. And I'm also always looking for personal growth. And so I really like reading if you don't like reading, there's all kinds of other things you can watch videos out there, you can listen to audio. You can actually go and take courses. You can have a mentor that can pour into you. There's all kinds of ways that you can do personal growth and development. And it's the opportunities to stay ahead of the curve. It's the opportunities to be more positive. It's the opportunities to make you the best version of yourself that you can be. And so I really encourage you to find what? Or a way that you can be a continuous learner and then apply it daily. #8 is your environment. Set the stage for success. Optimize your surroundings. Or productivity by decluttering physically in digital spaces too. So what does that mean? Well, for one, if you got a really cluttered desk or workspace, wherever you're at, straighten it up before you start. Because with lots of people. They will. Get very distracted by. The things that is around them. And that goes for your cell phone that there is the biggest distraction we have the biggest cluttering things that we have. So what we're doing first is just setting the stage so clean up our surroundings. OK, so that this way, we won't be. Distracted. The next one is. Clear the cutters clutter, not cutter, clear the clutter. And so you're going to minimize all your distractions. So our biggest distractions that we have in this modern world is our cell phones, so. I don't say turn them off, but I say turn them over, put them on silent or vibrate, and then if you use the Palmer door. Technique you can check out your phone during that 5 minute break and it will really help. Keep you distracted. Or, yeah, I'll take that back. We'll really help keep you undistracted. On the things that you're doing. For me. I only read emails twice a day. I read them in the morning and I read them in the afternoons and I'll also check my e-mail like I don't know an hour before I go to bed, but it's normally first thing in the mornings whenever I'm sitting down to work. In case I've missed something that there's part. Of my preparation for. My work day and then the next thing is, is that in the afternoons, about 4:00 to 5:00, I'll check my emails again. And if there's anything that I need to respond to. And these are really big things. And so quick checking your e-mail every 5 minutes, quick checking your text messages every 5 minutes. Quick checking. Social media every 5 minutes, OK. In fact, social media. Is our biggest distractor. We have this day. How many times have you just been sitting around and get down a rabbit hole? So you're at lunch. All right and. You start looking at social media and you get sucked into a rabbit hole. The next thing you know, you're late getting off. Your lunch break. I mean, seriously. This is a common thing that happens to people. We get sucked down these rabbit holes of social media, put the phones down, quit looking at it and in fact, what I've done before is I've done a social media detox, which is I've completely deleted. The apps haven't gotten rid of the. The accounts I just delete the apps off my phone. And it is a big, big thing. Which leads us into our next one, which is digital detox, which is just what I was talking about. Unplugged for mural refreshness. So take a break from that stuff. I did it for about 6 months. I deleted all social media, including YouTube. All of. And when I did that. I went to reading instead and when I went to reading, that meant that I was now being a continual learner, and now I was setting myself up for success. And so still. Do you wanna do my brakes? I take during the day I try to read a little bit and it kind of kind of resets my mind. It gets my mind off of work, gets it on whatever I'm reading and it doesn't have to be for work. It could be it could be a pleasure book or something like this or here or something you listen to. But really, just kind of stay off of the social media platforms. This will really help you for that detox and really, and even if you. We want to do. It for a short period of. Time. Just delete the apps for a month. Stay off of it and see what kind of productivity you can. Bring back into your life. It's really, really important. That we. Detox from from our phones, from our social media. So there you go there. You have 10 different game changing habits that. Can really take your productivity to the next level. I really encourage you to to try starting. Some of these. Things. So I've got a little I got some, I got some. FAQ's here's some some questions. So how long does it take to form a new habit? Well, researchers say around 66 days. I'm gonna add in if you wanna make. It a lifestyle. Do it for 90 days and then it will be a lifestyle and you won't break. Can I adopt all 10 habits at once? Possibly can, but I would probably start with 11. Big major habit. Maybe it's getting up in the mornings, right? And start doing that and once you start, once you get that habit established. After about 66 days. Then you can move on to another habit. These are things that is going to help you increase your. Productivity, just like the awareness thing that takes months upon months upon months, it takes more than 60 days. The next thing next question is what if I fall off track with my habits? It's OK, don't sweat it. Just move, move on and go back to the to the habit that you're trying to form and just keep going at it. Are these habits suitable for everyone? Yeah, they are. They are absolutely. Habits for any lifestyle need profession. How can I measure the effectiveness of these habits? You can do it in the journal. You can do this as a productivity journal and see how you're doing. See if you're being more productive. Write down what you're doing. How fast it? Took to do them. The next one is. And these habits help my work life balance. And the answer is yes. Because you have to have some sort of balance in your life when it comes between work and your personal life. It's all the same life. You just need to know how to switch from one to the other. I hope these different. Productivity habits. Will help you in life. And I really do appreciate you for listening. And thank you so much and I will see you on the next episode. Thanks a bunch for hanging out with me today. This episode was jam packed with golden Nuggets to fill your business journey. If you found this episode helpful, why not share the love, pass it along to a friend who's on the same journey issue? And Speaking of sharing, have you checked out my free? Newsletter yet it's chock full of valuable tips and tools to boost your business and save you time. Trust me, it's worth checking. Go to WWW. Dot expansion press.com the link is in the podcast for Catch you later and have an amazing day.