Productivity is 99% mental. We all are different people working on very different things and so we all have unique ways that we can be productive. In this climate of freelancers and remote employment, productivity is more and more dependent on self-motivation to be successful because so many people are working alone at home or in a coworking space like Work Hive.

Regardless of whether someone has a designated desk in a coworking space or their own private office, little things to get them into the right work mindset can range from making sure the desk is tidy to doing some kind of physical movement that is only performed before beginning work.

August Birch, a crime thriller novelist, has a small figurine of Buddha on his desk which he lays flat down when he is not writing and then stands back upright when it is time to write. Not only is it is a symbolic on/off switch for his productivity, but its power resides in his distaste for disorder, so making sure that Buddha is sitting up no longer distracts him and means that he is able to focus.

To him, it is a factor of externalizing the responsibility and taking the pressure off of his willpower. He writes "The object or ritual doesn’t matter. The importance lies in taking the behavior away from the weak force of willpower. When we build a habit attached to a simple object outside ourselves, there’s no more willpower. We’re punching the clock at the gas station. It’s time to get to work." It is a tangible marker that we need to focus, like when the clock strikes a certain time to mark the beginning of an exam."

What do you do to get focused and remain productive?

Is there a small object that you can use like Birch does?

Or do you need to make some kind of movement or listen to some kind of song to get into the flow?