How To Be More Productive During a "Low" Phase

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Table of Contents

Podcast Description

We all have those low phases in our lives when productivity seems to take a hit. Whether it’s due to lack of motivation, external challenges or simply feeling overwhelmed, it’s important to know how to navigate through these periods.

In this episode, I’m sharing 3 tips to help you feel and be more productive during a low phase so that you come out even stronger during these challenging times.

Links Referenced in Episode:

▶ Learn more about the Productive Entrepreneurs Club

▶ Episode 10: How To Prevent Burnout as an Entrepreneur (And Why You Should Care)

▶ Episode 14: How To Prioritize Your Weekly Biz Tasks

▶ Blog Post: Self-Care Ideas

Connect with me:

Website | Instagram

Watch on YouTube:

Episode Transcript

(Note: This is a formatted AI-generated transcript to make it easier for you to read through, but is not an optimized blog post. Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors and filler words – it’s just how I speak LOL)

Episode Intro

We all have those phases in life when our productivity seems to take a hit, whether it’s due to lack of motivation, external challenges or simply feeling overwhelmed. It’s really important to learn and understand how to navigate through these periods. In this episode, I’m sharing three tips to help you feel and be more productive during a low phase so that way you come out stronger during these challenging times, are you ready? Let’s dive in.

Hey, I’m Lucy Reyes, your host of the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, where I’m on a mission to help online entrepreneurs that like you focus on all the right things and kiss overwhelmed goodbye. Here, you’re going to learn strategies that will boost your productivity so that you can scale your online biz and impact lives sooner. It’s your time to shine. So let’s get started.

Quick Personal Update

Hey, Hey, welcome back to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast. I am going to be honest, at the time of recording this my throat is feeling a little itchy. I don’t know if it’s allergies or I’m just coming down on something, but the weather here in Texas has been ridiculous.

It is the week after Spring Break so it’s supposed to be Spring. I think the official first day of Spring is next week, but it’s been nice and cool, nice, like really warm weather. And now it’s like 60, actually, it’s 50 degrees outside. So I am just like what is going on? My kids are, their allergies are flaring up. So it is crazy. Um, so let’s hope that I get through this episode without like drying up my throat.

“Low” Productivity Phase

But, so I’m going to try to get through this very quickly, but I was honestly stuck on what to record a podcast episode about this week.

And so usually when I come across this, this instance, I will go through some past questions that I’ve received. I’ll go through some surveys that I’ve sent out to past students or members.

And so this specific topic was an inspiration due to one question that I received. And the question was, how do I stay productive during a low phase?

Now I think right now is the perfect opportunity to talk about this. And “low” phase is going to mean something different for everybody. But I think that if you are currently experiencing a low phase, you will know what that means for you.

And so this episode is really going to help you navigate through those feelings no matter what you’re going through, no matter what a low phase means to you.

This is something that I’ve been hearing a lot lately. I’ve been hearing things like it’s been really hard for me to stay motivated. Things are tough right now. Um, there’s just so much feedback that I’ve been getting, and I completely understand like, Times are tough economically and also like in personal lives, like there’s just so much going on.

Tips to Help You Be More Productive During a “Low” Phase

And so I really wanted to record this episode to be kind of like inspiration to you because while I know that being productive is something that we always strive to do, there’s a different way to approach productivity during these low phases. Okay. So let’s cover these three tips to help you be more productive during a low phase.

Tip 1: Embrace self-care

Tip number one is to embrace self-care. So it might not be what you want to hear because you might feel like you have no time to do self care. But it’s so important for you to take the time to rejuvenate yourself and engage into activities that bring you joy and help you relax, because truly, truly taking a step back to focus on your self care is what will help you be more productive.

Like it sounds counterintuitive. I know, but that is the truth. When you are trying to power through when you’re tired, when you’re trying to power through because you have so much going on, you end up being less productive and you get almost nothing done.

So now you just wasted a whole hour or two, trying to force yourself to work, trying to force yourself to do something, when instead you could have taken that hour or two to just relax, refresh, rejuvenate, and then come back.

You’ll get more done that way, then the one to two hours that you spend sitting at your desk, really trying to figure out what to say or what to write or what to do.

So it is truly, truly important to take some time to practice self-care to avoid burning yourself out. And unfortunately, that is something that I am afraid that we’re going to see happen more often. I mean, even I’m going to be completely honest.

Like I have to force myself to take step backs a lot of times, because I love doing a lot. My systems truly helped me get so much done. And then my OBM is always telling me, “Lucy slow down.” I’m like, “girl, you know, I can handle a lot.”

But the truth is sometimes I do have to take us that bad because if not, I can see myself overloading myself with so many tasks and projects to where I then get to a point where I’m like, oh man, like now we got to get all this done. Right. And that just leads you closer to overworking yourself, which leads you closer to burnout.

In episode 10, that episode is all about preventing burnout so go ahead and listen to that if you haven’t yet. But as a spoiler alert, one of the tips is to practice self-care because it is that important.

Being productive is not about grinding all day long. It’s not about hustling all of the time. It’s truly about finding some balance and some harmony, and taking care of yourself so that way you can show up as your best self at home and in your business and at work, if you have a day job or night job or something separate from this business.

It helps you show up as your absolutely best self in all areas of your business. Now, before I had this business, I had a mom blog. I still have my mom blog. So I’m going to link to a blog post that I wrote on that blog with self care ideas, they’re specifically for moms and that’s a mom blog.

But I’m sure that whether or not you’re a parent, you can go through that list and find some ideas that can help you relax in just a few minutes at a time. Okay. So I will link to that end at the show notes.

Tip 2: Reflect and reset

Tip number two is to reflect and reset. So use this time to reflect on what has been going on. Take some time to assess.

What is causing you to go through this low phase? Right? And like I said, low phase is going to mean something different for everybody. Like some people is going to be financially. Other people is going to be mentally. Other people, it’s going to be emotionally. Some people’s going to be physically like the low phase means different for everybody.

So it’s really important that you take some time to figure out what that is for you. It’s important for you to see, what is causing this? Identify any triggers or any patterns that are leading up to this. Is this a recurring thing or is it a one-time thing? Is it a phase, a low phase that you’ve been in for a long time or did it just start? Is it a low phase that seems to be on and off?

These are all things that you want to take a moment to reflect on. And while it might seem like, whoa, whoa. But that means I’m not doing anything. That means I’m not taking self, or not practicing self care, and that means I’m not working in my business. I’m just sitting down or laying down and thinking… that’s not productive.

It is. It is because again, this is all going to help you be more productive and feel more productive once you get past that hurdle.

So you need to take some time to figure out what has been going on. What are the patterns or the triggers that are causing these low phases, if it’s a recurring thing, and then reset your goals and your priorities, if you need to. It’s okay to change your mind. It’s okay to move deadlines around. It’s okay to do whatever you want and need to do in your business to keep you feeling healthy. That is truly going to help you be more productive.

And if you do need to reprioritize your weekly tasks, which. I do all of the time, you can reference episode four on how I do this, but do it. I don’t feel bad for having to reshift your priorities, to reshift your tasks. That is what’s going to keep you moving forward. Okay.

Sometimes a small adjustment in your approach can make a big difference in your productivity levels, so really take a moment to reflect and reset. Okay. That’s tip number two.

Tip 3: Seek support and accountability

Now tip number three is to seek support and accountability. Connect with like-minded individuals and those who can provide some sort of guidance and motivation and accountability.

Being an online business owner can be really lonely. So that just adds onto this low phase that you might be experiencing because maybe you don’t know who to turn to.

Maybe you do have a supportive support system around you in your personal life, but they don’t truly know what it’s like to be in it. So it is really, really helpful for you to join a community, to be part of a community who can give you motivation, that can inspire you to keep going, that can relate to what you’re going through and to just be there in a hold you accountable, or be the place where you can go in and ask questions.

Find a community, find a support system in the online space. Find a biz bestie if you haven’t yet. Go out and put yourself out there.

Just putting yourself out there and asking questions in the communities that you’re a part of, or you’re responding to someone else’s post in those communities, that can help start building some connections and you don’t know where those connections are going to go.

Hopefully some of those connections lead into some lifelong friendships, at least in the online space, and that is exactly what you need. Okay. But get inspiration from those who have been through similar experiences by being an active member of these communities. You do not have to do it alone.

Doing Nothing Is Productive

And you can be productive by not doing anything at all. So that is a whole, another little side tangent I’m going to wrap this up with. It’s not really one of the tips, but it’s just like a reminder that you don’t have to be doing anything to be productive. You can be productive by doing nothing at all. And I know that seems bananas. It seems nuts.

Like what, how can I just sit here and that’s productive. I know my husband still has that mentality sometimes. Where he’d be like, ugh, you know, we have like, uh, um, a slow weekend where we didn’t do anything, and we just chilled on the couch all day, watched the kids play, watched movies all day. And sometimes he’ll be like, “that was not a productive day.”

And I’ll be like, “yes, it was like, we refreshed, we relaxed, we rejuvenated.” And he’ll be like, “yeah, yeah.” So I get it. It doesn’t feel like it is productive, but when you get back to work after that day, or that hour, those minutes of just sitting back and doing nothing, you will get more done than you would have had you tried to power through feeling tired, stressed, overwhelmed, etc.

So it’s okay to do nothing at all and doing nothing can be productive.

Join the Productive Entrepreneurs Club

Now, if you want to join a community and join and be part of this club, the Productive Entrepreneurs Club, where our focus is to help you take bite-size actions towards improving your productivity little bits at a time.

And I deliver weekly pep talks, like that is the one thing that my members love the absolute most, is these weekly reminders and motivation and inspirational pep talks centered around some of my favorite quotes to give you that motivating boost that you need to start your week.

You get one every single week. There’s already 50 episodes waiting for you to binge. And you get that inside of the Productive Entrepreneurs Club, in addition to the Efficiency Formula course, which is all about helping you achieve more without doing more.

So you achieve more with less effort and you can join for just $7/month. And if you’re listening to this in real time, there’s a special promotion running right now because the club turns one. Oh, my gosh. It is so wild to think that I have had this membership for a year now. And so I am running a special promotion through Thursday night.

So if you’re listening to this in real time, head to the link in the show notes and get in at that special promotion. But even if you’re listening to this later on, it’s only $7/month. So either way, you’ll want to join us. So head to cheerstoproductivity.com/club and I hope to see you inside.

JOIN NOW FOR $7/MONTH

Episode Wrap-Up

Thank you so much for listening to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast with me Lucy Reyes. To view the complete transcript and all the links mentioned in today’s episode, visit cheerstoproductivity.com/65. And before you go, make sure you follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening so you know once the next productive chat is released. Talk soon and cheers your productivity and success!