How Productivity Comes From Clarity
I got nudged by Ben Yoskovitz from Instigator Blog the other day, to chime in on his Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing Project. The gauntlet thrown?
What’s your secret to being productive?
Challenge yourself by picking your single best productivity tip.
And since I’m kicking the writing project off, I’d be curious to hear from Alister Cameron, Adam Kayce, Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, Andrew Wee, David Armano, Tony Clark, Mike Sansone and Chris Cree.
Well, the challenge has been answered so far by the likes of Harrison Loke, Ploop, Kathie Thomas, Engtech, Lorraine Pirihi, Andrew Wee, Janet Barclay, and kindred spirit, Wendy Piersall.
Some the tips shared include tried-and-true concepts such as focusing on the one big important thing you absolutely must get done, working at your best time of day, and removing clutter from your inboxes.
These are fantastic suggestions… some of these I do already, and others are new for me — and I’m looking forward to trying them on.
One arena that I’m not yet seeing addressed, however, is one of the biggest keys to my productivity, and so I’ll make it my contribution to the Ultimate Guide to Productivity:
Clarity.
The kind of clarity that helps you know what to focus on, and when. It helps you dive into a project fully, without those little voices in your head, saying, “Is this really what I should be working on right now?”
Those voices will sap your focus, your energy, and keep you bouncing from your project to your checklists to your email, always wondering if you’re paying attention to what you should be paying attention to.
When those voices aren’t present, you can be fully dialed-in to the task at hand, and I find that having that kind of unfettered focus allows me to write faster, create more smoothly, and manage the inevitable chaos factors that always bleed into a project with much more ease.
How do you find this kind of clarity?
Most people would tell you it goes back to your vision; know where you want to go, and you’ll know what you need to do to get there (or, at least you’ll get on the road to finding that out).
But there’s a step that comes before vision. It comes before marketing, and it comes before everything in your business that reaches out to your audience. It even comes before knowing who your audience is.
It’s your Message. Your Message is the sum of who you are, what your passions are, what your values are, and what comes to you naturally to give, share, and contribute to your world.
If you aren’t clear about your Message, how can you ever feel truly solid about the work you’re doing?
I’ve talked with hundreds of entrepreneurs (not to mention corporate employees) who don’t feel a strong connection to what they do. They aren’t sure if they’ve really found their niche — and as a result, their ability to engage productively in their work is compromised. And it’s because they don’t have a clue what they’re really about on an essential, fundamental level.
I’ve also talked with a good number of people who do. They have clarity about who they are and what they’re doing. They know why they’re doing what they’re doing — and that gives them focus, drive, and love for their work. They don’t waste time wondering; they know, bones to skin, what they’re here to do.
That kind of foundational clarity translates into strong, clear, compelling visions. It helps you know what to do, and just as important, what not to do. Having that kind of clarity pays huge dividends for years to come.
So, my advice to you: Find out who you are (as a person, as a business). Find out what you love, what drives you, and what you intrinsically value. Shape this into a Message for you and your business, and you’ll be in the perfect place to take advantage of the rest of the amazing productivity tools you come across.
And, if you’d like to join in this project, I’m sure Ben would love it. The “rules” are up at his Ultimate Guide to Productivity post. Personally, I’m going to invite Dawud, Dave, Char, ChrisG, and Karin.
What do you do to get ultra-productive?
Potentially related posts:
Ooooohhh – I’m ‘Monkish’? I like that!!
Seriously, I was thrilled to see you take on this question – I was right in my prediction that you would cover the intellectual/focus side of things more eloquently than I did!
Wendy, you are totally monkish!
I loved what you wrote on your contribution to the project — the “Know Thyself” one is molto monkish.
Frankly, I’m amazed at some of the things you do for leverage… didn’t you have to detail your husband’s car recently?
Great post, not sure how I am going to add anything to this meme!
Dawud and Chris: Those are great pieces (calling them “tips” is too diminishing). I’m going to be extra-conscious of those elements today as I work.
Thanks bro. It’s difficult, truthfully, to work focused without clarity. Clarity needs to come first otherwise, what would I focus on.
Your post really hits home. And I can see the value of Ben putting this project together.
Thanks for the mention! One of my client business coaches speaks of clarity and the importance of knowing why you’re doing something. I enjoy attending his events and watching the audience respond to his question – what does clarity mean to you? He gets some really interesting answers.
Dawud: Right on — I couldn’t agree more (both about clarity, and Ben’s being on target with this project).
Kathie, you’re very welcome. Who’s the guy? If he’s got a site, I’d be curious to check him out. Anyone talking that deeply about clarity is a friend of mine.
Hi Adam (and all)
Sorry I’m ‘late’. Been ‘productive’ all week long with THE exhibition and follow-up works. Love this project, got me thinking already.
Thanks for including me with the tag, Adam. Your piece (agree with you that these gems are too good to simply be called tips – hope mine will pass muster) certainly hits home with me. Goals without complete clarity fall short IMHO.
Clarity is fine, technically.
But life gets in the way. So at best, you can have fuzzy vision. Productivity doesn’t necessarily come from clarity.
You can be clear about something. You may want to do it. And yet, how many of us actually do what we want to do?
Productivity comes from external deadlines. When you have to do what you have to do, you just do it–whether or not you’re clear or unclear about it.
Sean
http://wwww.psychotactics.com
Sean, thanks for weighing in. I agree (for me, at least), that external deadlines are a great productivity booster. It was your insistence that I use them to write my first book that got it off the ground.
At the same time, I have a close colleague who tried external deadlines (on a book, too) and ended up having to totally renege on the deal and refund some people’s money because he didn’t have the clarity about where he was going. The book fizzled, and never got off the ground.
That’s why I said the clarity is the foundation — without it, all the greatest of tools (like external deadlines, which tops my list) just may fall flat.
(just to be crystal clear, I don’t want it to sound as if I’m refuting your idea; just combining our two…
)
Hi Adam
Not sure if typepad’s trackbacks are working properly, but just published my contribution to the Meme.
Karin H (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
As usual, I love what you write, Adam. I agree with both you and Sean- without clarity, external deadlines feel like a ton of bricks coming down, and I can offer wait to the last minute, and then turn out mediocre stuff.
But, clarity deadline- that’s what I’ve found to help me be productive. Plus something else. But, I’ve been tagged by Jen Louden, so I’ll add it to my blog, rather than taking up a bunch of space here.
Mark, I can’t wait to see it. A link to the post would be great, if you make it back here…
dear adam,
i was nodding my head as i read your clarification about clarity…. realising the reason for all those moments of having to fight the work out of me. (and, as you responded to sean, i am one of those people who freeze up on the pressures of looming deadlines)
yet… i found something still didnot explain some of the cases/instances when i could get very little work done.
i realised that even when i was clear of what needs to be done, i was not clear if i could do it. i was having self doubts. i was clear about the work and process/procedure. i was unclear about myself.
in one case, i was also unsure (unclear) about how to convince my partner AND the client about the approach i was taking – though i was sure it would work.
clarity, for me, came up on so many levels.
Hi Biren, thanks for sharing that. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried pummeling myself into submission, trying to, you said, “fight the work out of me.”
Ultimately, I think we get, on a deep level, that if we’re in a fight, something’s just not right.
The good news is that clarity, like most things, has a learning curve: the more we find it, the easier it is to find it again.
[...]Ground Hog Day without the alarm
“There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”
-Peter Drucker
As a student of human behavior, I have always taken an interest in how decisions beget decisions. Life presents you with options. Each decision you make influences the options you have later. Some decisions close options. Some reveal options you didn’t anticipate.[...]
Adam -
I really loved this article.
I agree with you about clarity – it is a great ingredient for getting done whatever is really a match for us and our business in the moment.
Then, as Sean said, there’s life. And the need to be flexible and shift with the moment whether that means a young child with immediate needs that comes up just at that moment when you’re ready to do your thing with clarity or other distractions that are unavoidable (I’m not talking about things like a phone ringing where the answering machine can save the day).
I think there are a lot of ingredients to the productivity recipe, clarity being one of them.
Here are some others as I see it:
- Scheduling uninterrupted time and having back up for things like needy kids, etc
- Finding a good space for yourself which fosters your creativity whether that be at your computer at home or outside somewhere
- The balance between being productive through clarity and also clarity in choosing relaxation and rejeuvenation
Your articles are excellent, as always. You put words on things for me that have been concepts floating around in my head but not fully formed.
Thanks so much.
Char
Thanks, Char.
David Armano has a great visual that puts ‘life’ right smack in the middle of the continuum between planning and improvisation. Without flexibility, we shrivel quickly, don’t we?