We all want to be productive, but this can be easier said than done. We can get busy really quickly and before we know it, a week has come and gone without having much to show for it.
We now live in a fast-paced world and there’re many competing activities calling our attention. To help you get the best out of each day of your week, we’re sharing eight tips that have taken our productivity up a notch.
1. START EACH DAY A NIGHT BEFORE
Starting the day the night before can be life-changing. Write down the key tasks for that day, including when you will start and finish them. Planning your day a night before helps you stay organised and allows you to hit the ground running once you get out of bed.
2. REMIND YOURSELF WHY EACH TASK IS IMPORTANT
This is the whole point of planning your week ahead. Writing each task down on paper can help you visualise them and think about their urgency and importance to your personal goals. Therefore, when life happens during the day, you have something to keep you going. After all, we all need some motivation when the going gets tough.
3. GET RID OF DISTRACTIONS
We live in a noisy world where we’re constantly inundated with choices and distractions. While you can’t stop them in all entirety, you can surely minimise them, especially in your work environment.
Switch off notifications (or even your phone), adjust the music volume to a level that works for you or schedule your work for a place where no one will disturb you.
4. REMOVE BARRIERS
Similar to reducing distractions is to remove barriers as much as possible from your work environment. Minimising the amount of effort you have to make to start your work can be a game changer when it comes to overcoming overwhelm – that dreaded productivity killer.
For instance, have the tools and device you need to do your work easily accessible, instead of walking some distance every time you need them.
5. HAVE A DISTRACTION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Sometimes, we just can’t catch a break! There’s always something lurking around the corner to shift our focus away from the task at hand. Therefore, being prepared and having a strategy to handle them can make a huge difference to our output.
Interestingly, some of these distractions are not bad after all. The only thing is they’re like a good friend that comes visiting at a wrong time. For example, while it might be tempting to abandon your current task to develop a brilliant idea that has just dropped on your mind; a more effective way is to park the idea in a notebook (kept on your desk for that purpose) and work on the idea at a later time.
6. WORK IN BLOCKS OF 30 TO 90 MINUTES
No one can endlessly operate at an optimum level of productivity. Even your thermostat kicks in when the temperature of your device reaches a certain point. You get to a point where your energy drops, you get exhausted and doing anything after this point is just being busy – with little or nothing to show for your effort.
In addition, knowing you have to work for long hours non-stop may discourage you from commencing a task in the first place. Therefore, working in blocks of 30 to 90 minutes is more manageable and will allow you take regular breaks that’ll keep you refreshed throughout the duration of your tasks. Meanwhile, a timer might come in handy if you use this method.
7. TAKE BREAKS
Like we mentioned earlier, you should never overwork yourself; you need to take proper breaks to avoid stress and exhaustion. As a matter of fact, highly effective people know when to do nothing.
8. REVIEW TWEAK AND REPEAT
At the end of the week, you should make time to reflect on how the week has gone. There’re always lessons to learn, so make necessary changes and go again the following week.
So how do you manage your day? Let us know in the comment section below.
See you soon and stay productive!
P.S.: Images from unsplash.com and Rhodium Mines Media