Have you ever been in “the groove”?
Don’t you wish you could be there more often? To quickly hit your stride and do what you need to do?
If so, keep reading — I’m going to tell you exactly how to do just that.
Making Your Own Groove
There are three components to making your own productivity groove:
- Find your productivity zone
- Decide your productivity schedule
- Set your productivity goal
These are actually pretty simple things to do. And by combining the three of them, you’ll be in the groove in no time.
Your Productivity Zone
Working outside is another nice option. Hooray for nature!
Where do you find yourself most productive? Is it in your home office? In the conference room? At any given Starbucks?
Everyone has different working habits. Also, everyone has varying abilities for tuning out distractions. Part of finding your zone is knowing the conditions you need for optimal productivity.
For some people, working at home is quiet and they are able to focus. For others, they like having big, blank walls and whiteboards around them to help them feel creative. Others need background noise (like at Starbucks) so that distractions blend together and fade away.
Physical location is probably the biggest part of your zone. But there are other factors as well: accessories such as music, snacks, or wi-fi. Headphones, for example, are a great way to block out the world and quickly bring you into your zone.
Try out different surroundings and see where you are best able to focus on your work. That’s your productivity zone.
Your Productivity Schedule
Yes, you should set aside time to work. Simply knowing that you have 2 hours set aside to get a task done can help you stay focused.
Ideally, pick the time of day where you are most alert/creative/focused. If you are a morning person, that’s probably first thing in the morning. If you are a night owl, you might be most productive at midnight.
This guy’s schedule happens to be when the sun sets.
Given your favorite time of day, create a schedule for yourself. This is time that you will not work on anything else except your specific task.
For example, if you want to write a book, you might set aside 6 – 8 a.m. Monday through Friday for writing (assuming you are a morning person). That’s 10 hours per week for you to make progress.
Pick times that work best for you. Now that you have your productivity schedule, let’s add the third component to finish off your groove.
Your Productivity Goal
It’s great that you have a place to work, and it’s nice having the time set aside. But it wouldn’t be a groove without this third piece. You need to set a productivity goal.
A productivity goal specifies what you need to get done in that window of time that you’ve scheduled. Rather than leaving the space open for mind-wandering, web-browsing, or channel-surfing, you’ve got something specific that you need to accomplish before time runs out.
It’s measurable, it’s motivating, it’s what makes your groove a groove.
Let’s continue with our previous example. You want to write a book? Set a goal of writing 1000 words per day.
His goal is to stay on the roof until he codes the gravity function for his physics engine.
Those words might not end up being used in the final draft. You may throw them out later, or edit them several times. But the point is for you to make a minimum amount of progress toward your goal.
Maybe it’s not writing, maybe it’s sending out 5 resumes. Maybe it’s reading 3 chapters of your textbook. Maybe it’s doing 100 push-ups.
Whatever it is, keep doing it. Every day. Until you finish that book. Or fundraising project. Or painting. Or get that job. Or win the competition. That’s your productivity goal.
Get In The Groove
Now that you have all of the pieces, it’s time to get in the groove. You can pick your place, pick your time, and decide what you’re going to accomplish. Hit that groove every day and you’ll be way more productive.
What does your groove look like? Do you work in the mornings? Evenings? At Starbucks? Somewhere else? What are your productivity goals?
Recent Comments