Productivity: Try This Weird Trick If You’re Unmotivated

Do you wish you could increase your productivity? Perhaps you’ve found as I have, that you’re very productive in one area of your life, but not in another.

A friend who owns a hairdressing salon is very productive at work. Most days she works until seven in the evening, and the salon’s open six days. But she says she has a mile of household chores that she can’t face.

I’m productive at work too, but my writing’s fallen off over the past few months. When I get home I’m too tired to do more than cook a quick meal and throw clothes in the washer. Weekends are busy too.

Productivity when you can’t get started

One thing I’ve tried, the “do two minutes” strategy, is similar to the trick suggested this blog post. From The Most Underrated Productivity Technique Is Also the Simplest:

1. Physically get in your work position.
2. Do one small thing.

It’s weird, but it works. No matter how exhausted you are, you can do two minutes of a task.

Do two minutes of a task you can’t face

On days when I have a stack of projects (or chores at home) I spend two minutes several. This means that I get to cross them off the day’s task list so that the list doesn’t seem as overwhelming.

Two minutes on work tasks — sometimes you end up doing half an hour

At work, you might have half a dozen projects in the pipeline for which you’re responsible, and several more projects to which you’re contributing.

“Two minutes” means that at least you’re keeping abreast of each project and its deadlines. Sometimes you get into the groove and do half an hour on a project.

Two minutes on home chores breaks your inertia

Are you completely exhausted when you get home from work?

In two minutes, you can:

• Tidy a room;
• Fold a load of laundry;
• Chop veggies to put into a freezer bag to save time when you’re cooking;
• Load or unload the dishwasher.

Try it, you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel

It may seem as if two minutes is such a short time that it’s not worth starting a task, but it’s surprising how much more you can get done over the course of a week.

Try the trick yourself.