The common approach to “productivity” — to getting things done, showing up for your work, creating — is to boil it down to a series of systems or frameworks.
This is a problem.
Don’t get me wrong — I love a good system or framework.
But I believe we must look at everything holistically.
What Impacts Productivity
Productivity is impacted by
- energy states
- emotional states
- physical states
- nervous system states
- sense of purpose
It’s impacted by
- your sleep
- your nutrition
- the state of your relationships,
- how supported you feel (emotionally, relationally, financially, materially)
- Loneliness
- Grief
- whether you feel like your work makes a difference or an impact
- your sense of agency, autonomy, and authority both related to your work and in your life in general
- your sense of self-efficacy
- your sense of self-worth
- your beliefs about your capacity (self-confidence)
- your beliefs, mindsets and attitudes about all of the above things
And it can also be impacted by – how things like your clothes or hair make you feel – how you feel in a certain place/space – how you feel about the world in general
There are so many inputs into this “machine” of human productivity.
And that is why nobody in the history of the world has yet been able to boil it down into an exact science.
There’s no ONE magic framework that fits everyone or everything.
Even for any individual person doing any specific type of task, there’s no ONE framework that ALWAYS works
The best we can do is to
- have some systems that work well most of the time.
- Deepen our awareness of where we get stuck and why
- figure out what mindset shift, tools, and strategies can help us
- recruit the support that we need to help us in the areas where we struggle
- Be willing to experiment and fail and experiment more
This is why I repeatedly remind my clients that the inner work is the real work of productivity.
Because no strategy will help you get more done if you’re not willing to do the work of creating awareness and looking at the reasons why you struggle
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