Archive for the ‘Productivity Study’ Category

 

I’m pumped on this post because its the first of its kind. My Heat Mapping Life Experiment was the first one that I recorded about on a daily basis, and with two full weeks on constant immersion in analyzing my own state and degree of productivity, I found out some interesting things about my experience that I’m sure anyone can draw from.

Some of it might be relatively specific to my experience, but I think a that plenty of the lessons of this experiment can be applied to anyone’s life and motivation.

“Efficacious State” (Ideas on Social State and Productive State) - 

Something I noticed very early is that my “productive” flow state happened to also transmit into a flow experience in any other activity I was involved in. In other words, when I was feeling super-involved and excited writing an article, I’d also feel super-involved and excited if I started cleaning my room, driving to the store, or 

Telltales of “Efficacious State” / Flow - 

When I am in flow: 

• My action and awareness merge, I am completely “outside my head”
• In being “outside my head” I am not questioning wether or not my current action is the best present action
• I am also not questioning the objectives I am striving towards
• If I think of the future at all, it is only in the form of optimistic glory

When I am in stress:

• I am not able to remain present and focused on activity, I am drawn “inside my head”
• Being “inside my head” entails questioning my present action 
• It also entails potentially questioning my higher goals or motives
• If I think of the future at all, it is uncertain

Elements in Attaining the “Efficacious State” - 

Completion: 

Some of my experiences that “felt” most productive involved completion of a specific objective, or at least attaining a notable benchmark in a project. 

This, of course, was in my head. Any “tangible” steps taken or projects accomplished were just marks I set in my own mind, and part of my brain gave me access to happiness after reaching these designated ends.

Regardless, having “ends” of this kind certainly serves us in terms of having identifiable next actions on our higher objectives. In addition, these little benchmarks serve as micro-accomplishments that can compel us to future action and allow us to recognize that progress towards our higher objectives is being made (because… it is being made!).

It might also be a limiting factor, however, to require these benchmarks to be hit in order to feel efficacious and resourceful. Here we restrict ourselves to a degree. 

My best advice in this regard would be to frame these benchmarks as concrete rungs on a ladder, rungs that we reach for enthusiastically (instead of needing them for our positive emotional state).

Balancing:

In my project, I found that many of my most “stressed” times were times when I was hammering away on tasks with no contact to other people for hours and hours. Its not as though I ever went a day without seeing friends or family, but extended periods of lone typing tended to bring about a yearning for human contact, and a yearning to exercise and move.

This may have to do with the fact that I’m very much used to being active physically and socially, and that when the balance tipped away from those aspects of my life a tension was created.

I think it likely also has to do with a relatively innate need for human contact and physical activity – and the fact that such activities tend to relieve us of stresses and fulfill important desires that we have as humans (to be loved, to enjoy time with others, to be physically active).

My Experience of Level 4 (Red Zone) “Productivity” -

Throughout my experiment, I only hit this red zone for a few hours. I’ve been there before and since, however, and I now have a better idea of the telltale signs of this super-charged experience of efficacy, joy, and power:

- It involves a welling up of excitement, an expressive tension that builds up and must be released. Its almost jittery. I found myself having to move around or yell something out (“WOOO!”).

- My body is totally engrossed in the present activity, and very little thought is noticed through the experience.

- If thoughts do occur, they are immensely positive and encouraging, and usually have to do with the awesome future possibilities and how I can reach those possibilities through the present. For instance, I might be thinking about a book I plan on writing and how fantastic it will be to get some of my best research and ideas on paper. I might even imagine what it would make possible in my life if my book was a huge success.

- It is interesting to note that this level of excitement and fun is something I occasionally experience but I do not refer to it as “level 4 productive.” Why is this the case? Because sometimes this excitement isn’t productive, or I don’t frame it to be productive in my mind. The times I refer to as “level 4 productive” have not only been a massive expression of positive emotion, but they have been related to attaining goals and actually doing activity that I deem to be best in attaining those objectives. Hence, many of my highest expreinces of excitement have not been “level 4 productive.”

This might explain why level 4 is not the same as normal “flow” state (“flow” is an immersed, intense, heightened state where out mind is drawn into the present moment and we loose ourselves). I mean this in the way that level 4 must generally have relation to some higher project or objective, and so it sometimes will involve more thought that traditional “flow” state, because my mind usually has to tie the action to my values and my future objectives.

“Happiness” and “Productivity” - 

The relation of happiness and productivity has to do with one’s definition of “productivity.”

Making statements like “you need to be productive to be happy” or “if you’re too productive you’ll never find happiness” would be silliness. They are too vague to be understood and apply.

For me personally, productivity involves progress towards my highest ends – which not only involves diving into and finishing writing projects, reading psychology, and promoting my Jiu Jitsu academy, but also involves sharing fun experiences with friends and experiencing joy, excitement and enthusiasm. 

Hence, happiness and productivity are relatively well-linked in my own mind. I recognize happiness not only as a fantastic end in and of itself (something I value, something that fits my purpose) but also as a propelling force for my own vitality and energy to accomplish meaningful tasks that relate to my greatest pursuit of contribution int he field of personal development  (something I value, something that fits my purpose).

However, this isn’t to say I’ve ever bitten off more than I can chew in terms of projects, or that I haven’t ever felt “stress.” Certainly its not common, but it has happened. This “stress” wasn’t because I was “too productive.” In fact, stress works against productivity for the most part (in my book). It was simply due to framing things incorrectly in my mind and creating a mental frame of “have to” rather than “strive for.”

We can make “productivity” the antithesis of “happiness” if we want. We can make it imply a frantic or cold pursuit of objectives without meaning. However, we would have no one to blame for this but ourselves. Happiness – as I see it – aught to usually be included into the algorithm for “productivity.” It is the end for which productivity strives in most cases. 

Might it be useful to not focus at all on present happiness and just “get things done”? It would seem as though the action we deem best in terms of our overall life objectives and purpose will sometimes be focused less on momentary positive emotional states than other times. Regardless, completely devorcing enjoyment from any activity might be reckless for our psyche. I believe that having an awareness of how we mentally frame our work and other actions )and knowing how to change our focus or mind set) is an ability that serves us immensely.

Even in crunch time on a massive assignment or in a panicked situation, we aught to keep the reins to our enjoyment at hand and if nothing else control the detrimental emotions that tend to floor our minds when we focus on “detrimental” events (IE: when we frame events or situations as “difficult” or “bad” or “painful” or “stressful” in our minds).

Tips for Sleeping Less:

Though you can certainly read about some of this stuff in my “Sleep Less” Life Experiment, I did pick up on (and refine) some tricks for sleeping less:

- Have at least one COMPELLING activity to do early in the morning. This will get you out of bed when the alarm rings. I like to make it something that will take a little while (not a 3 minute project), because you’ll be less likely to put it off of a few more minutes. I like to set a goal like “get as far into writing my ebook on Sport Psychology as possible!” This is compelling because its a challenge to see how much I can get done, and its a project I’m excited to work on.

- Be wary of too much sugars or processed carbs. This will take you to a bit of a blood-sugar spike, but then you’ll drop right off and crash. Try not to load up on sugars at any point in your day, if anything taper them in with other foods so you can be more productive… AND have less cavities.

- When working through lack of sleep, sit upright, have proper lighting (preferably sunlight), and sit somewhere that you don’t associate to sleep. As I mentioned in my previous articles, I often sit in my kitchen or dining room, where the light is more intense, the chairs aren’t for lounging, and my mind doesn’t associate with “zzzzzzz.”

-Often we believe ourselves to be more tired than we are. I always thought I needed 7 or 8 hours of sleep a night to function well. I then read somewhere of a man who slept about 5 hours per night. I thought this was brilliant and I took up the idea – and it turned out FINE. Not to mention all the times I thought “oh man, I’m so tired, I must go to sleep,” then I went out to a club, or went into a room with sunlight and a wooden chair, or took a jog – and felt FINE. Believe in yourself on this one, trust me, you’re so much more capable of sleeping less.

You might not want to sleep 5 hours a night like I am right now, but regardless, you will be able to apply these ideas when you DO need to stay up, or you want to keep yourself up longer.

 

I want to thank Charlie of www.productiveflourishing.com for the brilliant idea of heat mapping productivity. 

This one of many deeply involved projects that I’ll be diving into, learning from, and recording on here.

 

 

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May 25th, felt a little bit overwhelmed in the morning in terms of reading and writing. I impose a degree of tension on myself to act, but it overtook the productivity threshold and was more like stress. This is likely due to my mixed thoughts about the ends of my projects in light of relatively massive changes in goals as of late.

Later in the day I went to the beach to visit a friend on his birthday. I talked with my other friend about our entrepreneurial project. Again this is planning and building process seems magnified when friends are involved.

At night I wanted to do some karaoke so I hit up the local karaoke bar and belted out a couple tunes. The girl I met there had me sing some random Black Eyed Peas song I’ve never heard of before – and when she forgot the lyrics I had fun making up new random words.

May 26th, I woke up swiftly after 4 hours of sleep.

First day of my internship in a physical therapy office. The atmosphere was cool and there’s a lot for me to learn about the diagnoses process and modalities of treating injuries. There was a lot of down time though, so I’m planning little ways to make it more productive for me (such as carrying a small notebook to record all the most important info I pick up).

At 4:00PM I went to my internship seminar at URI and was in the twilight zone between slumber and consciousness the entire time. Tiredness tends to hit me like a brick if I’m too comfortable and don’t engage myself fully into something. The speaker’s monotone voice put me right out.

Despite this, I was WIDE awake for teaching Jiu Jitsu, and we had a fantastic class where everyone had a blast. Teaching new technique might have been what set the tone and engaged my mind.

Realizations:

-I came to understand how very Tasmanian-Devil-ish I tend to be in terms of projects, especially in the realm of studying personal development. I writing inquiries on a thousand topics, I read 2 books at a time. I take notes, I try to keep track, but some of it slips. This is the origin of my recent focus on studying / immersion in friendships and relationships. Limiting my research and writing a little bit is something I feel will prove to be useful.

-I came to realize that the yellow zone of productivity (level 2) is vague and should be broken up. It can entail tremendously stressed times where I’m grinding into some random project – and it can entail relatively “productive” activity while I have a good time with friends. Since I seemed to hover in that zone so much, it might prove useful next time to split a category like that into another two distinct levels.

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The next and final post is going to be my FINALE on the perspectives and lessons I learned through this project!

 

 

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May 21st, read an entire book in my first 2 hours of consciousness. The book was called “Go Giver,” and it was pretty interesting. I then got to working more on my sport psychology eBook. As the sun came up and the caffeine took hold, I became more and more alert (I have limited myself to coffee once every two days).

I in the green zone, I was tremendously in my own head about doing genuinely productive or fulfilling activity. A few hours later I began writing specifically what I felt was creative at the time – instead of honing in on things I wasn’t as concerned with (ultimately, having the best creative work on my part gives me the best insight, and you the best content).

In the night I went out but I wasn’t in the best state for socializing and I may have been too tired to push it. I find ways to constantly drive for activity in all other contexts, why should this one be any different?

May 22nd. Let it be known that about 8:30PM on May 21st I felt like I needed to go to bed. Going out and socializing really made a difference in bringing my energy up.

After 4 hours of sleep I POP out of bed, excited for the day – the sun is up and that seemed to signify to some part of my mind that I had actually gotten sleep. I went for a job immediately.

The orange zone above involved having a tremendous time with friends. Later in the night I didn’t feel in peak social state again. In addition, we waited around for a party that never happened, wishy-washy plans galore. Makes me want to plan my own social events even more.

May 24th, woke up and went right to reading. I feel like this usually keeps me in a tired mode, and that its sometimes best to walk around and do my morning routine / listen to music to wake up.

Around eleven I caught up with my good friend to talk about our summer entrepreneurial project. Making plans and laying out action steps is always so much fun, especially with friends. ITs something to get excited about, to build, to have fun with. Having a friend to share that with tends to magnify the creativity and fun of the experience.

Before the night came I ended up doing some woodwork with my father. Carpentry and furniture design is something he’s been involved in for the better part of his life – so I decided to start a small project of my own with him.

Realization:

-As this point, my body wakes up with the sun and assumed a good nights rest. This is because I’ve been going to bed so early and waking up at 4-something or 5-something when the sun is still down. Its interesting now how I FEEL rested when I awake just because some part of me associates the sun with adequate rest.

-It is not only what I accomplish during my day, but who I am as a person. Do I exemplify my virtues? Do I make the most of my scenarios? Do I find ways to bring fun and challenge into my life?

May 18th, the seventh day of productivity heat mapping. I do some writing and then deliver flyers to some houses with my friend. Advertising for my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy is definitely worthwhile for me – but doing it with my friend made it 10 times as much fun. Increased state and increased productivity yielded a level 3 spike.

I felt a little off while teaching Jiu Jitu in the eventing, but filming technique afterwards was a lot of fun as always. I become overwhelmingly tired and passed right out at 10:00PM.

May 19th, way too much sleep! I’m starting to feel as though my body is crying out to me, but to be honest working off of 4-5 hours hasn’t been an issue for me, I’m still eager to keep up with that habit.

I had an idea to listen to fun music in the early morning while I do my regular routine of brushing teeth and eating. I can even do this while checking emails (basically, I can bump some awesome tunes whenever I don’t need to fully engage intellectually – as in writing or reading). 

I felt very much in the busywork level 2 phase. I realize that I must change my focus or change my routine because I seem to be in a relatively stressed state and not an ideally creative state. I realize the origin of this state but I find it tough to shift from sometimes.

In the evening I hung with my good friend and we talked about a new project for social involvement, we’re calling it the Summer FunBoys (yep, FunBoys is one word… the site and the idea are new, but check out www.summerfunboys.tk). Its a group for organizing social events, organizing community service events, and spreading fun in our town.

Teaching BJJ went well, too, afterwards I visited some friends at a nice sushi place before heading home.

May 20th, awesome morning. I went out and did an “hour of power” (an idea I picked up from Anthony Robbins) – where I got in a nice morning jog and combined it with a focus of what I was excited about / appreciateive of. This really got me amped.

During the running and writing for my eBook, I had flashes of 100% “on-ness” where I just felt ON completely. Totally aligned with my present action, totally merging my action and awareness into one.

I felt quite tired around 3:00PM while writing, and I think its because I’ve come to associate my room with slumber. Even though I’m in my chair writing, I’m in the environment in which I sleep at night – and I feel that this makes me feel tired though I don’t need sleep. I moved my compute to the dining room, which has more windows anyways.

I then went to a different branch of my bank and totally became friends with all the bank ladies at once, it was crazy. We just started bantering and joking and holding up the line it was hilarious.

After feeling disengaged while teaching Jiu Jitsu, I went home, did some work on my projects and passed out. Again… like a freekin’ brick.

Realization:

I think I’m selling myself short in placing most of my expereinces with friends in the yellow zone. Cultivating great relationships is definitely one of my highest ends. Being engaged and enjoying myself with friends is “productive” in the sense of alignment with my highest ends – though it might not always “produce” in terms of money made or articles written. Friendship is something I’m planning on studying a lot more on my own.

I’ve also come to the realization about my experience of tension the purpose of this website: to offer quality content. Hence, when I find myself trying to hammer something out I’ve got to slow down. Getting hits and making money are lower on the totem pole than my own creative expression and harvesting of good ideas and experiences – which translates to the best content for readers!

May 15th, I wake up an immediately get to doing some writing and website design work. I feel so much more stressed than anything else – which isn’t usual for me. However, given my recent project list and my lack of sleep for the sake of accomplishing more things, I might be in an adjustment phase.

I nearly complete part of a website, and that makes me feel better. For some odd reason, completion comes with a sense of relief and pleasure. Ideally Iw ould be able to experience those feelings whenever I chose to, but it seems like when I “get things done” I feel some sort of pleasure – probably because I value accomplishment towards my highest aims, or even getting things off my project list.

I had very little focus throughout the day though I was getting things done. I felt in my head. Later in the afternoon I got together with friends to deliver flyers and go to the gym. Even this basic amount of human contact rejouvenated me, I’d been inside writing and working on the web all day – its always feels as though I draw from my fun interactions with people I care about.

So tired by the time the night comes…. so tired. Too a nap, woke up to read… passed right out.

May 16th. Whoooaaaa forgot to set the alarm properly! Nearly 8 hours of sleep when I include the nap before bed on the 15th. Craziness! I snap right up to get some projects going before I do 3 hours worth of lawn mowing.

Around 2:00PM (where you see the orange level 3s) I had an awesome idea for an eBook that I now plan on writing! I will be writing a 30+ page eBook on applying the ideas of sport psychology to everyday life. It relates to my two greatest areas of study (kinesiology and psychology). I got pumped on it and started tearing into it. I also started another philosophical inquiry – both of which I worked on for the sake of diving into the ideas and learning / enjoying. This brought my state right up.

Late at night I also decide to push myself, I really wanted to get that orange zone back. I turned up the urgency, but in a way that let me feel the eager RUSH and not the stress. Developing this kind of state control is something I want to work more with.

May 17th, got less than 3 hours of sleep because I overslept the night before. My 2nd hour of consciousness I hit the orange zone because I was not only writing something I wanted to write – but I was coming close to completion (which as I said before seems to have a value more so to my subconscious than my conscious mind). 

A few hours after that, I began being bothered by some thoughts of “is this actually benefitting you?” I dropped the writing and got into a bit of speed reading because it felt like learning and growth. I’m all about doing the “busywork” in the spirit of excellence when it needs to be done (we’re always going to bump into relatively growth-less activity, its my mission to draw from it what I can and enjoy it when its the best given task to tackle), but I wanted something different.

In the night I eat with my family and then go to visit a friend who lives near the beach. Fun time, but as soon as I got home the tiredness hit me like a ton of bricks. When I am out socializing it seems as though the fatigue doesn’t set in, but once I’m alone, or sitting, or especially slouching or lying, I’m OUT like a light.

Realization:

I keep myself riding on level 2 (yellow) the vast majority of the time, and I realize why this is. First, when I’m by myself I am always engaged in productive activity. I shower fast, I read and write for my projects, I design sites, etc… When I’m with my friends, I may not be accomplishing as much (though we do “productive” things like go to the gym or talk about entrepreneurial projects), but I usually feel a lot better being around them. I value and enjoy the time I spend with them. Hence, wether I’m alone or with friends I find myself mostly around level 2.

May 11th, day one of the productivity heat mapping experiment.

It started off in a bit of shock, I got nearly 6 hours of sleep because I neglected to set my alarm properly (PM instead of AM). I usually aim for 4 to 5 hours max – its part of a different Life Experiment.

This was an amazing day for me, energetically. I felt in flow almost the entire day, and the “productive sensation” was on – I was outside my head, focused not only on what I was doing but on how cool it all was!

My level 4 periods weren’t even for my own projects, they were while I was delivering carpet for my father’s business. Even though I know thats not going to be my life path, I was pumped to do it because I knew it was what was best in that moment, and that in the evening I’d be writing and reading furiously!

I was listening to David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” in the car and voice recording key points to my cell phone. That evening I wrote down all these key points in a new word document.

May 12th, the second day of experimentation. 

This time I got a bit over two hours of sleep. I knew that I got a bunch the night before (on my terms, anyway), and I wanted to see hwo well I could roll on two hours.

I realize while teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class that I feel more engaged and productive when I am teaching relatively new material or unique concepts. If it interests me more, or if I can learn from it, I feel more “on.”

In the night I talked to my friends about something we’re doing this summer called the Summer FunBoys, a group we made up for fun to serve and engage the community in fun ways. It was an awesome conversation. At the time, I think I did this time a disservice by calling it a 2 (yellow), it was an awesome talk. 

I notice something on this night (something that continues since the inclusion of my “Sleep Less” Life Experiment). Each night I aim to recap 3 great things that happened during that day. Lately when I hit the bed, I’m out like a light every single time, and I’m unable to savor those little magic moments.

May 13th, still a pretty phenomenally productive day despite my accumulated 6 hours of sleep total in the last 48 hours.

I woke up with no initial big BLAST to accomplish, I had no immediate goals in mind though my project list was as full as ever – I just didn’t set anything juicy for myself in the morning. 

While doing some writing in the green (1) zone, and in the yellow (2) and orange (3) zones, I realize that my higher productivity / emotional state times are when I am focused specifically on how AWESOME it will be to complete these goals, and the grand vision I have – in addition to building something interesting in the present.

 

Eagerly spinning through web content one Sunday (my day for research) I came across a site called “Productive Flourishing.” Though the entire site is filled with interesting ideas and insight, a particular article drew me in.

It was called “How Heatmapping Your Productivity Can Make You More Productive.” 

In this article the author (Charles) goes into detail on how to we might draw out our levels of productivity on a diagram signifying all 24 hours of a day. Each hour is represented by a color signifying its intensity in terms of the productive experience (more on this in a bit).

I became pumped about following my own productivity and decided to make it a 2 week Life Project out of it. I knew that it would provide me with some insight into my experience of “flow” and of “feeling productive.” I turned out to be right, but that’ll be the last post of the series.

Grey signifies sleep or its equivalent.

Green signifies unproductive time.

Yellow signifies some kind of productive striving and seems to be taking ground.

Orange involves a hightened level of productivity and eager drive, “flow.”

Red is the highest productive experience, a mental / emotional tornado of enthusiastiasbm.

For the sake of my own heat map, “productivity” implies alignment between my values and my action in a fashion that brings me closer to meaningful objectives or ends. It implies my full capacities engaged in activities that I deem best in terms of my ideals and my projects.

In this series of posts, I’m going to post articles covering a series of 3 to 4 days during my experiment. Since my project lasted 14 days, this will take about 4 total posts to get all of my days up on this site in the form of articles.

Its very interesting to find the common threads and themes in terms of my level of activity and my energy / focus. Again, after the entire 2 week long life experiment has been posted, I’m going to write up a massive article on all that I’ve learned in terms of personal insight about PRODUCTIVITY and how we might apply it to our own lives.

Keep a lookout, I know you’ll enjoy it!

 

 

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