Tag Archives: productivity

Atomic Habits Lesson 1 of 10

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I’ve had this ‘in the works‘ for a very long time. Here is lesson one of ten:

Lesson 1, ‘Identity Based Habits‘, is the first of 10 Lessons based on James Clear’s book ‘Atomic Habits’. It was created by Principal David Truss for Inquiry Hub Secondary Students.

I will share all 10 lessons here over the coming weeks. Atomic Habits is one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I wanted to share what I’ve learned with students at our school. These students get a lot more unstructured time than most high school students, and developing good habits about using that time well is something that can drastically improve a student’s effectiveness and output.

I hope to help guide our students to better productivity.

Distraction versus Inspiration

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Parkinson’s Law states: “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.

My morning write has been like that recently. I’m not writing more so much as I’m procrastinating getting started. Then by the time I get to this point here in my writing, I’m already going to need to rush some of my routine after writing. It’s a procrastination routine that doesn’t work for me and yet I go back to it. I allow myself to be distracted. I permit myself to not look at the blank page and pretend that distraction is actually inspiration.

Distraction is not inspiration. It has appeal, it seems like an attractive path to a new idea, but it is not. No, the quick email check isn’t going to inspire a good idea. Neither will the red notification on my phone app, nor will social media… All distractions.

How often do we do this? How often do we justify our distractions and lack of focus? We also allow ourselves to procrastinate by getting other stuff done that isn’t the task we really should be doing. The ‘To Do’ list gets smaller but the more immediate tasks still sit undone.

Work expands not just to fill the time allotted, but to just beyond that time. Then the pressure builds and suddenly I achieve more in less time than I thought possible. What just happened there? I had a lot of time and I got too little done, then I feel the time crunch and get it done anyway. Rushed, stressed, but done.

This isn’t my regular modus operandi, but rather part of my productivity cycle. Some days I’m flying through tasks feeling like I’m unstoppable. Other times I’m keeping busy, but not necessarily focused on what needs to be done next. But when I do this at work, I’m still getting stuff done. When I’m home, when I’m trying to get inspired to write, I’m actually just distracted. Other things aren’t getting done, nothing is happening except I’m losing time.

Inspiration can come when you don’t expect it. You can take a break and insights can hit you unexpectedly. But intentional distraction is the enemy of creativity, and choosing a distraction is never the seed of inspiration. Creativity does not strike evenly, but it does strike more frequently when avoiding distraction. If you are hiding from the work, creativity will be elusive. Distraction distracts you from inspiration and creativity.

The Gaps

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They are the space in between. The gaps that separate knowing from doing.

It’s what allows you to be kind to others, but doesn’t allow you to be kind to yourself.

It’s the awareness of what you should eat and what you actually snack on without thinking.

It’s having great habits in one area of your life and not being able to duplicate them in other areas of your life.

It’s waning motivation when the job is almost done, which delays completion.

It’s getting too little sleep but delaying bedtime with unproductive distractions.

It’s not facing the most urgent thing by keeping busy with less important things.

It’s the gap. Sometimes it’s narrow and easy to cross, and other times it’s an impassable crevice. It’s the creator of guilt, and a point of self loathing, or disappointment.

It’s the yeast that gives rise to procrastination and excuses. It gets baked into your routines. It’s the stale crust that is unappetizing but still edible.

Take small bites.

Tiny steps forward.

Narrow the gap. You aren’t going to get rid of it, but you can reduce its impact. It’s easier to take baby steps than it is to try to leap across a chasm, but once you let the gap become a chasm, it feels like it’s too late. Baby steps, one foot in front of the other, and some gaps will slowly disappear… but more knowing/doing gaps will always appear. If they didn’t, life would probably be pretty boring.

Finding the muse

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Sometimes I just need to start writing. I can get stuck trying to think about what to write about and I’m either staring at a blank page, or I’m wondering off on social media. In both cases I’m still stuck feeling like I have nothing to say. Because in reality the blank screen doesn’t really help, and distractions are just…distracting.

Finding the muse is an elusive task, it hides in the shadows of any task you put your mind to. The muse is not something you seek, it is instead something you do. If I want to write, I don’t go looking for topics to write about, I simply start writing. I don’t find it anywhere, it is not an object, it is a verb, an action.

How much time is wasted searching for the right thing to write about, rather than just writing? I would rather delete a full paragraph of writing that I started as inspiration for an actual topic, than sit distracted, believing that the blank page will inspire me, or a TikTok, Tweet, or Instagram reel.

We don’t find the muse when we go looking, instead we create the muse when we start creating.

[This post brought to you after an hour of wasting my time doing exactly what I said you shouldn’t do.]

The habits project

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I have a project that I’ve been working on for quite a while now. I’ve been telling myself that I want to finish it, but I haven’t put enough time in (yet). It involves making 10 short (2-3 minute) videos based on James Clear’s Atomic Habits for students in a school where they get a lot of self-directed time. I’ve actually spent a fair bit of time white-boarding and developing the idea.

I have spent a few more hours going through James Clear’s 30 Days to Better Habits lessons, and I’ve worked on creating a script for the 10 lessons I have in mind. I’ve done a lot of work, but now comes the execution. Now I’ve got to actually record and edit/produce the videos.

I’ve used so many strategies I’ve learned in this book to create regular routines around health and wellness, and also to be more productive at work, but for a project like this, I have really not used the strategies. I have blocked off time and worked on it in large chunks, but I haven’t made any routines or habits to get this done… and I probably won’t. Instead, I’m going to block a bunch of time to do the recording all at once, and what I get will just need to be ‘good enough’, and then I’ll block some more time and try to do a marathon of editing.

The big question is, will this be shown to students this year or to start next school year? I won’t know until I start recording and then see how long it takes to edit one of these. But this has been a project in the making for almost 2 years now and I feel like if I don’t share my plan, I won’t get it done for another year. Wish me luck.

Do it well

How long will it take… to do it well?

What resources do you need… to do it well?

Who can help you… to do it well?

What can you put off… so that you do it well?

Some jobs just need to get done, others should only be done if they are done well. The work is rewarded with a job well done. So give it the time, put in the resources, get the support you need, and put forward an honest, concerted effort… to do it well.

Process, product, and purpose

I love this quote from David Jakes:

“Design creates useful things. Much has been written by various educators about valuing process over product, but in the real world, people create things. It’s easy to value process over product when the product is a grade or points on a test. In your classroom, shift from a transactional approach to a design-based transformational one where the product has value and meaning to students and has the potential to impact intellectual growth, spark personal development, or contribute to improving the human condition.”

There is a lot of talk about process over product. However this comparison is built on a false dichotomy. It’s not about one over the other, rather it’s process with the purpose of producing a product.

For example, when looking at design thinking, we start with empathy for the end user. The final product is the goal, it’s the purpose we are designing for, but the process of design thinking is the journey we go on.

So, it’s not process over product, it’s process with purpose. The final product is important, be it a presentation, an app, a business or business plan, a play, or a piece of art. How you get there is important too. Understanding the purpose, having a real reason to produce a final product is the reason to go through the process.

What’s exciting is having students learn, value, and be motivated to go through the process to get to that final product. That’s a shift from a more traditional test, or a cookie-cutter assignment where everyone produces an identical final product. Instead the students are part of the process, and understand the purpose of getting to the final product… which they have constructed or co-constructed.

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Here is a specific example: There are a couple educators from the Northwest Territories coming to visit us at Inquiry Hub. They are heading this way to see Trevor Mackenzie on Vancouver Island, and he recommended they come visit our school. Unfortunately the only day they can come is a professional development day when there are no kids at our school. So, I asked 6 kids if they would be willing to come in and present to these teachers.

Once they agreed, I sent this in an email to the teachers coming to visit:

“As an FYI, I’ll be handing over the presentation fully to the students, they will design what it looks like. With the design thinking model in mind, the big question is “What does the end user want/need”… so, please give me a short write-up of what you are looking for.

They will give you the shape of our day, what the student experience is like, but beyond that what do you want to get out of the visit? Whatever you share is exactly what I’ll be sharing with them to prepare with.”

Our students will design the presentation, they will understand the purpose of their final product, and while the process is important, and while they have had a ton of practice producing great presentations, they know that delivering a good final presentation to an authentic audience is what will matter in the end.

It’s not one over the other, it’s process for the purpose of a good final product.

Podcasts in the background or foreground?

When I’m doing repetitive tasks and chores I listen to podcasts. I find them easier to follow than audio books when the task requires some of my attention. There is something about long format interview podcasts that really appeals to me. I find that I can feel like I’m sitting in the room with the people having the discussion, like a fly on the wall, observing, but not participating… yet still part of the conversation.

Listening today really made me want to revitalize my podcast. I enjoy the process. I just need to design a schedule that allows me to commit to it. I don’t want to put the effort in to produce two or three more then stop again. I think I need to start the school year up again then figure out if it’s something I want to add while I’m busy. Because if it feels like work after a full week at work, it’s not going to last very long.

I need to decide that it’s something I want to do in the background of my current schedule, or if I’ll just enjoy the work of other people. There’s a big difference E tween enjoying a good podcast and putting the time and energy into creating one.

The shiny object

“Highly focused people do not leave their options open. They select their priorities and are comfortable ignoring the rest. If you commit to nothing, you’ll be distracted by everything.” ~ James Clear

I call it squirrel brain with a hat tip to the dog in the animated movie ‘Up!’. He has a collar that allows him to talk, but that doesn’t matter once he sees a squirrel… the distraction is too great.

It’s that scattered sense of paying attention to the closest shiny object, the new distraction, the most recent email, the interruption, the grumble of your tummy. Sometimes it’s a needed break, but most times it’s a distraction. It’s inefficient and ultimately ineffective.

“If you commit to nothing, you’ll be distracted by everything.”

Sometime you need to put blinders on, and intentionally block or reduce the distractions. You need to resist the urge to get the newest distraction done before moving on. The shinier new thing that popped up can wait. The notification can stay unread, and the ‘to do’ list should be just that one thing that needs to be focused on, and nothing else until this one priority is completed.

Focus is not easy to maintain, but productivity soars when focus is given and distractions are left behind. Although sometimes the trick is realizing what really is the distraction. When I used to spend 15 minutes looking for an image to go with my blog post, that was 15 minutes that I wasn’t writing or meditating, or working out. Was the image essential enough to take that much time? Probably not. But at least I did it after writing… unlike today when I broke my writing stride to find the image above of the dog from Up!

I’m definitely a work in progress with my attention and distractions. The trick is to recognize priorities and reduce distractions that detract from those priorities. And like with most advice, this is much easier said than done.

Pace and productivity

The end of the year can feel like a constant pace of go-go-go! From wake up to head on pillow that night there is too much to do and too little time. Then things (finally) wind down and you see all that you’d like to do but you’ve been too busy doing what you needed to do. Time suddenly slows, and tasks are more easily accomplishable.

This becomes a time when I need others to collaborate with. Time to have learning conversations and time to co-plan. I notice that working with others motivates me and keeps my productivity pace up.

It’s easy to take a deep sigh of relief as things slow down, and to slow down myself. But the year hasn’t ended and there is still a lot to get done, a lot to accomplish, and an opportunity to better prepare for the new year. Just because the pace has slowed doesn’t mean productivity should too.

Staying motivated as the pace slows isn’t easy. It’s easier to coast through to the ending. My motivation is to do whatever I can to make next year better. Because as crazy as the year-ending June pace can be, the year-starting September pace can be equally frenetic. And so the work I do now will help my productivity in the new school year.

It has been a long ride this year, but I’ve got to stay in the saddle and keep riding at a good pace. I’ve got the whole summer to trot and canter, right now I need too keep the gallop going. Giddy up!