As I mentioned in my last article, I focus on teaching people 3 things:
- 1 Productivity Framework (with relevant techniques)
- 1 Productivity Habit
- 1 Productivity Mindset
We covered the Productivity Controls Framework in my last article. Next comes the 1 productivity habit.
Consider all the different productivity tips and tricks that are out there online. One takeaway from that is that there are a lot of things you should remember to do throughout the day. But here’s the thing—you won’t remember most of them, not at the times when you really need them.
Knowledge of what we should do rarely translates to action when it’s needed. At the end of the day we might look back and say, “Oh, I should have done X, Y, and Z when I was getting distracted today.”
The question is, how we can increase the chances that we’ll take the necessary actions at the right time?
Don’t rely on your prospective memory
Part of the challenge is remembering to remember something in the future (psychologists call this prospective memory to sound fancy). Unfortunately, if your cognitive resources are low (e.g., from work, stress, etc.) or you generally have a low executive function baseline, your prospective memory isn’t great.
That means ADHD minds like mine really struggle with prospective memory. Here’s a frequent occurrence for me: One of my kids asks me for a snack while we’re upstairs. By the time I’ve just walked downstairs, I’ve already forgotten and am doing something else.
This sort of thing happens to me all the time—what makes me think I’ll be able to remember to remember particular productivity techniques when I need them?
Habits are part of the solution
You always look before crossing the street. What’s the productivity equivalent of this?
Habits are automatic behaviors triggered by some cue. When X happens or at time X, I automatically do action Y. The challenge of habits is the effort needed to form them. But the beauty of habits is, once they’re established, they take no effort. You don’t need to rely on your memory because they happen automatically.
Wouldn’t it be great if all the productivity techniques we needed became habits?? Yes, but… it’s not quite that easy. Each of the four Productivity Controls has a few different techniques associated with it that you’d want to do at different times. It would take a ton of work to identify the relevant cues for each of those habits and to then make each of those habits stick.
There is a systematic process that makes habit formation easier, but that doesn’t mean I’d want to try forming 10+ productivity habits if I can avoid it. And the good news is that you can avoid it.
You only need one productivity habit
Building one productivity habit is much more doable. In both my one-on-one and group coaching, building this one habit is a central focus. It’s the one habit that unlocks all the productivity techniques you need, when you need them.
I call the habit the Control Check (though I’m open to catchy alternatives to this name—email me if you have other ideas!). Basically, the Control Check involves a quick check of the 4 Productivity Controls—Mind Control, Task Control, Time Control, and Pull Control.
I show clients how to quickly turn this into a habit multiple times during the day. At some of those times, your Productivity Control levels might be fine and no action is needed. But often this check will make you realize that using a quick technique or two might be all that’s needed to get yourself from struggling to eagerly productive.
The framework makes this possible
The key to all of this is the Productivity Controls Framework. This framework, which distills ALL productivity techniques into 4 key factors, makes it easy for us to quickly assess our levels in each of them, so that we can then identify any techniques we need in that moment.
You couldn’t do this with the long lists of productivity tips and tricks you normally stumble across online—it wouldn’t make sense to run through this list of techniques multiple times a day to see if any were needed. That just isn’t quick or practical.
But you can quickly assess how high or low your Mind Control is, and if low, quickly pick one of the techniques to increase it. This one simple habit that connects us with our 4 Productivity Controls acts as a key that unlocks any productivity techniques we need, right when we need them.
This is a big deal. It’s what makes learning and using these productivity techniques actually realistic for people, including people really struggling with distractions and ADHD.
Conclusion
You’re now starting to see how everything’s connected. The one core productivity framework makes it possible to build one core productivity habit. The last piece is the one core productivity mindset—I’ll save that for next time.
1 Productivity Framework1 Productivity Habit- 1 Productivity Mindset