Unleashing Productivity: Managing Ourselves, Not Just Our Time

In our fast-paced world, time management has become synonymous with productivity. We diligently schedule our days, make to-do lists, and strive to maximise every minute.

However, what if I told you that managing time to boost productivity might actually be wasting our time?

In this blog post, we will explore an alternative approach — managing ourselves — by prioritising our health, well-being, and all the factors that directly impact our work. By doing so, we can unlock our true potential and achieve sustainable productivity.

The Pitfall of Time-Centric Approaches

While time management techniques can be useful, they often focus solely on scheduling and allocating tasks. This narrow perspective overlooks the importance of self-care, leading to burnout and diminishing returns.

Finding “more” hours might not necessarily the right approach to becoming productive, in my view. We know that even when we work for 8 hours in a day — not every hour of the every week of the every month has the same output!

Instead, let’s shift our focus to managing ourselves holistically.

The Power of Self-Care

Rather than making “more” hours to becoming productive, let’s shift gears to understand self-care in making us productive.

Prioritise Health: A healthy body and mind are the foundations of productivity. The more happier we are inside, the better output that we may produce. To achieve this, incorporate regular exercise, nutritious meals, and sufficient sleep into your routine. Probably the “The Power of Full Engagement” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz might help us in engement in full.

Mindfulness and Meditation: There’s a lot of “noise” and “distraction” in the current digital work world. Numerous email notifications, unending slack messages, calls over calls, agile ceremonies etc will only make us more “robotic”. We would not get a chance to be mindful or a minute to meditate.

The ask here is to make an effort to cultivate mental clarity and focus through mindfulness practices. Engaging in meditation or mindfulness exercises can enhance self-awareness and reduce stress. The book “The Miracle of Mindfulness” by Thich Nhat Hanh might help us to understand the benefits of mindfulness in the current caotic world.

Setting Boundaries: One of the major issue I found after the pandemic is to finding the balance between the work and personal life: when to shut my work and switch to family. Especially, laptop in the bedroom, kitchen or dining place will surely tempt us to fix that pesky issue we were working that morning!

Establishing clear boundaries between work and personal life is crucial. Avoid overworking and make time for hobbies, relaxation, and quality time with loved ones.

I do recommended this book “Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life” by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend that may help us say no to encroaching work into our personal time slots.

We must invest in our personal development with clearly set goals. We must learn that taking care of ourselves will lead to taking care of work.

Personal Development and Continuous Learning

Investing in personal development fuels creativity, enhances skills, and expands knowledge. I strongly belive in engaging ourselves in reading, attending workshops, enroll in online courses or just talking to colleagues on a recent tech topic!

I highly reommended book by James Clear: “Atomic Habits” should we wish to create little habits that would help us hack our brains!

Embrace self-management practices that align with your values, goals, and energy levels. Customise your workflow and optimise your productivity accordingly.

Building a Supportive Environment

Building a supportive environment around us will help us in a lot number of ways.

Surround yourself with a supportive network that encourages your personal and professional growth. Collaborate with like-minded individuals and seek mentorship when needed. I suggest to read this book by Tim Ferriss: “Tribe of Mentors” by Tim Ferriss

We can utilize productivity tools and apps that streamline tasks, automate processes, and provide insights into your work patterns. However, be mindful of digital distractions and establish healthy tech boundaries.

Wrap up

In our pursuit of productivity, we often overlook the critical aspect of managing ourselves. By emphasizing self-care, and personal development, and creating a supportive environment, we can enhance our well-being and productivity simultaneously.

Remember, it’s not just about managing time but managing ourselves effectively.

Start today and unlock your true potential!

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