043: Slow Down to Get More Done: Why Nature Boosts Productivity and Goal Setting

Join my Produdivity Community today and Receive your FREE Gifts of Time Worksheet. https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/28276/162918483567314175/share ***“I came out here today with one idea, and nature gave me another one.”*** Michelle takes Your Productivity Pulse outdoors for its very first live Productivity in Action walk, new lavalier mic clipped on and a plan in hand: sort your goals into what to start now, what to let go of and what to keep working on before the end of the year. Surrounded by cedar and pine trees, a small lake that’s home to endangered turtles and dappled light through the branches, she quickly realizes three groups is too much for one walk. So she narrows it down to one: the goals you can still achieve in the roughly 10 weeks left in the year. Along the way, she thanks the people who helped make this episode happen, including her husband Brian, podcast coach Kim Parkinson, learning strategist Renee Koster and her son Owen, whose advice to “just be yourself” keeps her grounded. She talks about setting realistic goals and timelines, breaking big projects into mini goals, and using a brain dump to get everything out of your head so you can start sorting. And when a chipmunk darts across the path, she reminds us that some distractions don’t break us, they feed us. Then the walk takes an unexpected turn. Michelle steps off the path, balances along a tree stump, crawls under a fallen tree and settles onto a log in the sunshine. That’s when the real lesson lands: sometimes productivity in action means slowing down and spending your time exactly the way you want to. The goal planning will pick up in the next episode, but for now, Michelle invites you to take a breath and bring a little nature into your day. Join her mailing list to receive her free Gifts of Time worksheet, with ready to go 10, 30 and 60 minute choices for the next time a little time lands at your feet. **In this episode, you will learn:** - How stepping outside and moving your body can activate a different part of your brain for planning and goal setting - Why setting realistic goals and timelines, and breaking big projects into mini goals, makes the last 10 weeks of the year doable - How to tell the difference between distractions that drain you and the ones that feed you, and why slowing down can be the most productive choice