Small Habits That Triple Your Work Productivity, By Enneagram Type

With any personality type, your greatest strengths can become your weaknesses. Maybe you focus on always doing more, more, more...which sounds productive until it leads to burnout. Or maybe you're a perfectionist who can't delegate any tasks, no matter how small.

Whatever your focus of attention, it could become a roadblock to your productivity. 

To avoid these pitfalls, incorporating small habits into your daily routine can make all the difference. Here's how to do it, according to your Enneagram type.

Type One: Be Good Enough, Not Perfect

Type Ones set impossibly high standards for themselves and try to do everything as perfectly as possible. You know you're tipping into unhealthy territory when you spend hours tweaking a simple presentation and obsess over doing it “right.” This level of perfectionism is toxic. It can bog you down and take your time and focus away from tasks that truly matter. 

How to triple your productivity:

• Run a cost-benefit analysis on this particular work task. How much of your time is it really worth in the great scheme of things? Now set a timer for yourself and stick to it.
• Before you begin a task, ask yourself: “What’s the most important thing I need to accomplish here?” Make this your focus, not the million other little things that could be done better. Get it done, take a breath, and hit send.
• Remind yourself that this is a job, not who you are as a person. Sometimes, you'll deliver excellence and other times you'll keep the machine running with good enough. This does not reflect poorly on your character.

Type Two: Say “No Thanks”

Type Twos are notorious for being unable to say "no," even when they have a full plate. You want to help and make people happy, often at the expense of your own productivity, because your self-worth is tied up in the approval of others. But saying "yes" to every piece of office housework and overcommitting steals time from what you need to achieve.

How to triple your productivity:

• Politely say "no" to extra tasks when you’re already stretched too thin. Try: "I wish I could, but my schedule is full right now," or, "I’m only focusing on — right now. Next quarter I might be able to take on another —."
• Delegate. Create a list of people who can help instead of you this time, and (with their permission) hand out their numbers.
• Before the word "okay" comes out of your mouth, pause and ask yourself: "Will this task advance my goals or someone else's?"  If the answer is "someone else's," politely decline.

Type Three: Break Down Big Goals

Type Three success-oriented dynamos seem to have no problem with productivity.  Doing it all comes naturally to you, and you do it with polish and panache. But you can be so focused on doing more that you forget to prioritize. Productivity isn’t about doing as much as you can just to be busy, but about accomplishing what you need and want to, as efficiently as possible, so you’re spending your day on what’s truly necessary or important to you. 

How to triple your productivity:

• Decide what you have to do today, and make a plan to get it done. If you want to go beyond the strictly necessary, figure out how much time you have left and pick a project that fits within that. You can always do more tomorrow.
• Make use of the Eisenhower Matrix. Is it urgent? Is it important? Do those tasks first. Then, next time, plan your schedule so there’s as little as possible left on the urgent list and you can focus on what’s important.
• Spend less time on your appearance. Take a leaf from Steve Jobs' book and wear the same thing every day to reduce distractions and decision-fatigue. Spend your decision-making power on work, not wardrobe.

Type Four: Let Yourself Be Bored

Type Fours may struggle with productivity for two reasons: your feelings of boredom or lack of inspiration get in the way, or you get paralyzed trying to express the unique and intense way you experience the world, which can make it difficult to focus on mundane tasks.

How to triple your productivity:

• Break the task down into tiny steps. Get each step done in short bursts of activity, then worry about how you feel.
• Set a timer for 25 minutes and work steadily until it goes off, at which point you can take a break. During those 25 minutes, don’t fret about if the deadline is too far or not far enough out to motivate you – just focus on now.
• Remind yourself that boredom is okay. You don't have to be constantly stimulated or creating something groundbreaking because you are more than your work. Sometimes, for this day or this project, it's okay to think of it as just a job to get done, not an expression of who you are. 

Type Five: Take Breaks to Re-Orient

As a Type Five, you have an intense focus on your work and can become so consumed by it that you lose touch with what’s most important right now. You may go so far in your pursuit of more knowledge that you make jobs unnecessarily time-consuming, or forget the ones on your to-do list altogether. As a deep-thinking nonconformist, you sometimes reinvent the wheel, even for mundane tasks.

How to triple your productivity:

• Set timers for yourself. When they go off, take a break, even if you're in the middle of something “important.” Use this time to reassess your tasks. Are you working on the right ones? Have you done too much research? Are you getting distracted by new information? Is that information essential or just interesting? Set boundaries for your work time and save the deep dives and rabbit holes for your leisure time.
• Enlist others to add their expertise and to speed up your pace when you get lost in your thoughts.
• Follow established, efficient procedures for mundane tasks, to just get them done.

Type Six: Build a Reasonable Safety Net

As a Type Six, you are skilled at multitasking and can often be very productive. You’re also good at forming alliances to help you feel safe. But your fear of trying anything new or worrying about what could go wrong can either paralyze you into inactivity or leave you over-checking everything to avoid a mistake or potential threat.

How to triple your productivity:

• Establish reasonable safety measures. Reminder notifications, a proofreading buddy, or a double-checking system can all provide a safety net so you can forge ahead without obsessing over what-ifs.
• Use your skills at building a trusted team to give you the support you need to get things done.
• Take calculated risks. For example, hire a new freelancer on a small project to test the waters while still having your old reliable team as a backup, or try a new productivity system for a week to see if it works for you. Don’t let fear hold you back from trying something that could potentially increase your productivity.

Type Seven: Focus on Your Top Two

Type Sevens are playful, energetic and have multiple interests and passions. You love variety and dislike boredom, so you may take on too much at once. It's common for you to run out of time to finish things, sacrifice quality for quantity, or get so distracted by something new that you forget to finish your most important project on time.  You may end up doing bits and pieces of everything without completing anything at all.

How to triple your productivity:

• Find playful ways to approach your current project so you don’t get so bored you abandon it. Can you have a friendly competition with a coworker to see how quickly and well you accomplish a task? Can you incorporate music or new locations to make it more interesting?
• Limit yourself to two projects at a time, or whatever that reasonable number is for your workload. Then keep a notebook with the overflow of ideas, tasks and projects that you can start on after you finish your top two.
• Recruit an organized colleague to keep you on track.

Type Eight: Delegate, Trust & Let Go

Type Eights don’t accept the status quo or authority for authority’s sake. You take a strong stand for what’s right and like to be seen as powerful and in control. You can be a force for good and fiercely loyal, but you may also be quick to fight and slow to trust. This can make others less willing to work with you.

How to triple your productivity:

• Pick your battles. You can’t fight for every cause all at once, so prioritize what needs doing now, including both the mundane jobs and your top causes, and break them down into steps and deadlines.
• Try not to make everything into a battle of wills. Fighting imaginary dragons just uses up time and energy you could save for getting the job done.
• Decide ahead of time who you trust, then seek their help instead of trying to take all the control (and burden) onto your own shoulders.

Type Nine: Set Small Goals

Type Nines are easygoing and supportive team players. You're good at keeping the peace and work best when things are calm, slow and steady. Where you may struggle is when things need to be done quickly. Your go-with-the-flow style and unwillingness to ruffle any feathers could lead to procrastination and difficulty setting priorities.

How to triple your productivity:

• Make yourself ask for what you need, nicely but firmly, such as making sure a coworker meets their deadline so you can complete your part of the project.
• Choose times, when the job is urgent, to pick up your pace a little, knowing you can return to your chill style at the end of the day.
• Focus on the job at hand, instead of constantly taking the emotional temperature of the room. Work in a different location if you have to, away from interruptions, to help you stay on task. Take care of your part and let others manage their own calm unless they ask for your help.