The Productivity Project (TPP) Part 1

In this world of busy bodies people keep trying to accomplish the most amount of tasks in the least amount of time.  Most people think being more productive is about getting more of those task done quicker.  Making more parts in less time, sending more emails, or making more phone calls.  Speed is key!  This book taught me different.

Being more productive is somewhat like that; but more about wasting less time, being more accurate, and maximizing your time on the most important tasks.  Also known as working smarter.

Have you ever had those times where at the end of the day you are exhausted, but you felt you didn't accomplish much?  I definitely have too many times.  You research this and that, play a game, check social media, and check email.  All of sudden it's lunch time.  After lunch you do some tasks around the yard, watch a little Netflix, do a couple jobs around the house, and take care of kids.  Then it's time to make dinner.  Where did the time go?  You have so many tasks unfinished and no time to do them.  Out of all the mentioned tasks which ones were productive?  The answer is it depends on what your values are for that day?  If you value family most then taking care of kids was the most productive.  If rest was really needed then watching Netflix could be the most productive task.  With the rest you can be more productive tomorrow where if you tried to be productive that day you wouldn't accomplish much and still be tired for tomorrow.

One of the exercises in the book was to write down a list of values that you value most.  So I did a google search "list of values" as the book suggested and wrote down in my journal the ones that pertain to me.  I went a step further and wrote down the interests, activities, and hobbies I would associate with those values.  This gave me a clear picture of what was really important to me.  It told me what I can work on to accomplish those values in my life.  There is the usual values for most people family, faith, friends, etc. 

A lot of my life I dreamed of being an artist.  My goal became to be an artist full time and quit my factory job.  Sounds easy enough right?  That is what I believed.  In my opinion and other peoples opinion that they told me was that I am good at drawing.  Then there is a lot of businesses telling you that you can make it as an artist all you have to do is market and network on social media.  Then I read a book called Art / Work and learned the truth.  The only artist who quit there day job are the ones that sell to blue chip collectors(very rich people) which is not very many.  My heart sank.

After watching the video on my last blog post "Don't set goals, do this!" and doing the values exercise.  I came to the conclusion that I should scrap this hard to obtain dream and focus on become better at what my values line up with.  Most of my values line up with reading(adventure, curiosity, growth, knowledge, and wisdom) and writing(adventure, creativity, growth, meaningful work).  Drawing lined up more with my recharge time(peace, creativity).  So here I am writing and not caring if it goes anywhere.  It's fun and I love telling people cool things I learn from books and videos that may help you through life.

So what are your values?  What is really important to making you feel like you had a more productive day?  Try this exercise, the results may surprise you.