Productive Clarity

A few days ago I had a moment of productive clarity. I was in a powerful mode and got more done in two hours than most would get done in a day (including myself most of the time).

Since then, I have reflected on that time to try to duplicate it. As the song Clarity by John Mayer goes “I will wait to find, if this will last forever, and I will pay no mind when it won’t because it can’t. It just can’t. It’s not supposed to.”

Though moments like this don’t last forever, you can still learn from them. Take the time and reflect on how it came about and what can be taken away from such a magical time.

Here is what I learned in reflection of my moment of Productive Clarity.

I was working in a quiet place. There was no one around at the time. It is remarkable how even ambient noise (or people around) can sometimes make the mind drift. One little noise recognition can start a the flow of thoughts, drifting you down the river and away from your goals.

I was well fed. A couple hours before hand, I had had a hearty lunch. I think taking care of this distraction allowed me to be more focused. Plus, the nutrients from the fruits and healthy stuff I ate probably helped my brain focus.

I was well rested. Being self employed has many great advantages. One I have discovered recently is that napping as a break from work can be very beneficial to productivity afterwards.

Napping too long can cause the opposite effect though, making you drowsy and disoriented. I recommend 15 min. to an hour tops.

I had no distractions. A lot of readers have told me in comments or emails that they like my idea to make my television and computer monitor one item so it is impossible to be distracted by TV (Damn you Prison Break!) while working.

I had some light music going. I have a Work Mix on my iTunes that I use as non-distracting music to keep my mind wired. It contains mainly songs I have heard a million times and classical tunes like Nocturne for Piano No. 9 by Chopin.

I had all my personal tasks done. Laundry, cleaning, etc. can really get in the way of keeping focus. All my tasks that I had to do outside of work were taken care of so they were not in the back of my mind.

I recognized my productive streak and kept it going. During that time I got a call from a friend who wanted to do something but I quickly said I couldn’t and got back to what I was doing. When you have your moment, you need to roll with it. For me and many others, flow is very important in getting things done.

I blocked out my thoughts about life. This is easier said then done (sometimes it cannot be controlled) but to me, it was the most important piece to creating Productive Clarity. We all have powerful things going on in our lives and thoughts outside of what we do at work. If you can find a way to block them out it is very beneficial. (I plan to experiment with this later and write about it)

This is what I could gather from it. Have you ever had a time of productive clarity? What did you learn from it?

Photo by Clearly Ambiguous