Staying Productive During A Global Pandemic [LNIM197]

Stuck at home trying to make progress on your online business? Mark shares four essential strategies for staying productive when the world feels out of control, including the one foundational habit that makes all the others possible.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Why staying positive is not optional but the foundation of all productivity
• How to create a daily plan with three clear business goals
• Why checking in with your virtual assistants and team matters more than ever
• How to establish new routines that prevent burnout

Episode Summary

When your normal routine evaporates and you are trapped at home, productivity does not come naturally. Mark lays out four strategies for staying focused and getting things done during uncertain times.

Stay positive. This is the foundation, and Mark is emphatic that you cannot skip it. Fear and anxiety are productivity killers. When you feed your mind with constant negative information, it creates a psychological environment where getting things done becomes nearly impossible. You have to actively restrict the amount of negative input and replace it with positive content. Your action plans for the next three months will not matter if you are paralyzed by fear. Staying positive is not soft advice. It is the prerequisite for everything else on this list.

Have a clear plan. When everything changes overnight, you can find yourself stuck in a loop of “What do I do now?” The answer is to acknowledge what you cannot control and move on to what you can. Create a daily plan with three clear goals for your business. These are the three most important things you need to get done today. Everything else, household chores, exercise, personal tasks, comes after the business priorities are identified. Always have your top three goals for today.

Do not ignore your virtual assistants. If you have a team, even a small one, take time to check in on their welfare, not just the business. Most remote workers are worried about losing their jobs, which affects their productivity and focus. Do not over-promise, just communicate. Make sure those lines of communication are open with the people you normally work with. You will be surprised at what you learn when you genuinely check in with your team members as human beings.

Establish a new routine. Go back to the second tip and make it habitual. Develop routines that include self-improvement and wellness. You do not want to be sitting at your desk for weeks on end feeling burnt out. Build in breaks, exercise, and activities that recharge you. A sustainable routine beats a sprint every time.

Mark's overarching message: whatever goals you set for today or the next three months, never skip the first tip. You can have the best plan in the world, but if you are feeding your mind with negativity and fear, you will end up starting over every day and achieving nothing.

Key Takeaways

• Staying positive is not optional. It is the foundation that makes all other productivity strategies possible
• Limit your consumption of negative news. It directly impacts your ability to get work done
• Create a daily plan with three clear business goals every single day
• Check in with your team members as people, not just workers. It improves loyalty and productivity
• Establish sustainable routines that include self-care to prevent burnout
• A great plan powered by fear and anxiety produces zero results

What's Changed Since This Episode

Mark recorded this episode in March 2020, at the very beginning of widespread lockdowns. The productivity advice he shared proved prescient as remote work became permanent for millions of people.

Research conducted since 2020 has consistently validated Mark's core message. Studies from Microsoft's Work Trend Index and Gallup have shown that maintaining mental health and establishing clear daily priorities are the two strongest predictors of remote work productivity. The burnout epidemic that followed the initial lockdown period proved Mark's warning about sustainable routines was exactly right.

The guidance about checking in with virtual assistants and team members has become a standard best practice in remote management. Companies that prioritized human connection and psychological safety during the pandemic retained more employees and maintained higher productivity.

Resources Mentioned

• Late Night Internet Marketing on Apple Podcasts
• Late Night Internet Marketing on Spotify

Related Episodes

If you found this episode helpful, you might also enjoy:

• LNIM195 — Coronavirus And Online Business: What Does The COVID-19 Crisis Mean?
• LNIM196 — Coronavirus Online Business Tactics: How To Thrive And Survive

Listen and Subscribe

Listen to Late Night Internet Marketing on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Have a question for Mark? Call the digital recorder at 214-444-8655 or drop a comment below.