Tag Archives: productivity

Levels of Productivity or Productiveness or Whatever You Want to Call It

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I’m not speaking of productivity on the business or work realm, that’s a whole other bag of words. Here I am speaking of personal time productivity, productiveness or whatever.

How do you measure your personal productivity time? By how many things you get done at home? How many errands you can run in one trip? How many meals you can prep for the week on a weekend? If you can get the kids/spouse to all the planned events on time? Hmmmmm, is this an effective way to measure your time and well-being?

Well, recently I’ve equated having a productive weekend with running in some sort of race event. So this weekend was the first in a while that I didn’t register for any running events since I have a double-header next weekend. I kind of felt like I would have a pretty unproductive couple of days. My mind is trained to think that unplanned time will be unproductive and that only days with schedules will be the productive ones (damn job!). And also lately, I’ve even had the nerve to feel that my own running time is not as productive unless it’s tied to a race or challenge! Egad! No bueno.

So I started searching for words related to productivity and came upon this wordle that captures what productivity looks like to me, generally. It’s a great little snapshot of important words – however most of these I tie to work.

Yes, all of these words are meaningful to me, but I am stepping back from the constant physical movement of being productive into a quest for a productive mindset.

That may mean that if I need to sleep, read, or watch TV, that’s what I need to do to get my mind into a place of contentment – my new productivity! Maybe I merely sit on a bench and watch people walk by, or simply get an iced coffee from a coffee shop I’ve never been to in order to reach the place of a mental regeneration/cleanse/contentment/renewal. I think this may one of those keys to happiness.

I don’t want to equate productivity only with physical accomplishments (as I must for 10 months of the year), but a mindset instead. This is often the mental work I need to do over summers – a repair from the grueling school year.

Oh, and I found another cute piggie picture on Animal Planet. I think that’s productive too.

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Courtesy Animal Planet

And It’s Only 9am

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Going to bed early pays off in an infinite number of ways:

  • you get up early (probably)
  • you feel good in the morning
  • you are the first one out getting your coffee
  • you will most likely get your favorite spot at the coffee shop/cafe/diner
  • it’s nice and quiet out or in the house
  • you can actually enjoy some quiet and/or alone time (well maybe not if you have little ones or pets)
  • you can get things done before others get up and complete tasks without interruption

I love early morning productivity, but I know it’s not for everyone. But hear me out you night owls. You can get so much done early in the day, and then have the rest of the day and night for play.

This weekend was fruitful for me in the early hours.

Yesterday morning:

  1. Did my lesson planning and revision for my professional goals (unnecessary – but did it)
  2. Started my laundry
  3. Booked a rental car for Brett
  4. Attempted to change his flight since I booked it for the wrong day – oops (on hold too long so task incomplete)
  5. All recycling and garbage went out
  6. Went to Starbucks to get some coffee and treats since we were out of coffee
  7. Read a couple of articles I had been putting off
  8. Cleaned up the bathroom

And this was all before 9am.

This morning:

  1. Changed Brett’s flight (no waiting this time – calling early pays off)
  2. Booked another leg of my Christmas flight adventure
  3. Read the rest of the articles I wanted to read, and some blogs posts
  4. Ordered some things from Amazon
  5. Filled my basket on Boden (new obsession)
  6. Looked at a few other websites for some holiday gift ideas
  7. Washed the dishes
  8. Started writing a new post

And it’s only 10am.

All these piddly little things that most of us put off during the week get done in the early hours on my weekends. And now I’m going to run my errands, and those will be done by noon!

Have a productive day!