June 14, 2024
Mastering Motivation and Productivity: Strategies for Remote Workers and Solopreneurs
Ready to revolutionize your remote work routine? Join me in my home studio in Eastern Spain as we tackle the critical challenges of motivation and productivity that freelancers and solopreneurs face. Discover how transitioning from a structured office environment to remote work can be both freeing and chaotic.
This episode talks about the importance of creating self-imposed structures and why shifting from hourly-based to value-based pricing can transform your approach to knowledge work. Inspired by Cal Newport's "Slow Productivity," I share strategies to avoid pseudo-productivity and focus on clear, outcome-oriented targets.
Struggling to maintain intrinsic motivation while juggling multiple roles? Try practical techniques like the Pomodoro technique to combat procrastination and how to align your tasks with personal values to keep them engaging. We discuss making tasks more rewarding by connecting them to what truly motivates you, ensuring that you stay productive in your remote work journey. Embrace David Allen's "Getting Things Done" methodology to prioritize tasks effectively and reduce stress, aligning your daily activities with your big-picture goals.
Facing the hurdles of procrastination, fear of failure, and decision fatigue? From visualizing positive outcomes to adopting a growth mindset, I unpack actionable strategies for breaking down daunting tasks into manageable steps. Hear about the importance of self-imposed deadlines and consistent routines, illustrated with real-life examples like Steve Jobs' wardrobe routine. By the end of this episode, you'll be equipped with the tools to prioritize effectively, manage decision fatigue, and make steady progress toward your long-term goals. Plus, get insights into leveraging resources like the Remote Work Europe Connected group and the LinkedIn Power Hour to enhance your remote work journey.
🌟 REMOTE WORK EUROPE CONNECTED IS OPEN 🌟
(It's now even easier to get involved and kickstart your remote work career success)
And you can find all our latest training and resources in our online store.
Finally, make sure you're subscribed to receive our free newsletter, packed with information, updates, and REAL remote job opportunities every week 😎
Here's to your own remote future 🤩
Chapters
00:05 - Motivation and Productivity in Remote Work
06:28 - Boosting Intrinsic Motivation for Productivity
10:47 - Overcoming Procrastination and Fear of Failure
16:46 - Overcoming Decision Fatigue for Productivity
22:24 - Prioritizing Quadrants for Productivity
31:23 - LinkedIn Power Hour & Remote Growth
36:23 - Remote Work Europe Podcast Promotion
Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:05.328 --> 00:00:11.301
you're listening to the remote work europe podcast, the show formerly branded as the future is freelance.
00:00:11.301 --> 00:00:13.846
The name has changed, but our values have not.
00:00:13.846 --> 00:00:24.064
We're still the podcast for solopreneurs, digital nomads and slowmads, consultants, remote workers, e-residents and everyone living a life without traditional boundaries.
00:00:24.064 --> 00:00:30.670
We're here for people who defy categorization, those who make a living and a life their own way in Europe and beyond.
00:00:30.670 --> 00:00:47.631
Fortnightly, on Fridays, we're serving up expert tips, inspired insights and stories from the frontiers of freelancing and the remote work revolution to help you achieve success with your borderless business and liberated lifestyle, whatever success means to you, as you live life on your own terms.
00:00:47.631 --> 00:00:59.274
Hello, hello Remote Work Europe people, and welcome to a solo episode with just me today.
00:00:59.274 --> 00:01:06.213
And I'm coming at you from my home studio in Eastern Spain and it's June and it's hot.
00:01:06.213 --> 00:01:13.143
For your acoustic excellence, I have turned off the fan and even closed the window, so you're welcome.
00:01:13.143 --> 00:01:16.471
It's because the neighbors are being quite noisy outside.
00:01:16.471 --> 00:01:20.266
Everybody's getting their garden ready for a long, hot summer ahead.
00:01:20.266 --> 00:01:25.087
So let's see what we can do today to help us prepare for that time of year.
00:01:25.087 --> 00:01:48.043
Because I want to talk about motivation and why motivation matters, particularly how it matters when you work remotely Now, when you transition from a traditional workspace to working on your own, one of the first things you face is a lack of structure, and quite often, motivation in a traditional workplace came from other people or it came from systems.
00:01:48.123 --> 00:01:54.766
It came even from buildings and locations, from turning up a particular place every week, every day.
00:01:54.766 --> 00:01:57.620
Once you're on your own, working remotely, you have.
00:01:57.620 --> 00:02:05.430
The price of that freedom is, you don't have those supporting structures around you, and without a set schedule, it can be easy to drift.
00:02:05.430 --> 00:02:17.241
The structured environment of an office actually provided a framework for being productive, whether that was regular meetings or defined work hours, and it also gave you immediate feedback on how you were doing.
00:02:17.241 --> 00:02:18.566
Were you looking busy enough?
00:02:18.566 --> 00:02:21.132
How did you compare to other people around you?
00:02:21.132 --> 00:02:27.925
So when you work remotely, especially if you're a freelancer or a solopreneur, you need to create those structures for yourself.
00:02:28.266 --> 00:02:36.822
Now, it's not always obvious how to do this, and part of the problem is that most of us are doing something which can loosely be defined as knowledge work.
00:02:36.822 --> 00:02:42.502
We're not creating or manufacturing anything where output is really easy to measure.
00:02:42.502 --> 00:02:45.329
How many widgets did you crank an hour?
00:02:45.329 --> 00:02:49.506
Or how many cars roll off a production line at the end of each shift.
00:02:49.506 --> 00:03:00.383
That's really quantifiable, Whereas knowledge work is often much more abstract and it's difficult, therefore, to see how you're doing, how someone else is doing.
00:03:00.443 --> 00:03:18.441
Even hiring people for knowledge work is challenging and, as every manager knows, when you're freelancing it's often tempting to value yourself in terms of what you can do over time, but that's not always the best and most valuable way of recognizing how productive you are.
00:03:18.441 --> 00:03:25.133
I always urge freelancers that I coach to move away as quickly as possible from hourly-based pricing.
00:03:25.133 --> 00:03:37.496
Unless you're doing something like consulting or coaching, where you have to be present physically or digitally for a fixed period of time, then time is not a good indicator of value.
00:03:37.496 --> 00:03:42.210
If you're creating something on a knowledge work basis, like you're programming or designing or writing, then actually hourly pricing can work against you.
00:03:42.210 --> 00:03:53.567
Because the programming or designing or writing, then actually hourly pricing can work against you, because the better you get at something, the more quickly you do it, so you should be rewarded for that better expertise.
00:03:53.567 --> 00:03:57.622
Instead, you end up having to actually bill for fewer hours.
00:03:57.622 --> 00:04:08.146
Now I've got a whole episode about this in season three, episode 17, called value-based pricing, so I won't dig into it in detail here, but I urge you to check that out.
00:04:08.448 --> 00:04:12.643
If you're tempted to think in terms of offering pricing based on an hourly rate.
00:04:12.643 --> 00:04:29.889
The only thing I will say here is it's fine to have an hourly rate in your head because you know roughly how long it's going to take you to do a thing, and when you price per project or per deliverable, you're actually assuming the risk that it might take you longer and you're assuming the upside if you do it more quickly.
00:04:29.889 --> 00:04:42.346
It's perfectly okay to have that target rate in your head when you issue that price, but the fact is you don't tell the client that you price it based on the project, on the deliverable that you're giving to them, because that's the thing that's valuable to them.
00:04:42.346 --> 00:04:47.396
The number of hours you produce or the number of hours it takes you to do the thing isn't valuable to them.
00:04:47.396 --> 00:04:56.182
So you can certainly use deliverables as one way to motivate yourself and to measure how you're doing, because this is the thing with knowledge work.
00:04:56.343 --> 00:05:03.406
It's hard to set clear targets when you're looking at, say, a blank week in your schedule what am I going to get done this week?
00:05:03.406 --> 00:05:08.257
I often think about my deliverables in terms of the things I'm going to do for clients.
00:05:08.257 --> 00:05:22.663
So I may have certain deadlines or items I want to submit that I can actually invoice for, and then I have other things related to remote work Europe which are way whooshier and more difficult to put a deadline on, so I'll come to that later.
00:05:22.663 --> 00:05:32.605
But actually, measuring how you're doing and how you're spending your time, whether it's being productive or not, you have to relate it all back to what the actual outcomes are going to be.
00:05:32.605 --> 00:06:15.031
I've been really enjoying this summer reading Cal Newport's new book, slow Productivity, and he returns to a theme that have come up in lots of his books, which I strongly recommend the concept of pseudo productivity, which is the tasks that can make you feel really busy but don't produce significant value, and this concept has come up with different names over the years, but I like the idea of pseudo productivity because it really highlights that idea that what you're doing, how you're spending your time, doesn't have any potential to move the needle on your big goals, and it's really crucial to differentiate, therefore, your tasks between being really productive and just being busy, because you can spend an awful lot of time being busy and not really achieve anything.
00:06:15.031 --> 00:06:21.685
Now, obviously, even if we're working for ourselves, we still have tasks that are admin and they're busy work.
00:06:21.685 --> 00:06:28.369
We can try and automate as many of those as possible, which I strongly recommend, and we've got lots of content about that.
00:06:28.709 --> 00:06:29.812
You can delegate.
00:06:29.812 --> 00:06:32.064
You can get rid of a lot of things.
00:06:32.064 --> 00:06:38.588
Sometimes, particularly if you're working for yourself, you might be experimenting, you might be trying to be present everywhere.
00:06:38.588 --> 00:06:44.461
You might be trying to give an impression of not so much being a celebrant but being part of something bigger, so you're trying to be everywhere.
00:06:44.461 --> 00:06:47.408
It's really difficult sometimes to curtail.
00:06:47.408 --> 00:06:51.625
How many social media networks do I need to be on, how many times do I need to post?
00:06:51.625 --> 00:06:54.132
How many blogs do I need to publish, and so on.
00:06:54.132 --> 00:06:57.125
You can put all those into your task management system.
00:06:57.125 --> 00:07:00.543
You can write things down on a list and cross them off.
00:07:00.543 --> 00:07:08.949
This can provide a really clear sense that you're being busy and you're being active, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're working on the areas that need attention.
00:07:09.028 --> 00:07:11.903
So, hands up, I'm completely guilty of this.
00:07:11.903 --> 00:07:18.144
You need to find a way to both identify it in your work and a way to tackle it, and we all have.
00:07:18.144 --> 00:07:21.500
I'm not going to tell you there's one systematic way that you can achieve this.
00:07:21.500 --> 00:07:26.711
Some people like working with a timer, for example, and having a sprint through a load of admin tasks.
00:07:26.711 --> 00:07:35.192
I sometimes do that when I really want to just clear literally a pile of papers, because paper still appears and comes into my life as much as I try to avoid it.
00:07:35.192 --> 00:07:39.158
So I might set a timer or I might put a playlist on and just try and bang through that.
00:07:39.338 --> 00:07:44.050
Other people like to use timers to overcome procrastination and get into something big.
00:07:44.050 --> 00:07:45.882
So I'm going to work on this for 20 minutes.
00:07:45.882 --> 00:07:52.002
You can use a Pomodoro timer, which is named after the Italian word for tomato for some reason.
00:07:52.002 --> 00:08:08.752
But the idea is that you set a timer for 20 minutes and then you know that, even though you really didn't want to tackle this hard thing, you're only going to give it 20 minutes and then you get a five minute break and the idea is you chunk out Pomodoros and then you have a longer break every four or five sessions.
00:08:08.752 --> 00:08:09.593
I've tried.
00:08:09.593 --> 00:08:16.906
It Doesn't work for me because I hate being told I've got to take a break when I have actually got into flow on something.
00:08:16.906 --> 00:08:23.725
But I completely recognize that as a sense of motivation, overcoming that tendency to procrastinate in the first place.
00:08:23.725 --> 00:08:33.178
If it's something you really have a huge resistance to doing, then this might be a way of overcoming that and saying, look, I'm just going to get into it, I'm just going to make a start.
00:08:33.178 --> 00:08:38.301
Then in 20 minutes I'm going to give myself a break and I'm sorry for the Pomodoro purists, you don't have to give yourself a break.
00:08:38.301 --> 00:08:45.009
If you find that you have broken that motivational block and you're in flow, then heaven's sake, carry on and get the thing done.
00:08:45.270 --> 00:08:46.633
But we're all different.
00:08:46.633 --> 00:08:54.725
The main thing is we need to keep track, and we need to keep track of the things that matter, that are moving the needle on our big goals, and there's lots of reasons why we don't do the big things.
00:08:54.725 --> 00:08:57.091
The big things are not always easy to measure.
00:08:57.091 --> 00:08:59.163
But we have other resistance too.
00:08:59.163 --> 00:09:01.628
This is not a new problem.
00:09:02.149 --> 00:09:11.503
Knowledge work itself goes back many decades now, and there's been lots of research.
00:09:11.503 --> 00:09:24.942
Some research highlights the different kinds of motivation that we have, and one of the distinctions is the idea of intrinsic motivation, which is driven by personal satisfaction and interest, versus extrinsic motivation, which is driven by external rewards and recognition or external sanctions for not doing a thing.
00:09:24.942 --> 00:09:40.596
So the ideal solution is to try and relate all of the things you have to do, however mundane, to your internal drives and what you care about, things that you find enjoyable or rewarding, and align your work with those personal values to boost your intrinsic motivation.
00:09:40.596 --> 00:09:49.469
I think this is particularly true for us stubborn freelancers, because we really care about doing things that we've chosen to do.
00:09:49.469 --> 00:09:52.197
Otherwise, we just go and get jobs right.
00:09:52.197 --> 00:09:53.764
Let somebody else tell us what to do.
00:09:53.764 --> 00:09:59.716
I'll have somebody else draw up that list of tasks for us and bundle it up into something called a job description.
00:09:59.716 --> 00:10:06.063
So we've got an episode coming up soon with a special guest on finding remote work and creating remote work.
00:10:06.063 --> 00:10:07.585
That's just as unique as you are.
00:10:07.644 --> 00:10:17.150
But for now, I can only suggest trying to identify intrinsic motivation for anything that you find that you're procrastinating on, especially if you're procrastinating on it regularly.
00:10:17.150 --> 00:10:23.414
Try and flip the script to somehow make it about you and about something that you care about.
00:10:23.414 --> 00:10:33.840
So if you find it hard to exercise when it's hot like it is here today, think about the long-term health outcomes, think about how it will make you feel.
00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:44.726
Maybe you can even think about some kind of immediate reward, like I don't know smugness at the people who don't exercise, or if you've ever had that thing called a runner's high?
00:10:44.726 --> 00:10:47.029
I haven't, but I gather it exists.
00:10:47.291 --> 00:10:59.751
If you find you're putting off doing something because it's worrying you that you don't know if you're competent to do it you might mess it up then think about how you'll feel once you actually do it, once you get stuck into it.
00:10:59.751 --> 00:11:20.852
If you're putting off a difficult conversation, like a conversation with that client or a conversation with your manager about working more flexibly, about working remotely, for example, really picture in your mind, take time to paint a picture for yourself about the outcome and use that as your intrinsic motivation because you fear that that conversation might not go well.
00:11:20.852 --> 00:11:24.725
That's an external thing, it's not under your control, because you actually don't know until you do it.
00:11:24.725 --> 00:11:33.845
But if you can make it about intrinsic motivation well, at least I tried, at least I'll know what's the worst that can happen.
00:11:33.845 --> 00:11:34.388
Game that out in your mind.
00:11:34.388 --> 00:11:36.519
Then you can make it about what you're going to get from it and how it's going to make you feel inside.
00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:43.910
And sometimes it's a case of finding the goal in the immediate task that you're putting off, like that pile of papers.
00:11:43.910 --> 00:11:47.376
Well, I'm going to actually dance around the office to my favorite playlist.
00:11:47.376 --> 00:11:56.260
If I'm putting off doing my taxes, then a really good extrinsic motivator is the idea of not paying a massive fine for submitting it late.
00:11:56.260 --> 00:12:00.010
In fact, sometimes it's just about shifting your time horizon.
00:12:00.010 --> 00:12:09.539
If you're not intrinsically motivated to tackle the task because it won't bring you joy in the moment of doing it, if you're not intrinsically motivated to tackle the task because it won't bring you joy in the moment of doing it, then avoiding pain for the future might be the motivation you need Now.
00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:13.688
Pain has many sources and sometimes it's more real than others.
00:12:13.688 --> 00:12:19.273
Sometimes that pain is actually imaginary or it comes from a lack of knowledge.
00:12:19.273 --> 00:12:21.259
It comes from a fear of the unknown.
00:12:21.259 --> 00:12:26.152
Fear of failure often puts people off starting of trying something new.
00:12:26.152 --> 00:12:35.408
Sometimes it puts people off the idea of leaving employment and that structured environment in order to try a side hustle or move somewhere new.
00:12:35.408 --> 00:12:39.783
Tackle something unknown, because you can't map out exactly what the outcome will be.
00:12:39.783 --> 00:12:43.412
So that's real and this is not a criticism.
00:12:43.412 --> 00:12:47.043
This is something that we all face and there's a couple of things that can help.
00:12:47.203 --> 00:12:49.686
First of all, try to cultivate a growth mindset.
00:12:49.686 --> 00:12:51.749
You can't avoid failure.
00:12:51.749 --> 00:13:08.666
In fact, if you go through life without ever failing, then you learn nothing and you experience nothing new, start to see mistakes as learning opportunities, as small experiments.
00:13:08.666 --> 00:13:09.369
Every time something goes wrong.
00:13:09.369 --> 00:13:16.780
If you try to figure out why that happened, what you can take from it, what you might do differently next time, even if it's simply make better decisions, then you've gained something from that.
00:13:16.780 --> 00:13:24.426
And if that fear of failure is destroying your motivation to try something new, then war game it out in your head.
00:13:24.426 --> 00:13:27.946
What's the worst that could happen and how would that make me feel?
00:13:27.946 --> 00:13:29.048
How would I overcome it?
00:13:29.048 --> 00:13:32.023
What is the balance of risk versus reward?
00:13:32.023 --> 00:13:38.684
And see if you can use that to really cultivate a mindset that lets you grow from every experiment.
00:13:38.684 --> 00:13:43.902
Also, the growth mindset makes you realize that this isn't a permanent setback.
00:13:43.902 --> 00:13:46.048
This isn't a verdict on you.
00:13:46.048 --> 00:13:49.828
You had one idea, one experiment that didn't work out the way you hoped.
00:13:49.828 --> 00:13:55.475
Okay, you iterate, you tweak, you have another shot, you test and you retest, you de-risk.
00:13:55.475 --> 00:13:57.481
This is how innovation happens.
00:13:57.481 --> 00:14:05.129
This is how creativity happens, because if you never try anything new, then you never grow, you never develop, you never get inspired by change.
00:14:09.559 --> 00:14:13.570
And there are lots of ways that you can look at a high stakes decision and think well, how could I potentially take some of the risk out of that.
00:14:13.570 --> 00:14:18.086
Could I launch this business as a side hustle without actually leaving my main job yet?
00:14:18.086 --> 00:14:23.245
That immediately diffuses a great deal of the risk that comes from leaping off the cliff.
00:14:23.245 --> 00:14:27.994
You don't have to burn your boats in the harbour or whatever to create motivation.
00:14:27.994 --> 00:14:41.613
Sometimes you can get more motivation by taking the risk out of a situation, giving yourself a full back position that allows you to take some of the tension and the fear out of the situation and therefore have a go with a clearer mind.
00:14:41.613 --> 00:14:45.806
You're less distracted, you're more likely to be rested, you're more likely to focus better.
00:14:46.206 --> 00:15:06.390
So a second way of de-risking that fear of failure is to find some support, is to find some ways to test things, is to find some company, and this is often a challenge for us remote workers, especially if we're working from home or we're working on our own, especially if we're working for ourselves or we're working on our own, especially if we're working for ourselves.
00:15:06.390 --> 00:15:23.886
So I'm going to be talking a little bit at the end of the episode about our Remote Work, europe Connected community, which is somewhere you can specifically come with these fears, these decision points, these questions, and get some support from peers who are going through the same thing in a safe place.
00:15:23.886 --> 00:15:30.032
So I'll just put that out there for now, that often you feel like you're on your own You're not necessarily on your own.
00:15:30.032 --> 00:15:34.509
You can seek out support and community around you to help you make those decisions.
00:15:34.509 --> 00:15:46.731
So all of these things then can get in the way of our motivation, and deciding what to do next, how to overcome that, how to remove that procrastination block, is often work in itself.
00:15:47.399 --> 00:16:00.004
We need to go back to David Allen's Getting Things Done book to really drill down into the fact that clarifying what to do in a knowledge work environment is an essential separate step from actually doing anything.
00:16:00.004 --> 00:16:04.013
The Five Steps of GTD and David Allen's new book, teams, is just out.
00:16:04.013 --> 00:16:08.071
I'm just moving on to that one, having finished the Cam Newport book.
00:16:08.071 --> 00:16:13.231
So my summer reading on productivity, I will be bringing you more on Teams very soon, I'm sure.
00:16:13.231 --> 00:16:22.682
But going back to the original Getting Things Done model, the first thing is to gather up all the stuff, all the tasks, all the next actions, and just stick them in a pile somewhere, digitally or physically.
00:16:22.682 --> 00:16:34.392
But the next stage is to clarify what each of them actually is, and this is such an important step that frequently gets overlooked and can definitely degrade your motivation because you've got the stuff you've got.
00:16:34.392 --> 00:16:41.063
Oh my gosh, I've got that to-do list with 200 items on it but you can't actually do any of them yet because they're not clarified.
00:16:41.063 --> 00:16:45.513
So David Allen makes it really clear that you need to dedicate time to this.
00:16:46.660 --> 00:16:55.309
After the capture, before the doing, comes the clarifying, where you have to relate each of the things you've captured to a specific action, to an actual verb.
00:16:55.309 --> 00:16:56.633
Do I need to think about this?
00:16:56.633 --> 00:16:57.581
Do I need to read this?
00:16:57.581 --> 00:16:58.765
Do I need to process that?
00:16:58.765 --> 00:17:00.068
Do I need to send that?
00:17:00.068 --> 00:17:01.701
Do I need to write the other?
00:17:01.701 --> 00:17:08.547
Once you've done that clarifying, it takes a lot of the friction out of the doing, which is the thing that you obviously.
00:17:08.547 --> 00:17:10.451
You ultimately have to do all the things.
00:17:10.451 --> 00:17:15.892
But once you clarify each separate step, it helps to overcome procrastination.
00:17:15.892 --> 00:17:22.923
It helps you to motivate yourself and move forward because you know what it is you've got to do and you can tell at a glance when you look at the next thing.
00:17:22.923 --> 00:17:25.749
Okay, yeah, that's a specific task.
00:17:25.749 --> 00:17:32.008
It requires certain resources or context in order to do it, but I don't have to think that through when I'm wondering whether to do the thing.
00:17:32.388 --> 00:17:46.971
So really important that, because all the time we have to make decisions about things, that actually uses up energy as well as time, decision fatigue is a really real phenomenon and what that basically means.
00:17:46.971 --> 00:17:52.470
The concept of decision fatigue is that the quality of your decisions deteriorates after you do it a lot.
00:17:52.470 --> 00:18:00.689
There is research to indicate that high court judges, for example, deny more bail just before lunch, when they're not only hungry but they're tired.
00:18:00.689 --> 00:18:02.547
They've been hearing cases all morning.
00:18:02.547 --> 00:18:13.122
Their blood sugar is low, so they're less inclined to really consider each case on its merits and they tend to go with the status quo and deny bail more often.
00:18:13.422 --> 00:18:22.660
There are people who've made a thing of wearing the same clothes every day, like Steve Jobs wore his black turtleneck every day and he said that that was to do with decision fatigue.
00:18:22.660 --> 00:18:25.122
He never had to think about what to wear in the morning.
00:18:25.122 --> 00:18:29.744
He just got up and put on the top that was the same as all the other ones in his wardrobe.
00:18:29.744 --> 00:18:33.667
That was like his uniform and he didn't have to give that any thought.
00:18:33.667 --> 00:18:41.673
So it was saving his decision-making capacity, his motivation for the crucial business decisions that would make a difference at Apple.
00:18:41.875 --> 00:18:45.998
This has become a bit of a Silicon Valley meme or thing in a way.
00:18:45.998 --> 00:18:49.868
I know Elizabeth Holmes tried it and she's going to jail.
00:18:49.868 --> 00:18:52.422
So it's not necessarily a solution to everything.
00:18:52.422 --> 00:18:55.395
And again, all of these are ideas that I'm throwing out there.
00:18:55.395 --> 00:18:57.703
They're not necessarily things that are going to work for you.
00:18:57.703 --> 00:18:59.750
I like choosing what to wear every morning.
00:18:59.750 --> 00:19:01.644
I don't find that a draining decision.
00:19:01.644 --> 00:19:02.546
I find it fun.
00:19:02.546 --> 00:19:10.450
So I would never want to do that and have loads of items of the identical items of clothing or have a uniform for work.
00:19:10.450 --> 00:19:13.242
I've done work in the past where I had to wear a specific.
00:19:13.242 --> 00:19:13.924
I hated it.
00:19:13.924 --> 00:19:17.162
So this is part of my lifestyle choices is that I would never do that.
00:19:17.162 --> 00:19:20.330
But if you do find that a fatiguing decision, then be aware of it.
00:19:20.330 --> 00:19:22.022
That's all it is.
00:19:22.103 --> 00:19:28.170
If you can simplify routine decisions and maintain energy for the more critical things, then that can really help.
00:19:28.170 --> 00:19:30.218
For some people it's a morning routine.
00:19:30.218 --> 00:19:31.962
Every morning I get up at this time.
00:19:31.962 --> 00:19:36.040
I do these certain rituals, these certain things that I don't have to think about.
00:19:36.040 --> 00:19:37.525
Well, what am I going to eat for breakfast?
00:19:37.525 --> 00:19:38.709
I always eat the same thing.
00:19:38.709 --> 00:19:40.320
Am I going to exercise?
00:19:40.320 --> 00:19:43.207
How am I going to spend my time?
00:19:43.207 --> 00:19:43.647
Now?
00:19:43.788 --> 00:19:51.450
I know lots of solopreneurs have found it useful to kind of block out their week, even as a way of overcoming decision fatigue.
00:19:51.450 --> 00:20:06.865
If you decide that Monday's your admin day, you're just going to get everything out of your inbox, off your plate, then you can focus Tuesday, wednesday, thursday on meetings or on creating or whatever it is that takes up your time, or you might decide to have no meeting Fridays or whatever.
00:20:06.865 --> 00:20:12.342
These are ways of overcoming decision fatigue in the sense of what am I going to do next?
00:20:12.342 --> 00:20:14.406
What is this time before me?
00:20:14.406 --> 00:20:14.907
For?
00:20:14.907 --> 00:20:23.403
If you've already made a decision about that and a commitment to yourself about that, then that basically is one less thing that you've got to decide in the moment.
00:20:23.403 --> 00:20:29.175
So you know, you can always procrastinate, you can always find reasons to not do the thing.
00:20:29.175 --> 00:20:33.388
But if you have basically made something for yourself, it's not coming from a boss.
00:20:33.388 --> 00:20:36.882
If you're a freelancer, it might be coming from a team.
00:20:36.882 --> 00:20:40.320
It might be something you negotiate between you that you don't have meetings on Fridays.
00:20:40.320 --> 00:20:44.330
That decision is made, then you don't have to discuss If somebody wants to have a meeting on Friday.
00:20:44.330 --> 00:20:49.683
There's nothing to talk about because you don't do it, and that overcomes that particular decision-making tension.
00:20:49.683 --> 00:20:58.231
Obviously, this is if you work for yourself, it's more difficult and you have to find the balance in between the stuff that you need to do in order to get paid.
00:20:58.539 --> 00:21:17.271
For me, the tension comes between my deadline, client work, which, particularly in journalism, tends to be really fixed this is when it has to be in versus building remote work Europe, which is way more woolly and amorphous, and I have big goals and I have short-term things that I would like to do.
00:21:17.271 --> 00:21:19.525
No one's going to come for me if I don't do it.
00:21:19.525 --> 00:21:25.628
Lots of it is unlikely to pay me anything, or maybe in the very distant future.
00:21:25.628 --> 00:21:27.346
So we don't have that motivation.
00:21:27.346 --> 00:21:33.390
Self-imposed deadlines definitely help and so far I've got this podcast out every fortnight.
00:21:33.390 --> 00:21:48.990
I'm into the third year now so definitely I can say those deadlines help, because I know that If I like listening to a podcast show and it starts to be erratic and I don't know when it's going to appear in my feed, then that is not a great user experience.
00:21:48.990 --> 00:21:50.681
So I've set myself that deadline.
00:21:50.681 --> 00:22:01.811
I've got the Myers Remote Reflection email out every Tuesday for the last couple of months and I know that that needs to be in the drafts ready to go out on Tuesday.
00:22:01.811 --> 00:22:09.511
Otherwise I'm going to let myself down, I'm going to let other people down, no client's going to come for me, but I've created that deadline for myself.
00:22:09.511 --> 00:22:24.861
So you know, maybe I can get to the point where I can say I'm definitely going to do a webinar every month or I'm going to get a blog post out every week or something, cause I know that these things definitely help and you can use the apps and the calendars and reminders in your life in order to support this.
00:22:24.961 --> 00:22:46.464
But again, I will say beware pseudo productivity, because checking tasks off is not being productive, and that's why we have to go back every time to that idea of clarifying what we have to do and prioritizing, because way back before Cal Newport or even David Allen, we had Stephen Covey's time management matrix, and this is something that we have to come back to.
00:22:46.464 --> 00:22:55.292
Whatever model of thinking or productivity that we're using, I haven't found anything to really beat this as a way of making decisions and prioritizing.
00:22:55.292 --> 00:23:01.682
You've probably heard of this, but if not, if you need a recap, then the idea is that we have four quadrants.
00:23:01.682 --> 00:23:20.103
You can draw this on a big piece of paper, you can do it on a digital, like a mural board or something like that, and it's a matrix based on the two dimensions of urgency versus important, so you can divide all your tasks into high and low importance or high and low urgency.
00:23:20.103 --> 00:23:28.067
Now, quadrant one is where both are high, and this is where we spend a lot of our time through the day doing things that are urgent and important.
00:23:28.067 --> 00:23:33.550
If I don't turn that article in according to the deadline agreed with the editor, then I won't be turning in an invoice for it.
00:23:33.550 --> 00:23:36.365
I have no doubt in my mind that that's important.
00:23:36.727 --> 00:23:42.828
We have quadrant two I'm going to come back to in a minute but quadrant three let's think about that for a moment.
00:23:42.828 --> 00:23:44.540
That's where we have to in a minute.
00:23:44.540 --> 00:23:46.223
But quadrant three let's think about that for a moment.
00:23:46.223 --> 00:23:48.207
That's where we have low importance and high urgency.
00:23:48.207 --> 00:23:52.855
That is where we can often end up spending time unnecessarily.
00:23:52.855 --> 00:23:55.486
I think I have to post on LinkedIn every day.
00:23:55.486 --> 00:23:59.625
I'm not even doing the LinkedIn challenge at the moment, but I've set myself this thing.
00:23:59.625 --> 00:24:00.728
Is it really important?
00:24:00.728 --> 00:24:08.470
Is it actually going to stop me creating a useful piece of content that will support users of Remote Work Europe through the long term?
00:24:08.470 --> 00:24:09.840
I have to stop and think about.
00:24:09.840 --> 00:24:11.967
Am I going to tweet today or something like that.
00:24:12.288 --> 00:24:20.844
It's really important not to waste time in quadrant three, and quite a lot of quadrant three, particularly in traditional work, comes from other people's urgency as well.
00:24:20.844 --> 00:24:21.905
It's not even your own.
00:24:21.905 --> 00:24:30.371
It's this idea that your inbox becomes a to-do list from somebody else drive-by, management, it's all the can you justs.
00:24:30.371 --> 00:24:38.003
It's the things that erode your focus and stop you doing the big things, because there's always one more urgent thing, even if it's really not important.
00:24:38.003 --> 00:24:50.071
So there are different ways you can try to overcome this as well, and the best ways to do that will depend upon, obviously, your individual setup and how you work what extent you have control over your time.
00:24:50.071 --> 00:24:54.472
The more control you have, the more control you have over which quadrant you spend time in.
00:24:54.472 --> 00:25:02.544
But if you're used to a structure where somebody else is putting stuff in your to-do list, then you might find yourself pulled in quadrant three a lot.
00:25:02.703 --> 00:25:07.692
You could also find that as you progress in your career, people make demands of you from both sides.
00:25:07.692 --> 00:25:10.964
So you might have your boss coming along and saying could you just do this?
00:25:10.964 --> 00:25:13.821
Could you just let me have that before you go this week, can I?
00:00:05.328 --> 00:00:11.301
00:00:11.301 --> 00:00:13.846
00:00:13.846 --> 00:00:24.064
00:00:24.064 --> 00:00:30.670
00:00:30.670 --> 00:00:47.631
00:00:47.631 --> 00:00:59.274
00:00:59.274 --> 00:01:06.213
00:01:06.213 --> 00:01:13.143
00:01:13.143 --> 00:01:16.471
00:01:16.471 --> 00:01:20.266
00:01:20.266 --> 00:01:25.087
00:01:25.087 --> 00:01:48.043
00:01:48.123 --> 00:01:54.766
00:01:54.766 --> 00:01:57.620
00:01:57.620 --> 00:02:05.430
00:02:05.430 --> 00:02:17.241
00:02:17.241 --> 00:02:18.566
00:02:18.566 --> 00:02:21.132
00:02:21.132 --> 00:02:27.925
00:02:28.266 --> 00:02:36.822
00:02:36.822 --> 00:02:42.502
00:02:42.502 --> 00:02:45.329
00:02:45.329 --> 00:02:49.506
00:02:49.506 --> 00:03:00.383
00:03:00.443 --> 00:03:18.441
00:03:18.441 --> 00:03:25.133
00:03:25.133 --> 00:03:37.496
00:03:37.496 --> 00:03:42.210
00:03:42.210 --> 00:03:53.567
00:03:53.567 --> 00:03:57.622
00:03:57.622 --> 00:04:08.146
00:04:08.448 --> 00:04:12.643
00:04:12.643 --> 00:04:29.889
00:04:29.889 --> 00:04:42.346
00:04:42.346 --> 00:04:47.396
00:04:47.396 --> 00:04:56.182
00:04:56.343 --> 00:05:03.406
00:05:03.406 --> 00:05:08.257
00:05:08.257 --> 00:05:22.663
00:05:22.663 --> 00:05:32.605
00:05:32.605 --> 00:06:15.031
00:06:15.031 --> 00:06:21.685
00:06:21.685 --> 00:06:28.369
00:06:28.709 --> 00:06:29.812
00:06:29.812 --> 00:06:32.064
00:06:32.064 --> 00:06:38.588
00:06:38.588 --> 00:06:44.461
00:06:44.461 --> 00:06:47.408
00:06:47.408 --> 00:06:51.625
00:06:51.625 --> 00:06:54.132
00:06:54.132 --> 00:06:57.125
00:06:57.125 --> 00:07:00.543
00:07:00.543 --> 00:07:08.949
00:07:09.028 --> 00:07:11.903
00:07:11.903 --> 00:07:18.144
00:07:18.144 --> 00:07:21.500
00:07:21.500 --> 00:07:26.711
00:07:26.711 --> 00:07:35.192
00:07:35.192 --> 00:07:39.158
00:07:39.338 --> 00:07:44.050
00:07:44.050 --> 00:07:45.882
00:07:45.882 --> 00:07:52.002
00:07:52.002 --> 00:08:08.752
00:08:08.752 --> 00:08:09.593
00:08:09.593 --> 00:08:16.906
00:08:16.906 --> 00:08:23.725
00:08:23.725 --> 00:08:33.178
00:08:33.178 --> 00:08:38.301
00:08:38.301 --> 00:08:45.009
00:08:45.270 --> 00:08:46.633
00:08:46.633 --> 00:08:54.725
00:08:54.725 --> 00:08:57.091
00:08:57.091 --> 00:08:59.163
00:08:59.163 --> 00:09:01.628
00:09:02.149 --> 00:09:11.503
00:09:11.503 --> 00:09:24.942
00:09:24.942 --> 00:09:40.596
00:09:40.596 --> 00:09:49.469
00:09:49.469 --> 00:09:52.197
00:09:52.197 --> 00:09:53.764
00:09:53.764 --> 00:09:59.716
00:09:59.716 --> 00:10:06.063
00:10:06.063 --> 00:10:07.585
00:10:07.644 --> 00:10:17.150
00:10:17.150 --> 00:10:23.414
00:10:23.414 --> 00:10:33.840
00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:44.726
00:10:44.726 --> 00:10:47.029
00:10:47.291 --> 00:10:59.751
00:10:59.751 --> 00:11:20.852
00:11:20.852 --> 00:11:24.725
00:11:24.725 --> 00:11:33.845
00:11:33.845 --> 00:11:34.388
00:11:34.388 --> 00:11:36.519
00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:43.910
00:11:43.910 --> 00:11:47.376
00:11:47.376 --> 00:11:56.260
00:11:56.260 --> 00:12:00.010
00:12:00.010 --> 00:12:09.539
00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:13.688
00:12:13.688 --> 00:12:19.273
00:12:19.273 --> 00:12:21.259
00:12:21.259 --> 00:12:26.152
00:12:26.152 --> 00:12:35.408
00:12:35.408 --> 00:12:39.783
00:12:39.783 --> 00:12:43.412
00:12:43.412 --> 00:12:47.043
00:12:47.203 --> 00:12:49.686
00:12:49.686 --> 00:12:51.749
00:12:51.749 --> 00:13:08.666
00:13:08.666 --> 00:13:09.369
00:13:09.369 --> 00:13:16.780
00:13:16.780 --> 00:13:24.426
00:13:24.426 --> 00:13:27.946
00:13:27.946 --> 00:13:29.048
00:13:29.048 --> 00:13:32.023
00:13:32.023 --> 00:13:38.684
00:13:38.684 --> 00:13:43.902
00:13:43.902 --> 00:13:46.048
00:13:46.048 --> 00:13:49.828
00:13:49.828 --> 00:13:55.475
00:13:55.475 --> 00:13:57.481
00:13:57.481 --> 00:14:05.129
00:14:09.559 --> 00:14:13.570
00:14:13.570 --> 00:14:18.086
00:14:18.086 --> 00:14:23.245
00:14:23.245 --> 00:14:27.994
00:14:27.994 --> 00:14:41.613
00:14:41.613 --> 00:14:45.806
00:14:46.206 --> 00:15:06.390
00:15:06.390 --> 00:15:23.886
00:15:23.886 --> 00:15:30.032
00:15:30.032 --> 00:15:34.509
00:15:34.509 --> 00:15:46.731
00:15:47.399 --> 00:16:00.004
00:16:00.004 --> 00:16:04.013
00:16:04.013 --> 00:16:08.071
00:16:08.071 --> 00:16:13.231
00:16:13.231 --> 00:16:22.682
00:16:22.682 --> 00:16:34.392
00:16:34.392 --> 00:16:41.063
00:16:41.063 --> 00:16:45.513
00:16:46.660 --> 00:16:55.309
00:16:55.309 --> 00:16:56.633
00:16:56.633 --> 00:16:57.581
00:16:57.581 --> 00:16:58.765
00:16:58.765 --> 00:17:00.068
00:17:00.068 --> 00:17:01.701
00:17:01.701 --> 00:17:08.547
00:17:08.547 --> 00:17:10.451
00:17:10.451 --> 00:17:15.892
00:17:15.892 --> 00:17:22.923
00:17:22.923 --> 00:17:25.749
00:17:25.749 --> 00:17:32.008
00:17:32.388 --> 00:17:46.971
00:17:46.971 --> 00:17:52.470
00:17:52.470 --> 00:18:00.689
00:18:00.689 --> 00:18:02.547
00:18:02.547 --> 00:18:13.122
00:18:13.422 --> 00:18:22.660
00:18:22.660 --> 00:18:25.122
00:18:25.122 --> 00:18:29.744
00:18:29.744 --> 00:18:33.667
00:18:33.667 --> 00:18:41.673
00:18:41.875 --> 00:18:45.998
00:18:45.998 --> 00:18:49.868
00:18:49.868 --> 00:18:52.422
00:18:52.422 --> 00:18:55.395
00:18:55.395 --> 00:18:57.703
00:18:57.703 --> 00:18:59.750
00:18:59.750 --> 00:19:01.644
00:19:01.644 --> 00:19:02.546
00:19:02.546 --> 00:19:10.450
00:19:10.450 --> 00:19:13.242
00:19:13.242 --> 00:19:13.924
00:19:13.924 --> 00:19:17.162
00:19:17.162 --> 00:19:20.330
00:19:20.330 --> 00:19:22.022
00:19:22.103 --> 00:19:28.170
00:19:28.170 --> 00:19:30.218
00:19:30.218 --> 00:19:31.962
00:19:31.962 --> 00:19:36.040
00:19:36.040 --> 00:19:37.525
00:19:37.525 --> 00:19:38.709
00:19:38.709 --> 00:19:40.320
00:19:40.320 --> 00:19:43.207
00:19:43.207 --> 00:19:43.647
00:19:43.788 --> 00:19:51.450
00:19:51.450 --> 00:20:06.865
00:20:06.865 --> 00:20:12.342
00:20:12.342 --> 00:20:14.406
00:20:14.406 --> 00:20:14.907
00:20:14.907 --> 00:20:23.403
00:20:23.403 --> 00:20:29.175
00:20:29.175 --> 00:20:33.388
00:20:33.388 --> 00:20:36.882
00:20:36.882 --> 00:20:40.320
00:20:40.320 --> 00:20:44.330
00:20:44.330 --> 00:20:49.683
00:20:49.683 --> 00:20:58.231
00:20:58.539 --> 00:21:17.271
00:21:17.271 --> 00:21:19.525
00:21:19.525 --> 00:21:25.628
00:21:25.628 --> 00:21:27.346
00:21:27.346 --> 00:21:33.390
00:21:33.390 --> 00:21:48.990
00:21:48.990 --> 00:21:50.681
00:21:50.681 --> 00:22:01.811
00:22:01.811 --> 00:22:09.511
00:22:09.511 --> 00:22:24.861
00:22:24.961 --> 00:22:46.464
00:22:46.464 --> 00:22:55.292
00:22:55.292 --> 00:23:01.682
00:23:01.682 --> 00:23:20.103
00:23:20.103 --> 00:23:28.067
00:23:28.067 --> 00:23:33.550
00:23:33.550 --> 00:23:36.365
00:23:36.727 --> 00:23:42.828
00:23:42.828 --> 00:23:44.540
00:23:44.540 --> 00:23:46.223
00:23:46.223 --> 00:23:48.207
00:23:48.207 --> 00:23:52.855
00:23:52.855 --> 00:23:55.486
00:23:55.486 --> 00:23:59.625
00:23:59.625 --> 00:24:00.728
00:24:00.728 --> 00:24:08.470
00:24:08.470 --> 00:24:09.840
00:24:09.840 --> 00:24:11.967
00:24:12.288 --> 00:24:20.844
00:24:20.844 --> 00:24:21.905
00:24:21.905 --> 00:24:30.371
00:24:30.371 --> 00:24:38.003
00:24:38.003 --> 00:24:50.071
00:24:50.071 --> 00:24:54.472
00:24:54.472 --> 00:25:02.544
00:25:02.703 --> 00:25:07.692
00:25:07.692 --> 00:25:10.964
00:25:10.964 --> 00:25:13.821