Ever get to the end of the day or the end of the week and feel wiped out and like you didn’t get anything important done?
Ya, we all do.
A few years back I was in a major funk and had more days like that than days that felt “productive”. So I was on a constant search for “productivity hacks”, new ways to manage my to-do lists, books, productivity software, and processes all in hopes of finding that magic bullet of productivity to help me get more of the right things done.
But I never found it. In fact, the more I looked for productivity hacks and new ways to manage my to-do list the worse things got.
Until I Learned Why Productivity Hacks Are Like A Bandaid…
… they don’t treat the root problems of why you’re not getting more of the right things done each week and feeling energized and excited about your progress each week.
In my own search, I started thinking back to the times I was the most “effective” (not productive… but effective) to learn what got me in that state.
What I found was productivity is getting more things done… being effective is getting more of the right things done. Productivity hacks like new “to-do” list methods, software that helps you track things, and goal tracking methods were all helping me manage the, ever growing, list of things to do I had to tackle each day.
Looking to be more effective helped me look at life and my daily “to-do” list much more differently. No longer was I looking at ways to get more things done… but I was looking at what things I need to get done to reach my goals… and just getting those things done… and casting aside the other busy work that was just filling in m to-do list and not really getting me closer to my goals.
In that process, I uncovered 4 foundational elements that were all in place when I was the most effective and making the biggest moves toward my goals in life and business. And the cool thing is… when these 4 foundational elements were in place I was happier, more energized, and more profitable as well.
I recorded a podcast with one of our Carrot customers Sharon Vornholt on this topic plus I’ll dive into the 4 elements later in this post.
Listen To The Podcast Below: Why Productivity Hacks Don’t Work And The 4 Foundational Elements I Uncovered That Can Make You Hyper Effective In Life And Business
Click the play button to dive in! And let me know your thoughts on productivity and whether you feel stuck sometimes like you’re spinning your wheels day after day working your butt off… but not getting anything done. Hit me in the comments section below!
In This Podcast, You’ll Learn…
- My personal story of feeling like I was in a hamster wheel of life… too much to do and not enough time
- How I ended up discovering I was looking in the wrong places to be more “productive“
- Why our societies search for better “productivity” is making us all less happy, less prosperous, and downright wiped out mentally and physically
- The 4 foundational elements I uncovered in myself that made me hyper-effective and happy in life (these are BIG)
- The “focusing question” from “The One Big Thing” and more!
- … and more
Listen to the podcast and let me know how many of the 4 core elements you’re living every day right now… and what you’re going to focus on this next week to make yourself more effective.
Also… Download The Priority Sheet Below
What works for you to work more effectively and get more of the right stuff done? Let me know in the comments section below!
Great Call! I can so relate to so much of what you’ve experienced, shared and evolved to implement (like focusing on bed time vs wake time!). Keep rocking it!
Thanks Chris! I’m still working on the whole bed time thing though. Haha, that’s one I haven’t been consistent enough quite yet. But I’ll get there!
This was great info Trevor. I have been down the same road as you. In fact it was like I was listening to myself when you were speaking. It’s not as much about being productive as it is about being effective. That is so true and it applies to anything in life let alone being self-employed because we can spend too much energy on time wasting activities such as organizing Dropbox files, spending time looking for that perfect task list software or trying to figure out which one works best with the GTD methodology. All this does is exhaust mental RAM and leaves you wondering where the heck the day went. As real estate investors we need to be operating at a high level throughout the day and by applying the basic fundamentals of productivity that you mentioned like downsizing your task list, having a clear vision, having specific broken down quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals, and installing proper sleep systems will make you far more effective than anything else. Thanks for your insight Trevor.
Joe! Glad you’re going down the same path my man! Report back on how things go and what you find works for you.