Productivity = Coffee, games, and...slow jams?

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Today's Tuesday Tidbit - The secret to higher productivity. This topic is probably one of the most talked about among the contacts I have regular conversations with, because it's always so easy to get distracted during the workday, and then when you look back on your past 8 hours, you feel like you haven't accomplished anything. Sometimes that's because you spend your day putting out fires that are coming up, and that's unavoidable, but sometimes we're the reasons that we can't be productive, so that's what I'm going to post about today - A few unconventional ways that people are making sure they get into their routines and stay there for higher productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness even in the difficult work from home environment we're currently in.

What a cute little ball of distraction

This post is especially for people who find it difficult to enter a "zone", as John Rampton of Entrepreneur calls it. That "zone" is such a luxury, especially in today's work from home world. With kids, barking dogs, friendly cats, or any other pet (rambunctious birds or an oddly loud turtle maybe?) right there watching you work, distractions are plentiful, and it takes so little to get you to turn your gaze away from the screen, and therefore away from your tasks, assuming you work mostly on a computer, tablet or some kind of device all day. The "zone" is such a great place to be, because whether you're cold-calling, updating spreadsheets, copywriting, or strategizing with account maps, getting in that mental "zone" can be the difference between getting caught up on work or pushing it off til the next day.

Even for me right now, my mental "zone" has been broken probably 3-4 times since the start of me typing out this blog post, so I'll use myself as a basic example. Here are the ways I can count that I've broken stride in the past 10 minutes alone:

• A specifically fun song came on my playlist, and I stopped typing to sing along (Greatest Showman, if you must know)

• My dog started snoring insanely loud, making me turn and wonder how such a loud noise comes from such a small source

• I didn't like how I wrote that 3rd paragraph, so I erased it and started over, which led me to daydream about random things in the process before I re-centered myself and re-focused

• I have people messaging me about being a guest on a podcast, and not only do I want to stop typing to respond to that because it's exciting, but I'm thinking more about that than typing this!

• I got 2 calls from numbers I didn't recognize, which I not only ignored (because I'm busy, don't hate me salespeople!), but then I watched the light flash on my phone to alert me of what I already knew

• I got this sweet looking chef-hat from a cook-at-home kit, and it started to itch (not even kidding)

That's just me in the past 10 minutes, and I know I'm not alone. I find myself all the time looking out the window on a nice day, or even just to watch rain on a rainy day, because I love rain. I find the most miniscule ways to distract myself from doing what I need to be doing, and why? Is it because I don't like what I do? Definitely not the case, I love doing entertainment and love writing. Is it because I'm just not the person who can focus? Of course not! Anyone can focus if they put themselves in the right atmosphere, and that's exactly where this post is heading.

My stock photo life of happy distractions

While I'm being honest and talking about myself, I'll continue to be honest and let anyone reading know that I have aaaaaaalways struggled with maintaining focus, especially at work. It takes very little to distract me, as you probably easily guessed from my list, but hey guess what? I'm not alone at all! I mean, you're distracting yourself just by reading this, so I know I'm not alone! An article from Inc shared an opinion that with everything going on with the virus, it's not a responsible expectation for employees to be 100% productive. I'm still unsure of if I agree with that assessment, and encourage you to check out the article to make your own conclusion about it, but I do agree that the question isn't "if" people are getting distracted. The question is "What can I do about it?" or "How can I get my team to get back closer to 100% productivity?"

Here's what I've learned from everything I've read recently related to productivity in our current work environments - If you have a system, you're much more likely to be able to enter your "zone" and remain highly productive, effective, and efficient even with everything going on. If you don't have a system, like I didn't for the longest time, then you're probably finding yourself operating at a much lower level, which doesn't help you, your team, or your company. So what's in a system?

The Entrepreneur article I referenced earlier has 7 tips for how to "enter the zone", and I'm going to focus on 3 of them that I think are particularly helpful, and have been a part of my own system before I even read the article. A couple quick caveats to these 3 points I'm going to focus on - 1) These work for me, and they're a part of my system to stay more productive, but they may not be your style, and they may not work for you! The key here is to see some different ideas, to hopefully try some, but the biggest key is to find what works for you. If it's all of these, awesome! You're like me! (unfortunate) If it's none, still awesome, and I'd love to hear some that work for you! 2) I'm skipping the obvious "Limit Distractions" part of the equation. I feel like most people have heard that before, so I want to get straight to the points more people haven't considered yet.

A cool version of my routine

The first is to have a pre-work ritual. For me, it's not a fancy routine, but it's uniquely mine, and it uniquely helps me. My pre-work routine is typically an hour where I cook breakfast, read for about 10 minutes, then enjoy my coffee and breakfast while playing about 30 minutes of a strategy game on my computer that I've loved for years. Most of that probably sounded normal, but I'm sure most people wonder why I would play a game. I mean, that has to be the exact opposite of staying focused, right? Not for me! I know this game so well, that it doesn't take that much brain capacity to play, so it's pretty much a warm-up to get my brain going, but not enough to where I feel overwhelmed in any way. Also, it's a strategy game, and like most other people, what I do has a lot of strategy that I need to execute on a daily basis. This game warms me up and gets that strategy mindset started before I even start my early tasks in my workday. It works for me, and it truly helps me get started, but obviously it's not for everyone.

A couple more things on the game front - First, I know some people have a hard time putting a game down once they get invested. If you're that type of person, this probably isn't a recommendation for you, because it'll be a distraction. Like I said, the game I play is basic, familiar, and easy for me to quit at any time (Civilization, for any other nerds out there). I've probably played this game thousands of hours in my life, so it's not enough to keep me engaged past the time limit I set for myself. Second, it's a game uniquely geared to put me in the mindset I need/want to be in for my workday. It's a strategic game, so it gets me in the right mindset, which means any other game probably wouldn't work the same way for me. If you're a game person with a strategic role, I would recommend maybe looking into something like this, even if it's a phone app that you can play for 15 minutes to get yourself engaged and thinking. It's a great mental warm-up for me, and really helps me hit the ground running.

Music = Life!

The second part of my productivity system is music. I love music, and I know there are a ton of music lovers out there. Crazy enough, Bustle actually has an article that says 20% of people feel like music is an actual friend to them. It's a cool story, and I definitely recommend reading that article when you have a chance. Listening to music isn't any type of ground-breaking discovery that I've made, and I know it's definitely not something you've never heard of before, but what specifically works for me is the type of music I listen to. If I just listen to songs with lyrics, I'll find myself distracted as I was earlier, so I have a playlist that mixes music with lyrics and music without lyrics, so that I'm constantly engaging with music, but it's not necessarily distracting me. I'll be honest - If I listen to the Greatest Showman soundtrack all day, I'll have an absolute blast, but I won't get much done. I love that movie and love the music, so I'm going to sing all day instead of getting things done.

Instead of just listening to music, make a playlist of intentional music that's going to help you stay focused. I definitely don't recommend the free version of Pandora, or any other music streaming that includes ads, because if you're like me, every time an ad comes on, I get distracted (mainly with a hatred of ads, and thinking of how I'm never going to buy the garbage they're selling. Also, can we talk about how the most consistent ad is an ad to take away ads? Hate it). Create a playlist on your phone, on an ipod if you have one, or on something like Milkshake if you have a Mac. Milkshake is basically an ad-free Pandora, and I love it!

Hungry yet?

The third part of my system is to mix up my tasks. I agree with the Entrepreneur article when it says that if you have nothing but huge tasks set for your day, you're at risk to feel overwhelmed, and if you have nothing but small, mundane tasks, you'll be at risk for being bored. It's a mix of the two that can truly help create a productive work environment and maximize your productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness. For me personally, I turn my small, mundane tasks into a game (can you tell I love games?). If I have a ton of emails to respond to, I create a guessing game where I see how many I can respond to before getting a new email. If it's a cold-calling/emailing day, I try to guess how many it takes until I get connected with someone, and every time I guess correctly, I get a small prize like a Peanut M&M or a chocolate-filled panda. P.S. If you don't know what those are, find them at your grocery store or Asian market, because they're amazing.

The key here for me is to fluctuate between difficult, time-consuming tasks, and the small, mundane tasks. I also try to make those mundane tasks more fun by creating small games and rewarding myself for "winning", which completely changes your mentality on the tasks at hand. I've found that this is a great tip for SDRs, Customer Service/Support agents, or anyone else who has a lot of tasks on a daily basis. Instead of dreading rejection or angry/rude customers, which can lead to a resentment of your job, this change in mindset makes the worst parts of the job more enjoyable, and helps you grow. Don't ever underestimate the power of positive mentality when you're in roles like those!

Those are 3 parts that team up with limiting the obvious distractions to create my ideal work environment for improved productivity and efficiency. Again, these are the parts that make up my system, and they uniquely work for me. The goal wasn't to tell you exactly what to do, but encourage you to think of your own system, and maybe some of these will be worth trying. If nothing else, you can leave this post knowing there's truly some weirdo out there playing games and jamming to soundtracks who can remain highly productive, so why can't you? Find your own system, limit your distractions, and map your progress to see how much more productive you can be, and more importantly, how much more productive you feel, because that feeling can keep your motivation high and push you to reach goals you didn't think were possible in this sometimes chaotic work from home environment a lot of people are struggling with at the moment.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and if you did, feel free to let us know something from the post that stuck out to you. Also, if you tried a part of my system and it worked for you too, comment and let me know, because I would love to know I'm not alone! As always, if you want to find more information about us and how we use Entertainment to improve employee happiness, engagement, and morale, visit the full site at www.sweethartentertainment.com, and if you're looking for a few funny videos to make your day better, check out our Content Creation tab. Thank you for reading and for your support!