Five Questions to Ask Yourself When You’re Not Productive
When you have a project to work on but just can’t seem to get started on it or make much progress, it’s easy to beat yourself up about it, which also doesn’t help you develop an energetic mindset. When you feel stuck, you can of course choose a productivity method that might work better for you, but before you do, it’s a good idea to get your bearings by asking yourself a few questions about what you’re hoping to achieve.
Here are five questions to ask yourself the next time you’re stuck and feeling unproductive so you can get moving again.
“When was the last time I was as productive as I wanted to be?”
We all have periods when we are less or more productive, so don’t be discouraged if you have an off week. Instead, try to remember the last time you felt truly productive. Perhaps it was before the holidays, when a sense of urgency forced you to get everything done before the holiday; this is in accordance with the Yerkes-Dodson law , which states that you perform better when you are under little pressure. Perhaps it was when you had a clearly defined goal (I’ll talk about its value in a moment). The more pieces you can piece together, the more likely you are to be able to replicate that environment and get back to the action.
With that in mind, it will help if every time you feel that next productivity boost, you take notes on what worked, what didn’t, and what could have been better. This way, you can create an ” after action review ” that you can return to when it’s time to ask yourself that question again.
“What is my ultimate goal?”
Sometimes you get caught up in the rut of doing something because you know it needs to be done, but you don’t think about the greater purpose you are serving. Menial tasks like emptying the mailbox or washing the dishes often fall into this category. In general, it’s hard to find the motivation to do those boring things that take up so much time—unless you’re thinking big.
Asking about your end goal can help. Clean out your inbox: Yes, this will make it easier to see important messages and respond in a timely manner, but the end goal is that responding faster will help you do your job better, which can lead to making more money, getting a promotion, or getting out of work. office earlier so you can spend more time with your family. Washing the dishes serves the ultimate purpose of keeping the house tidy, but it can lead to a more important goal: cleaning up before friends come over, keeping bugs out of the sink, or having fresh dishes on hand in case you try. new recipe tomorrow.
Determining the broader purpose behind what you need to do is a key part of prioritizing your tasks and getting motivated to complete them. Work backwards by asking yourself what your end goal is and then come up with the tasks you need to complete to achieve it. This will help you stay on track and make you want to start. (Bonus points if you break it down using the SMART goal formula .)
“Why don’t I want to go to work?”
This is the question I ask myself whenever I feel unproductive. Most of the time, I already know my end goal and know when and how I can work best, so when I procrastinate on a task, I try to figure out why and address the root cause. Sometimes I’m afraid to send an email because I’m nervous about what the response will be. Other times I don’t want to work on a project because it just doesn’t satisfy me. Obviously, I can’t control how someone will respond to my email, but I can work to make that email as clear as possible, to make sure it conveys what it needs to, and to remind myself that the answer may well be positive – and that I won’t know until I send it. I also keep track of when I find myself avoiding something because I don’t feel fulfilled or interested in it. If this happens frequently, I know it’s time to analyze the consequences and perhaps make a full course correction.
Finding out why you avoid something is, in some ways, more important than forcing yourself to pick yourself up and do it. Try applying the hierarchy of needs to your current circumstances to better understand what isn’t working and what’s holding you back.
“Can I break this job down into smaller parts?”
Other times, the reason you find it difficult to be productive is because the task in front of you is too big. Imagine that you are trying to prepare for a work conference in another city, but you keep putting it off. This may be because “preparing for a conference” involves too much: planning a flight, booking a hotel, applying for reimbursement from your company, planning the trip to the airport, packing, planning what you’ll do each day of the trip. , coordinating responsibilities with colleagues, and preparing a presentation are all related but completely different activities. Breaking them down into smaller categories (travel arrangements, scheduling, and preparing for the conference itself) and then breaking them down into individual tasks can help you feel less overwhelmed.
This is where you use a system like Kanban or the jar method, which can help you prioritize and track the work you need to complete on a given day. Trying to take on a large project without breaking it down into manageable pieces will only leave you frustrated. (This is why I never recommend cleaning your entire house at once; instead, you should focus on cleaning one room over a short period of time .)
“Is this work really necessary?”
Asking yourself if your work is truly necessary can feel like a cop-out because you’re almost giving yourself an excuse not to do certain things. But there will always be tasks that are less important or even unnecessary, and eliminating them will allow you to focus on getting started on something that really matters.
First, use a prioritization technique such as the Eisenhower Matrix or the ABCDE method to figure out which of the things you need to do are actually relevant and which are fluff. Once you figure out what’s necessary and what’s not, use the 4D approach , which is often used for sorting emails but can be used for a variety of purposes. The four D’s are delete , do , delegate and defer . Remove (or forget) everything that doesn’t need to be done, delegate small tasks to someone else (for example, ask your child to tidy the living room or a colleague to take on part of a larger project), put aside tasks that are not necessary. It’s not important now, but over time it will be, and then take care of important things.
If you don’t prioritize everything you need to do, you’ll end up with a long list of responsibilities that will overwhelm you and force you to do nothing at all. By spending a little time going through it and identifying the most pressing items, you’ll get only the essentials, and working through that list is guaranteed to be more satisfying.