Nine powerful habits that increase productivity, performance, and happiness

Success is like a destination on a road map- there are often several routes to get there. While there are lots of ways to foster success, there are several powerful, research-backed, daily actions that are especially effective at boosting productivity, performance, and life satisfaction.

Ditch your to do list. Instead write down the top 2-3 things you need to or want to accomplish today.

To do lists are broken. Writing a single list of tasks with varying priority levels and varying time commitments to finish can actually leave us feeling more overwhelmed, stressed, and helpless. For many people, to do lists simply serve as a constant reminder of what they haven’t done, which fosters feelings of inadequacy and lack of motivation. Furthermore, they can leave people feeling guilty for taking time to enjoy life or take care of themselves if everything on the to do list isn’t done.

Instead, ask yourself the following question, “What 2-3 things would I need to do to look back on today and say it was a good day?” Write those things down. Narrowing the scope of our to do lists requires us to figure out our priorities. This is helpful for organization and productivity. Narrowing the scope and being realistic with our daily expectations also allows us to experience a sense of accomplishment and pride that is often missing from traditional to do lists.

Use the “zoom out” test.

When we are in the middle of something negative or unpleasant it can feel catastrophic. Even after it’s over, we can spend hours, days, or weeks ruminating on how incompetent, stupid, embarrassing, or insert adjective of choice, we seemed.

Have you ever had an experience that felt awful at the time, but completely forgot about it a few years later? That awkward wave to a coworker? That thing you said to your best friend? That internship you didn’t get?

Time can help give us a different perspective on the difficult situations we find ourselves in. Next time you find yourself catastrophizing try asking yourself how much this situation will matter in five years. Will you even remember it in five years? If other people are involved, will they still be focusing on it in five years? How big of an impact does the situation really have?

Understand the difference between truly important tasks and seemingly urgent tasks, and block your schedule for the former.

Many people get trapped in a cycle of never quite getting to tasks that are truly important because they are distracted by tasks that are seemingly urgent.

Truly important tasks might include working on that big presentation you are giving, publishing your website, allowing yourself to take a course that will advance your career, or setting aside time to problem solve, code, or write a manuscript.

Seemingly urgent tasks are distractions that come up constantly throughout the day that we feel compelled to attend to immediately. This might include responding to email, keeping up with meeting invitations, or returning missed calls. Occasionally you may receive an urgent request you need to respond to by email or phone, but more often than not these tasks only have the illusion of being urgent. The problem with prioritizing these tasks is they occur constantly and consistently throughout the day, forcing you to task switch, and take time away from truly valuable tasks.

Try scheduling a time block on your calendar for between 1 and 3 hours during which you do not attend to any seemingly urgent tasks, and only allow yourself to work on the truly important tasks that tend to get deprioritized.

Start your day by doing something for yourself.

Waking up and immediately going into work mode tends to have a negative impact on mental health, happiness, and perception of work-life balance.

Try saving at least 15 minutes in the morning to do something for yourself. It can be anything from working out, meditating, journaling, cooking, playing music, or engaging in other hobbies that are important to you. Research and anecdotal evidence from clients I have worked with indicates that 15 minutes of self time in the morning has greater positive impacts on health, happiness, and productivity than 15 extra minutes of sleep.

Savor what you’ve accomplished on a regular basis.

Sometimes I call this the “to done” list. The idea here is to highlight 2-3 things that you feel good about, accomplished, or achieved each day. Allowing yourself to notice and savor the goals you’ve met and things you’ve gotten done actually increases your motivation to keep working toward new goals and keep doing hard things.

This can be done in your head, but is more powerful if written down. Writing down your accomplishments and things you are proud of also has the added benefit of allowing yourself to look back through your list on a particularly difficult day.

Normalize failure.

If you are not failing on a fairly consistent basis, you are not achieving your potential. Put another way, if we are constantly achieving all of our goals on the first try, we are not setting our goals high enough. Say it out loud, make a note on your computer, or post it on a sticky note in your workspace. The more you see and say this message, the easier it will feel to believe.

Stop striving for perfection, strive for excellence.

Perfectionism is the enemy of progress. Expectations that do not allow for mistakes, learning, setbacks, or challenges beyond our control are not only unrealistic, they are unmotivating. If we expect perfection, we set ourselves up for failure and disappointment. Repeated failure is hard to endure. Over time, it fosters a sense of inadequacy that undermines our ability to keep working toward a goal. Most people are only willing to fail at something so many times before giving up, giving in, and avoiding the thing altogether.

Think about what an excellent (fill in the blank) would do.

-       What would an excellent manager do?

-       What would an excellent athlete do?

-       What would an excellent and supportive spouse do?

-       What would an excellent business consultant do?

Excellence is actionable. Perfectionism is not.

Do less, but commit to doing what you do better.

When you commit to too many things and spread yourself thin, the quality of your work can decrease. This isn’t a personal failing, it’s what happens to anyone who tries to take on too many things.

Instead of doing more things, give more to the most important things you do. Think about giving 100% to the things you say yes to. If you cannot give 100%, experiment with saying no, or with waiting to take that task on until something else concludes. The quality of your work, and how you feel doing it, will improve when you are not overburdened. In this sense, taking on less will allow you to do more.

Define what success looks like.

Goals that are vague and not well defined are impossible to achieve. If we don’t know where we are going, how are we supposed to get there? Goals like “Feel better”, “Be a better leader”, or “Be a better triathlete” are great aspirations, but lack the detail and structure that allow you to know if you are making progress toward the goal and when the goal has been achieved.

Define what success looks like this week, this month, in 6 months, and in one year. What would you be doing? What would be different about your life? How would you know if your goal had been achieved?

If you are interested in unlocking your potential and unleashing your greatness reach out for individualized coaching, to participate in one of my leadership courses, or to set up a speaking engagement for your team.