There’s more to being productive than “staying off Facebook.” These 7 hard-hitting, heart-first tips will help you make real progress.
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We already add enough. It’s time to subtract.
While there’s plenty of fantastic literature and advice on things to add to your life, there’s too little dialogue on what to eliminate. We need both perspectives, of course, which is why I pounded the keyboard to share my personal productivity tips in 5 Things I Do To Make Me Way More Productive Than The Next Guy.
While that piece was about things to add to your life that’ll make you more productive, this one is about what I suggest you take away.
The greatest changes in my life and in my business began when I started to be more intentional with my time. These are seven things that I’ve eliminated–or are working to eliminate–that have helped me become more productive and enjoy the success I’ve found thus far.
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1. Instant gratification
I remember finding an old letter tucked inside a book I picked up at the library.
One parent wrote to another parent about her thoughts on a new technology. She was convinced that this new technology was going to ruin her kids’ work ethic. She was afraid that these new things would make her kids lazy, selfish, and impatient.
“They’ll want everything right away, now!” she penned. I could feel her fear oozing out from her cursive letters. “They won’t appreciate the hard work it takes to prepare meals.”
“These microwaves are no good.”
Microwaves! This parent believed that microwaves would be the death of patience.
It’s funny to look back on now, but I can see her reasoning. Great food takes time. You’ve got to plan, prep, find the right ingredients, put them together, cook, present, then finally sit down to eat. Microwaves, according to this concerned mother, would take all of that away. With it, she claimed, would be her kids’ ability to wait and work hard for good things.
When it comes to finding success, I often find myself trapped by instant gratification. What about you?
I want to build a successful business so badly. Although I know it’s impossible, sometimes I want it to happen overnight.
But it won’t. And that’s a great thing.
If you follow Gary Vaynerchuk, then maybe you’ve heard (or seen) his piece on hard work and patience. I listen to it almost every day in an attempt to beat the unhealthy desire for instant gratification out of my feeble brain.
I have massive empathy. It’s not so awesome right now. You’re hoping for that thing. I get it. I get it so much you can’t imagine. I get 10,000 emails a day of like, ‘Can’t I just do this?’ No. You can’t. — Gary Vaynerchuk
Although we’re doing better than the majority of other businesses in our space, my co-founder and I consistently remind each other of how long this road could be. We talk every week about the long journey, and we celebrate when we make tough sacrifices.
Focusing on the long-game while operating in the moment has helped us stomach the tough, tedious work it takes to be a leader in the field.
2. Clutter
If you’ve read some of my other pieces, then you’ll remember me talking about one of my mentors, Bill.
When Bill talks, I listen. Then I share with you all!
By now, I’m used to Bill’s insightful–and ridiculously passionate–answers to my simpleton questions. This answer was one of his more fascinating replies.
I asked him about how he hires people.
“I look inside their car,” he said without missing a beat. “If their back seat is messy, then a red flag goes up.”
He must have seen the puzzled look I had on my face, because he dove into a deep explanation. I’ll condense it for you.
From his experience, people who have messy back seats miss meetings. They’re not organized, and their brain is cluttered. If they miss meetings with him (their boss), then they’ll likely miss meetings with customers. If they miss meetings with customers, then they lose money.
All of that is understandable. It may not be backed by science, but it makes sense.
Now, here’s where it got interesting.
His logic continued. If they miss meetings with customers, then they lose money. When they lose money, their families suffer. If their families suffer, then the employee suffers.
Here’s his point.
He’s not saying that a messy back seat leads to divorce. If so, I’d be divorced many times over, and I’m not even married.
What he’s suggesting is that clutter can distract you from very important things in your life.
I’ve worked very hard to get rid of clutter in my life, and it’s definitely helped me become more focused and at ease. That leads to being more productive.
One final note on clutter. This is important.
Clutter isn’t only in your back seat. It’s not just trash. Clutter includes people, practices, and other pollution you might have rattling around in your life.
Clean out all of that clutter. Yes, it can be difficult.
If you need a place to start, then I suggest your back seat.
3. Selfishness
There are a handful of ways to conduct business.
Instead of running through all of those options, I’ve boiled it down for myself so I don’t get overwhelmed. In other words, I’ve cleared that clutter!
Here’s what I’ve settled with. I can conduct business generously or selfishly.
Simplistic? Absolutely. But it provides me with a compass as I navigate a world full of folks who conduct business differently than I do.
I subscribe to the idea of for-purpose businesses. These are businesses that run on generosity. The most famous are companies like Zappos and Tom’s Shoes. There are many more, but the idea is the same: business can serve a higher purpose.
It’s especially tempting in the early days of a startup to keep everything you make.
We’ll sugar coat it by saying that we’re “re-investing” everything back into the business. Yes, that can be a necessary strategy at certain stages. And yes, I often still deploy that strategy.
But I’m telling you, there’s room to give.
Giving looks different to everybody. Some donate a certain percentage to charity. Others require their employees to dedicate some of their time to service projects. Still others do free work for great causes.
Foster that giving mentality however you can.
It’s the best investment you can make.
4. Excuses
Holy cow, did I use to make a lot of excuses.
No matter what happened, I’d do whatever it took to convince someone that whatever happened was out of my control. I’d pull out my pointer finger faster than a cowboy could draw his gun in a shootout.
It was bad. And unhealthy for everyone, especially me.
Excuses are toxic and unproductive.
We make excuses for a very simple reason: we’re afraid of the consequences. But that’s the irony of excuses. Usually, excuses ultimately lead to more consequences, not less. Sure, we may have skirted the first round of consequences, but there’s no escaping the long-term effects.
I look at excuses like credit cards.
The first transaction might not seem that big. You can pay it off at the end of the month, right? So you make a second transaction. Then maybe a third.
You might be able to pay it off each month. Then again, you might not. The interest sets in. You miss another payment, and now you owe more than you can handle. Your credit rating goes down, and now nobody would give you the benefit of the doubt.
Eliminating excuses gets you focused on the real problem.
Focusing on the real problem leads to real progress.
5. Overly optimistic beliefs
I’m an optimist.
Often, I’m an idealist.
But being too much of either can lead to coming up far short of the mark.
My dad is famous for saying really amazing things, then forgetting that he said them. It happens more than I’m sure he’d like to admit, so I admit it for him.
One of those amazing lines is one he gave me after I had just started college: “The difference between an idealist and a realist is that one made it real.”
“People might tell you that you’re too idealistic,” he continued. “They’ll call themselves ‘realists.’ They’re not. Really, they’re former idealists who could make their ideals become reality.”
Perhaps that’s an overly optimistic look at idealism, but let’s not stray too far into the philosophical patch of weeds.
Instead, let’s focus on the target.
Imagine you’re an archer. You’re armed with your bow and arrow. There’s a target standing 30 feet in front of you. You raise your bow and draw back.
The optimist will believe she’ll hit the bullseye if she tries enough times. She understands that she’s new to archery, that there’s a certain technique involved that requires a ton of deliberate practice, and she’s willing to put in the work that will result in hitting the bullseye.
The overly-optimistic will believe she’ll hit the bullseye every single time for the rest of her life, even though she’s new to the sport.
Optimism is a powerful fuel, but I try not to completely douse my dreams in it.
6. Aggressively pessimistic beliefs
Pessimists drain my energy.
No, I don’t need an entire circle of friends who never see the negative. My friends would look ridiculous with pom poms in their hands. I’d consider those types of folks to be overly optimistic.
But I also don’t want to be around perpetual pessimists.
What’s interesting to me is that optimism and pessimism can be situational.
Since I quoted my dad above, I’ll use him again here. Above, he talked about the benefits of being an idealist. He has completely supported me and my goals for my entire life. He’s never questioned my decisions–even my dumbest ones. He’s (financially) backed me through every single chase.
So it may surprise you to learn that he’s aggressively pessimistic when it comes to one interest that we both share: baseball.
I can’t stand to watch baseball with my dad! According to him, he’s smarter than every announcer, more strategic than every manager, and more ethical than every owner. When the players went on strike in the 1990s, my dad boycotted Major League Baseball for years.
He only started watching again when my college career ended. I think he missed baseball.
By that time so much had changed, which only fueled his pessimism. To this minute, he still can’t understand why anyone would want to watch a close-up of a player while he’s spitting sunflower seeds.
He doesn’t believe that Major League Baseball is making any progress, and he doesn’t believe that it ever will.
When we’re aggressively pessimistic, we’ll miss opportunities. But here’s the thing. We won’t think we’re missing opportunities. Actually, we’ll think the opposite is true. When we’re aggressively pessimistic, we’ll think we’re “waiting” for the best opportunities to come along.
Or we’ll wrap ourselves up in the belief that we’re not achieving great things because it can’t be done. If we see others achieving great things, we’ll pessimistically assume that they had a leg up on us in some way.
Aggressively pessimistic people don’t take shots.
But shots are required for success.
7. “Superhero Syndrome”
Of all of the “things to eliminate” on this list, this is the one I struggle with the most.
I had heard of Superhero Syndrome long before writing this post. People might reference it when talking about productivity or living the life of a startup.
When I heard about it in this context, the definition was pretty simple.
Superhero Syndrome was thinking you can do everything yourself, then trying to do everything yourself.
It’s not difficult to see the flaw in that line of thinking, right? We can look at someone else and think, “They can’t do that all by themselves! That’s too much work! Why don’t they delegate, say no to things, or outsource? Gah!”
But if you’re like me, you won’t think those limitations apply to you.
Oh, but they do! We can only handle–and be effective–at so many things at once. We know that, and we can easily grasp the concept. Putting it into practice is a challenge, but a challenge worth taking.
Here’s something interesting about Superhero Syndrome that I learned while researching the topic for this piece.
Superhero Syndrome can be much more harmful than simply taking on too much at work.
In fact, it can be much more debilitating than a pile of to-dos.
Here’s what Laura Bergman Fortgang wrote about the Syndrome in the 1990s: “The Hero Syndrome is a phenomenon affecting people who seek heroism or recognition, usually by creating a desperate situation which they can resolve and subsequently receive the accolades from.”
In other words, someone might create–or stage–a bad situation so they can solve it and become the hero.
Take 9-year police veteran Jimmy Wade Pearson, for example.
At the Olympic games in 1984, Pearson discovered a bomb in the wheel of a bus that was carrying the Turkish team’s luggage. He ripped the bomb out, detached the wires, sprinted away with the bomb, and threw it into an area where it wouldn’t hurt anyone.
He was hailed as a hero.
Then he failed a polygraph test. His story unravelled, he resigned from the police, and he was sent to jail.
As sad and scary as it may seem, I can empathize with that officer. I don’t think I’d ever plant a fake bomb, but I can feel what he must have felt. He longed for recognition and anything that would add to our self-worth.
There are plenty of other healthy ways to gain recognition and add to our self-esteem, and 0% of them involve planting fake bombs.
But Pearson’s story should make us wonder, what am I doing for recognition that I shouldn’t be doing?
Doing things we shouldn’t be doing will distract us from doing the things that make real progress.
None of us have time for anything less than progress.
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Photo: Flickr/Adam Wight
Thank you for writing this Jay! I especially identify with instant gratification. The usefulness and constant updates my iPhone provides has led me to create some really unhealthy habits. I check social media continuously to see how many likes, favorites, retweets, and shares I receive. I check the stats of my WordPress site repeatedly in the days that follow a new post. It’s an addiction! The other 6 things to eliminate were great too, but that one really resonated with me. Thanks again!
Hey Kevin, it’s been tough for me to eliminate instant gratification. That’s the type of thing that some people escape to the mountains and work for years to overcome!
Perhaps it’s best to try and “control” or “redirect” the desire for instant gratification.
Stay patient, dedicated, and focused. Here’s to you, Kevin!