I’ll be honest with you. Productivity has always been top of mind for me over the years, and I’ve spent many hours trying to figure out the best way to optimize my time, maximize the hours I have in the day, and get stuff done so my projects don’t pile up and become an unmanageable mess.
And then, 2020 happened. It happened to you, and to me, and to everyone around us. And just like with other times of crisis — wars, famines, earthquakes, hurricanes, the Great Depression — we find ourselves re-evaluating what’s truly important.
My top priority list has shifted a lot. Staying safe, practicing social distancing, having meaningful conversations with my inner circle of family and friends, being mindful of eating healthy, and being physically active all went to the top of the list.
Productivity as a concept also shifted for me. I still have work to do, projects to manage, meetings to attend. But I wanted to do more for myself, be kinder to myself, be more flexible when I think about how productive I can be.
And I figured out an easier way to manage this. I call it my tiny productivity practice.
It’s based on the book Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything by BJ Fogg.
Practicing tiny productivity has quite a few benefits. You don’t feel as overwhelmed as before. You don’t procrastinate as much. You remain proactive, you still get work done, but the day doesn’t appear endless any more.
So what’s it about?
Tiny productivity means:
- Identifying a task you want to complete (it can be work-related project, school homework, exam prep, or personal project)
- Breaking the task down into very small chunks (so they don’t take up a lot of time and don’t feel impossible to do)
- Completing one small chunk at a time (with the Pomodoro method, using a timer)
- Measuring progress by marking off each step at the end of the day (in a notebook, in a spreadsheet, in a journal)
I’ll give you an example.
Tiny productivity task: I want to start writing a journal to get into the habit of writing and also giving myself the time and space to sort out my thoughts.
- How do you make this task more manageable?
- Set up your space: create an online document or take a notebook to write in
- Connect your new habit of journal writing to something you already do: “After I shower in the morning, I’ll sit down and write in my journal.”
- Set the timer to 15 minutes.
- Make it a goal to write only one paragraph during this time. What’s a paragraph? Around 5 sentences. Sounds like a lot? Write short sentences.
- What should you write about?
- There are no rules. It’s up to you.
- Think of it as a conversation with yourself. What are you going through right now? Are you thinking about a conversation you had with someone yesterday? Is work bothering you? Do you feel isolated while studying or working from home? Write about this.
- Try to explain your thoughts and emotions to yourself. When you write that you’re stressed, for example, use adjectives to describe it. Get into the details as much as you want to. Remember, nobody else will be reading it except you.
- How do you measure progress?
- For each journal entry, mark the date.
- Give yourself a goal of writing in your journal for one week.
- At the end of the week, write down what the experience was like. Did you find it enjoyable? Was it yet another chore, and if so how could you make it less so (can you attach it to a pleasant activity like drinking a cup of coffee or sitting somewhere outside in the sunshine as you’re writing)? Was 15 minutes a sufficient amount of time, or if not could you add 5 more minutes to it?
- Make adjustments to your task so the following week goes by more smoothly.
- And finally, keep this in mind — keep writing. The goal is to make tiny progress every single day. You won’t feel the benefit on day 2 or day 15, but as you keep adding to your journal, you’ll find that you are improving the overall quality of your life.
And that, right there, is the direction in which you should be taking your productivity.
Nela's Blog 