Are you a freelancer or other type of solo entrepreneur who wants to improve productivity, increase efficiency, and make faster progress on your goals? Stop forcing yourself to use traditional productivity hacks! Personality-based productivity uses anti-hustle methodologies fully customized to YOUR unique situation — and it’s going to act as rocket fuel to accomplish your goals…
This presentation was originally created for a Goal Getter Summit in spring 2024. Enjoy!
Show notes:
- 0:00 Introduction to Become an Efficiency Expert and your instructor, Personal Fulfillment & Solopreneur Success Coach Sagan Morrow.
- 1:15 Overview of the concept of personality-based productivity.
- 3:50 Your 5 steps to use personality-based productivity as rocket fuel to accomplish your goals.
- 4:35 Concept #1 — Your brain is beautifully unique.
- 6:45 Concept #2 — You are not the same person as you were a month ago, a year ago, a decade ago.
- 9:10 Concept #3 — You have more options available to you than you might think.
- 11:40 Concept #4 — There are many factors in life that are outside of your control… but there are also many obstacles that you have created for yourself, which you can then tear down.
- 14:10 Concept #5 — You don't need to make big moves in order to make major progress on your goals.
- 17:05 BONUS TIP — You need to bring all of this back to your inner work and build your intrapersonal skills.
- 18:35 Your next step — Get the (free!) personality-based productivity framework at SaganMorrow.com/training
Transcript:
Welcome to Become an Efficiency Expert! In this training, we're going to talk about how you can use personality-based productivity as a rocket fuel to accomplish your goals.
My name is Sagan Morrow and I'm a Personal Fulfillment Coach as well as a Solopreneur Success Coach who specializes in using anti-hustle methodologies to help clients build better relationships with themselves as well as their businesses.
I tend to work with a lot of solo entrepreneurs, but I also work with people who aren't in business. So regardless of whether you are a business owner, these methods can still work really well for you.
I started my business about 14-ish years ago, and I have chronic insomnia, chronic anxiety and chronic nightmare disorder. When I first started my business, I tried to use a lot of different productivity hacks and different techniques that the productivity gurus out there tell you to us. The problem was, they did not work well for my brain. They didn't work well for my mental capacity. And so over time, what I needed to do is to create my own anti-hustle methods that worked really well for my personality. And that is really how personality-based productivity came into being.
The idea behind personality-based productivity is that it really takes you and your unique situation into account. I have used these methods with my clients in all different capacities — people who have little kids, people who are juggling a side hustle with a nine to five job, people who are neurodivergent, people who are of all different ages, all different lifestyles and backgrounds. And these methods work well for absolutely everyone that I have come into contact with.
Because it's not one-size-fits-all. It's about YOU. It's about customizing all of the different productivity methods and concepts to your unique situation.
In doing this work, what we're really doing is flipping traditional productivity on its head. Traditional productivity is very one dimensional; it tries to put you into a particular box. And instead what we are doing with personality-based productivity is creating your own box, your own set of systems and rules and methodologies that fit just right for you and where you're at at this point in your life.
This is why personality-based productivity acts as a rocket fuel for accomplishing your goals. Because when you are creating your own systems that work really well for where you're at, and your own systems that are designed to help you make progress on your goals and work toward your particular goals., then you aren't going to be dragging your feet. You're going to actually be excited and enthusiastic about the things that you are working on, the stuff that you are doing, the tasks that you have set for yourself, the schedule within which you are working.
It's going to give you back your energy and increase your enjoyment of your work and drastically reduce any frustration or overwhelm that you might currently be experiencing — you aren't going to have to worry about being stressed out or burned out or even having any mindset drama. When you do this, you're going to be able to take yourself out of the perfectionism cycle or impostor syndrome or self judgments or self guilt or anything like that. Instead, you're going to be able to move forward with purpose, with intentionality, and with confidence and clarity.
That is what personality-based productivity enables you to do: You cut away all of the different obstacles that are currently getting in the way of your path toward your goals.
How do we do this? Here are five steps that you can take to make sure that you are using personality-based productivity as that rocket fuel for accomplishing your goals. We're going to go over five concepts, plus real life examples and action steps to implement each of these concepts. I'm also going to share a very important, crucial bonus tip at the end of these five steps that needs to be implemented at every stage along the way. It's going to be a really important underlying factor to apply at every single step along the way. Let's dive in…
Concept #1: Your brain is beautifully unique.
No one else's personality is identical to yours. This means that when we're talking about personality based productivity, your productivity style and the methods that you choose, need to be fully customized to how your unique brain works.
Just because a particular productivity technique works fantastic for someone else, it does not mean that is going to work really well for you.
Here's an example of this: Shelley got to know herself on a whole new level as a result of doing personality-based productivity. She told me that as a result of doing this, she was able to dive deeper than ever before on her motivations and goals. And she was able to do this as a result of only doing the first couple of steps in my personality-based productivity framework.
Previously, she had tried to do a bunch of other productivity methods and techniques and hacks, and she was never able to actually accomplish her goals. But when she did THIS, it changed everything! The reason for that is because she understood herself better. She built up her relationship with herself. She understood her personality at a very deep level. She really got into how her brain works and then she was able to identify the best productivity systems for her situation.
Your action step here is to assess what really works for your unique brain.
Think about what has worked well for you in the past and what has not worked well for you. For example, if you are at a nine to five job or if you have been at a nine to five job and your boss has told you that you needed to use a particular software or system or method, how did that work for you? Was it effective or not? You can also think about this in terms of different organizational methods or time management hacks or task management systems; that type of thing.
Also, consider your strengths and weaknesses: What are you really good at? What do you excel at doing and where do you have maybe some weak spots?
Concept #2: You are not the same person that you were a day ago, a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, 10 years ago.
You continue to grow and change over time. And as a result, your productivity methods need to grow and change alongside you. That is what is going to make them most effective.
A real life example of this is when Annabeth started implementing personality-based productivity, she was able to shift from being reactive to being proactive. So before she started implementing this type of work, she was constantly putting out fires. She was missing deadlines. She was always behind on tasks. And when she started doing this, she found that she was able to get WAY ahead on her task list. Everything was always done on time. And she was able to walk away from her work at the end of the day without thinking about it. She could just spend her time with her family and fully enjoy her time away from work.
The really cool thing that also happened here is that she was managing a team: she had a nine to five type of job, and she managed a whole team. And what ended up happening is when she started using personality-based productivity methods for herself, it had a ripple effect: She was able to start to understand her team better and as a result, they started to improve productivity!
She became a better manager as a result of doing this; as a result of understanding herself better and improving her own productivity. It affected everyone around her.
Your action step here is to do a full audit and critique of your current productivity methods and systems.
Analyze what is working for you right now and what is NOT working for you right now. Even if something used to work really well for you, it might not anymore — and that's okay, because again, you have changed and so you need to change and adapt what methods you are using.
And again, you can think about this in terms of your task list or your time management systems; the way that you manage your schedule, the way that you organize your office, anything like that. Really dive into, “Why am I doing this particular thing? Is it actually working? Even if it used to work for me, if it's no longer serving me, then why am I still using this method? What can be improved? What can be changed?
Concept #3: You have more options available to you than you might think.
Too often we limit ourselves by trying to base things in what is realistic. You're saying to yourself, “I can't do that because XYZ. Here are all the reasons why I can't do that thing over there.”
This is because you are too focused on your current reality, and you are not giving yourself permission to think bigger. You are not allowing yourself to peek outside the box or to nudge your comfort zone. What you want to be doing here is exploring creative new options to bring together your current reality with your desired reality.
A real life example here is that Alicia was able to set much better boundaries, both professionally and personally, when she started to implement personality-based productivity. She started to explore what things could look like and how things could be improved, and as a result she created a whole schedule that worked beautifully for her family of five.
She was even able to save 10 hours a week, every single week, as a result of doing this — simply by expanding her viewpoint on things and really embracing personality-based productivity.
That is what can happen for you! You can improve boundaries. You can create systems that actually work for your family situation for your current lifestyle, and you can save 10 hours a week, every single week.
Your action step here is to indulge your creativity and your imagination to start thinking outside the box.
Imagine what could be possible for you: What are all of your options?
This is theoretical; not yet practical. So if you were to look at things from a theoretical lens and just look at, “If I could do anything, what would that look like?” — By doing that, you're not basing it in the practical, realistic setting. And that allows you to then think bigger and to indulge in your creativity and your imagination.
When you're not trying to force it into your real life situation, you're able to be more expansive with your ideas. That is very, very important. Doing that is very unnecessary, before you begin to be able to connect the dots between where you're at right now and where you desire to be.
Concept #4: There are many factors in life that are outside of your control… but there are also many obstacles that you have created for yourself, which you can then tear down.
There are enough external obstacles in life without you getting in your own way. If you identify as a perfectionist, or if you experience self doubt, or self judgment, or if you experience impostor syndrome, or if you don't trust yourself or if you have issues with being honest with yourself, those are all indicators that you are being your own bottleneck you are getting in your own way.
The good news is that this means you can also get out of your own way. If you are the one that is standing in your way, then you can move. You have control over that. You have the power to eliminate a lot of the obstacles that are in your path, because they are the obstacles that you have created.
A real life example of this is that Bailey was in a constant state of indecision, and it was holding her back from moving forward with her goals. But when she started using personality-based productivity, she got so much more clarity and confidence that it really cleared that path for her.
She completely got out of that indecisive state — and she started to make incredible progress towards the goals that she actually wanted to work toward. Not goals that were applied to her by other people, but rather the goals that actually light her up. And she created an entire map of a whole year of plans as a result of doing that. She could see an entire year ahead and exactly what she needed to do to make amazing progress on her goals and accomplish her goals.
That is what personality-based productivity did for her — and they can do the same for you.
Your action step here is to create customized strategic action plans based on the previous step that we did.
In the previous step we were looking at what are all the different possibilities, we were looking at it through a theoretical lens, and now you are beginning to base those in your reality.
When you know what you truly desire in your goals, and you are realistic and clear about where you are coming from, right now, and you know what methods work best for your unique brain and lifestyle, then you can create a practical and realistic strategy to take action on your goals.
Concept #5: You don't need to make big moves in order to make major progress on your goals.
If you make progress on your goals in just 5% increments every week, just 5% shifts, you will be 100% further along in the next five months, just by making those 5% adjustments. It all adds up.
A real life example of this is that Michele was able to make more progress on her goals within just three weeks of implementing personality-based productivity than she had in the previous six months.
…Like I said, personality based productivity is truly rocket fuel for accomplishing your goals!
And similarly to Alicia who I mentioned earlier, Michele is also a parent with little kids, and she was able to do this even while juggling a nine to five job with a side hustle and raising little kids; she was able to make that much progress on her goals within three weeks compared to the previous six months. This is because the methods were customized to her unique situation.
Your action step here is to take intentional action on your plans and experiment with it.
It's not enough to just plan everything out and create the strategies — you also need to implement the plans, implement the strategies, and take action on them. This is going to be so much easier for you when they are customized to you.
When you're doing the previous steps shared here, what's going to happen is it's all going to be based in your personality; it’s all going to be based in your lifestyle and how your unique brain works, and you're going to be that much more excited about taking the action.
Right now, if taking action is a little bit of a struggle for you, then again, it's probably because you are forcing yourself into a different box than what is right for you. You're probably trying to take action using action steps that don't actually feel good for you; you have a task list full of different items that you don't really want to be doing.
We want to change that! Your strategic action plan should be made up of things that really excite you and light you up while working towards your goals.
And none of it needs to be set in stone: You get to experiment with it. You get to create your strategies, your action plan, begin to implement it, and then make adjustments along the way. Experiment with what feels good for you and with what is working well. If something isn't quite right, then go back to that first step and rework through it to fine tune all of this.
Those were the five concepts with examples and action steps. Now I want to share with you the very important bonus tip:
Bonus Tip: You need to bring all of this back to your inner work and build your intrapersonal skills.
This includes self trust, self honesty, self leadership, self motivation, alongside energy management. This should happen at every step along the way while you are doing this work. Building that really strong and healthy relationship with yourself will put you in a much better position to truly understand yourself and your personality — which can then make a personality-based productivity 10 times easier to actually do.
In this way, you are becoming an efficiency expert on yourself. You really need to understand yourself to know yourself at a very deep level for this to work in the best possible way.
And when you do all of this, you will eliminate the frustration and the overwhelm. You won't be dreading your work anymore. You will be motivated and inspired to keep moving forward on your goals, and it will all feel fun for you rather than a chore. And even if clarity and focus are a really big struggle for you, they won't be any more, once you do this. When you do this, when you implement personality based productivity, you will have more clarity and focus than ever before.
If this is resonating with you, and if you would like to learn a lot more about personality-based productivity, then I would definitely recommend that you use my personality-based productivity anti-hustle method framework! It is a nine step process for how to do all of this type of work and save 10 hours a week, every single week, as a solo entrepreneur.
The cool thing is that this framework can be applied to anything and everything in your personal life and your professional life. It is designed for solo entrepreneurs, but even if you are not a small business owner, you can still apply this to your nine to five job or to pretty much anything in your personal life.
We're going to get a lot deeper on these different concepts that we touched on today and the different very specific action steps; you’re going to get a lot more different action steps that you can be implementing for those concepts. You're also going to learn more about your productivity problems that you are currently facing, plus what you can do to fix those problems.
Does that sound good? It is available on demand for you to watch immediately! It's totally free, my gift to you, and I just know that you are going to love it. Can't wait to hear how it goes when you start implementing personality based productivity in your own life!