What do you think about when you hear the word “productivity”?
Maybe it conjures up images of pushing hard, working long hours, struggling, using lots of willpower and self-discipline. Maybe you get an image of a factory–people working longer, harder and faster to produce more widgets. Or maybe you think of rigid schedules and systems, all meant to keep you in line for greater and greater results.
Are you exhausted yet? I am. 🙂
Productivity doesn’t have to be about faster, longer, harder, in fact, it can be about aligning yourself with your inner energy and with the energy outside of you to get the most output from the least effort. Now that sounds like something I’m interested in.
I’ve spent many years thinking and experimenting with the best ways for me to get things done–because there were definitely things I wanted to get done. Up until several years ago, I worked a traditional 8-5 office job. I’m also a writer and a self-publisher. Now, I’m self-employed. I wanted to be able to do these things without feeling completely drained or like I was constantly exhausting myself.
But when I looked out into the world and sought out productivity advice, frankly, it just didn’t suit me. I’d try a few things here and there, but I either couldn’t stick to it or it would make me feel awful. I was clearly grinding against my natural rhythms, so I had to start experimenting for myself.
And the good news was that when I let go of what I was “supposed to do” and did things the way I was inclined to do them, I got better results than I thought. And I felt great.
This meant doing things like becoming aware of my energy rhythms throughout the day and matching activities to those rhythms, rather than creating a very structured schedule and pushing myself through it no matter what.
Or using my intuition to help me prioritize and pick out what to work on next, rather than using analysis or other mind-based tools to pick my next activity. I would feel energized and enthusiastic as I started to work rather than constrained and grumpy.
It also meant learning to leave space in my schedule in order to feel more refreshed, have better ideas and, frankly, to enjoy myself more as I was working. When I had space in my day, things felt free, abundant and relaxed rather than tense, stressed and like I was constantly on a treadmill I couldn’t get off of.
So this is all to say that I learned that productivity was not about “push” but was about “alignment” and I found ways of working that allowed me to get done everything I wanted to get done.
If you’re interested in learning more about productivity within your own natural rhythms, check out my book Productivity For INFPs and my mini-course of the same name. I’m confident you’re going to come away with a least a few actionable ideas right away.
Amanda Linehan is the author of Productivity For INFPs. She is a multi-genre fiction writer, indie author and INFP, who has published five novels and has been read in 113 countries. Amanda was a speaker at the INF Summit in February 2020. Get the first two sections of Productivity For INFPs for free when you sign up to her For INFPs newsletter.
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