by Saajidah Esat
Being productive is key to our success as entrepreneurs, yet somehow, amidst the endless list of tasks that we tackle daily, we still end up with that nagging feeling that we need to be doing more. Whether it’s finding new clients, setting up your online pages, managing them and then some, you appear to be one of the busiest women around, the one that’s always doing something.
But does that mean you are being productive? I’m about to let you in on a secret…
Busy is not necessarily productive and being productive does not always mean being busy.
Instead, productivity is the result of prioritizing the tasks, which directly affect the output and well-being of your business. In other words, by following through with the activities that you have listed as most important to you and your business, you will start to notice a positive outcome within yourself and your business.
You may be wondering what habits have to do with productivity? And the answer is everything! Being productive is a habit, and a muscle you develop over time. Habit stacking is planning your ‘new’ habits into your life on top of your ‘current’ habits. Your new habits quickly become easy and automatic, because they are built into a fast and efficient network of neurons, created by your current habit which is so strongly wired into your brain. For example, the habit of having breakfast every morning is probably the one of the most strongly wired habit that most of you can relate to. You can stack a new habit, such as listening to a business podcast every morning onto this habit. When you do that, your brain begins to rewire itself into associating breakfast with podcast time. And if continuous learning is a value to you (which it should be as an entrepreneur), you’ll definitely feel a lot more productive by the end of the day, week and month
Here are a few more things to remember when starting a new habit:
Habits can take anywhere between 21 – 66 days to form.
Start with one small step – master it, build onto the next one.
Share your new habit with a friend or colleague (share it with me in the comments). You’ll be more likely to stick with it.
It’s easier to change your environment than it is to change yourself. Build an environment that supports your habits.
Reward yourself in order to reinforce and reaffirm your new behaviour.
“Mastering our habits matters, because when we change our habits, we change our lives.” – Gretchen Rubin
Here’s to starting and sticking with habits that empower us and our businesses!
To your happiness & wellbeing
Saajidah
Saajidah Esat is passionate about empowering women to take responsibility for their physical and emotional well-being. She has authored a book on The Science of Happiness and has co-authored a book on Clean Eating. Spreading awareness on these 2 topics is what she spends most of her time doing. Her background is in teaching, and while working with young children, she discovered how stress and anxiety in the home deeply affects children. This is when she made it her mission to educate women and families on the importance of well-being, mindfulness, meditation, eating well, practicing self-love, emotional resilience and much more. Her philosophy on women is “You can’t pour from an empty cup, so always take care of yourself first.” Saajidah hopes to use her passion and energy to make an impact globally with her work in advocating happiness, well-being practices as well as encouraging female leadership, in order to balance the scales of inequality that still exist between men and women.
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