Tag: work season

Could your productivity fears be holding you back from doing your work? Years ago, a friend of mine ran a haunted house with some entrepreneurial buddies. Two of my friends and I rented a car and made the drive from NYC to Maryland to experience it for ourselves. We had a fun time amongst the spooks and ghouls, screaming our heads off while supporting our friend. 

What does this have to do with productivity? Well, this memory got me thinking about how people sometimes view their workload: a horror-filled haunted house from the movies—complete with gremlins, goblins, and ghouls.  

In my work as a productivity coach, I’ve seen entrepreneurs silently and unintentionally spook themselves. They feel overwhelmed by their workload, insecure in their abilities, or mistrust their own decisions. If you want to defeat those productivity fears, you must be cunning in your approach, just like a hero in a horror film. Follow these tips whenever you’re feeling fearful about your work and wish to banish those productivity spooks.  

Stop running around scared. 

Your first course of action is to stop running around in a panic in those dimly lit and dusty halls. Stay exactly where you are and regroup. Take a few deep breaths. Now, take a moment to assess the situation and tackle those productivity fears. 

Are you being chased by a ghostly to-do list from five months ago? Frantically running away from a vampire-like overdue client project. Are you avoiding delegating tasks to your team because you don’t know where to begin? Once you stop running, you can focus, evaluate your resources, and plan.  

Uncover what’s lurking underneath the surface. 

OK, so you’ve acknowledged those productivity fears. It’s time to take a closer look. What’s really going on? Think about it for a moment. What’s terrorizing you and causing a fearful response?  

Are you afraid your draft proposal will be sent to the RFP graveyard? Are you terrified that if you plan on paper, you’ll shun your fully remote business? Perhaps you’re wary that if you set clear business hours, clients won’t want to work with you. 

It’s not uncommon to have concerns about how work will be received or if you’ve made the right choice for a work tool, approach, or system. However, the key is to uncover why you’re thinking this way. When in doubt, look for repeating patterns in your past actions and experiences.  

Where have these night terrors arisen in the past? What poor past productivity fears or outcomes are you constantly replaying? Which starring character has caused you to think this way? 

Choose a different exit story. 

Now that you’ve acknowledged what’s hiding in the dark, you can create a different exit story for yourself. Set the path for your intention. How did you slay all those productivity demons in the past?  

Think of the times you delivered a project weeks in advance, successfully completed your to-do list, and had a productive work session. Stop giving more attention to bad times than good. If you want to overcome your productivity fears, you must lock onto positive accomplishments.  

What’s your intention for your work? Is it to complete your report with ease? Do you not want to be interrupted as you rehearse a presentation? Do you want to have punctual meetings with staff? Make the decision now to have the exit story you want. 

Plan with purpose. 

Now’s the time to look past that cobweb filled mirror and walk that creaky wooden floor straight out the front door. Push those productivity fears aside to get on with your work. Act now, no matter how small the scale. That might mean taking a stab at delegating tasks to your team, creating weekday work hours for your business, letting go of an unsupportive productivity mindset, or blocking out time in your calendar.  

The next time you’re feeling fearful in your work, try using an entertaining analogy like the above to highlight your day-to-day productivity challenges. Act like a hero to escape that productivity haunted house for good.