“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”

~ Paul J. Meyer 

Productivity at work is usually a good thing, but it can be a truly GREAT thing if, through the busyness and stress, we don’t let our health get set aside. It’s what I call ‘Unproductive Productivity’, and I got caught in that trap during a busy travel month.

In this short video I share what my Garmin watch taught me about ‘unproductive productivity’, and how to shift your perspective around fitting in activity, especially when you’re busy.

Watch the video below, or read the transcript that follows, and let me know if you can relate.

Hey, Michelle Cederberg here, having a little chuckle today about my own health and productivity, or perhaps my own health and UNproductivity.

I wear a Garmin watch. Some of you might wear something similar like a Fitbit or an Apple watch that measures how much activity you get in any given day. I try to fit in a little bit of movement every single day. I also try and to work harder more days of the week than not, and as I was assessing my training stats I noticed that in October I didn’t quite hit my marks. In other words, I had a very unproductive month of training.

Well, if you follow me on social media you know that October was a very busy month for my speaking business. I was getting on planes every single week, sometimes multiple locations in a week, and was just go go go go go. While I tried my best to maintain some level of activity during that crazy month, Garmin rated my training status as ‘Unproductive’.

Ironically, I was unproductive with my health stats because I was very productive with my business, and that’s probably not unusual for most of us.

When we get really busy, the first thing we do is set aside exercise, eating right, and getting enough sleep, because we’ve got sh!t to do.

Well, it was a good reminder for me that even when I’m on the road, and even when life gets busy it’s important to prioritize activity. Truthfully, it’s not that hard to fit in small bouts of activity, even if I have to do it in my hotel room. Even if I have to do something quick at the end of the day… for 15 minutes.

Because it’s interesting… Since I’ve been back in the office for the last week and a half, I’ve committed to doing some sort of movement every single day, above what is normal for me. My dog walk every morning is normal for me, so I want to make sure that if I’m not teaching a class, that I prioritize some sort of other activity.

One afternoon I went in the basement and I rowed for 15 minutes. Another evening I did a short, intense bout on my bicycle. In doing that every day since the end of October, Garmin is now telling me that I’m being productive… with short bouts of exercise.

Remember, it’s not about ‘go big or go home’ all the time. What we need is consistency. When we’re busy, I would rather that we all adopt this mindset of consistency over intensity.

Do something every single day. Have some days of the week where you push your heart rate up a little bit more than normal. Goal for at least 3 days a week doing that, but really listen to your body, and give it what it needs. Even when we’re busy, and I will say especially when we’re busy, we need to move.

I ride my bike intensely; fat biking, mountain biking, road biking, teaching classes whatever it is. I’m an active gal, so my normal might be different from somebody who doesn’t exercise regularly.

Consistently do more than what is normal for you. That could be a 10-minute walk. That could be 5 minutes of pushing hard on your treadmill. Listen to your body. Add more if you need to, but be consistent. What’s the best that could happen if you commit to five minutes of intense movement every single day? That becomes 10 minutes over time. That becomes 15 minutes over time… and all of a sudden you’re prioritizing regular movement.

And, 5, 10, 15 minutes of movement to stay productive with your health stats, is not a big investment of time for the immense benefits that you’ll get with energy, focus, and overall health.

That’s my thought for this week. In order to ignite high performance we need to at least maintain, and ideally be productive with our health care efforts. Whether it’s moving more, or eating slightly better, or getting good sleep, when your schedule gets crazy do not set these important high performance tactics aside.

Your body is the vehicle that is creating all of your most productive moments, and ideas, and creativity. So, when you are busy, and stressed, and stretched, that’s when you need to take care of your health the most, so that your body will return the favor, and help you keep knocking it out of the park with all you do!

Until next time I’m Michelle Cederberg reminding you that in order to Ignite High Performance , yes you’ve got to take care of the engine that drives the mission.

I’m prioritizing productive health stats, even when I get busy. How about you?

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And if you’d like to bring me in to your organization to talk about this topic or any others related to stress management, resilience, and how to ignite high performance in your team, pop me an email at hello@michellecederberg.com. I’d love to chat.

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