Hi, this is Uriah from Productive Therapist and this is My Super Productive Week.
So, if the audio quality is a little bit different, it’s because I’m out taking a walk. I thought that I would record a quick podcast episode and share something with you. Pretty much unscripted.
I wanted to tell you about my super productive week last week because I just felt incredibly focused and productive. I was very pleased with pretty much the whole week, which honestly is a little bit unusual.
I did change a few things that I think made a pretty significant difference. So I wanted to share it with you.
Making some changes!
So, I realized after my vacation that my mornings were not really going the way that I wanted them to go.
In fact, I got back into this habit of waking up and spending probably 20 to 30 minutes just on my phone checking the news and my e-mail, looking at Facebook, Instagram and so on. It was really not a good use of my time at all and certainly not a good way to get started and feel good about the beginning of the day.
I know that this is pretty common. I’m sure that you’ve experienced a similar sort of cycle or habit at some point.
So I decided to completely change that and instead re-design and put together a new morning routine. It’s very simple.
For five days (all of last week) I did exactly this:
I woke up and I the first thing I did is stay in bed and read for 20 to 30 minutes, an inspirational kind of good book.
And then I got up, went downstairs and made some tea for my wife and I.
After that I immediately sat down with my iPad and I journaled for about 20 to 30 minutes. My intention was to possibly do some content writing for the blog or other work related things, but I ended up free form journaling and just writing whatever was coming to my mind.
It was actually quite nice even though I’ve never been much of a journaling type person.
Identifying and prioritizing
That process sort of cleared my head and helped me focus on how the night was and what I wanted the day to look like.
Then I would immediately write down my top three priorities for the day.
My to-do list is always pretty long. I’m sure you can relate.
But I realized there’s only so many things that are actually high priority. I try to identify only three things that if I check them off my list, I would feel good about the day.
All this time, I’m avoiding checking my e-mail, avoiding checking social media or other things that really can become such a time suck in in the morning. After identifying my top three, I would go into my office and start on one of the those tasks. While drinking my tea I would work for about 30 to 60 minutes.
A new productivity drink!
During that time, I actually started drinking a new productivity drink with my tea. It’s called Magic Mind. I’m not promoting this necessarily, but I think it has been helping. Magic Mind is a mixture of matcha, some adaptogens, nootropics (whatever those are!) and some honey.
It’s essentially an herbal supplement and it’s supposed to enhance your focus and your energy.
However, it tastes absolutely horrible!
So, I drank this every morning with my tea. For some reason, it just seemed to give me a little bit of an extra edge. It’s just got a little bit of matcha in there, which is a little additional energy. I felt very focused and very clear.
So for what it’s worth, I think I’ll try to keep drinking this. It really does taste dreadful, but my tea tastes fantastic!
Then work for about 30 to 60 minutes on one of my top three priorities.
Next, I would immediately put on my walking shoes, go out and walk for about 30 minutes around the neighborhood. I usually listen to a podcast or an audio book. Sometimes I’ll just just walk and think. Sometimes I’ll make phone calls.
When I come back I would make a green shake and get back to working on my top three priorities. Usually somewhere during this time, I would check my work messages.
Not my e-mail, but my messaging system for Productive Therapist and GFC, my counseling practice, just to make sure there’s no fires that need to be to be tended to.
What about email?
Eventually I would check my e-mail between nine and ten in the morning. I honestly think much of my productivity has come from avoiding the trap of reading and responding to email first thing in the morning.
You should try it for a week and see what happens!
I hope there are ideas you to take and adapt for yourself.
I genuinely loved last week and I honestly can’t say that about every week. It just felt so fantastic and I think the way that I set up each morning really made such a huge difference.
Take this and apply some of it for your morning routine and your weekly productivity habits.
One other thing I wanted to mention was that last Monday and Tuesday were particularly busy days with lots of trainings, video calls and phone calls. I was almost overwhelmingly booked.
So what I intentionally did was put in my calendar time for naps and time for midday walks and eating good food, especially lunch. That seemed to help as well, especially when I was overbooked.
This helped me to make sure I didn’t just work for seven or nine hours without taking care of myself. I was more able to tackle those days and feel good about them at the end.
So there you go! That’s my Super Productive Week.
Thanks for reading.
