In my last blog post Time to Be Productive, I used an acronym called CRUNCH to shed light on some things that commonly compete for chunks of our time. While certain issues like requests and chores are a natural part of life, it is still helpful to build awareness around where and how our precious minutes are being consumed. Today, let’s probe a bit deeper and look at some cognitive and physical factors that can often make productivity seem so elusive.

First, consider the force of willpower in your daily life. Do you believe that you possess a great deal of willpower? I know my willpower often seems elevated early in the day, but somewhere around 8-9 pm it begins to tail off dramatically. Some nights my willpower feels extremely low when the hour of bedtime arrives. It can be so depleted that my wife and I will debate who’s turn it is to get out of bed, walk across the room, and turn the light off! Have you ever thought about all the things you do on a daily basis, and the fact that each task requires a certain amount of willpower? Think about things you might have done within the first 30-45 minutes of waking up this morning like brushing your teeth, making your bed, making coffee, feeding your pets, feeding yourself, emptying the dishwasher, checking your email, etc… Each activity demands a deduction from your willpower account and your daily 24-hour time bank. Keep in mind that willpower is an exhaustible resource.

Another driving force that can get in the way of our productivity is the seemingly endless buffet of distractions that bombard us with information around the clock. Mass media stimuli is showcased before us through our computers, televisions, smart phones, video games, tablets, and are continually asking for our eyes, ears, and brain space. New York Times bestselling author Dr. Edward Hallowell, a leading expert on the disease of distraction, asserts that “processing speed is our drug of choice. We expect our brains to process an absolute onslaught of continual data points. We crave it and we demand it to be done quickly and efficiently.” In one story, Hallowell equates the plethora of information and the need for speed to process it in the following way. “Many people are galloping as fast as they can toward what they believe is salvation, yet they are really heading toward their destruction.”

Finally, let’s examine the idea of the “bounce mindset” as it relates to productivity. This mindset centers around unfinished projects on our agenda. We have near-mode projects, which include the things we are working on in the here and now. Distant-mode projects are things in the future that we dream about such as learning a language, finishing a graduate degree, or running a marathon. Distant-mode dreams have relatively few complexities, no imminent struggles, and no experience of spinning our wheels, or getting stuck in the sand. We often dream and fantasize about these projects, and they can consume a lot of our time and focus. When we switch a distant-mode project into a near-mode activity, we often soon learn that pursuing the dream is difficult and not all that glamorous. As things get tougher, we have a decision to make. Do we give more, commit less, or just totally quit altogether? Quite frequently, the tendency is to quit or to put the near-term project on the shelf and “bounce” to another distant-mode project. Once we have a large number of partially completed projects sitting on the shelf, our brains begin to behave like an internet browser with too many open tabs. Why we do we feel the need to jump from task to task without completing the one thing that we know is most important? Bestselling author Seth Godin says it’s because of the dip. Godin defines the dip as the “long slog between starting and mastery.” When the going gets tough, many of us simply struggle to get going. To continually trade one project for another lessens our focus even more and severely hampers our abilities to be productive. There are some amazing tools and strategies for becoming more productive and learning to live beyond the mere fantasy of the things we want to create and do with the time that we have. 

Make sure you check back for Part 3 next week!