How To Find Your Optimal Productivity Zone

The Comfort Zone

Where things are predictable, safe, and boring. It’s unlikely you’ll grow here, because there isn’t enough stimulation. 

The Learning Zone

Where your senses are heightened enough to absorb new information, and things are exciting, challenging, and new. This zone is right on the edge of anxiety but not quite there, yet. It needs to be close enough that all of your senses are stimulated and online, but not so close that you're incapacitated.

The Panic Zone

Where things are tense, frustrating, and exhausting. Symptoms of living a life in the panic zone might be chronic stress or anxiety, freezing up when looking at your task load, and constantly feeling like your life is in chaos or out of control. "Fire of the day" management style creates a work environment in the panic zone.

Get it?

Everyone is different. It's up to you to figure out how you're feeling and responding to your work.By understanding yourself better, you can make decisions about the work environment you put yourself in and the people you surround yourself with.It's up to you to know enough about yourself and TAKE ACTION to put yourself in the best position for success.No one else is going to do this for you!Not your boss, project manager, your mom, no one.

Where did this come from? Did you just make this up?

No, I didn't make this up.This is based on Vygotsky's Proximal Zones of Development, coined sometime circa the 20th century.

2 Minute Action:

On a scale from 1 to 10, how anxious are you at work?1 would be bored and 10 would be tearing your hair out.If you're between a 1 and a 5, you're in the comfort zone. You need to step it up if you want to move forward.If you're at a 6 or a 7, great! You're pushing your comfort level which means you're learning and growing.If you're consistently at an 8 or higher, you may be at risk for chronic stress, which has a bunch of nasty side effects.If your work environment changes a lot, like mine does, you may want to consider setting up an iOS or Android reminder to do this exercise every couple of weeks. You might find that you're stressed out no matter the environment, which would suggest that you need to work on some personal growth--or you might find out that there's really nothing exciting about your job, even at it's best.This isn't a cure-all, it's just a tool you can use to improve yourself.The point isn't for me to keep hitting you over the head with this stuff, it's for you to start asking yourself how you can use these tools/insights in your own unique life.

You'd Be Surprised At How Many People Make This Productivity Mistake

You walk in and instead of confidently starting on your prioritized "to-do" list, you start responding to emails, fielding help-desk tickets from customers, taking phone calls, and diving into whatever is pressing on your attention at that moment.You'll never be in control of your project if you always feel like a slave to the urgency of a crisis.This is known as a "Fire-of-the-Day" management style.Whatever seems to be burning down today is where your attention goes.Here's the tell-tale symptom:If you're exhausted at the end of every workday, but you can't really describe what you did, you're experiencing this one.There’s nothing worse than feeling like you have no control over your own project.One way to get a grip on the reins and get buy-in from your team is to create Critical Productivity Indicators (CPIs) that are measurable, actionable, and don't mean they'll "get the axe" if they mess up.When your team is clear about what “success” means, you’re going to see a lot more collaboration and confidence on "progress report day."What are CPIs? Below are some I've developed for organizations.  All together, they form a Productivity Index, a composite score used to gauge how healthy a team is.Steal this and run with it.

2 Minute Action:

Look at the list below. What's the most important, pressing issue for your team? Only pick one.Take 1 minute and define the question.Take the next minute and create a few answers.You don't have to solve this right now, but having a good question in your head will let you see your work differently today.It's up to you to carve out the time to develop solutions.

• Activity - How much work is being done?
• Prioritization - What kind of work is being done?
• Efficiency - How much work is redundant or wasted?
• Productivity - How much useful output is generated by your team?
• Potential - How much productive work you could be doing?
• Visibility - How clear your team is on their responsibilities?
• Reinforcers - What is motivating consistent, high-quality work behavior?
• Standards - What goals, targets, or benchmarks are in place?
• Capacity - Does your team have all the skills necessary?
• Alignment - Is everyone clear on the mission and priorities?
• Proximal Zone - Where does your team fall in Vygotsky’s Proximal Zones, and the anxiety-boredom spectrum?
• Sentiment - Does your team believe in the mission and are they invested in success?