I can help you evaluate every aspect of your personal and business life and build in new procedures and mindset to help you increase your efficiency and productivity. NLP and Hypnotherapy Gold Coast... Phone 07 5562 5718 or send an email to book a free 20 minute telephone, Skype or Zoom session. NLP, Hypnotherapy and Medtation, Gold Coast, Robina.
Online Introduction to Productivity Coaching
And get a lot more satisfaction and joy from life
By Abby Eagle (2020)
Click the Image to Watch on YouTube
I’d like you to stop and think for a moment about the time and money that you waste – and if you could learn to be more efficient and productive – then what that would allow you to achieve and to experience?
Let’s look at it this way. You get born into the world and at sometime you will die. In the middle there is this thing called life. Existence gives you the opportunity to have a worthwhile experience and putting aside things that you can not control do you squeeze the juice from each and every moment or do you waste time on aimless tasks?
So if I could help you to increase your productivity – and in the process reduce your expenses and have more time and money to enjoy yourself would that be worthwhile?
NLP Future Selfing Exercise
The first thing I suggest that you do is a NLP future selfing exercise. You take a large piece of paper – butchers paper, fish and chip shop paper or flip chart paper. Draw a line across the top. Top left you write P/S for present state and the date. Then down the left hand side you list your present situation.
Top right of the paper you write D/O for desired outcome and put a future date – could be a month, three months, a year or five years in the future. Whatever works for you.
In the middle across the top you write steps and stages. Bottom right on the page you place a box for your to-do list. And then using the process of asking questions, making statements and giving commands you map out the systems and strategies that are required to move you from the present state to the desired outcome.
Click the Image to Watch on YouTube
Analyse and Review
Once you have the basic structure and activities in place then it comes time to analyse and review your present state and desired outcome – and your to-do list.
So at the end of the day what do you really want to have achieved? At the end of the week what do you really want to have achieved? At the end of the year what do you really want to have achieved? And at the end of your life what do you really want to have achieved such that you look back and say to yourself, “You did good – I am proud of how you lived your life and I am proud of what you accomplished”.
Values
This brings us to the question of values. What is important to you in life, relationships, career and business? I have a couple of videos on the values elicitation process on youtube – so I encourage you to watch the videos and practise eliciting values. Values are arranged in hierarchies – there are conditions that need to be met for a value to be fulfilled – and sometimes a specific value needs to be fulfilled before you can move onto the next stage of your life and fulfill a higher value. You also need to keep in mind that every decision that you make is based upon a value. So mapping out your values will give you insights into how to build new strategies to save time and money and increase your productivity.
Click the image to read the article and watch the video
Review Your Activities
To be more productive you should also look at the tasks and activities on your to-do list – and that includes everything that you do in the day. Do you really need to engage in those activities to get your outcomes? Think in terms of a Henry Ford production line. What is the simplest system that you could design such that you only engage in what is necessary – in the most effective sequence – and with whom?
And do you really need all of those outcomes? What are you actually striving for? What are you really trying to achieve? Once again at the end of the day looking back on how you spent your time – did you spend your time in an environment that nourished you? Did you spend your time with people who nourished you and brought out the best in you? Did you look back on the day and say to yourself, “I had a really good day – that was one of the best days of my life, ever”. And when you have that type of experience – what was it that made it such a memorable day?
So you look at your present state and make a decision on what needs to be dealt with and the most effective way to do that? You look at your desired outcomes and ask yourself if you really want those outcomes? And you look at the tasks and activities that you set for yourself and ask yourself if you really need to do that? And if the activity is essential then who would be the best person to do the activity? At times you may find it most effective to outsource the activity while at other times you may find it more effective for you to partner with someone in the activity – if that is what it takes for you to get into flow.
Getting into Flow
Flow – otherwise known as the zone – is an optimal state of consciousness in which you perform at your best. It really starts with an understanding of personality type. As Roger Hamilton says, “Your personality type is your genius”. And then you also need to know what it is that you are really passionate about – you have to know what really interests you – and you have to know why. So rather than spending a lot of time trying to improve upon your weaknesses – it could make more sense to focus on your strengths and do what comes naturally to you – and then you outsource all the activities that you don’t like doing.
A big part of getting into flow is putting yourself in an environment in which you flourish – that is putting yourself in an environment which triggers the neurotransmitters in your brain that fire you up naturally such that you focus in and enjoy the task at hand.
Even so you still have to make choices of what task to focus on and at what time. This is why it helps to use a desk diary, rather than a diary on your phone, so that at a glance you can see the activities that are scheduled for the week. Then you should write a to-do list on a piece of paper in the evening so that when you get up in the morning all you do is check the to-do list and it tells you what to do.
In all of this you have to keep your eye on the clock. I suggest you start with the optimal time to get out of bed in the morning. Then you work back to what time you need to get to bed and to sleep the night before. And then you work back to what time you need to sit down for dinner – and what time you need to prepare dinner. Once you have this system in place then it positions you to start the next day. So then you structure your day and bit by bit you update your strategies and the activities such that you learn to focus in on what is most important – not so much what needs to be done but what is most important for you to have completed at the end of the day.
When you review your NLP future selfing exercise you should also look at it in terms of necessity versus possibility. Look at what you think needs to be done – find a way to simply that – and look at how you could be better spending your time and with whom.
Dealing with distractions
If you are going to make posts on Facebook or social media then just make sure that you know why you do that. Sometimes a little distraction is useful to help you get into flow. Other times it could be useful to explore a topic and improve your conversational skills? Or perhaps it could be a part of your business. Just make sure that you know why you spend time on social media and make it work for you such that at the end of the day you see it as being a useful activity. Remember time is precious – life is short so choose how you spend your time wisely.
Strategies and Systems
To increase your productivity it helps to think in terms of strategies and build systems.
In NLP terms a strategy is a process – a sequence of thought processes and actions to achieve some outcome. For example we use a strategy to know when it is time to make a cup of tea. Then we use another strategy for making the cup of tea. And then there is a strategy for when and how to drink the cup of tea. So strategies are the small series of thought processes and actions to achieve some outcome.
Systems are a network of strategies, tasks and activities to achieve some larger outcome. So for example a chef would need to use a system to prepare meals in a restaurant.
In some cases the most profound change is made by changing a strategy. For example, if you want to help someone quit cigarettes and marijuana, stop drinking alcohol, stop gambling or binge eating then the most profound change is made by targeting the thought that kicks off the behaviour. In my experience it is always a thought like, “It’s time.” Or, “I feel like a drink”. As you can see that one thought could lead the person down a path of self destruction. So by changing the right thoughts you can change your behaviour.
In other areas of your life there are going to be similar triggers for checking social media, or doing this, that or the other. So what is required is the awareness to notice your thoughts and to check if that thought serves you or not. If the thought does not serve you then send it back to the unconscious mind and insert a thought that does serve you.
Sequencing Tasks and Activities
So let’s take a quick look at strategies, sequencing behaviours and multi tasking. For example, let’s start with when you get up in the morning. Before you wake up you are probably dreaming about something or other. What does that dream tell you? Is the dream preparing you for a fantastic day or are you already thinking thoughts that may impede your progress?
And then as you wake up what are the thoughts that arise in the mind? Do these thoughts preframe you for a productive day or are the thoughts an interference? So pay attention to your thoughts and see what you can do to clear your mind, make some good decisions and change your behaviours.
Let’s compare two morning routines and see which is going to be the most productive:
- Get out of bed and get dressed.
- Pull back the curtains and open sliding door to let some air and light in.
- Go do some exercise.
- Go to kitchen and prepare breakfast.
- Have a shower and get dressed.
- Eat breakfast.
- Check phone, email and social media.
- Start a business activity.
Now let’s change the sequence of those activities.
- Get out of bed and get dressed.
- Check phone, email and social media.
But now you may have spent so long on the computer that you don’t have time to do your exercise routine or to prepare a healthy breakfast – and you may be late for work. And you haven’t even pulled back the curtains and let some light in.
So by structuring your day around a series of tasks and activities – and by prioritising the tasks you will find that you can save an enormous amount of time – be much more productive – feel so much more fulfilled – and spend less time on activities like social media that, at the end of the day, don’t really serve you.
Summary
To summarise the procedures for improving your efficiency and productivity I suggest that you:
- Start with a NLP future selfing exercise.
- Analyse and review the NLP future selfing exercise.
- Check your values so that you know what is important to you.
- Review your activities.
- Practise getting into flow.
- Either utilise distractions to help you get into flow or sidestep distractions by prioritising activities.
- Simplify your strategies and build robust systems.
- Sequence your behaviours so that you do what is most important – not what is urgent.
- Get feedback, reassess and take action once again.
If you would like some help in improving your efficiency and productivity then feel free to send me an email and organise a free 20 minute Skype or Zoom session – and if you have not done so then please comment below, and join us over at the Facebook NLP & Hypnotherapy Group.
Share With Friends
| The secret of high achievers |
|---|
 |
| How to build a powerful team |
 |
| Learn the NLP Meta Model |
 |
| How I stopped drinking alcohol. |
 |
| How to coach yourself using NLP. |
 |
Copyright © Abby Eagle