Productivity Tips Archives - Parts with Presley

How Am I Supposed to Focus on Work Right…

In the US, the federal government, which funds a ton of things we rely on, not to mention aid to other countries, is being dismantled. An unelected guy has access to every American’s confidential data. Food is about to get even more expensive.

You can be forgiven for having a hard time focusing on your paperwork!

But you have bills to pay, and it won’t do anyone any good for you to lose your job. There’s enough of that going around already. So what can you do?

Set Up Your Home Office for Focus and Productivity

I love working from home. The leisurely mornings with no commute, control over the thermostat, the ability to move my clothes to the dryer while my code is compiling…it’s beautiful.

But probably the biggest reason I love it is that I can actually focus better when I’m in a space I find comfortable. Like many perfectionists and procrastinators, emotional regulation is key to my ability to get things done. When I feel like someone is looking over my shoulder, or when I can’t quite find a way to sit in my office chair without my back aching, it’s like my brain stops working. Whereas, cocooned in my favorite chair at home with a cup of tea from my personal collection, I can fall right into a flow state.

So working from home is a great option for those of us who need to dial down the anxiety in order to focus. And yet, it’s a double-edged sword. With all your favorite snacks and hobbies around – not to mention your bed! – it can be hard to consistently choose work over rest and play.

For some managers, this is exactly what they have in mind when they insist you come into the office – they want to make sure you’re staying on task!

So let’s show those managers that you can have the best of both worlds – the cozy comfort of working from home, and the focused productivity of a structured, motivating environment. Recently, Redfin asked me how people could organize their home environment to support their goals for their blog post on how to keep your New Year’s Resolutions this year, and that inspired me to go further and put together these tips for creating a productive home office space.

How to Stop Mindless Scrolling

You swipe upwards and more posts appear: an ad, a meme you’ve already seen, and a question everyone already knows the answer to – posted just to get comments. “I should stop this mindless scrolling and get back to work,” you think.

But deep down, you know that’s impossible. Work feels so daunting right now. You have twelve decisions to make before you can write up this proposal, and you don’t know the answers to any of them.

Scrolling, on the other hand, is easy. It’s so easy it seems like it’s happening without your conscious control. You’re just watching your thumb flick and new images appear. Will you find something to make you feel better?

Not exactly: it’s a post about politics saying exactly what you disagree with. It’s wrong in so many ways at once that your counterarguments have a traffic jam on the way out of your mouth and you’re left speechless. Yeah, this isn’t relaxing anymore.

“If I’m not going to work, I should at least take a walk and get some exercise,” you tell yourself.

But that brings a pang of guilt. How can you leave your desk when you have so much work to do?

The only thing that feels doable right now is to keep scrolling. It solves exactly zero of your problems, but it takes so little energy that you’re stuck there. You’ve fallen into the Guilt Trap.

Breaking the “Tomorrow I’ll do it all!” cycle

You had such big plans for today. You were going to get up early, hit the gym, finish that big work project that’s been hanging over your head once and for all, and then knock out all your chores. You might even have time to think of a cure for cancer before getting to bed right on time.

But somehow, it didn’t go that way.

Your inner critic has a lot to say about your day. How could you fall so short? You’ll have to really hustle tomorrow to make up for it. Yes, tomorrow, you’re going to get up early, hit the gym, finish that big work project…wait. I see where this is going.

Getting out of the cycle of disappointing yourself

If you’re going to get out of the loop of setting high expectations, not meeting them, and then raising them even higher, you need to be honest with yourself about what is and isn’t working in your day.

From Drawing a Blank to Taking Action

One of the most common reasons people put off doing an important task is that they’re not sure how to do it. Sometimes they’re not even sure exactly what they should be doing — they just know they’re supposed to somehow end up with a finished product.

At a recent coworking session, T Carter knew she needed to work on marketing her services. She recently left the corporate world to open her own boutique graphic design business, Design Breakfast.

Confusion breeds procrastination

It was no surprise to me that T was using the coworking session to write marketing content. When you own a small business, there are an infinite number of things you could do for it, and a lot of them are more straightforward than writing content. Writing content is so important, but what kind of content should you write? About what? For whom? It’s so much easier to fiddle with the colors of your website — even if nobody sees your website because you don’t write any marketing content.

This doesn’t just apply to business owners, though. In general, confusion breeds procrastination. The tasks we’re fuzzy on are the ones that need the most attention, but they tend to get the least.

How to Approach an Icky Task

Growing up, I always wanted to skip ballet class. And then without fail, I’d feel great afterwards and be glad I had gone.

I haven’t changed much: I still feel like skipping my workouts a lot. (I have an especially tense relationship with Leg Day.) But I do know now that the feeling that I’m going to hate working out is not a reliable predictor of the reality.

So what’s the best way to start doing something that you feel “ugh” about?

How to ask for actually helpful advice

Have you ever asked friends or social media audience for advice, and the answers you got just made you feel worse?

I see so many posts where people get really honest about what they’re dealing with — imposter syndrome, writer’s block, analysis paralysis, and more. People are so willing to be vulnerable and open themselves up to help, which is amazing! But sometimes, they don’t get what they need out of the experience.

First of all, not everyone is good at really paying attention to what’s being asked and answering that question. People love to have the answers, so if you ask a question they don’t have the answer to, they might just answer a different question instead.

This drives me nuts, so if it bothers you too, I want to validate that! We can’t turn other people into good listeners, but we can listen to ourselves when our feelings get stepped on.

And there is another thing going on that you have some control over. A lot of these requests for advice share a productivity symptom and ask people how to treat that symptom, and that can bring in unhelpful advice.

How to Follow Through With Goals

So you have a goal for the new year, and you’re excited about it! But in the back of your mind, you know that most new year’s resolutions don’t last for a whole year. A lot of them are lucky to get as far as February. So how can you follow through with your goals, knowing that the odds are stacked against you?

Welcome your off days

The trick is to welcome the uncertainty, the challenge, the likelihood that you’ll fall off the wagon. Instead of seeing the days when you don’t stick to your resolution as failures, see them as expected opportunities.

Of course you’re not yet the kind of person who accomplished your goal—that’s why it’s a goal. The process ahead of you is not just a process of executing your goal, but of becoming the person who can follow through with that goal.

Every off day is a day you get to learn what you need in order to become that person. This means you don’t need to focus on accomplishment so much as noticing.

And that’s why I recommend daily intention tracking.

End of Year Reflection Questions

One time a friend asked on social media “how do you know if therapy is helping?”

I think of that every time I prepare for a Reflection Session at the end of my coaching package, Painless Productivity. I never want one of my clients to wonder whether coaching was helpful for them—much less to not even know how to tell if it was helpful for them!

So in the final session of the package, my client and I look back at how far they came, and then look forward at how they want to carry their progress into their everyday life.

I find this kind of reflection important in my own life, too. I don’t want to just float through the year without taking stock of what happened and consciously planning what I want to do next. It doesn’t necessarily have to be about self-improvement and New Year’s Resolutions. The important thing is just that my eyes are open, that I’m watching the passage of time, and my own personal evolution.

Even when you’re not in coaching, therapy, or other dedicated personal development work, you’re still growing and developing. Each year contains many moments of challenge, insight, and breakthrough. So I think my reflection questions can apply to the end of our year, as well.

So, join me in an End of Year Reflection!

How to get a New Year’s Resolution to stick

Imagine a family where every year, Mom tells the kids that this year, they really need to do their homework before they play video games. Mom is 100% sincere in her desire for the kids to do their homework first thing. She’s resolved. She’s committed. But the kids don’t do it. Why not?

Well it’s not much of a mystery, is it? The kids were the ones who needed to be resolved in order for this to happen. But they weren’t. Mom wanting it real bad doesn’t guarantee anything on their end.

The problem with New Year’s resolutions

That’s what goes on inside of us when we set a New Year’s Resolution in the usual way. A conscious—and conscientious—part of our personality sets the resolution. But in order to follow through with it, the subconscious, emotional parts of us—the parts that try to keep us rested and happy—have to be on board. Because those subconscious parts of us have a lot of say over what we do.

Getting out of the cycle of disappointing yourself

Confusion breeds procrastination

Welcome your off days

The problem with New Year’s resolutions

What's Your Procrastination Type?