5 Habits of A Productive Life

Is life not as productive as you want it to be? Maybe you feel old habits creeping in and you find yourself wasting time doing things that add no value to your life 0r future? For me, I’ve always wanted to be productive but living intentionally to produce the dream life, family and occupation is easier said than done.

The past several years I have had dramatic changes in my life. It’s destroyed most hopes of consistency and routine. Ultimately it’s forced me to become a productive person at my core rather than relying on my routine to create productivity. I have gotten married, had a baby, purchased and sold 3 homes, had another baby and things haven’t been consistent. The bad habits that I began to sink into while I was adjusting to each change left me feeling lazy. I loved my “9-5 am,” but my 5-11 pm was useless.

The bad habits I began to develop stole energy and time away from building my dreams. Don’t we all want purpose in our work, to help others, have a healthy family? Yet this only happens through intentional living so I want to share my five habits that increase productivity and how they’ll help you produce a healthier lifestyle.

THE FIVE HABITS:

1) Too Much & Too Little Sleep

Over 70 million Americans have a sleeping disorder. These disorders are caused by a lack of sleep or too much sleep. They affect your health and even your life expectancy. Studies also show that productivity is directly related to how many hours an individual is sleeping. Sleeping 8.5 hours a night can be worse than sleeping for 5 hours a night but sleeping 5 hours several nights in a row is equivalent to being legally drunk. So stop walking around wasted and groggy all day and start giving your body what it needs. There’s no formula for humanity but studies communicate people sleeping between 6.5-7.5 hours per night live longer.

2) When & What You Eat

WHEN YOU EAT:

For a long time food dominated my day. I could eat thousands of calories and not feel the effect of it. I would snack all day. And I mean all day. I love food and would honestly eat 10 meals a day with snacks between each meal. If I wasn’t eating a snack I would be drinking my calories. Food dominated my life and my schedule. It was my go-to. If I was bored or didn’t know what to do, I would go to the fridge just to see if anything new appeared since the last time I looked.

Food was destroying my productivity because instead of viewing food as a reward I viewed it as fuel. I was always on “empty” and that’s why I needed fuel all the time. It brought me to a place then where I wouldn’t eat all day. I was so sick of it dominating my life I became known as the person who barely ate all day but that didn’t work either. Both routes were killing me. Literally I would drop 20 pounds and be skinny and then another few months I would gain 25 pounds.

I am beginning to really change the why and when I eat by viewing it as a reward. So I’ll do my tasks and instead of feeling like I am not being productive by taking time to eat I will reward myself before I go back into the grind and “fuel” up. I’m not saying don’t snack but for most of us food dominates our day and it isn’t healthy or productive.

WHAT WE EAT:

Everyone has heard the statement we are what we eat. Check out this infograph on what you should be eating to spike your productivity and health throughout the day.

3) Don’t Feed Your Stomach & Starve Your Muscles

The first thing we neglect when our schedule gets busy is ourselves. There is so much to keep up with in life and it seems like the most important things get pushed aside and neglected.

When I consistently work out I have noticed the discipline of pushing my body past its limits and telling my mind to do what it doesn’t want to do begins to spill over into other areas in my life. You will be amazed how your discipline grows mentally, spiritually, relationally and financially when you consistently exercise.

Everything you earn and get from life is what you go and get. Life doesn’t hand you lemons. You have to go to the store to buy them or pick them from a tree and if you want lemonade the process in longer. What I realized about exercise and how it has affected my personal productivity is that I couldn’t afford not to work out. It was costing me time, personal productivity and attentiveness when I wasn’t physically in shape.

This Forbes article perfectly articulates the benefits to productivity when you exercise.

4) Fail To Plan = Plan To Fail

Each night I will look through my schedule for the next day and see what my day is accomplishing. One thing that has helped me the night before was to plan out each hour of my day for what I would like to accomplish. Even if was scheduling my lunch hour. I would confirm my appointments and then restfully go to sleep knowing tomorrow would have purpose.

Doing this has given me a greater purpose to get up early and not hit the snooze button. I have a plan now and don’t want to miss out on what I have written in. So make a plan and stick to it.

5) Your Best Nights Are Weeknights

There’s three things I can do when it comes to my weeknights: I can give my time to someone else; I can fill the time with endless pointless entertainment; or I can intentionally use that time to engage and build memories with my family. Let’s break it down one more layer deep.

*Giving Your Time To Others.

This is an important one because spending time with others is healthy and meaningful but can get out of balance quickly. For me, weekday nights are the recharge and refocus moments for my work week. That doesn’t mean I won’t schedule a speaking engagement during the week or hang out with friends. It just means I am very conscious to what and who I say yes to.

Don’t equivocate busyness with success or productivity. Productivity doesn’t mean producing something. It means intentionally living that produces the dream you have for your life, family and calling.

*Filling Your Time With Pointless Entertainment

I am such a radical person, but so are you. You can complain that you don’t have enough time to accomplish your dreams but are you building horrible habits around pointless entertainment? Audit each hour and see how much of it goes into nonproductive entertainment that doesn’t add value to the dream life you say you want to live.

This can include coming home and watching TV, movies, shows, playing video games, or whatever you do that is a form of entertainment that doesn’t bring value back to the life you desire to lead and live. I’m not saying throw away your TV; just don’t sit in front of it 5 nights a week. Be smart and if you do throw out your TV then good for you. You’re radical 🙂

*Building Memories With Your Family

For too long I missed out on this blessing in my life. I was all about production as a means of busyness and neglected the fuel that gave me purpose to be great: my family.

Weeknights are great opportunities to spend time with your family, dreaming with your spouse, doing fun activities with your children and building strength and trust as you move your “ship” in the direction of your dream life.

It doesn’t mean every night between 5-11pm you’re not doing anything but staring at your spouse and children. It means you’re making memories. I cannot give you a road map on how to build memories because it has to be in your heart to learn how to bring your family together and love them well.

This one is by far the most important to me because I don’t care how successful I am, if I can’t lead my family then I don’t care to lead you. If I gain the world but lose my family, who will I celebrate with? I love the idea, concept and reality of what a powerful, fun, united and loving family can accomplish together.

Did you enjoy this blog? What do you do to stay productive? Anything stand out to you in this blog? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.

Share if your inspired.