One of the main benefits that you can get from time management training is transforming your days from “busy but unproductive” to “highly productive.”
Have you ever had a great day at work? You know, a day when everything was clicking, you felt great, and got a lot of stuff done?
Most people have had this experience at some point or another, even if it was for just a few hours instead of an entire day.
I’ll bet that during a day like this, you felt fully focused and fully engaged by your work.
Guess what? This is not an accident!
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszenthmihalyi, who has done a lot of research in this area, coined the term Flow to describe this highly productive mental state when we become completely focused, engaged and absorbed by our work.
This state is very similar to the “zone” that many professional athletes talk about when they are performing at their best.
Imagine what it would be like if you could enter this state much more frequently than you do now. Do you think you would be more productive? Would you get a lot more stuff done?
I think the answer is pretty obvious.
Well, there are certain conditions that make it much more likely that you’ll enter into this flow state.
1. Consistent focus
The ability to focus on a single activity or project for an uninterrupted block of time without getting sidetracked or distracted with unrelated things.
It takes time to enter into the flow state, so having a block of time where you can fully focus on your work is essential for flow, especially in knowledge or creative work.
2. Lack of distractions
External or internal distractions or interruptions make it very difficult to enter into a flow state because they prevent you from focusing and engaging with your work.
3. Sufficient mental, emotional and physical energy
Your mental, emotional and physical energy also play an important role. If you are too tired or fatigued physically, emotionally or mentally, it is much more difficult to enter into this flow state.
4. Meaningful contribution
If you feel that your work truly is important and meaningful, it’s much more likely to produce a state of flow. For example, when you love what you are doing and you feel it’s adding value to the world.
The more of these conditions that you can create, the more likely that you’ll experience this powerful state of flow as you work, and the more productive you will be.
The reason why I’m bringing this up is that if you can create and align these conditions on a regular basis, you can end up with some very productive periods throughout the day.
The problem is that it’s rare for these conditions to happen accidentally as part of your average day. In fact, it’s much more likely that these conditions are NOT going to happen, *unless* you take active steps to MAKE them happen.
An important step to do that is to INTENTIONALLY design your ideal day – to make a conscious decision to create the conditions that will naturally lead you to have a very productive day.
If you want to design your ideal day and plan your week to help you take control of your time and really get things done, I recommend you check out my Be More Productive training program.
It will show you how to design your ideal day, step-by-step (we cover that in Modules 1 and 2).
You can get started in just a few minutes, and learn the same techniques and strategies that have significantly increased my productivity over the years.
