With Thanksgiving and the end of the year fast approaching, I thought it would be good to talk about productivity turkeys. These are little problems that have a big impact on your day because they keep your from focusing on your big picture goals.
The good news is that while your productivity turkeys may sound familiar, they are challenges that can be easily addressed with commitment and focus.
Here are the top three productivity turkeys for this year:
You Feast on Distractions
You know that you have important goals that demand your attention but you never pass up a chance to indulge a distraction.
See that you just received an email? Then you feel like you need to immediately respond, even if the message isn’t urgent.
As far as productivity goes, it’s a way to fill up your day and then say that you’re constantly busy. It’s an excuse for not getting things done.
You’re so focused on trying to keep up with everything that your forget that progress toward your goals requires to you save the unimportant tasks for later.
You Stare at the Oven
Imagine that you’ve put the turkey in the oven. It will takes hours to bake. But you feel like you need to stare at the turkey for the entire time.
This doesn’t make sense if you have a working oven and know how long it should take the turkey to cook. You may want to check on it from time to time but you don’t need to be constantly watching it.
Why do I mention this scenario? Because a lot of leaders treat their teams like turkeys, staring at them constantly, when they could just let them bake.
It’s related to micromanagement, a problem that gobbles up supervisory time. If an oven works, then trust it to do its job. If you team isn’t working right, then fix it and then let it do its job.
You Think There’s Only One Drumstick
When people have to perform under pressure, they sometimes start to see the world in distorted ways. At the dinner table, if the turkey is placed a certain way, then you can only see one drumstick.
From that perspective, it’s easy to think that there’s only one drumstick.
The problem is solved if you ask the people at the table if there are other drumsticks. When this happens, you gain clarity.
The same applies when you’re facing a challenging project or situation under pressure. Often what happens is that you stop communicating with others and put yourself in a bubble. You think that bringing in other opinions and ideas will only slow you down.
This isolation, which may feel like a way to focus on the problem, prevents you from considering other solutions that can came from other people. Conversation can lead to collaborative thought, which can produce new and exciting perspectives. Productivity can be enhanced when you bring other viewpoints to the table.
