059: 5 Of The Most Productive Things To Do As A Business Owner
Today’s talking point:
We are diving into the final step of the Busy To Boss Blueprint For Goal Setting: Step Number Seven, Implementing Advanced Productivity Strategies. This last step in the blueprint is definitely going to help you win and achieve everything that you want for your business and your life.
I am going to outline the top five most productive things to do as a business owner, which are really going to help you optimise the concepts that we've discussed so far in the Busy To Boss Blueprint For Goal Setting series.
Step seven includes the most productive things to do as a business owner. This is where we optimise this entire blueprint. Once you've mastered the first six steps, this is where we become a real boss.
The Busy To Boss Blueprint Steps:
#1 | Defining your goals
This is the foundation of the blueprint and identifying your goals is really really important.
#2 | Quarterly reverse engineering system
This is where your goals are broken down into quarterly checkpoints.
#3 | Choose your habits
We've talked about habits on this show before and your habits will essentially form the structure of your day, leading to increased productivity, energy and clarity.
#4 | Create your ideal routines
Specifically your ideal week, ideal evening routine and ideal morning routine. This section is all about optimising your most precious hours of the day.
#5 | Implement basic productivity strategies
These will be implemented in various forms, but will all be strategically connected to your goals.
#6 | Track your progress
This is what it says on the tin where you measure, monitor and manage your projects and goals.
#7 | Implement advanced productivity strategies
Now we're going to dive into step seven of the Busy To Boss Blueprint For Goal Setting series and I am going to outline the top five productivity strategies that are designed to work with and optimise the concepts that you have learnt over this series.
If you are curious about diving deeper into this world, these tools and strategies, and you want to learn more about implementing The Busy to Boss Blueprint For Goal Setting, get your name on the Busy To Boss Academy Waitlist to see how you can experience all of this for yourself with my support.
Are you ready to get into step number seven? Let's go.
IMPLEMENTING ADVANCED PRODUCTIVITY STRATEGIES
Assuming that you have a great handle on your own morning routine, your productivity system and your healthy habits, these strategies can really supplement your work and enhance your progress.
These are more advanced strategies, which is why they're optimising everything you've learnt so far. These techniques will work best for you when you are already in a productive flow - and you simply just want to get even better.
Throughout my journey of going from busy to boss and enhancing my productivity, I have found these five strategies to be just what I needed to take my progress to the next level. They are just icing on the cake, the most productive things to do.
Now, although I personally love each of these strategies, and have implemented them, I don't want you to feel obligated to adopt them all. I know it might be tempting to want to dive in headfirst, but just hold off on overwhelming yourself right now because there's plenty of time for that later.
#1| Schedule Time For Thinking
You become what you think about. Your thoughts define everything. What we think about determines our actions, our goals, our attitudes, and our ultimate achievements.
In the beginning of my own personal development journey, I discovered one of the greatest or most obvious strategies in existence. It has honestly transformed not only how I think, but also what I choose to think about. That simple strategy is to schedule time just for thinking. This is one of the most productive things to do.
It seems so obvious because it sounds just like brainstorming. But it's so much more than that, and I'm going to talk you through how you can do this.
How to make the most of this strategy,
Schedule a focused block of time, isolate yourself, bring your favourite notebook, whiteboard, journal, printing paper, and ask yourself one very important life question.
Write that question at the top of your writing space, and then spend up to an hour brainstorming and recording as many answers to this question as you can.
The key with this is to ask yourself tough questions, especially ones that are regarding your current goals. Because what you will soon discover is that your breakthroughs are imminent.
The more often you give your brain the space to think about tough problems, the more creative and amazing you will be. So really schedule at least a few thinking sessions per week to optimise the strategy. I personally do this every single morning; I do it for about 15 minutes and I write down whatever thoughts come into my mind. It is honestly the best possible way to start my day.
I truly think that of all the advanced strategies, this one trumps them all. If you schedule consistent time for thinking, I promise that you will undoubtedly find a way to achieve whatever you set your mind to.
#2| Music for the Mind
Number two is all about music and specifically, music for designed focus. I used to spend many hours every day attempting to work. Whether or not I actually get anything done during my day has a lot to do with how well I cut out distractions and focus on what matters.
One strategy that has revolutionised how I get work done is listening to music that is designed for my brain. I use Spotify and specifically I use two playlists:
When it comes to music and focus in general, I cannot explain the science and you are very lucky that I am not even going to try! But the positive and productive effects are really easy to notice. I get into a flow state, get into the zone and within a few minutes the music fades away, and I am purely laser focused in on my work.
This music is designed to help you focus. It's designed to help you reduce distractions, improve your attention span, and learn considerably more while you work. So I really find that it's best to use music like this when you're reading, writing, studying, or doing hardcore mental activity. When there are no lyrics, it's so easy to forget about the music and think about the task at hand, even though you still have something going on in the background.
Music is such a powerful force on your attention and finding your ideal music is important if you repeatedly want to achieve your ideal workflow.
#3| Uplevel your Workspace
Standing desks. There are ways around this, let me just say because I actually don't have a standing desk. So, being more physically active is 100% the name of the game when it comes to increased energy productivity and better health.
One of my all time favourite strategies for just those reasons is either using a standing desk or standing at a desk somewhere. It honestly makes such a difference in your productivity, your posture, your digestion, your energy, your attitude, and your willingness to keep working long after you normally would have stopped.
And just in general, it's so incredibly important to incorporate standing, walking or more movement throughout your normal work day to prevent a whole load of health problems that accompany when you are just sitting.
So if you are used to sitting at a desk for eight hours a day, using some of that time to stand even if it's just at your kitchen counter, which is what I usually do, it can dramatically improve your health and how much you get done. It’s one of the most productive things to do.
So you have two options to get a standing desk up and running.
You can buy one
Or you build one
I highly recommend you build your first desk with materials that you have available already, so you won't have to spend any money. Experiment with this and see the benefits of it for yourself before you invest in anything. I stand at my kitchen counter and use some old stacks of magazines or textbooks. I even do that on my current desk sometimes.
Once you've committed to a standing desk, if you find that yet you want to use this full-time moving forward, then you can either buy a model or you can custom build your own to suit your needs.
Adjusting to a standing desk can take a week or two depending on your current fitness level and I wouldn't recommend you stand for all hours of the day. Alternate between sitting and standing every hour. It's also important just to make sure you're incorporating other fitness activities to help strengthen your back and your core as you make this transition.
#4| Build your Vision
Just as a reminder, vision boards are a physical display. Things that you want usually hung on the wall with pictures of houses, cars, inspirational quotes or other similar items that are cut out from magazines. So essentially, this is quite an old school model of envisioning your life by idealising the end result.
This method doesn't really work. Don't get me wrong, it's great to begin with. But there's a lot more to it then that - visualisation is only the first step and without a strategy, it gets you nowhere.
I recommend you start with this old school method if you haven't already to help you gain clarity over what you are trying to achieve. Then advance to the new vision board which is a representation of your journey. This vision board focuses on the processes and the work that leads to the end results and the outcomes that you want.
For example, if you want to run a marathon, your vision board could include an image of running at sunrise. Or if you want to publish your first book, you could have an image of writing in a coffee shop. The main thing is that we want to focus on the process that is going to get us there.
The best vision boards answer the question: how will I get to my goal?
This new vision board where you outline your journey, uses pictures, images, quotes, and very practical reminders of what you will be doing all the way to get to your goal. It's that simple. All you need to do to create your vision board is:
Focus exclusively on your current quarterly objectives
Write detailed descriptions of the process to achieve each goal
Find images, quotes or inspirational content that directly reflect a few of the key steps in each action plan
Revisit your vision board at least once a quarter and then update it as needed. With a well thought out plan in place, your vision board can act as an incredible reminder to keep you focused and more importantly, to keep you focused. Again, one of the most productive things to do.
#5| Go Upside Down
This may be the most bizarre strategy in this group. And I personally haven't practiced this one yet, but I have heard so many wonderful things about it: inversion. So inversion, or hanging upside down, can actually improve your health and help you get more done.
Dr. Robert Lockhart, who is an Australian Physician, has been practicing inversion on a daily basis for more than 40 years. The goal behind inversion is to reverse the effects of gravity. So gravitational forces are hard on the body and when you reverse gravity, you relieve incredible amounts of pressure and disrupt your normal rhythms, which carries with it benefits that you cannot get with any other exercise.
The benefits from this also include:
Significant reduction in back pain,
Less stress
Better brain functioning with an increased flow of blood to your head, which helps productivity
Improved leg and core strength
Better joint health
Improved flexibility
Better posture
Clearer skin, reduced wrinkles, and more.
Inversion is not a miracle cure for everyone. There are a few potential drawbacks including the fact that hanging upside down can be hard on your joints. It does take a while to get used to. It can be dangerous to practice this alone. And if you want to use equipment for this, it is a little bulky and difficult to store.
Now like I said, I haven't practiced this. I know some people have. I'm actually on a mission at the moment to be able to do a handstand, once I get there, then maybe I might be able to practice it.
Hanging upside down is a bizarre way to spend your time but it could become my new favourite way to spend my time. Look at it as a healthy habit and consider combining this with all the habits at the same time like meditation or affirmations or listening to a great podcast. So, all in all, there's actually a lot you can do, just hanging around.
And that’s a wrap of the most productive things to do as a business owner! Let me know in the comments which one of these you’re going to try first.