6. Forget Productivity, Do This Instead

Are you always doing things, but never moving forward?

There are 100 ways to be more productive.

But sometimes, trying to be more productive can actually block you from hitting your goals.

Listen to this episode to find out what to focus on instead.

• View Transcript

  Hey, it's Sarah Arnold-Hall, and you're listening to How to Take Action.

  I wanna talk about productivity today, but I wanna talk about it in a way that's a little bit different than you might have heard before, because there are a lot of books and podcasts, and a lot of information out there about productivity and everyone has their own way of going about it and how to make you the most productive version of you ever.

  But I think sometimes we miss the point. I just wanna illustrate this by sharing with you some examples of how sometimes being productive is actually keeping you stuck where you are, because of the nature of productivity.

  Productivity is about getting things done and getting them done efficiently, right? But just getting stuff done doesn't mean that you're gonna hit your goal. Achieving a bunch of things is not enough to constitute like our actual results in the world.

  So for example, you can put out a hundred loads of washing in a day, and be making dinner for everyone, and have made your bed, and done a bunch of organizing at home, and still not be any closer to your goal, because you have just been productive on the spot. Like a little hamster wheel is what I'm imagining. You're like running really fast and you've got heaps of reps in, but you are just staying exactly where you are.

  And that's why I don't like to think of productivity as the main, most important thing you want to develop as a skill. I like to think of progression as the skill that is more important to develop.

  So taking action alone just to take action isn't effective unless it actually progresses you forward. So I wanna talk about how to progress today because it is not enough to just take action. You have to take action that creates a result, and that is how I think about the difference. So productivity to me is taking a lot of action and progression is taking action that gets you a forward moving result, something that moves the needle, something that actually pushes you closer to where you want to be.

  It is the difference between me right now filming this episode and actually uploading it so that you can hear it or watch it. I can be as productive as I want creating stuff, but if I don't actually turn it into something, I'm not seeing a result.

  I was working with one of my clients the other day on, they wanted to hire somebody, and so they were like, yeah, this is great. I'm gonna go and write the job description. We had this conversation throughout this of like whether writing a job description is actually progressing because it's an important step in the process, but if you just write the job description, you're no closer to actually having that person hired if you don't do anything with that job description. Writing the job description and then posting it online for somebody to see that would be progress. But just writing it and keeping it on your laptop or your computer and not doing anything with it, that's not progression because it's just sitting there.

  So you have to actually do something that creates a result, even if it's a tiny, small result, you really want your actions to feel progressive. Writing the job description today and then posting it tomorrow is progress. But it's only progress tomorrow when you post it. Think about all the things that you might have done that took a lot of effort, a lot of action, but then nothing ever happened from them. Books that sat on your computer, ideas that you wrote down, that you never took any action on. Really what I'm saying is you can start running all of your ideas and your actions through a filter, instead of, am I being productive? Am I progressing forward? Am I actually, is this action actually gonna help me move forward? Or how could I turn this action that I'm doing today into a progressive action rather than just a productive action?

  This is gonna sound so silly, but I wanna give you an example from Shrek, Shrek Four. So, if you've seen Shrek and I have this huge argument in my family about whether Shrek one is better or Shrek two is better. Uh, we don't even talk really about Shrek three and Shrek four, cuz not as many people have seen it. But definitely I am in the boat that Shrek two is better than Shrek one. So hit me up if you think that Shrek two is also better than Shrek one. I still think Shrek one's a great movie. I just think Shrek two, like hardly any sequels are as good as the first one. And I think that this one deserves an award cause I think it's better. So in Shrek Four. It's the one with Rumpelstiltskin. If you have seen it. If you haven't, it's kind of cute. I would recommend watching it. Rumpelstiltskin comes and in exchange for getting Shrek the life that he wants, Rumpelstiltskin asks if he can take a day from Shreks life, like that's what he wants in return, I'll give you what you want, but I'm gonna take one day of your life away. And he ends up taking Shrek the day Shrek was born away.

  This idea of taking a day away from your life always stuck with me and I, after watching that movie, it like, it's so silly, but it's been something that I've thought about a lot and asking myself, if today was erased from existence, would it make a difference? What did I do today? That would mean that if today was a race from existence, it would actually matter and affect the future. So if I just do productive work, which is I put on lots of washing and make my bed and make dinner and you know, do household chores, see my friends like great things, but none of them progress me forward.

  You could take that day away and it wouldn't make an impact at all. And it kind of scares me to think about the number of days that you could take away from my life where I could still be here, where I am right now. How many of my days was I actually progressing towards my dreams and my goals? And this isn't to say that your whole life should be spent progressing forward, but what if each day was just one tiny little piece of progression for it. That meant that if Rumpelstiltskin came and asked for a day in your life, you, there's no way you would want to give it. Because every single day made an impact. Every single day moved you closer to the life and the world that you wanted to see.

  No matter how small you want to make progress every day. You never want today to not count.

  Think about your life, and if you're looking back on it, like if you're a hundred years old and you're looking back on your life, you don't wanna be like, oh, well there was that like ten-year gap when nothing counted. Right? Or there was like all those days that I spent that didn't really mean anything. And then I, I really wanna stress that this isn't to say you need to be like hustling or working your ass off all the time. That's not what I'm saying at all what.

  I am saying is that when you are taking action and you are trying to be productive, ask yourself, is this progressive? If today was removed from existence, if this action was removed from existence, would it affect the final outcome? Would it actually affect the future or not? And I think that's really powerful because it suddenly changes the way you do things. So I'm recording this episode right now, which is only progressive if I do something with it, if it sits in my hard drive, nothing's gonna happen. I have to actually today turn it into an outcome, like I need to actually publish this episode so that, would create an effect, right? Somebody might listen to it and if this day was taken away, then you know, not only is my life gonna be different, but their life that's gonna be different, and we're gonna have this huge like butterfly effect that's gonna happen.

  Taking action alone isn't enough. You really want to take action until you see a result. Until you see an outcome, even if it's the tiniest, smallest outcome, make your actions count. Make them progressive rather than just see how much stuff you can get done in a day with no actual outcomes.

  And to be clear, like I have plenty of days where I am mostly chill and I just relax. I see my friends, I put on washing, I do whatever. I might be productive or I might not be productive at all, but I try to always do something small that is progressive that says, today counted, you can't take today away. It would matter. It would affect me. Whether that's sending one email that's gonna make an impact on my goal, whether it's signing up for something, whether it is connecting with somebody that I need to connect with for my goals. Everything has to be progressive. If you took today away, would it matter?

  We can even take this a step further. I recently wrote and published an article for an online news hub, and in order to do that, I pitched my idea, I wrote the idea, and I pitched it. Then the person didn't reply straight away, and I was like, this isn't any progression. It doesn't actually move me closer to the goal unless I get a reply, unless I get a yes or a no, so that I can make my next action. So, I followed up and then they replied, and I think what's and, and then eventually it got published. But I think what's so key here is. Sometimes you have to look for what is gonna be the actual piece that's gonna progress me? Is it progressive to write the email and send it, or is it only progressive once you actually get a result that you can then make a new decision from? So if even if I'd heard no from them, I would've still then been like, okay, cool, I'm gonna go send it to somebody else. And that would've been progressive action. But even just sending it and hear, not hearing a reply, might not actually be progressive cause I just, then I'm just like, then what? I don't know, I, I'm not gonna do anything or change anything.

  So ask yourself, is what I'm doing progressive? Is this creating a result? And if it's not, keep acting. Keep taking action until you see a result that is actually moving you forward. And it might be tiny, it might be just following up with someone on email.

  But putting all of your actions through this filter will supercharge your ability to create results. It will make you 10 times more effective at what you do, because you're actually thinking about the outcome that you wanna create and not just the thing that you're doing.

  And again, this is not saying that everything you do needs to have a result. This is only for the things that you want to create results with. It is totally fine to sit around and do nothing all day. If that is what you wanna do, please be my guest. Go for it. I am not at all trying to tell anyone they need to do more or take action on anything unless that is your desire. And for me that is, that's what I wanna do. I want to create, I wanna make things happen. I wanna hit my goals. And so that's why I'm so passionate about how to take action. That is why this whole podcast is here in the first place.

  So put your actions through that filter. Is this progressive or just productive? And I will talk to you in the next episode.

  Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you're gonna love being coached by me. We're gonna solve your specific action taking struggle. So you can hit any goal you set.

  Just go to saraharnoldhall.com to sign up.