Honest Tea Cap (Photo credit: Dome Poon)There are many tools you can use to increase your level of productivity. Whether paper-based solutions are your cup of tea or you’ve dove into the digital well of task management offerings, you’d be wasting a ton of time trying to discover all of the tools out there. I’d wager it is one of the least productive things you could ever do.
But of all the tools at your disposal, the one between your ears is the one that needs to be actively engaged to allow for prominent increases to happen. There’s a human component that leads to better productivity on the whole, and while analog tools may not remove the brain from the equasion as fully as digital ones might, when we trust our lists as written without using our brain in tandem, the results for the items that are crucial to us are less desirable.
The “heart” comes into play, too. Why? Because we’re human. So when the brain and emotion are used in concert with a productivity system, you can tap into the real power of what you can do. And much of that power lies in simply being honest with yourself. Honesty plays a huge role in the quality of what we do.
Whether you look at how much you can accomplish (and accomplish well) in a given timeline, whether you look at how well you can accomplish a task or project considering your skill set or whether or not you truly care about what’s on your plate, being honest with yourself is the only true way to get the best work out of you. You may even be surprised how much you can exceed limitations when you start spending more time being honest with yourself. You’ll achieve better results because you’re taking on less of the stuff that doesn’t sit well with you.
Honesty can fine-tune your ability to adapt. If you aren’t being fufilled in an environment, tapping into your true self will often provide you the answer as to how to find such fulfillment. Sometimes it means exploring ways to work within the environment, sometimes it means looking at it differently. Sometimes it means removing yourself from the environment altogether. By being honest with yourself you will discover that you’re far more “productively versatile” and you’ll reap the benefits of demonstrating that to those around you.
You can’t fool yourself into being happy. So why try? If you’re not happy, you aren’t going to be as productive. Honesty plays a huge part in this – and you don’t have to look too deeply into yourself to realize when you’re not. Faking it will only take you so far, and often it also takes you farther away from getting to where you really want to be. Find happiness in what you do and where you are, or do and go somewhere else. It’s honestly the best thing for everyone.
This one is tricky, because while you can justify putting things off, you can rarely do that in an honest manner. Strangely, that also means whatever you are doing to procrastinate is also not being done as well as it could be. Start being more honest with yourself, and both your uptime and downtime will be more productive, because both can be done without the distraction of justifying what you’re doing and when you’re doing it.
Honestly look at what you’re “shipping” these days. Is it great? Better yet, is it as great as you know you could make it? That’s the better question, because while you may say “yes” to the first questiom, the second one requires a lot more honesty on your part. So ask the second question before you ship it. That way people will be looking forward to receiving it.
Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue. Honesty is hardly ever heard. And mostly what I need from you. – Billy Joel
These words are directed at a lover in Joel’s classic tune, but in this case you need to direct them at yourself. Give the word some company, stand out above the crowd. Say it loud, say it to yourself, say it knowing that you need it from yourself. You’ll be amazed at the results.
Honest.
Mike Vardy is an independent writer, speaker, podcaster and "productivity pundit" who also dishes the goods at Vardy.me. You can follow him daily on Twitter, listen to him weekly on ProductiVardy, and read more from him eventually at Eventualism.
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