Productivity is a must in our busy, busy world. It seems to be a continuous struggle to get it all done. Do you start the day with a list and end the day with more on it than when you started? Our guest today is Erik Fisher who is the host of “Beyond the To Do List” podcast. Erik shares wisdom to getting more done in less time. Listen in to get more out of your day.
In this episode we’ll cover:
- What productivity essentially means
- The importance of having a simple system
- How to give self-deadlines
- How to create momentum in your workflow
- How to make goals and steps to achieve them
- How momentum creates feelings of happiness and motivation to do more
Target Audience: Includes anyone who wants to stop going crazy when they have an immense to-do list that just seems to just keep snowballing.
Erik Fisher hosts the podcast “Beyond the To-Do List” and has co- written 2 books: Ready Aim Fire and Hit the Mark. He is also the Community Manager for the Social Media Examiner.
A major concept in productivity according to Eric, is identifying what outcomes you are looking for and then setting yourself up to achieve them. Essentially productivity means staying focused on the outcome. This could mean doing more in less time. Then there’s a higher level of productivity: should you be doing fewer things so that you’re doing more things better? In the end, we all deal with time and things we have to do. It’s about learning how to deal with those 2 things. Energy, willpower, and health are some other elements that play into productivity.
Erik recently read David Allen’s book: Getting Things Done. According to Eric, the essence of the book is learning how to “surf” on top of the things you need to do rather than feeling overwhelmed (or “drowning”). If you think about it, surfers have a tether. So, while they may fall of their board, they remain connected and can jump back on. The metaphor here conveys that creating a system that’s functional will allow you to jump back on when you fall off your board. After all, there’s nothing wrong with falling off at times. It happens.
Rory Vaden’s book Procrastinating on Purpose talks about the “funnel” concept. The “funnel” is about the workflow. It’s about clearly identifying what it is that you need to do – whether that is the expectation of yourself or someone else. Then it is about deciding what needs to be done. Lastly, it is about giving yourself permission to throw something up back to the top of the funnel. These are items that perhaps do not need to be done right away for whatever reason. There are many levels of “permission.” Most importantly though, it is about having a keen awareness of “self- deadlines.” It is about presence rather than hiding behind something or being on autopilot.
Erik makes the point that checking things off a checklist creates momentum and a feeling of happiness. You suddenly feel like you can do more and do better. Erik warns to be aware of the routines you are hardwired to do. In order to make a change, you’ve got to be really present to transform a dysfunctional routine.
READY AIM FIRE- written by Eric walks you through a process over a month to guide you through the common problem of “I don’t know what I am supposed to be doing” or “I don’t know where I can get quick wins to move forward in making changes.” The book guides you into making goals and taking steps to achieving them.
HIT THE MARK- also written by Eric is a next step book to Ready Aim Fire in what eventually will become a trilogy. This book is about actually hitting the bullseye, embodying the archer, finding your focus, getting more energy and using your time better.
Practical and Actionable:
Look through your list and then move on to what you can do to get that feeling that momentum of having knocked those things off your list. This will give you a smaller list. That feeling will give you momentum to complete other things that are more challenging or take a longer amount of time to complete.
