The secret to intentional productivity
When I have a lot of projects or tasks on my plate, I have a tendency to treat everything as though it’s super important and needs to get done RIGHT NOW.
Shockingly, this does not lead me into a state of calm and intentional productivity, it just leaves me feeling frantic and stressed.
Intentional productivity is all about being deliberate with what you work on and working with a sense of calm and ease, knowing that you’ve got things under control. Treating everything as important results in nothing being important. If everything you’re working on has the same priority, it’s really challenging to get things done in a way that feels good.
The secret to being intentional with your productivity is to not treat everything like it’s important! Instead, prioritize the things you’re working on. There are a lot of different ways to prioritize things, but the key is to consciously and deliberately consider what your top priorities are.
Here are some different methods you can use to prioritize the tasks, goals, and projects on your plate:
Deadline order: A simple way to prioritize your projects is to outline when their relative deadlines will occur. Let’s say you have a manuscript revision due in October, a guest lecture to give in December, and a book chapter due in February. This method would have you prioritize the manuscript revision before moving on to the later deadlines.
Urgency vs. importance: Consider the relative urgency and importance of your projects and tasks (you can also sketch this out in an Eisenhower Matrix!). Do you have some projects that have looming deadlines and are important for your career? Consider those to be the top priority items! Schedule them at your optimal productive time during the day. Are there others that are urgent, but not quite as important? This might be things like grading or responding to emails. Think about who you might be able to delegate those tasks to, or how you might limit the amount of time you spend on them in a day.
Effort vs. impact: Instead of focusing on urgency and importance, consider the relative effort required by your projects and tasks and the impact that they will have on your life and career. Projects and tasks that are low effort and high impact are “quick wins” that can give your productivity a boost. But, be sure to also prioritize the high-effort and high-impact projects - you might even think about how you can break those projects down into lower-effort tasks. For actions that are low impact, prioritize those last or consider how you might delegate them to someone else.
Stress vs. ease: Sometimes it’s helpful to think about how we will feel to get something off of our plate. It can be a big relief to cross an overwhelming task or project off of your list! With this method, consider the stress level and ease of your projects and tasks. Prioritizing the projects that feel the most stressful can be a great way to reduce your overall stress level!
The fun factor: We don’t always need to focus on prioritizing what’s most important or impactful - sometimes it’s nice to prioritize the things that we find the most fun! For this method, consider what tasks and projects would be the most enjoyable. You might think about what tasks you would enjoy doing for free, vs. the ones you dread doing even though they are a part of your work. Prioritizing the tasks and projects that you find the most fun can help you push through a productivity slump.
