The Productivity Audit

Regularly take stock of what has been working and what hasn’t.

I also like to call it “pause and reassess”.

It’s an audit really.

Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: take stock

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. So take stock somehow.

Check out the Screen Time on your iPhone. Or use a dedicated time tracker app. Or just write down everything you accomplished that day.

Step 2: think about the contributing factors

Think about the factors that contributed to your results. What did you do that day that somehow contributed to your results (in your opinion at least)?

Write them down.

Maybe it was locking your phone away that gave you that extra productivity boost. Or maybe it was the neighbor’s dog barking all day that didn’t let you focus enough to complete your essay.

Correlation is not necessarily causation, but if you see something blatantly obvious or you see an interesting pattern… you can experiment and test that correlation a bit more.

Step 3: do more of the stuff that gave you good results and less of the stuff that gave you bad results

Duh.

It’s so simple, yet so often overlooked.

I know it sounds really basic when we break it down like this.

But that simple act of writing down everything you did in a day and correlating it to the things that affected you that day… it’s incredibly effective.

So make sure you do it.

Otherwise, you’re just running on autopilot. You’re the hamster in the wheel. Going nowhere fast.

Take audit of your productivity and reassess accordingly.

Now go do your magic.