Could talking to yourself make you more productive?
Photo by Katerina Holmes from Pexels
Do you ever talk to yourself? And no, I don’t mean that nasty “self-talk” voice in your head who’s intent on criticizing you.
I mean talking to yourself out loud.
As you go about your business, helping you get through the day, helping you stay on task.
Have you ever tried this form of out loud self-talk?
Well, I've got a theory and I want to share it with you.
So here it is: When you talk to yourself, out loud, you can only say one thing at a time which helps make prioritization easier (since we can only do one thing at a time) and helps reduce overwhelm. When you're just thinking, and it's all in your head and you can think many things at once. Your thoughts can be jumbled. You can start to ruminate or spin out.
But you can only say one thing at a time. So, you have to slow down your thinking, because your thoughts are being formed into coherent speech. To me, an avid practitioner of this type of out loud self-talk, It feels like when I speak, I’m forcing your brain into a linear thought pattern. I’m not multitasking my thoughts anymore. So it’s easier figure out the path forward.
Now, I’m not the first person to have found that talking to yourself out loud is helpful. In fact, there’s research that shows that talking to yourself out loud, what psychologists call “external self-talk”, helps you learn as well as a provides a host of other benefits.
But I want to talk about how to can help you with productivity and stress.
Encouraging this external self-talk is a technique I use with my clients quite frequently. They might come to me with a complex project or task or problem. And it feels overwhelming. And they’re not sure how or where to start. So, I’ll start, by asking them to talk me through it, out loud. I'll ask what needs to happen first, and then what after that. And then magically (but not really magically), the project or problem or task now seems straightforward and manageable. It's now a set of small, achievable steps. It’s no longer a scary, incomprehensible mess.
Now, you might be thinking, "but I could just walk myself through that process in my head" instead of talking out loud, where people might look at me funny. And I get it. But if you’re feeling a bit self-conscious, then just experiment and see which method is more effective. I think you might be surprised.
How can you put this into practice?
Break down complex project/problems
When working out a plan for a project, task or problem, ask yourself the following questions, out loud, and then answer yourself, out loud.
What is the end goal here?
What’s the first step?
What's the next step?
And don’t forget to document what you’ve uncovered so you don’t lose it.
Stay focused and on task
When you're trying to get yourself to take action on something or you’re working on something complex, talk yourself, out loud, through the steps as you're doing them. Your brain won't be distracted by other things. Because it's forming the thoughts into worlds in support of your goal.
Writing
When you're writing, say the words out loud to yourself as you write, or use voice typing technology.
You can't backspace your speech, so you'll get a first draft out faster and you can then get to editing.