I woke up today with an urge to stray off blogging course.
15 minutes after waking I caught myself. I had spent 15 of those very minutes watching YouTube videos.
Why?
I allowed myself to be distracted. Which is rare for me. Usually I dive into my online activities only after 30 to 50 minutes of energy work. I was a Bad Blogging Boy today. I got distracted. But after the 15 minutes I let go the videos like a hot potato because I became aware of what was happening.
I spotted a freeing but annoying thing about blogging that will boost your productivity quickly.
Watch the video as I explain:
Whatever appears to distract you is a conscious choice on your part. I chose to watch videos on waking because in that moment I valued watching videos more than I valued diving into my morning energy routine and blogging activities. Nothing pulled me away from my work. Quite the contrary. I pulled myself from my morning mindset work and blogging work because I valued watching live video broadcast streams more than I valued my blogging work and energy work.
See how this feels annoying? If you are like me, a part of you enjoys blaming failure on something or someone outside of you. If you choose to be distracted by something you value more than blogging it feels easy and comfortable to blame the appearance of something pulling you from your work versus owning the annoying truth; you chose to do it. You chose to be distracted. You chose to value mindless distractions over building the foundation for a successful blog.
The Productivity Booster
If you feel a bit lacking in the blogging productivity department own that you value watching YouTube for 8 hours or Netflix for 10 hours more than you valued writing a guest post or blog post today. Own that. Feel the agitation. Then move toward what you most value.
I value fun and freedom and inspiring people to build successful blogs and inspired lives over all else so I build my day around blogging. I rarely find myself distracted.
I have a healthy life offline. I exercise daily. I meet with friends. Sure I watch Netflix and YouTube videos too. But I write and play and create and connect and do the blogging stuff before I binge watch TV shows on Netflix. This is how I stay prolific. I value living my freeing life of travel more than I value gossiping or BSing for hours a day on Facebook.
When you let go distractions expect to see a surge in productivity because you will replace the dilly-dallying with income producing activities. The 7 hours binge-watching shows on Netflix becomes 3 guest posts and 1 hour of Netflix time. Ditto for marathon YouTube video-watching sessions or endless meme-admiring on Facebook.
The values change. So your productivity skyrockets.
What Do You Value?
I want you to set aside 30 seconds to watch this short HD video.
This was the view from my home office in Rivas, Costa Rica. Stunning, right?
Would you value living there for a month like my wife Kelli and I did, over spending hours a day being distracted by Facebook and YouTube, leading to blogging struggles and failure?
Sometimes it helps to have a little reminder of what you may be valuing and what you’d ultimately like to value and experience because when you see the life you could be living, everything changes in a heartbeat.
The turning point sits smack dab in the middle of being clear, transparent and honest about your distractions. I am on point because I do not lie to myself. I catch myself quickly when I choose to binge watch videos or TV for more than a few moments, when my blogging duties call.
Be honest about what you choose to distract yourself. Change your values. Boost your blogging productivity.