Ah, productivity. The sweet smell of victory over mundane tasks, goals, and roadblocks. If you ask anyone if they would like to be more productive in life, the answer is almost assuredly a “Yes!” But then why aren’t they? Why aren’t we? The answer is strikingly simple yet absurdly easy to fix.
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What is a Productive Life?
Unlike peace, passion, or professionalism, productivity looks the same everywhere you go.
Productivity is literally the rate of production.
It’s also defined as the effectiveness or quality of producing something.
If you can imagine a farmer planting crops, or a factor worker making widgets, when evaluating them for productivity all we would care about is knowing how fast and how high of quality they are accomplishing their job.
For the farmer, is it taking all day to plow 1 field or are they plowing 10 fields per hour?
For the factory worker, how many widgets are they making per minute and do those widgets work properly?
It’s safe to assume a low quality result at a high rate of speed is not ideal and wouldn’t be considered productive.
Similarly, high quality output that takes foreverrrr is also not very productive.
There is a balance we all must find at home and work where the rate and quality of our results aligns with our priorities.
How to Be More Productive at Home
The saying, “Home is where the heart is,” could be changed to, “Home is where the hard work is!”
Home life is anything but quick and easy.
For those who own a home, you know how much there always is to fix, figure out, and maintain.
Add marriage and parenting into the mix and the home becomes less of a haven and more of a workshop.
We are pulled in so many directions at home, it’s difficult to be or even feel productive much of the time.
The key word in how to be more productive at home is more.
This is where many people hold themselves back.
Because there is so much work to do at home, it’s easy to feel like nothing is getting done.
But that’s because productivity at home isn’t typically the finishing of individual tasks as much as it is the progress and cultivating of a healthy environment.
Productivity at Home Examples
| Productivity at Home Is: | Productivity at Home Is NOT: |
|---|---|
| Clean clothes for people to wear. | A perfectly clean laundry room and all clothes ironed and pressed. |
| A reasonably clean home that is safe and comfortable. | An immaculate home where everything is perfect. |
| Bills paid prior to deadlines. | Bills and other important documents taken care of immediately upon receiving them. |
| Priorities for the day or week known, scheduled, or made clear. | A home that runs like an assembly line all day, every day. |
| The ability to say we worked hard, made progress, and maybe got some things done. | Collapsing after a day focused exclusively on accomplishing tasks to the detriment of ourselves or others. |
| Reasonably happy family members because their needs were/are generally met. | Everyone happy all of the time. |
Part of the reason why productivity at home revolves around the word more is because the tasks and priorities within the home are often unable to be completed.
For example, can anyone truly complete the task of laundry? Unless you’re doing laundry naked, there’s always another item that needs washing. It’s a never ending task and one that multiplies exponentially for every family member.
Being productive with laundry then isn’t about being amazing at getting it done every day and checking off the box. It’s much more about managing clothes, making sure enough laundry is done so people have weather-appropriate options available when needed.
For some, that may look like running laundry once a week. Others, it may take once every other day.
And then once laundry is run, a busy week may mean the laundry never fully makes it to be hung up in closets or stored neatly in drawers.
And that’s OK!
With all things in the home, productivity should be clear and reasonable. We should often ask ourselves if what we have done or accomplished is working for the moment, day, or week.
If it is, great! Let’s not downgrade our efforts because of what we see from others online.
If we are not satisfied with our productivity, make small changes to improve the rate or quality of production.
In our home, that often means my wife or I will spend a little extra time on the specific task.
Sometimes she or I will stay in the kitchen a little longer after dinner to clean up dishes and prepare them for the next day before getting ready for bed ourselves.
We do laundry early in the morning after sitting in the dryer all night if it didn’t happen during the day.
Going through papers, bills, or registration forms on weekends when both my wife and I are available to sit down helps make it a priority.
However you attack productivity in the home, remember it’s a balance between speed and quality.
Perfection is not a healthy answer but a give and take will lead to success.
Productivity at Work Examples
| Productivity at Work Is: | Productivity at Work Is NOT: |
|---|---|
| Reasonable focus on the job we are paid and asked to do. | 100% focus with no distractions or breaks for 8+ continuous hours. |
| Forward momentum on the most important tasks. | Completing all tasks every day so nothing bleeds into the next day’s work. |
| Identifying issues and collaborating with other people to find solutions. | Doing everything ourselves and being completely self-sufficient with no surprises. |
| Being in alignment with our authority on what we focus on and how we go about accomplishing a task. | Doing it our way or not consulting others so we can check it off as complete as fast as possible. |
| Making mistakes, learning from mistakes, and increasing our ability to complete a task faster and with higher quality over time. | Being perfect and not making mistakes. |
| Ending the work day satisfied that our employer’s money was well spent on us being there. | Ending the work day embarrassed how we spent our time for the cost we are to our employer. |
When it comes to work, productivity is far more focused on task completion than forward momentum.
Sure, there are big projects that take a long time to complete. Trust me. I know!
At work, jobs are often well defined with clear timetables because customers or clients are paying for specific value services or products.
In sales, productivity might be making 100 phone calls or 25 meetings.
At a restaurant, productivity could be standing at the ready to greet the next customer who walks in the door.
In engineering, productivity is usually identifying problems, making a plan to solve them, and then going about implementing the plan until the problem is solved.
Whatever your occupation, it’s also a great idea to find your 2 peak hours of productivity that will make major dents in your daily to-do list.
The Secret to Being Productive at Work and Home
Productivity is based entirely on goals.
If we haven’t defined what the end result of our effort should be, we’ll never know if we were productive.
Instead, a lack of clear goals in the home or at the office leads to feelings of despair, inadequacy, and hopelessness.
On the flip side, knowing what we want to achieve (and what we are willing to settle for) feels like freedom!
Productivity will come more naturally with clear goals and weekly or daily planning
For example, how would you answer these questions?
- In the home…
- What must be accomplished with the dishes and what can I be OK with?
- How many loads of laundry must get done for everyone to be clean and prepared?
- How often does each room need sweeping and is there a way to eliminate things that create messes?
- Are there any tasks that could be delegated (to children) or given to a service provider?
- What effort inside the home yields low benefit but consumes a lot of time?
- What are my priorities for the home today – not top 10 – top 3 max?
- Is there any skill I need to learn or get advice on to be more effective at getting things done at home?
- In the workplace…
- What one task, if I get it done or made progress on it, has the greatest impact on my authority structure or stress level?
- Could my tasks be broken up and shared with others so more can be done quicker?
- What skills are holding me back in speed or quality of task accomplishment?
- What result am I willing to settle for if I truly can’t please all the people all the time?
- How many hours am I willing or needing to work to accomplish what’s necessary for my job?
- Is my workspace clean and orderly so that I am less distracted?
- How can I focus on fewer tasks and what are my top 3 task priorities today?
Becoming more productive in life boils down to having a plan and implementing that plan.
Focusing on the toughest task first also helps!
All of us can learn to be more productive by prioritizing what we focus on and what success looks like for us in our current season of life.
You can be more productive without being more burdened.
Prioritize and execute.
If this content spoke to you, consider 3 things:
- Leave a comment below and tell me how productive you feel and what you may focus on this week to become more productive.
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