Defining Productivity

Lately Erik and I are measuring our days by a single word “productive”.  Over the past few months, it seems like the definition of “productive” means less and less.  Instead of being a true goal, it is more of a way to make ourselves feel good for even the smallest accomplishment.

For example, productive used to mean booking one or more speaking gigs PLUS getting workday hours in PLUS making time for the kids PLUS getting a homemade dinner prepared and cleaned up.  Now, it may mean as little as making one meal OR pulling the weeds in the garden.  This is NOT a good thing.

The Question of the Day

As a way to fix this issue, I decided that I need to ask myself “What isn’t working?”.  I’m willing to dig deep to find out what it is and how to fix it.  I know the whole world currently has one excuse they can use as an answer to this question but let’s set that one aside for today’s experiment.

A couple of years ago, I recorded how I spent my time for an entire week.  Because of this exercise, I learned that an average of 3 hours of my day was spent in the kitchen.  It was extremely eye opening and caused me to rethink how much time I have in a day for work.  This week, I will once again be recording how I spend my hours each day and assessing them for the answers I desperately need.  I’ll let you know what I discover.

Back to You

If you identify in any way with this issue of “productivity”, let me know in the comments below.  After that, list what you plan to do to figure out an answer to the question “What isn’t working?”  I’m excited to learn what you find out!