103 Doing nothing is the most productive thing you can do with Louise Miller | Ways to improve your productivity

103 Doing nothing is the most productive thing you can do with Louise Miller | Ways to improve your productivity In this episode, Louise Miller, the productivity mentor, discusses her unique perspective on productivity and how it should be about creating space rather than cramming in more tasks. She emphasizes the importance of rest and taking breaks, challenging the notion that productivity is solely about doing more in less time. Louise also highlights the need to align productivity with personal values and regularly pause to reflect on goals and priorities. By slowing down and making intentional choices, individuals can achieve greater focus and fulfillment in their work.TakeawaysProductivity should be about creating space and rest, rather than cramming in more tasks.Taking regular pauses and reflecting on personal values can help align productivity with what is truly important.Slowing down and making intentional choices can lead to greater focus and fulfilment in work.Productivity is not solely about doing more in less time, but about doing what is important efficiently.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Background01:07 Controversial Idea on Productivity02:56 Creating Space Instead of Cramming06:13 The Power of the Pause08:59 Balancing Productivity and Values12:09 Reflecting on ProductivityFind out more about Louise Miller and her work with productivity at https://www.bettylouonline.com/Patreon thanks!Shout out to the amazing Patron supporters for keeping this podcast going; thank you Ant Howe, Jasmine Barnes, Chloe Wilmot, Cheri Brenton, Steve McDermott, Rory Barnes! 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You can now buy your own UNLOCKED podcast notebook. The perfect addition to share your thoughts, ideas, and inspiration from the podcast. Available here!A new episode is out every Wednesday. So make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on any episodes coming soon.And, if this episode brought some value to you, or even a smile, then please leave a review or a rating. That would be amazing!Thanks for listening, I hope you enjoy this episode and I'll join you next week for another episode of UNLOCKED!TranscriptRicky Locke (00:01.438)Welcome to the Unlocked podcast in our mini series where I dive deep into the diary of a CEO conversation cards. And today, a very special guest. I have the wonderful Louise Miller. Hello, Louise.Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (00:13.838)Thank you for having me.Ricky Locke (00:17.088)Oh, my pleasure, my pleasure. I'm looking forward to this Louise. And I know that we were just discussing this just before recording about how excited we are about the unknown and the uncertainty of this. So looking forward to this. But first, if there's anyone that's listening who hasn't heard of you, who are you and what is it that you do?Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (00:32.91)So I'm Louise Miller, I am the genie for your genius. I'm a productivity mentor, founder of Make It Happen Club. I help solo business owners who have too many ideas and not enough time to stop faffing, stay focused, get the important things done and see tangible progress in their business. So yeah, that's me and what I do.Ricky Locke (00:52.096)probably do with your help actually to be honest after our conversation this morning when I said all these ideas in my head I need to overwhelm you're probably thinking yeah he's a perfect person for me we'll probably chat offline after this but anyway are you ready for your question?Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (00:53.518)I'm going to go to bed.Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (01:00.526)Yeah.Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (01:05.422)I'm ready, bring it on.Ricky Locke (01:07.616)OK, so my question I picked out for you is this. What is the most controversial idea that you believe that within your industry, most people disagree with?Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (01:22.35)or that most people disagree with. There's a count. So if we think about my industry and my world being the land of productivity, and I hate that word, which in itself is an interesting thing. I think my take on productivity, I don't know whether it's controversial, but it's certainly countercultural, which is that productivity,Ricky Locke (01:22.848)Controversial.Ricky Locke (01:28.19)Yes.Ricky Locke (01:48.384)Okay.Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (01:52.812)productivity's sake is a bad thing and that it should be about creating space rather than cramming in more and more doing and that one of the best things we can do for our productivity is actually to rest and that rest does not mean you're lazy. So I don't know whether that's necessarily controversial because I know a lot of people will agree with that in principle and will understand it in their heads but when it comes to actually doing it...not so much. Does that strike you as a controversial thing? Has that answered the question?Ricky Locke (02:27.776)No, I, well, I totally get it, totally get it. Cause there's that whole thing about, I'm going be really productive today and I'm going to smash through my emails. But you know that once you get through your emails, you get more emails coming back in because people respond and you think, so it is kind of productive really, isn't it? It doesn't really make sense because you think I'm going to get, like you just said, I'm going do more and more and more stuff. It doesn't make anything. But I love this idea of what you mentioned about creating more space. So tell us a little bit more about that and what that kind of means really.Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (02:56.046)Yeah, so I think if you asked anyone to define productivity, they would say it's about doing more in less time. And I don't like that. And it immediately makes me get into panic mode because it feels like you're setting yourself up in opposition to or in battle with time. And you're never going to win that one because time's going to keep on turning. So yeah, that whole thing just makes me go, no, constricted don't like it. So.Ricky Locke (03:17.674)Yeah.Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (03:25.422)And that for me made me ill when I was looking at productivity that way. I spent 15 years of my working life before I started my business running around like headless chicken, rushing about, trying to do all the things. The more I did, the more people gave me to do, going back to what you were saying about emails. If you're good at what you do and you get it done quick, they don't tell you to go home and have a rest. They give you more. So that was kind of my experience. And that led to me burning out and getting ill, being signed off sick by my GP, which isRicky Locke (03:41.472)Yeah.Ricky Locke (03:47.328)Yes, yeah.Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (03:54.818)you know, in hindsight was a good thing because that's how I've come to be doing what I'm doing now. So when I did start doing what I do now, I had a bit of an existential crisis because I was like, how can I help people be productive? Because I know that's what I'm really good at when I don't like the idea of being productive, because that's what made me ill. So that I really have to dig deep and reframe productivity for myself and for the people I want to work with to make sure that I am able to support them.Ricky Locke (04:13.596)Yeah.Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (04:23.31)and help them get stuff done so that they can make the impact they want to make, but without it feeding into this narrative that your productivity is anything to do with your self -worth. So whenever I give a talk or anything like that, I always start by reframing productivity as being it is about doing what is important as efficiently as you can in order to create space for the life that you love. So you're getting things done not to do more doing, but to go and live your life and enjoy the life you're living now.Ricky Locke (04:49.856)Mmm.Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (04:52.152)rather than wait until you get to some mystical magical destination before you allow yourself to enjoy yourself. So yes, that kind of underpins everything that I do.Ricky Locke (04:58.366)Mm. Oh, I ain't.Ricky Locke (05:02.752)That's really interesting because I've been looking into some of this recently with so I'm a big fan of Oliver Bergman's model of the 4000 week model. And he had a course, I think, on BBC Maestro. I might have seen a while ago. And he talks about the idea of intentions and stuff like that. And it just seems that the world is rapidly busy, busy, busy, busy, isn't it? You know, I think about my day, there is moments in my day where it's like I plough through the emails to that and then.I'll quickly shiny magpie thing. Oh, quick. Go through Instagram, scroll through Instagram. And then just find that my day, even though like I'll say, I block out in my calendar and I call it deep work. Right. So like nine to 11, like to focus on like the big one thing, you know, I'm a big fan of Gary Keller, the one thing, the one thing that, um, you know, what is one thing I can do such as by doing it, everything else becomes easier and necessary. But I just didn't find like, even though I've got those blocks of free.They get taken up and you get to the end of the day thinking, well, I plan myself a day here to focus on some really good stuff, but it didn't happen. What happened? So I don't understand, like, why does this happen? Like, we just need to be more focused. What is this top tip to, like, be super productive and, like you said, focus on the things that are important.Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (06:13.934)Yeah, I think the biggest tip is to slow down and to take a pause and allow yourself that pause so you're not immediately stopping one thing and starting something else because I think that's when we end up not being intentional because we're just jumping from one thing to the next and we haven't stopped to consider, okay, I've got an hour, what am I going to do with this hour? Getting really clear on what it is that you're going to do and if you can, I mean, it doesn't need to take very long, but link it back to what your vision is and what you're trying to accomplish and...this doing this thing is going to help me move forward because, you know, try and find this bigger attachment to why that thing is important. And I think if you can do that, that will help you stay focused on what you're doing. In really practical terms, I had a client once who literally she would decide what she was going to do. And she'd write that on a post it and put it on a laptop or in front on the wall in front of her. So if she ever felt her mind kind of going over here, she could see she had a visual reminder of this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Yeah. And it would pull her back on track. So there's lots of things you can do, butRicky Locke (07:06.004)Physically, yeah, physically, yeah.Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (07:13.102)I often talk about mindfulness in the same sentence as productivity, because I think the two things are very connected. It's just about being, taking the pause, making a choice about what you want to do, understanding why that thing is important, focusing as best you can. And if you feel your mind wandering, just as if you're meditating, feel your mind wandering, it's going to happen. Pull yourself back. And the more you practice, the quicker that get