Improve your productivity by using the technique of sprinting. Try working in short, sharp, focused periods. And when you’re in a sprint don’t allow any distractions.

Video:

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Podcast:

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Video Transcript:

Hi. John Paul Fischbach, Chief Alchemist and CEO here at the Auspicious Arts Incubator. Welcome to this week’s Hot Tip Tuesday. The theme this week is productivity and we’ve chosen this theme because we’ve been looking at the results from the independent artist’s profile survey. A lot of artists are asking for more time. More time aren’t necessarily possible so we thought let’s help you be more productive with the time you’ve got because most of us are working really hard with a whole lot on so it’s about working smarter not working harder.

The Hot Tip is work in focused sprints. When it comes to changing the way you work and improving productivity it’s results that matter not effort. Studies have shown when you’re doing the business tasks for your practice at your desk those jobs are accomplished best in short, sharp focused sprints.

Think about this metaphor of the sprint short, sharp, focus. When you sprint you go hard, you go fast and you reach the finish line. In a sprint you dont stop and answer your phone or suddenly decide to change direction. The concept of a sprint will help you achieve more in a shorter period of time doing business tasks too.

When you sit down or stand up for those of you who have adapted the standing desk, limit the time and sprint but dont be interrupted during a sprint. It’s just a sprint. You can deal with calls and emails when you’re done.

At a certain point your attention will wane and your focus will drift. When that happens stop, take a break, dont shift to something else. Take a break. Shifting loses energy and builds fatigue. The easiest way for you to try sprinting is to try it with emails. Give yourself 30 minutes to maybe 30 times a day to check and respond to all your email. When you engage in a 30 minute sprint through your email you’ll find that you’ll actually get everything done.

Artists who have done the sprint tell us that when they worked this way sprinting they get a day’s worth of work. That is all the to do’s that is on their list for the day done in two hours. That is the Hot Tip for this week work in focused sprints.

If this Hot Tip was helpful to you please like the video. If you know someone else who would like to improve their productivity or get more time by improving their productivity please share this along with them. I’d love to hear any other tips that you guys have for stretching that time or focusing and if you try out the sprint thing let us know how it went. Let us know what it felt like. The more of us sprinting and talking about how we’re sprinting the better it’s going to be. Let’s start a bit of a conversation below about sprinting and how it’s working for us because here at the Incubator it’s all about helping you more than survive we want you to and all artists to thrive. If you’re going to thrive you should subscribe. We’ll see you next week.