Do you struggle with productivity? This ONE THING is the first step to productivity👇🏽

Posted on November 25, 2020 By Artemis Scantalides

Early on when Eric and I owned our gym in Boston, like around 2012, I shut off all notifications on my phone, except for email.

We used to have to wake up at 4am to teach classes and train clients at 6am and I remember that I was struggling to SHUT IT DOWN.

To turn off work…

wind down…

and go to bed.

As long as the notifications were on my phone, I would react to every message or notification that popped up.

This thwarted any efforts for me to detach from work, turn off my brain, relax for a few hours in the evening, and get a good night’s sleep.

As soon as I shut off the notifications and set boundaries between me and technology, I wasn’t tempted to check my phone or react to any and all incoming notifications.

Then recently, I took the final step to achieving peace of mind and to GETTING MY BRAIN BACK…

I shut off ALL email notifications coming into my phone.

Before I did this, I found myself checking my email every time I received a notification about a new email…

Not only did this turn into a time suck, because checking the email would distract me from my current task and lead to something else that would take time…

BUT ALSO, it interfered with any clarity I had about what were MY priorities for that day, for that MOMENT in fact.

It caused me to replace MY priorities, with other people’s priorities!

What’s even worse is that after I woke up in the morning, when I would go to meditate, since I use guided meditations on my phone to meditate, I would check my email before I started to meditate!

I would fill up my brain with what was in my email inbox that morning FIRST, before I meditated.

This was completely counterproductive, because one of the reasons why you should meditate first thing in the morning after you first wake up is because you wake up with a CLEAR MIND and it facilitates a deep and powerful meditation.

That was it.

GAME OVER!

Email could wait until the time that I had it scheduled in my calendar to check email that day.

I needed to put ME and MY priorities FIRST.

Since doing this…

my days have been so much more tranquil

my meditations more focused,

AND

I have so much more clarity and peace of mind about the top priority tasks that I need to accomplish to achieve MY goals.

You see, the first step to productivity is to MANAGE DISTRACTIONS.

Productivity IS focus, so you MUST manage distractions.

HOWEVER, the unfortunate thing is that very few people do this.

Especially in today’s age of iPhones and instant gratification.

Recently I polled people on both Instagram and Facebook about two things,

What is their biggest struggle with productivity? AND
Do they look at their phone first thing in the morning when they wake up and check their messages, emails, and notifications?

The answer from over 95% of the people who responded, and A LOT of people responded by the way, was that Managing Distractions was the NUMBER ONE productivity struggle that people have.

PLUS, pretty much EVERYONE, except for like 2 or 3 people, checked their phones first thing in the morning and read all the messages, emails, and social media notifications!!

What surprised me even more was that the people who looked at their phones first thing in the morning felt compelled to follow up their answer with a justification as to why they look at their phones first thing in the morning.

It was as if on some level they new that they should NOT be looking at their phones right when they wake up and instead take the first hour of their day to get their mind right with,

Meditation
Journaling
Positive affirmations and
To map out THEIR top priorities that are going to help them move the needle towards achieving their goals.

If you’re struggling to have structure to your day and constantly feel like your time is actually everyone else’s because your endlessly reacting to notifications and messages that come at you from the start to the finish of your day, THEN I CHALLENGE YOU TO,

SHUT OFF all notifications on your phone
STOP looking at your phone first thing in the morning when you wake up and for the first hour that you are awake.

When you wake up in the morning and look at your phone right away and check emails, messages, and social media, then you immediately make other people’s priorities YOUR top priority.

Your priorities are GONE.

OUT THE WINDOW.

THEN, if you continue to react to notifications on your phone all day long, your time is never yours and you never make time for YOUR priorities that are going to help you to move the needle towards accomplishing your goals.

If you want to,

feel like you have structure to your morning
feel like you have structure to your day
overcome procrastination
be productive
feel like you’re getting stuff done and that you’re not just like reacting to everything all the time and putting out fires…

THEN YOU MUST MANAGE DISTRACTIONS.

If you have really big goals and you want to have a successful business then you need to make your priorities your number one priority by managing distractions and shutting off notifications to your phone.

I’m sure you’re thinking of a million excuses as to why you shouldn’t do this, but TRUST ME…

The messages can wait!

You will feel SO LIBERATED when you break the ADDICTION to your phone and notifications.

And YES, it IS an addiction.

If you need help implementing “Starter Rituals” that will help you to enforce habit change to,

Break your technology addicted habit that causes you to put you and your priorities LAST on your list
Overcome procrastination
Increase productivity
OWN YOUR MORNINGS
Be THE BOSS of your time and your schedule

I CAN HELP YOU with my 1:1 Coaching Intensive from “Overwhelmed to Productive” which is 60% off through November 30!

You can sign up for this special 1:1 coaching offer ⇒ HERE ⇐

OR you can apply for 1:1 Coaching with me ⇒ HERE ⇐

Sending Vibes of Positivity & Abundance,

Artemis

Artemis Scantalides
Founder & Owner
EmpowerU Online Coaching
I Am Not Afraid To Lift® Workshops
Follow me on Instagram @Artemis_Scantalides