2. Start with the most important task first, so you can get it out of the way early and while your mind is most fresh.

3. Believe your will-power is in your control, and you can often motivate yourself to do more (study).

4. Bring work to do when you know you will have time to kill (such as in the waiting room at a doctor’s office).

5. Practice mindfulness meditation to increase your focus. (see 100 Breaths meditation).

6. Exercise periodically to keep your energy levels high.

7. Learn from your time management mistakes. Don’t be afraid to try new things.

8. Know the uses and abuses of setting deadlines (see here).

9. Define your values in life. Avoid meaningless tasks that don’t fit into your value hierarchy.

10. Be willing to take suggestions from friends, family, or experts.

11. Visualize process, not results. Imagine yourself doing the things you need to do to in order to accomplish your goals. This can often prime you to actually do those activities.

12. Know when you need to take a break. A well-timed break can be a healthy re-boost between activities.

13. Collaborate with the strengths of others to help you complete a task.

14. Learn that happiness is a more productive state than depression (see here).

15. Decorate your workplace or change your environment. (recent research shows it improves health, happiness and productivity).

16. Entice yourself with a reward (although incentives work best for routine tasks, not creative problem-solving: Dan Pink on motivation).

17. Focus on aspects of the activity you enjoy.

18. Be creative with aspects of the activity you don’t yet enjoy.

19. Listen to music, as long as it’s not distracting (for example, music makes us exercise harder).

20. Be more mindful of negative self-talk while working (“I don’t want to do this. This is lame. Why is Timmy such an a-hole?”). Replace these with something more inspiring (for more see quick tips for reframing).

21. Blur the line between work and play.

22. The presence of plants can increase attention and productivity (see here).

23. At the end of the day, reflect on your actions and how you can improve. Reflection has been shown to improve learning (see here).

24. Find a support group to hold you accountable.

25. Identify role models to motivate you and inspire you.

26. Keep a personal diary or blog to keep track of your progress.

27. Identify what activities put you in a state of flow.

28. Find stress relievers to help you re-energize yourself throughout the day.

29. Focus your complete attention on one task at a time. Multi-tasking can often be mentally taxing and deplete our cognitive resources quicker.

30. Prepare and cook dinner in a slow cooker. Set it and then go do something else.

31. Try going to the library, moving to another room in the house, or going somewhere else to maybe spark some new energy and creativity.

32. Try to dedicate one day toward all shopping errands (this also tends to be easier on gas use).

33. Create a schedule with other parents for carpooling to school.

34. Use a calendar (digital or paper) to track important events.

35. Call in refills for the pharmacy ahead of time so they can be ready by the time you get there.

36. Confirm your appointments before going.

37. Get chores done while watching TV or listening to music.

38. Do business meetings online over Skype (for convenience).

39. Do something while waiting on hold (on the phone).

40. Always have a pen and paper handy to write down things that come to mind (or leave voice memos on an MP3 recorder/iPhone/etc.)

41. Eat right and keep your body nourished. Without proper nutrition, cognitive sources will deplete much quicker. You need to feed your brain!

42. See your work in the context of a “bigger picture” and be proud and motivated by it.

43. Remember you only live once so make the most of your time here.

44. Find an encouraging quote to put up on your wall or read as a daily affirmation.

45. Try talking to yourself out loud when solving a difficult task. Or explain the problem to someone else. Making a problem understandable in words can often help us solve it better. (for example, see rubber duck debugging, a technique used by computer programmers).

46. Ignore the little things that don’t matter, but always seem to wrack up our brains. Don’t waste your attention and energy on things that you can’t change. If it is out of your control, it isn’t worth worrying about.

47. Re-visit your long term goals and aspirations.

48. Remember that money isn’t the only measure of productivity.

49. Pay attention to key signs of failure such as low self-esteem and only looking for a quick fix.

50. Consider keeping your goals to yourself to avoid a false sense of accomplishment.

51. Stop reading tips on how to maximize productivity and start doing things.

What tips do you find work best for you?

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I was recently reading the Satipatthana Sutta, a discourse in Theravada Buddhism that teaches students and practitioners how to be more mindful in their day-to-day activities. In it I discovered an interesting passage that I just had to share:

“When one is strongly mindful, one plants one’s consciousness deep in an object like a firm post well sunk in the ground, and withstands the tempestuous clamour of the extraneous by ‘a sublime ignoring of non-essentials.’ But this does not mean that in such a one interest is narrow and his outlook wrongly restricted. Strong mindfulness ignores the unnecessary, by adhering to the center of the business in hand, and extends its view to important peripheral conditions, with a widespreading watchfulness resembling that of the sentinel on a tower scanning the horizon ‘for the glint of armour.’ By such a balance between width and depth mindfulness steers clear of the extremes of lopsided vision and practice.”

It was the phrase “a sublime ignoring of non-essentials” that really struck a chord with me. To stay focused and intent on the activity at hand ultimately means to ignore everything that isn’t relevant to what you are doing in the present moment.

I imagine a baseball pitcher at an away game; the fans are booing and jeering very loudly. An unskilled player would easily get caught up in the madness. He would get nervous and start sweating more profusely, and he would let those external conditions affect his performance. But a skilled player knows how to sublimely ignore these conditions and focus merely on the task in front of him – get the next batter out. It wouldn’t matter to him whether there were 40,000 fans booing or 40,000 fans cheering, he is focused 100% on what he needs to accomplish in the present moment.

This example can be analogous for almost any productive activity. I’m sure you are already aware of many of the distractions that interrupt your work flow throughout the week. Imagine if you could become entranced only on the essentials of what it is you are trying to do, and if everything else just seemed to evaporate. That would be supreme focus.

I’m beginning to experience this in my own mindfulness practice. For the past week I have been doing morning walking meditations around town. I notice that the more focused I am in the movements and sensations of my walking, the less attention I have on the thoughts and feelings inside my head. It’s like a seesaw on a playground – because it is impossible for me to be more attentive of one thing without being less attentive of something else. It’s a constant give-and-take of awareness. And as I become more aware of this phenomena in myself, I can better identify degrees of mindfulness when I switch from one activity to another.

The more complicated the activity, the harder it is to cultivate a focus that “sublimely ignores” the non-essentials. That is why it is important to start building mindfulness in small activities, like breathing meditation, and then gradually extrapolate that awareness into more complicated activities* (walking, eating, cleaning, at work, etc.)

There’s a lot of talk in business and self-improvement about what it means to be productive. I believe that outside of providing basic necessities for survival (food, clothing, shelter), a lot of what we value in life is subjective. Therefore, what is a productive activity for one person may not be considered a productive activity for someone else. For example: One person may enjoy a squeaky clean household, so they clean twice a week. Meanwhile another person may not mind some disorganization, so they only clean every other week.

Similarly, I’m sure that everyone can pick out one or two corporations and claim that they are producing nothing of value. Nintendo creates video games, and that just makes people lazy and mindless. Or American Eagle makes expensive polo shirts, who would want that? It is easy for us to critique things we don’t find a particular use or value for, but we can’t do so without neglecting the preferences of others.

Some may argue that we do have an objective way of measuring what is valuable and what isn’t. It’s called prices. But this fails to explain why some people willingly choose a lesser paying job, give to charity, or make deals that don’t maximize economic gain. For example, in the “ultimatum game” one player will propose how to divide a sum of money between two players. If the second player accepts, the deal is valid; but if the second player rejects, neither player receives anything. In one study at Indiana University, results showed that half of participants turned down offers where they would receive less than 30%, even though receiving something would seem better than receiving nothing.

So what does this tell us? Clearly, there are other values that influence our behavior besides just money or material luxury, and one of those values may be “fairness.” The great economist Ludwig von Mises accounted for these motivators of human decision-making by calling these “psychic (or mental) profits and loss.”

“Psychic profits and losses are sensible, subjective, mental and purely personal. They can be neither measured nor weighed. They can only be felt or sensed.”

Mises advocated this theory over half a century ago, but modern day economists are just beginning to accept that people are not “profit maximizers” in the materialistic sense of the term. Popular books in behavioral economics, like Predictably Irrational, illustrate how some of these psychological forces come into play and shape our everyday choices.

Money isn’t everything.

It may seem obvious, but many still equate productivity with money-making, and this simply isn’t so. As I’ve shown above, values are not synonymous with prices or profits, and many of the values we seek in the world cannot be replaced with material luxury (like health, relationships and creativity). Equally so, this helps explain why many people who are rich still find themselves feeling miserable and depressed.

Certainly, we can’t ignore the importance of money and material items, but studies show that after we reach an income level of around $75,000, an increase in money no longer correlates with increased happiness. It is also true that those who make less than that can still find happiness through the fulfillment of other values.

Many values are subjective and personal.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, we all have slightly different values. Some prefer more organization than others. Some prefer spending more time outside with nature, rather than inside behind a computer. And some prefer different genres of music and movies. These preferences all play into how we should spend our time (both at work and at home).

John Lennon once said “Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted.” And I tend to agree. We should pay attention to what makes us feel fulfilled, and not necessarily what makes someone else fulfilled. If we follow someone else’s roadmap for how we should live life, it is very likely that some of our subjective values won’t be met. We have to think for ourselves.

You define your own productivity.

It’s ultimately up to every individual on how they should spend their life. If you want to move to Tibet and meditate in a cave for the rest of your time on Earth, that is your version of productivity. Go for it! If you want to work your way to CEO of a major company, that is again your choice. Follow your passions and values. The goal of this blog has never been to tell people exactly what they should do with their lives (at most, I sometimes offer suggestions). But the biggest thing for me is to empower individuals to define themselves.

The hardest part about defining your own productivity is ignoring the values that have been pushed onto you by society and external forces. Before we can discover how we want to spend our lives, it often takes some dedicated reflection and self-interrogation. Be aware when you are acting in ways just to meet someone else’s expectations. And never be afraid to ask yourself what you want.

Work without any play can become mundane, tedious, and unfulfilling. But play without any work can become aimless, misguided, and unproductive.

Whether we are at work, school, or home, we should find ways to integrate playfulness and curiosity to help fuel our creativity, motivation, and commitment to whatever it is that we are doing. And although it’s been said many times before: when we are passionate about what we do, we are more likely to develop a focus that yields the best results.

Each semester during my college experience I would become immensely interested in the subjects I was learning about in class. As my passion grew, I would often be motivated to take out books from the library and look up articles on the internet that stretched well beyond the curriculum. I found it fun to learn, reflect, and ask myself deep questions about the material. I became even more interested when I found ways to apply what I learned to my everyday life. As a result of all of this, I was more likely to go to class, do my homework, study, and get good grades.

Of course, it also helped that I often chose classes that I already had a small interest for. I imagine there are some subjects that no matter how hard I try I couldn’t find the passion I needed to really get into them. I think when choosing any course of action we need to be very mindful of our values, interests, and preferences. If we try to pursue something that we are incapable of developing a passion for, then we will have a hard time stay dedicated.

So the same goes for choosing a college degree as it does for choosing a career or a new hobby or healthier habits. When we make things more entertaining, we are more likely to stick to a productive routine. Instead of thinking of going to the gym as an annoying chore, you can think “I can’t wait to finally get on that treadmill today!” (or something like that, you get the idea). It’s not about just choosing activities that you enjoy, but also making things you want to do more enjoyable – thus increasing your motivation and consistency to actually do them.

Reframing is when we think of an event from a different perspective. And when we reframe work or chores in a more fun and uplifting light this can be a powerful force in changing our behavior in productive ways. I came across a great recent example of this where a group of people redesigned stairs into a piano (that actually makes sound when you step on it). After doing this they noticed a 66% increase in people who chose to use the stairs over the escalator. Check it out.

One example of making a tedious activity fun:

Things you can start doing to make your work more like play:

• Working with a group of friends (for example, some guidelines for group study from the University of Minnesota).
• Listening to music, as long as it’s not distracting (for example, music makes us exercise harder).
• Making a game out of something.
• Decorating your workplace or changing your environment. (recent research shows it improves health, happiness and productivity).
• Enticing yourself with a reward (although incentives work best for routine tasks, not creative problem-solving: Dan Pink’s lecture on the science of motivation)
• Focusing on aspects of the activity you enjoy.
• Being creative with aspects of the activity you don’t yet enjoy.
• Joking about work-related frustrations to employees, friends, or family. (that’s joking, not complaining)
• Seeing your work in the context of a “bigger picture” and being proud of it.
• Being more mindful of negative self-talk while working (“I don’t want to do this. This is lame. Why is Timmy such an a-hole?”). Replace these with something more inspiring.
• Understanding that happiness is a more productive state of mind (see happy people really do work harder).

As you can see, there are many ways we can make work more fun and enjoyable. I hope you try to integrate some of these things into your daily routine and see how they work for you.

Interesting side note, but I sometimes refer to this philosophy on work as the “Google Mentality” – because the work environment at Google is about both working hard and playing hard. Perhaps that is why they are such a successful company. Imagine how much better off the economy would be if more individuals and companies adopted this work ethic?

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However, in the midst of these complex economic hierarchies, there is an emerging generation of self-bossers, freelancers, aspiring entrepreneurs, and independent minds who don’t want to work a 9-5 or assimilate to today’s corporate culture. They want to have more control over their labor and what they produce. And today this is more possible than ever before.

Are you a self-bosser?

Are you a part of that growing minority who can’t imagine working for someone else or having a boss loom over their shoulder 24/7? Do you loathe taking orders and only cherish spending time as you see fit?

If not, that’s okay. Plenty of people are more than happy to spend their working lives under the jurisdiction of someone else. As long as you enjoy your job, it doesn’t make you any less of a person; in fact, in many ways it can be smarter, easier, and more financially stable to work as an employee for another company rather than start your own endeavor. However, this article probably isn’t for you. If you prefer working for another person’s business, but perhaps you are experiencing some trouble at your current job, then check out this article: 10 Reasons You’re Losing Your Mind At Work.

On the other hand, this post is intended for a smaller percentage of people who simply can’t imagine having to work for someone else. They value their free time and creativity so much that they are willing to do anything it takes to become self-employed or manage their own business. They desire more productive and creative control over their time, and therefore they are willing to bare the financial and psychological risks it takes to build a career on their own terms.

Self-bossers see the world differently.

Self-bossers think about the world in a different way than your average worker. They are filled with ideas and visions about the world they live in and what is possible. Their aim is to act out these ideas, to test them in the real world, and learn more as they continue to mold reality to the best of their abilities.

Their visions however are not without boundaries. A self-bosser must be a practical idealist, always exercising his or her control when possible, and not showing too much concern to the realities that lay outside of his or her control.

However, sometimes the territory outside of our control scares us away from claiming power over our lives. While we often recognize that we have responsibility over our actions, we are often afraid of deviating from the norm, making mistakes, failing, and suffering the consequences of our devious behavior.

But it is precisely this devious behavior that defines a self-bosser. One of my favorite contemporary philosophers Brad Spangler once said,

But are you willing to exercise your abnormality for the sake of progress and innovation? I presume that not everyone is willing to bare the risks associated with going against the grain of society, and some probably have a great fear of it.

Being a successful freelancer or entrepreneur will require some degree of stepping outside the norm. Anyone who builds their own career must be innovative in their own way, according to their own knowledge, values, skills, and passion. If we only follow blueprints that have been handed down to us from other authorities in society, then we will never maximize our potential, which is partly unique for every individual.

Self-bossing is self-discovery.

Because we each can only manage ourselves in our own way, self-bossing is also a process of self-discovery. You need to first identify your strengths, weaknesses, intentions, and goals, just like a good employer should identify these attributes of their employees before assigning them a job. The only difference between you and any other employer is that you must build the self-awareness and self-knowledge to know what you are best at.

Only once you discover your capacities and limitations can you begin to exercise them and start building your empire. This is going to take a bit of introspection and self-inquiry. You need to ask yourself what you are capable of, what you desire to create, and what obstacles you may face in the future.

Self-bossers make tiny changes with long-term leverage.

Becoming a self-bosser can seem like a daunting task. You might already be integrated into the corporate world and you have a hard-time imagining how life would be without it. You have to first accept that this is a process that doesn’t take place over night, but over many days, months, and even years. Don’t quit your day job, but start making changes today that will help align you with your goals. Even writing on a blog 10 minutes a night can do wonders to help you organize your thoughts, clarify your values, and face anxieties that many self-bossers face when they begin to make this leap into the unknown.

10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes a night is all it takes to start making the transition. This is a new way of life that you need to start building brick by brick, and finding just a couple little things to do on a daily basis can build up your momentum fast. Start by asking your friends what you are good at, do some research on the internet or at the library, and contact others who may be able to offer you practical advice.

I guarantee you that the hardest part about this whole process is getting started. The more you invest into your projects, the harder it will be to give up or walk away. Focus on the little things now and you will begin to recognize the bigger things building up over time.

Flexible persistence

Obviously staying committed to your goals is a big factor in accomplishing them. However, there is a point where blind persistence can leave you investing more time and more energy in plans that simply aren’t going to work out (in behavioral economics, they call this the “sunk cost fallacy,” our tendency to throw money at bad investments because we want to fix them, but we just end up losing more). This is when you need to recognize failure and adjust your course of action.

Just because you fail at one endeavor doesn’t mean you are a terrible self-bosser. Self-bossers often pride themselves in the mistakes they’ve made in their past because they realize how important they were in their professional growth. Self-bossers are persistent when trying to achieve their ends, but flexible when it comes to the different means that can be used to achieve them. They can have long-term visions, but they also know how to stay focused in the present and adjust their actions when presented with new information.

Smart risks and failing small.

When we first decide to be a self-bosser it can be an enthralling experience. We often have big dreams of the future and we are willing to take big risks to meet those dreams. But while I’ve mentioned that risks are unavoidable, it would be stupid to take out a three hundred thousand dollar business loan and think you are going to be able to build a successful business your first try.

Let’s say you are a musician who wants to record an album. Before you go out to Sam Ash and buy a whole bunch of recording equipment, why not perform your songs live a few times and see how the audience reacts? Although it may hurt temporarily, you want to know if your music is good enough and if people actually enjoy it (and will want to buy it) before you spend all that money for a recording.

By taking smaller risks you find out what areas you need to improve in before you move on to bigger decisions. It’s a process of trial-and-error, but you want to make sure your errors are small enough to be recoverable. This is how you sustain positive growth.

Before I write a whole book and send it off to a hundred publishers, I should probably write a few chapters and get some people’s thoughts on it. You want to get feedback on your work periodically and in moderate doses, so that you can build off of it and not get overwhelmed or discouraged by the bigger failures that often occur when you take bigger risks. Be a smart risk-taker and try to do smaller litmus tests to see if what you are doing is productive or counter-productive.

Start reclaiming your dream today.

You’re not going to become a self-bosser simply by reading this article. I’ve tried to illuminate some of the key components it takes to begin to make the leap, but ultimately this is something that you need to figure out for yourself. I hope at the very least this article has inspired you or motivated you, and I also hope that you now have a clearer picture of some of the things it will take to become successfully self-employed. If you want to read these ideas expanded on with more depth I recommend Jonathan Mead’s “Reclaim You Dreams: An Uncommon Guide To Living On Your Own Terms” – a great self-starter for aspiring self-bosses everywhere.

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