Getting Into A Focused Mindset For A Productive Day

Sometimes we just need to have a really productive day. Maybe there’s a looming deadline, maybe you’ve got behind on your to-do list for the week or maybe you’ve got a precious free Saturday to work on your business. Whatever the reason, there’s an amount of pressure on that day – it weighs heavy with your expectations and you’re worried that you won’t be able to ‘make the most of it’.

For me, I tend to need these days when I’ve got behind on a project and need to get some writing done – or very rarely, if I want to get ahead on a project. I try to keep appointments, podcast recordings and coaching calls to certain days of the week so that I always have at least one free day where I can just single task on the writing I need to get done. Here I’m going to talk you through how I approach that day and get into a focused mindset to get what I want to get done, done.

Ahead of the day

Your most productive day starts the day before with these pieces of groundwork to make sure you wake up ready to tackle your tasks:

What’s Gone Wrong So Far This Week?

First, I like to make sure I’m not setting myself up for failure. Why haven’t I got things done so far this week? Did I have lots of other things booked in that meant there just wasn’t time, or have I been feeling generally de-motivated and un-creative? If it’s the latter, why is that?

The aim here is to make sure that the day I have in mind for my productive day is actually the best day. For example, I always sleep badly the week of a full moon and am therefore tired and a bit grumpy – this is not the time to schedule myself a productive day because I’m not going to be running on all cylinders and I’ll end up not meeting my own expectations, making me more tired and grumpy. So if I can, I’ll write off that project for the week and come back to it the following week (or I’ll do a minimal amount).

This exercise also helps to uncover any trip wires that may get you on the day itself. You might realise you’ve been distracted by the builder’s across the road all week, or you’ve been feeling a bit restless and haven’t been able to sit down for long, or you’ve just been wanting to be outside. If these things have been happening all week they’re not going to magically disappear for your productive day, so factor them into your prep.

Night Before Prep

Decisions are the enemy of action – it takes a lot of brain power to choose things, brain power you want to conserve for your work. So the day before your productive day, make your decisions in advance. This can look like writing outlines or plans of the blog posts you want to write, writing out a schedule for the day, laying out the clothes you’re going to wear and putting a tea bag in your favourite mug. Maybe pop to the shops and get yourself a cake or a favourite lunch. Whatever it takes to make sure you can flow through the morning and get into the work with as few hurdles as possible.

Your mindset starts the night before with your self talk too. Especially if you’ve had a less than productive week, you can start to feel trepidation about the next day – perhaps you’re worried you won’t be able to do it, perhaps you’re even kind of dreading it. Personally I like to bring some lightness into the situation. I tell myself “tomorrow is going to be really great, I’m really going to enjoy digging into this work”. I remember that days like this are what I wanted my own business for, I think about how great it’s going to feel to have that word count under my belt. This isn’t a time to beat yourself up or make threats to yourself – tell yourself the stories you need to convince yourself that tomorrow is going to be a joy.

Connect To Your Why For The Day

Again, we want a motivation here that’s more carrot than stick. Something that will get you going and keep you going – why do you want to get this done tomorrow? I don’t know about you but “I want to enjoy my weekend knowing this piece of work is complete” is more motivating then “I have to get this done because I’m so lazy and haven’t done it yet”. What does getting this work done on this day mean for you in your life?

On the day

Prep work done, you’ve had a good night’s sleep and woken up on the day itself with the echoes of your self-talk still in your mind and feeling motivated to get this thing done before the weekend. Now what?

Warm Up

I personally like to warm up into the work, because I’m not a morning person and it takes me a little while! I also find that going straight from bed to laptop feels like a lot of pressure and can cause mind blank. I like to warm up for a little bit, let my thoughts start unravelling and ease into it without the pressure to startworkingrightnow.

Going for a little walk will help your creative problem-solving, have half an hour of quiet to gather your thoughts as you drink your tea, perhaps do some morning pages or journaling to warm up your brain and clear your mind. Just take a little bit of time so that when you sit down at the computer you feel calm and ready, rather than cold and worried.

Make A Joyful Space

We are more likely to stay at our desk and get stuff done if it feels lovely to be there. So perhaps as part of your warm up, make your work space (even if it’s the sofa) feel cosy and like you never want to leave. Maybe that’s putting the heating on and wrapping a blanket around yourself; or maybe it’s opening the window for a fresh breeze. Maybe you bring flowers or plants into the space, maybe you clear your desk of everything but your best pen. Light a candle, put on some music (I like the Music For Concentration playlist on Spotify) or embrace the silence.

Also, bring in everything you can that you might need so you don’t have to keep getting up. For example, I usually bring in a couple of drinks so I don’t have to keep getting up to make one; I’ll also bring in a snack and any notes that I may need. We don’t want to bring in distractions, of course, but set up the space you’re working in to make sure you never have to, or want to, leave.

Put Your Damn Phone Away

Talking of distractions! This doesn’t mean put it face down on your desk, or somewhere just out of reach. It means put it another room that you’re not going to need to go into (so not the kitchen or the bathroom). I know it’s boring and annoying when people advise this, and I know we like to think that we are stronger than the allure of our phone and we can definitely not look at it for two hours. But the truth is, you probably can’t. And even if you can, why take the risk? My most productive work happens when there’s not even the option of unconsciously picking up my phone, and helps me zoom in to the work in hand and I feel a lot better for it too.

The thing to remember is that a focused, productive day is within your reach. Often when we think about getting a chunk of work done we think we need to bully ourselves through it but it’s just not necessary. Give yourself what you need to get the work done, even if what you need is more convoluted or looks different to what someone else needs. Getting it done is all that matters – that, and having a good time while you’re doing it.