Productivity VS Being Busy with Neill Williams – Podcast Episode 13

Welcome!

Today I have a guest who is from Seattle, Neill Williams from my Mastermind Group in the US, we gather together from all these different industries and we discuss our business’ and problem solve. 

I just love Neill as she helps super busy women, essentially unbusy themselves to be more productive. The interview today is super valuable. This is directed to the women who want to be able to do more, in less time while enjoying life! 

So today, we have some stellar tips to accomplish being super productive without feeling stressed and in less time.  

Neill is a certified life and productivity coach, who typically works with the too busy, overworked mums who are high achieving in career and in family life. These women almost always feel overwhelmed and as if they are unable to achieve these things, which is where Niel comes in to show them, that yes, they can do it all!  

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING BUSY AND BEING PRODUCTIVE:  

Being busy and being productive are pretty much the opposites of each other, although you may feel that they run in the same category, they most definitely don’t! To define productivity would be the level at which you manage yourself within the time that you do have, and therefore the capacity that you have to create. It is the way that you manage yourself, to ensure that goals are met career-wise and personal wise. The way we have been taught to think of productivity by looking at the end result in the professional industry, the problem with that is we can get carried away with the career side, and neglect the whole other side of your life which is the personal side. It is important to look at planning, scheduling and accomplishments in a very wholistic way that way we can take into account your whole entire life, with all the aspects that are important to you and not just your work side.  

WORK-LIFE BALANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY:  

Balance doesn’t mean that we spend equal amounts of time on all aspects in our lives, it is about making sure that all the priorities have real estate in our calendar and ensuring that you don’t feel guilty for other little pieces of your life that are slipping down.  Create a schedule that is resilient and flows with your life. Try not to aim to put a number of hours into a topic, rather try to what you want is on your calendar and the way you have your schedule set up will support your life and goals.  

TOO BUSY DISEASE:  

Business is not what is on the calendar and schedules, busyness is what is going on in your brain. That is where busyness comes from, so if you have a million-thought running through your brain, and you’re not sure how to manage that is what creates the stress. It is not necessarily the things we have to do, rather just how we manage the autopilot voice in our head that tells us we should be doing this, I haven’t done this, I don’t have time to get it all done and then crash bang, your stressed.  Bringing those thoughts to the forefront, rather than just letting them run through your mind is so important as you want to focus on them for a little minute, prioritise what needs to be done, write them down or schedule them. That way, those thoughts that are not serving you can vanish because we now have them looked at, and that way we perform clearer. Recognise what is happening in your mind.  

Most people when they are overwhelmed, nothing productive actually happens, we actually freeze and stop due to the subconscious in our brain saying “I’m too busy, I’m too stressed, I can’t do this…”  

When you have downtime, you will find that you can be so much more creative as you actually have space! It is vital to schedule in time to think, actually schedule this into your diary and just give yourself time to be able to process, schedule and action.  

Stop and let yourself think! The brain is not made to be a storage container, although that is what a lot of us do, however that is why we feel overwhelmed. The brain is a processor, it likes to process things, not hold things. So, when you give yourself that time and space to think you are actually processing things rather than hoarding thoughts!  

HAVING A SCHEDULE VS NOT HAVING A SCHEDULE:  

Not everyone needs a schedule, some people have their own free-flowing process that can actually work best for them.  However, for most people, it is highly effective to have a way to diarise tasks so that all of your priorities get real estate in it, that you are completing things in the most productive way, in the shortest amount of time, and what will make you move to do the tasks.   Ticking off tasks will also be a motivating factor to keep going with your tasks and focus on the vision.  

If your priorities are represented in your calendar, then you are going to be living the life you want to live because they have all been represented and you will feel secure about what you are doing as you have set the tasks, processed them and prioritised them – you will feel secure.  

TOP 2 TIPS ON HOW TO WORK SMARTER, AND NOT HARDER:  

1. PLAN AHEAD. 

Plan a week in advance, the way to figure out what that is going to look like is that firstly put the priorities on the calendar, and then doo a brain dump! A brain dump is when you spend the first 5-10 minutes on Monday morning where you right down all the things that you want to accomplish during the week. We have to get what is running around in your head, and taking up storage space onto the piece of paper top clear some space in your brain. This will give you more free mental energy and will also improve productivity.  

2. PRIORITISE ALL OF THE THINGS 

Number all of your priorities in numbered order and remember that these are the things you want to accomplish for the week. So, they will be completed, most people often clear out a time in their calendar to work on a task – but this is a huge mistake! As humans, what we do is fill up your time. If you tell yourself that you are going to work on something for two hours, you will do that but you aren’t likely to complete it. Decide ahead of time how much it will take to COMPLETE that task, not just work on it. How am I supposed to know how long that will take? Well, it is up to you to just decide how much time you estimate it will take. This way you feel challenged to actually get it done in this period of time. Just like in school when you would sit a test, you would have a certain time and there was no option to change it but you got it done, right?  

To find Niell Williams visit her on:  

Podcast – Unbusy your life 

Website –  www.neillwilliams.com 

These are awesome accounts to follow to ensure your frequency is elevated!  

Have the best day!

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