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.

Takeaways

• Productivity 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.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

01:07 Controversial Idea on Productivity

02:56 Creating Space Instead of Cramming

06:13 The Power of the Pause

08:59 Balancing Productivity and Values

12:09 Reflecting on Productivity

Find out more about Louise Miller and her work with productivity at

https://www.bettylouonline.com/

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Transcript

Ricky 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 is

Ricky 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, but

Ricky 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 gets.

Ricky Locke (07:35.264)

Hmm. I like that. So I guess in the same way then, yeah, so with productivity there's bound to be things that's going to confuse you, shiny magpie things, notifications, but that's okay. But it's just practicing going back to what's important. I love that. Yeah. And I love the whole post -it note. There was a phrase I used to use. I used it massively last year. A great NLP phrase, which is, is this action going to produce the outcome I'm looking for? If the answer is no, then stop doing it. You know,

So there was loads of things. So I actually pause the podcast for a year because I was like, Oh, you know, I've got my daughter to look after. She, she was one at the time. And there's loads of things I'm working on, you know, multiple strands. And it's like, Hmm, okay. Is this going to produce the outcome I'm looking for? And the answer at the time was no, it wasn't. But I've since come back to that. Cause I'm like, actually, yeah, you know, these are stories, they create content for speaking on the stage or a book one day, but also it fits the line. The values of fun.

So I'd love to ask you this question, Louise, about how can we balance productivity but still be aligned with obviously what's important around our values? Because I see so many people out there that just getting lost off the path, doing so many different things, overwhelming, burning out and not losing the losing sight of what was really important. The first part of, you know, I started this business to be fun. It's not fun anymore. So how do we how do we solve that?

Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (08:59.598)

Oh, God, magic one time. So, are you going to hate me for this? But it all comes back to the pause. I think the pause is the most important part of productivity. And we can't just do it once, we need to do it over and over again. So, well, obviously, the very first thing is to know what your values are, you need to take that step back first and understand why you started your business, what your values are, what you're trying to achieve. And to an extent, how you're going to achieve that, but that in a way is secondary.

Ricky Locke (09:01.28)

Ha.

Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (09:29.294)

But if you do that once in January, and then you don't think about it again until September, chances are you will have gone off on a wonk. And you will have found yourself doing things that don't feel good. So we need, that's why we make it happen. We need to pause every single month and go back to that first principles thing of, you what are my values? What am I trying to achieve? And if you do that often enough, it's much more difficult to find yourself suddenly way over here when you thought you were going over there. So I'm waving my arms around, that's not helpful.

Ricky Locke (09:38.738)

Yeah, I love that.

Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (09:59.118)

But you know what, I mean. Yeah.

Ricky Locke (09:59.616)

I just, I just tickled me there. Sorry. One, one convention on the podcast, but yeah, I've been on many wonks on this in these last couple of years in my business. I love that. So just to reprise what you said there. So to be like super productive, the power of the pause, realigning the value. So probably maybe I'm assuming that not just like you said, do it in January, but maybe every quarter or every couple of months just.

Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (10:05.646)

Hahaha!

Ricky Locke (10:28.628)

Let's go back to what was really important so you don't lose sight and go off on that wonk. Because I've done that before January super focused for this year. This is what I'm going to do. And then you get to like December. You think, oh, yeah, he is gone now. But I didn't do what I was set out to do. So making sure probably put blocks in my calendar. So right, quick pause. Let's review stuff. Anything else might add.

Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (10:48.59)

Yeah. I think the other thing that I know a lot of people find difficult, and you might relate to this as well as somebody with a very busy ideas, heavy brain, is the choice. So in the progress cycle, which I haven't got time to go into now, but the first three parts are pause, reflect, choose. So you take the pause, you reflect on your values and all that good stuff, and then you need to make a choice. And I think creative people find that really hard because it feels like choosing a favorite child sometimes. How do I pick which one of these ideas to run with?

Ricky Locke (11:17.408)

Yeah.

Louise Miller - the genie for your genius (11:19.086)

But I think letting go of the idea that there's a right or a wrong choice,