The Importance of Fun and Curiosity to Productivity

A comment made at a networking event I attended last week reminded me of an idea I originally heard from a podcast where Elizabeth Gilbert was the guest.

Instead of pressuring yourself to find your ONE big passion in life, she shared that following your curiosity is important. Notice what you’re curious about and explore it.

The comment lead me to think about how following my curiosity, or not, has affected my life and my business.

You see, in previous years I’ve pushed aside things I’ve been interested in or curious about that didn’t directly tie into my goals or bottom line.

I made a conscious decision to not pursue them until “later.”

Earlier this year I started saying yes to some of these “later” things for no particular reason than I wanted to.

And I’m realizing as I type this, that some of the things on that list have been there, unmoving, for two or more years.

The interesting thing is, that through exploring and experiencing some of those “later” items, I’m having more fun in my personal life and my business.

So, for this week’s Wednesday LIVE with Evie let’s talk about the importance of fun and curiosity in your business and I share a bit more about how it’s affected my life and business.

Wednesday LIVE with Evie #68

Spring cleaning your business

We’re officially in Spring and have been for about a month now.

Earlier this spring, for me it meant an intense desire to reorganize my office and move some clutter out.

I ultimately decided that I didn’t need to buy a bunch of new things to reorganize my office (for right now).

But today it got me thinking about the changes that happen in spring.

Yes, things start blooming (the tree outside my office is no longer bare and I can no longer see the back of the yard through it).

But if you have school-aged kids, they’re probably counting down the days until school is over.

And you might have gotten an itch to clean or declutter like I did.

I share few different ways to approach “spring cleaning” below.

Wednesday LIVE with Evie #67

There are as many ways to get there as there are people wanting to go there

The article that traditional marketing says I should write right now includes sharing lots of what you’ll be missing out on if you don’t join  Take Your Productivity to a New Level  NOW (you can still join through Friday).

Truth be told, I could write that email fairly quickly and be done with it.

But I feel like writing a different email today.

And it’s harder to write, but I can’t quite put my finger on why.

I have 4 drafts of it that just aren’t right and go on and on and on about how Take Your Productivity to a New Level came to be.

Instead, let’s talk about why it almost didn’t happen.

I found a draft of it from 2012, but the first time I offered it was last summer.

That’s FIVE YEARS LATER.

What happened?

I followed the advice I’d been given — don’t offer that until you’re at this place in your business.

But I couldn’t figure out how to get to there, so I decided to focus on a different niche.

I couldn’t figure out how to get to there from that different niche either.

And here’s what I learned: there are as many ways to get there as there are people wanting to go there.

Once I threw out the “conventional” advice things started flowing.

What does this have to do with productivity?

EVERYTHING.

There are lots of different ways to track your tasks, manage your projects, and stay focused. Google it and you’ll find lots of conflicting advice (get up early! No, stay up late!).

But it all comes down to what works for you.

What I teach won’t work for everyone.

But if you run your business from home, have more things to do than you can do in a day, and want to grow your business — then I can help you.

The Take Your Productivity to a New Level program started yesterday.

AND you can still join through Friday, May 11.

It’s a small intimate group where everyone’s questions are heard and answered.

Because it’s now a 7-week program, the investment will be going up to $247 next time I offer it, so if you want in at the lower price, now’s the time.

Head over here to join and read the details.

And for some unconventional advice, check out this week’s Wednesday LIVE with Evie below.

Wednesday LIVE with Evie #66

How “what’s wrong” is causing you more work

I was at a fabulous expo over the weekend and heard some great speakers.

One of the topics that came up was “what’s wrong” thinking.

It made me think about when I first heard that term.

I was working for a small technology company (there were about 15 of us) and a BIG part of my job was receiving problems that needed to be fixed in the software and change requests from clients.

So, when I heard that “what’s wrong” thinking was something to avoid, I promptly dismissed it because I was 100% sure that my job depended on knowing what was wrong.

And you know what? I wasn’t wrong.

My job DID depend on “what’s wrong” thinking.

Only how I defined “what’s wrong” thinking and what was actually meant were two different things.

And the truth is, even though I didn’t recognize it as this at the time, when I shifted away from “what’s wrong” thinking, I got a lot more done AND I was a lot happier (bonus!).

That’s the topic this week.

Wednesday LIVE with Evie #65

The Motivation Myth

Earlier this week I had a thought that I summed up by writing this in my notebook “motivation vs making it easy.”

I wondered how much of what we do (or don’t do) – or what “successful” people do (or don’t do) isn’t so much a matter of motivation as it is about making the things that need to get done as easy as possible to do.

This lead to me thinking about motivation in general and how often we substitute “wanting to” or “being inspired” with motivation.

Many other rabbit holes of thoughts were explored.

Wednesday LIVE with Evie #64