Why productivity happens before you take action
This blog post started life as an episode of my podcast, Unfrazzle. If you prefer, you can listen to that here.
Cast your mind back to when you decided to start your own business. You’re an explorer, going on an adventure.
Excited and full of promise - with tingles in your tummy that sometimes feel like nervous energy, and other times feel like fear – you’re striding out into a world of freedom, flexibility and fulfilment. Of a life lived on your own terms.
Inevitably, your adventure takes you into a forest, with clearings of dappled sunlight and areas of damp darkness. You KNOW that financial freedom and the vision for your life and business lie beyond the forest and so you keep going. Even when things feel hard.
Walking through the forest, you spend a lot of time looking at your feet so you don’t trip. There are no straight paths in a forest– you have to keep walking around trees and avoiding muddy puddles- and you’re starting to think you might be going around in circles.
You’re sure you’ve seen that tree before.
You’re confused and uncertain.
Panic is setting in.
So what do you do next?
Do you carry on walking, risking wasting even more time and energy getting nowhere fast.
Or do you take a rest and try to get your bearings?
As luck would have it, you look up and spot a treehouse high up in the branches of the tallest tree.
There’s a lovely warm glow coming from inside. It looks so inviting and cosy, you decide to climb up.
Once you’re safe and snug in the treehouse, you sink into the cushions that scattered on the floor and take a rest.
Once you’ve got your breath back and the panic has gone, you look out the window and take in the spectacular view.
From way up in the trees you see you’ve covered more ground than you realised. And you can see your destination in the distance! Seeing it on the horizon rekindles your excitement to get there, and you feel motivated to keep going.
From your position way up in the trees you’re able to map out the best route to move you closer to your destination. You notice more treehouses along your path. It’s a relief to know you’ll have more opportunities to check you’re going the right way.
You climb back down to the forest floor, feeling rested and ready. Fired up for the next leg of your adventure, and knowing the route you’re going to take.
You set off through the forest, with a renewed sense of confidence and trust that you’ll reach your destination.
What does this have to do with productivity?
You might believe that productivity is what happens when you’re in motion on the forest floor, putting one foot in front of the other.
But during your time in the forest, what was the most productive thing you, our intrepid explorer, did? What turned out to be the best use of your time?
I think we can all agree that taking a moment in the treehouse to get your bearings and plot out your route was way better than carrying on walking and hoping for the best.
So how can you gift yourself time in the treehouse, not just once when you’re feeling exhausted, lost and overwhelmed. But regularly, to PREVENT you from feeling exhausted, lost and overwhelmed and help you keep moving forward?
If there’s one thing I’d love for you to take away from this, it’s that productivity happens BEFORE you take action.
It happens when you climb up above the metaphorical forest floor and take a rest in the metaphorical treehouse, so you can
notice how far you’ve come,
remind yourself where you’re going
and make intentional choices about the steps you’ll take to get there.
That time in the treehouse is what I provide for my clients, whether that’s in Make It Happen Club, or through my 1:1 mentoring.
I’m here to help people like you step back, reconnect with what you’re trying to achieve, check in with what’s on your plate and make an achievable plan to keep you moving forward.
If you feel like that’s something you need in your life, this blog explains how Make It Happen Club helps solo business owners be more productive, and this one is all about working with me one-to-one.
But for now, I have a question for you:
How might things be different when you give yourself regular time in that treehouse?
What might be possible for you?
And how, starting today, will you make that part of the rhythm in your business?