This week I shared a few productivity tricks I’ve implemented this past year that have helped me reach all-time highs in revenue.
Productivity means moving fast while you’re working and outputting more “stuff” (whatever that might be for you), that makes you more money.
Today I wanted to share one last thing I do that helps me be more productive – and it’s the perfect bridge to us talking about procrastination next week.
This productivity trick is all about figuring out when I’m feeling good (and productive) and maximizing those days rather than trying to be 100% productive every single day (even if I’m not feeling my best).
Productivity Trick #4: Pay attention to your “readiness score” (I use a Whoop strap to help)
My son goes to a Montessori school and every day before they start, the students are instructed to write down how ready they are for the day – they call it their “readiness score”.
I love that they do that – and this method tracks with some things I learned in therapy. Yes, I highly recommend therapy – it’s been a slow-build game-changer for me – and we’ll talk more about therapy next week when we discuss procrastination.
The “readiness score” basically just helps you check in with your body and mental state and give you a realistic expectation for your performance that day.
The way that I track my "readiness score" (even though I don’t really call it that) is with a Whoop strap.
Let me start at the beginning to show you what I do and how I use some basic data the Whoop strap gives me.
One of the first things I do in the morning while I drink my coffee and try to keep my 2 year old from screaming and waking up the rest of the family, is take a look at some data on the Whoop app.
It takes about 15-30 seconds and I tend to be lazy about it.
For example, last night was Halloween and I was out running around with my children well past their bed time. I had a lot of candy last night (I admit it) and I went to bed late feeling like crap. Then my youngest was up at 5am.
I don’t need the Whoop strap to tell me I didn’t sleep great, but here’s what my main screen looks like today:
That red number, 27% Recovery, means I’m not feeling too hot today. You can see the sleep performance of 70% too, but that seems high and is also not a good sign.
Some mornings, if I’m feeling like an overachiever, I’ll click into the Sleep tab on the Whoop app.
I’ll look at the current day and compare it to the last 7 days.
Then I’ll do the same on the Recovery tab.
Basically, if I remember that Monday was a highly productive day, and I see a big discrepancy between that day’s data and the current day’s data, I can safely assume that I probably won’t be as productive.
So again, I’ll look at that information real quick (mostly I just glance at the Home Screen) and start to think about 2 things:
- “What’s my personal readiness score?” I use a percentage in my head. 0% would mean I wouldn’t work at all that day. 100% would mean I was ready to rock and work a huge day. But I’m never at 0% or at 100%. It normally falls more towards 30% on the lower end and 80% on the higher end. Today I’m at a 20-30% based on last night’s fun and this morning’s relative 5am sh*t show. And as you can see – that recovery % presented on the Whoop strap normally tracks pretty closely to my readiness score. It says 27%. That sounds about right for my “readiness score”.
- “What do I HAVE to get done today?” If I’m on the lower end of the readiness score, that generally means I shouldn’t be expecting a hugely prolific day from myself. In other words, getting the bare minimum done (to maintain the business) is fine.
The reason I started thinking about my “readiness score” in the first place is because a therapist helped me discover that I have a tendency to be all-or-nothing in my work.
What this means is that I always think I should be operating at 100% and if I can’t force myself into being 100% productive and focused, I tend to go to the opposite extreme and get nothing done.
Depending on who you talk to and when – people see me as the most disciplined person they’ve ever met, or one of the laziest people they’ve ever met.
This type of work behavior has served me extremely well at times (because I’ve gotten a lot done in select periods of life) but it’s also created a lot of tension and pain and led to unnecessary procrastination.
So again, previously when I was feeling at 60 or 70% my thought process wasn’t, “How can I go from 60% to 70% today?” Or even, “How can I just operate at 60% and be fine with it?”
Instead it was, “If I can’t go from 70% to 100%, I might as well do nothing.”
I used to operate almost entirely on the extremes (I still catch myself doing this sometimes).
What I’m really saying is that the “readiness score” helps me be realistic about how productive (aka fast) I can expect myself to be on any given day.
Okay, now, all this talk about 70% readiness score is probably nebulous.
What does that mean in the real world?
I’ve figured out with some trial and error that any score under 70% basically means I’ll be in the “operating at bare minimum” productivity level that day.
For me, based on how I feel today, this means I’ll write one email. This email you’re reading now, and it might take me a long time to write. Then I’ll do the baseline admin work I need to do for the day and I’ll likely stop there unless I can somehow boost my readiness score later today (which is something we’ll talk about when we discuss procrastination next week).
If I was above 70%, that would mean it’d be a day where I should aim to be more productive (and expect myself to move faster). And I’d probably be feeling up for outlining/writing 2 or 3 emails. I could think about writing parts of a sales letter or working on product content. I could aim to get ahead in my work because I’d be capable of working harder and faster.
But I’m not operating at my peak today, I’m at 27%, so I’m not going to try – and actually more importantly – I’m not going to beat myself up about it.
I’m going to expect that I’ll move more slowly through the things I need to get done, and I’ll do what I can to boost my score over the next few days.
Note: There are some days where you obviously just have to push through even if you have a low readiness score. But it’s the expectations that will crush you. Meaning, if you’re at a 40% and you’re expecting to work like you’re at 80%, you’re in for a rough day, mentally.
Again, I’m at a 27% today and know it. Which means I’ll accept that my speed is really slow – but I won’t let myself go entirely to zero.
Which means I’ll produce something instead of nothing!
And look at me now! I’ve just about made it to the end of this email.
To recap:
To be more productive (faster while working), I’ve found 2 main things to be effective:
- I only write about things I’ve ACTUALLY done, not the “sexy” or ideal ways to do things.
- I write within frameworks that are hard-wired in my brain.
And then one other thing that’s helped a little bit with speed and productivity is using AI AFTER I’m done writing to correct small mistakes.
Finally, to maximize my best days, I determine a “readiness score” primarily with a Whoop strap.
If you’re not interested in a using a Whoop strap, you can just do what my son does – start the day by writing down a “readiness score”.
But I can almost guarantee you’ll fall off on doing this – so my real advice is to just get the Whoop strap. It literally takes me 15 seconds to look at each day and my normal response is, “Yeah, that looks about right. I’m at 30% today. I better not push it.”
>>> Here’s my referral link if you want to get a Whoop strap.
(I don’t get paid anything but I get a free month of membership if you join. I’ve been personally using a Whoop strap for 4 years now – so know that I believe in these things. Check it out.)
I hope this has been helpful!
Next week we’ll start talking about procrastination – which is a very, very difficult and complex problem to solve.
But I’ll do my best by showing you only what I’ve ACTUALLY done to help myself (although I am still a million miles from being perfect in this department).
Enjoy your weekend and I’ll talk to you on Monday!
– Derek
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