4/18/24 What are the best productivity hacks for your personality? Part 4 the Cautious Personality
What is the purpose of this podcast? To encourage people by sharing.
Live intro with hook - Hello my lovelies. Today is part 4 in the series about Productivity Hacks and Personality in which we give you great tips to help you to be more efficient, have more fun, get more done without hassle and create a home and work environment that works for you, no matter what your personality . We’re working through principles I teach in the Productivity by Personality course and Whole Home Reset Program and, if anything in this podcast resonates be sure to share and subscribe on your favorite podcast player.
For those who are new to the podcast, when I talk about personalities, communication and relationships, I use the DISC personality model of behavior and refer to people as D or Driven, I or Inspired, S or Supportive, and C or Cautious. You can find links to take your own Personality Assessment in the Show Notes.
So if you’re just joining this series, we started working with this concept a few weeks ago, and it got more in-depth than I had originally planned, so I decided to make this into a series. We’ve already discussed the D, I and S personalities, so, we’ll be working with the C personality this week using the same 10 Productivity Hacks and how they apply to the Cautious personality.
And, because this episode drops on a very special day for me, (it’s my birthday), there will be a special offer at the end of the episode so stay tuned for that.
As a quick refresher, the 10 productivity hacks we’ve been talking about are:
Productivity Hack #1- find the Sweet spot - for more insight on that, listen to the first episode listed in the show notes or the episode talking specifically about the sweet spot, which is also listed there.
Productivity Hack # 2 is the 2 minute tidy which can apply to personal or business, although I know this is one that the C personality may struggle with. More on that in a few minutes.
Productivity Hack #3 is to use a Timer a secret weapon of productivity, although it has a different purpose for the C personality than the other 3.
Productivity Hack #4 is to complete One load of laundry per day -This one may help the C personalities who struggle with perfectionism.
Productivity Hack #5 is to use a Paper Calendar if you have a family - For every Cautious personality who’s plate feels precariously full, this one is for you.
Productivity Hack #6 is to have Weekly Meetings - These work in business and personal situations for all personality types, and we’ll discuss the benefits for the C personality specifically this week.
Productivity Hack #7 Meal plan - Would you like more space in your brain for important business and life projects? This one is for you.
Productivity Hack #8 Use your highest energy time well - This one is a little different for the C personality too.
Productivity Hack #9 Use your highest focus time well - Not the same as the one before, and we talk about that too.
Productivity Hack #10 Balance is an illusion - The Cautious personality can struggle with this and working with this knowledge can remove guilt and shame from your business and your life.
That’s the quick run through of the productivity hacks and now we’re going to apply them specifically to the Cautious personality type.
The C personality Is often the seemingly most productive of the personality types because they are very good at keeping busy. For them, the productivity struggle often comes from letting go of perfectionism and worrying about their work not being good enough.
I’m not saying that their work isn’t good enough, because for most people, it usually is better than good enough. It’s more that the C personality strives to be and do their best, and often, anything less than perfect is not good enough, but we’ll work on that.
The C personality is methodical and usually has a very detailed productivity plan, but I assure you that as a Cautious personality, you can use some of these hacks to improve your efficiency and make life easier for everyone, including you.
Personality hack #1, The Sweet spot may be a difficult concept for you because you tend to think that everything is important, and while that may feel true, you know some things are definitely more important than others, and you may already have a sweet spot without knowing it.
The other reason the sweet spot is important for the Cautious person is because, believe it or not, some of the messiest houses you’ll ever see belong to the out of balance C personality. Why? Because if they can’t do something completely or perfectly, an out of balance C personality won’t even start, and that can spiral into something awful, so this can be one of the most powerful things for those people to understand.
In business, Cautious personalities hate making mistakes, so they may avoid telling anyone about a mistake until it becomes a much bigger deal than it would have been if they admitted the mistake earlier. Admitting a mistake is never easy for a C person, but it’s almost impossible for an out of balance C person. We’ll talk about that more in depth later, but for now, let’s talk about the sweet spot.
In your personal life, you want to do all the things, or at least have all the things done, and if others don’t do it, you will, but you will resent it, which is why the sweet spot is so important for you. It’s a place where you can set boundaries, and sometimes it’s a private space that you keep for yourself where you can go for peace and quiet.
I know C personalities that create a reading nook or an at home office that no one else uses so that they have a clean and organized space they can go to when they need to escape the chaos of family life. Some people have even been known to use a walk-in closet or well organized basement or garage as their place of serenity, something the C personality needs to quiet their mind and breathe.
I also know a C personality that has a very beautiful yard who begins each spring with cleaning their pond. After that, they make their way around their property in a very specific order. There’s no doubt in my mind that’s the sweet spot for them.
In business, most C personalities are quite organized, but they most definitely have a sweet spot. I’ve talked about this before, but I worked with a high C personality in an accounting department when I was younger that wanted invoices reconciled in a certain way.
The people that I worked with in the media department thought she was being ridiculous and didn’t teach us how to do things her way, which made her a very grumpy person where we were concerned. One day I asked her if I was doing something wrong, and while she obviously didn’t think I would comply, she told me how she wanted her invoices turned in, and it was a simple thing to do, so I started doing it.
My interactions with that woman absolutely transformed, and we worked happily for the rest of my time with the company, so if you’re a C person, know your sweet spot at work and be willing to share it with others. You never know how well things can go if you do.
I have another friend that owns a business, and when they do their bookkeeping, they organize and pay their bills in the same order every month before they do anything else. If they do it any other way, it feels awkward and wrong, so they do the same way every time, and that gives them peace, and creating internal peace is the entire focus of these practices.
Productivity Hack #2, The 2 minute tidy is going to be one of those hacks that the Cautious personality may struggle with for several reasons. First, they cannot fathom getting anything worthwhile accomplished in 2 minutes. Second, they struggle with not finishing something or leaving something unfinished. Also, they are quite methodical, and 2 minutes barely lets them get started.
My suggestion would then be that they can extend that time to 5, 15 and up to 60 minutes, but they need, productivity hack #3, using a Timer so that there is a specific time to stop because the C personality, like the D personality can get so involved in their tasks that they forget they have an entire life to live outside the task at hand.
This is especially important if they are working with others and have families because those people may not understand the task focus of the C personality, so tempering it can truly help everyone.
For productivity hack #4, doing One load of laundry per day, can be one of the most helpful hacks because so many cautious personalities think they need to do all the laundry in one day like their mamas did, and honestly the thought of spreading it out might even feel a little blasphemous. I know it did for me at first, but when you don’t have to set aside an entire day for laundry, it frees you in so many ways, so before you dismiss it out of hand, make sure you give it a try.
I know if you have to do your laundry at a facility that this hack isn’t practical, but for everyone else, it can be a game changer, and if it causes more stress than it relieves, you can always go back to doing it all in one day if that brings you joy.
As a C personality, you have your digital calendar emblazoned in your head, so the idea of a Paper Calendar, productivity hack #5, may feel antiquated, but if you have a family, I assure you it can be incredibly helpful so you don’t have to be responsible for everyone all the time even though you might not feel ready to relinquish that responsibility just yet.
The same thing goes for productivity hack #6, Weekly Meetings whether we’re talking about personally or in business. This became quite an issue for my high C husband and me for a while once our children were mostly out of the house. During the week, we had a pretty set schedule, but on the weekends we had more flexibility in our schedule than we had in several years, and we struggled to get anything accomplished.
The problem was we didn’t have a set plan, so one of two things happened. Either we let the day slip and nothing got done or we would end up being frustrated with one another because we had different ideas of what was important, but again, we didn’t communicate, so chaos ensued.
Through thatI learned that C personalities always have a plan even if they say they don’t. I would ask my husband if he had any plans for the day, and he would say not really. If I took that at face value, I would be frustrated when I asked him to do something, and I found him doing something else, so thankfully I learned to ask what not really meant.
Usually he would list off at least a half dozen things he wanted to accomplish that, when we discussed it, would take at least half the day, so we would start negotiating from there. This is the importance of a family meeting when you have C personalities in your personal or business life because again, they have a plan in their head even when they say they don’t.
I don’t say that as a diss in any way because as a high I with ADHD it truly fascinates me that there’s always a plan versus the chaos of todos that can run rampant in my brain and never see the light of day because making a plan is challenging for me.
The Cautious personality often plans everything including meals in their head. The value of a productivity hack #7, the Meal plan then is sharing that plan so that everyone is on the same page. Now, I’ve had Cautious people tell me that they don’t share with their family because they don’t want anyone to change the plan, so they need to decide if they want the pushback now or later because if a C personality spends time making you a meal and you complain or criticize it, there will be consequences, and it’s truly demotivating for them.
One of the most difficult things for a C personality is how productivity hack #8, using your highest energy time well, changes as we age. The Cautious person may be cautious, but they most definitely have a long and descriptive to do list every single day and when they age and the amount of daily energy they have is less than they had 10 years ago, they can see it as a moral failing if they’re out of balance, but even in balance, it’s quite frustrating for them, so please be patient if you’re working with one, and they’re dealing with a new energy level in their life.
The same goes for productivity hack #9, which is using your focus time well, because so many of the C personalities used to be able to focus for an entire day, and as they age, that becomes more difficult, and while we know that happens to all of us, it seems to affect the C personality more than others. As I say often, just be kind because we all struggle with different parts of aging, and for the C personality that waning focus and/or energy level is a tough one.
If you are a C personality, there are so many things you can do to be more efficient and effective in everything you do, and you are amazing at research, so please do yourself the favor when your energy and focus start to wane and do some research. There is no one answer for everyone, but you may find yourself feeling better and better by the physical and mental things you can do to maximize the energy and focus you do have.
It won’t be perfect, which is why the C personality often struggles with productivity hack #10 that Balance is an illusion because they want everything to be perfect, and to many of them, that means balance. The happiest C personalities, though, are the ones that can at least somewhat embrace the idea of Good enough.
When they can let go of the need to be perfect, they live a much more contented life. It doesn’t mean that they don’t do extraordinary work because they will always do that, but it does mean that they make peace with having to be perfect at all times, and those that do stay healthier in many ways for much longer.
I know what I’ve talked about over the past four weeks is a lot to process. For some it may feel like you’ll never get your productivity in order, but I promise when you follow these productivity hacks, especially if you enlist help, you’ll be more efficient and have more time for the things that make your heart sing, and I have several suggestions for ways to get help. Some of which I’ll share here and some you can access later.
The first item that can help your productivity is to take a personality assessment. You can do that by clicking the link in the show notes or by going to the Moving Toward Better homepage and clicking the box at the top of the page.
You can also book a free DISCovery call with me. We might resolve your issue in that 15 minute conversation. We might schedule a one time strategy session or something more in depth, but I assure you that whatever we chat about, you’ll feel better about yourself and your life when we’re finished, and you’ll have some next steps to help you live better based on your personality rather than someone else’s plan that may or may not work for you. You can do that in the show notes or from the Moving Toward Better homepage as well.
Oh, and remember that special offer I talked about? As I mentioned before, I have a Productivity by Personality course and because it’s my birthday, I’m extending a special offer to anyone who purchases the course between now and April 30, 2024. In addition to the course, I’ll be running a 5 day productivity challenge I’ll be hosting from May 1st through 6th. We’ll kick things off with a workshop on May 1st, have daily check-ins and end with a Zoom celebration on May 6th, so you’ll get an introductory workshop on productivity, a 5 day productivity challenge and a Zoom celebration in addition to the course.
So, check out the show notes or go to the Moving Toward Better homepage to sign up for the path you need to start living better asap.
As always, if you like what you’ve heard, please share and subscribe.
Until next time, keep moving toward better, whatever that looks like for you.
Love you all!
Show Notes
This week we talk about Productivity Hacks for the Cautious personality to help them balance their productivity with their love of perfection.
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Thanks for listening, and if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share so others can benefit from it too.
Finding the Sweet Spot Episode - https://www.movingtowardbetter.com/podcasts/moving-toward-better/episodes/2148562147
Productivity by Personality Part 1 - https://www.movingtowardbetter.com/podcasts/moving-toward-better/episodes/2148575301
Productivity by Personality Part 2 - https://www.movingtowardbetter.com/podcasts/moving-toward-better/episodes/2148579853
Productivity by Personality Part 3 - https://www.movingtowardbetter.com/podcasts/moving-toward-better/episodes/2148583054
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