7 Productivity Hacks For The Highly Distractible Creator
If you feel like your focus comes in waves, like one day you have 100 million ideas and you can’t stop working, and the next day it takes all you have to get yourself to sit down for one single task… this post is for you! So many creators can relate to the feeling of being highly distracted, unable to regulate their focus, or switching between extremes of feeling super motivated and then totally depressed. On top of that, many full time influencers, freelance creatives and entrepreneurs have absolutely no required structure to keep them on track — it can feel like a lot to manage! If you’ve been nodding your head so far, here are 7 ideas that might be worth a try to get back some of that focus and tame the rollercoaster of random productivity:
Batch Work
Batch working is a simple strategy to help you get into deep-focus mode. Rather than having 10 items on your to-do list each day and having less than an hour to get through each one, forcing your brain to constantly switch tasks, you can try choosing 1 task for the day and batching an entire month of it at a time. This allows you to take the time you need to really get focused and zone in, and then keeps you in the zone until you have a ton of work done, rather than taking you out of the task to start the next one and starting the zone-in process all over again. For creators, this might mean an entire week of only filming videos, and then the next week dedicated 100% to editing them, and then the next week dedicated to planning your next round of content. It might mean Mondays are photoshoot days, Tuesdays are errand days, Wednesdays are writing days, Thursdays are buffer days, and Fridays are editing days. You can batch one topic for a day, a week, or even a month. Just do some experimenting to see how long your body likes to stay on one topic and what allows you to be the most productive.
Work With Your Body
Speaking of what your body likes, there is lots of excitement in the podcast world these days about Bio-Hacking, that is, learning your body’s natural cycles and scheduling your work to align with them. This is especially applicable to people with a menstrual cycle, where the month is naturally split up into 4 sections. Check out this podcast to learn about what your body is good at during each phase of your menstrual cycle. But with or without a period, it can help to get in the habit of listening to your body and seeing how you do if you just “go with it” a bit more. You may end up being more productive if you accept that you’re not mentally in a good place today to edit, but you have a lot of ideas so instead you should focus on planning content, etc. One of the advantages of a freelance/entrepreneur/influencer business is that you’re free to work on your own schedule and with your own mood — take advantage of that!
10 minute Timer To Get Started
Sometimes all we need is a little boost to get going on Task #1. If you cannot get yourself to start a task, try setting a timer for 10 minutes and committing to working on it for just that long. If you’re really not feeling it after 10 minutes, let yourself take a break. By 10 minutes in you may have found a little bit of a groove and it won’t feel so difficult to complete the task anymore.
Achievable Goals
Make sure your goals are achievable. It’s easy to dream big and be so excited about a vision but then start to feel overwhelmed as soon as it comes to the every day tasks required to make that dream happen, to the point that we end up sort of frozen, wasting time and beginning a cycle of guilt over the lack of productivity. Write down a step-by-step plan (might help to do this with a literal pen on paper, to make it a physical experience) and try to accept that you might need to start with a smaller goal in order to eventually get to your dream. You’re more likely to achieve your big dream if you only bite off what you can manage right now, rather than trying to do it all right away and burning out.
Add Sensory Stimuli
Adding a bit of rhythm or something interesting in your environment can help keep you from feeling too bored. Some people find watching a tv show in the background actually increases their productivity and helps keep them focused. You can also try music (this is a great album for productivity), an essential oil diffuser, open some windows, change your lighting up, turn on a fan, find a health snack to munch on, go for a run to get some energy out. If you’re a very body-sensitive person or if you’re easily bored, adding a little extra sensory stimulation might be just what you need.
Rhythms Instead of Routines
We hear a lot about the importance of routines in business, and they can be very helpful for those that are easily distracted. However, if you find that routine is not working for you, your day to day is always different or you cannot get yourself to stick to a routine, try focusing on creating rhythms instead. Pair a task you have trouble completing with another task that you’re already very committed to or motivated by. For example, let’s say you want to post more on IG stories but you never know what to post and end up never sharing anything, even if you schedule a time for it, but you are really committed to exercising every day. Try adding “Share an IG Story” to your “Go For A Run” routine and commit to posting something right before you go for a run every day. Maybe you brush your teeth every day, or you eat lunch every day, or you have a cup of coffee every day. All of these things are things are rhythms that may not be scheduled into a strict routine, but somehow you do them regularly. Try pairing the tasks you hate with any of these things, or committing to some kind of rhythm/order for how you get things done.
Reward System
Try a reward system for the tasks you always put off. Maybe you go out to dinner every weekend if you finished editing your vlog on time. Maybe you put extra budget toward something you want if you post a Reel once a week for the entire month. Maybe you only get to watch your favorite show if you’re writing captions at the same time. Try pairing things you don’t like with things you love and see if it gives you a boost to get started!
You probably won’t find that all 7 of these ideas work for you, but hopefully through a little experimenting, you’ll find one or two that help you stay on track next time you’re struggling to focus. Good luck!