Erik Fisher just may challenge your notion of what it really means to be productive. He is an advocate for intentional productivity.
He believes productivity is really all about being intentional with your time, your priorities and your needs. It’s not about doing more in less time.
He’s the host of the popular productivity podcast Beyond The To-Do List. He’s also the social media manager for the Social Media Examiner.
Here are a few lessons that you’ll glean from my conversation with Erik:
- Discover your own ingredients for productivity by listening to Erik explain his own ingredients. As you listen take some mental notes about what you really need for your own personal productivity.
- Blocking time, location and tasks. Why he says this strategy would have made him fail less when he first started work working from home.
- Chronotypes. How understanding your unique biological clocks can help determine the best time of day to perform certain activities. (I’m a “bear”. Take the quiz here.)
And he shares advice about making the transition from working in an office to working from home.
Life Skills That Matter In This Episode
- Time management.
- Energy management.
- Planning.
How Erik Works and Thinks
- Wake up time: 6am
- Core work habit: Responding to social media.
- Definition of success: Making sure he gets done anything he made a commitment to do.
- Ideal work environment: Gets his best work done when he’s collaborating with a group of people.
- Regains focus by: Getting up from his laptop to go for a walk or splashes water on his face.
- Favorite productivity tool: focus@will
- Unproductive habit: Wants to stop picking up his phone as much as he does.
- 90-day goal: Planning for Social Media Marketing World.
Inspirational Quotes
“I take walks to let my brain breathe, let my body breathe even and to soak in some sun.”
“It’s all about self-awareness. Knowing who you are and how you work best.”
Coaching Advice
Erik is not only a productivity guru, but a social media maven, so he offers this advice on how to make the most productive use of social media:
1) Cut yourself off from social media when you know you aren’t supposed to be on it.
2) Block out a specific time to get on social media, so your time spent on it is more intentional.
3) Take a break from social media when you are on vacation. Sometimes it’s hard to realize you are overdoing it on social media until you stop using it for a while.