The year just got started and things may be getting complicated already as tasks fly in here and there. It is important to note that to get the best out of your time, you should not only be able to manage your time well – you also need to manage your activities to ensure that you are productive at all times.
Here are five simple ways to help you be more productive, whether at work or even in your personal life.
- Avoid multi-tasking
Multi-tasking is seen as a productivity myth, while others consider it to be a productivity magic. To some, multi-tasking reduces efficiency, while others believe doing a lot of things at the same time helps you save time.
Our brains have a limited amount of focus available, and while it may seem like you’re adequately focusing on the tasks at hand, you’re actually hindering your ability to properly think and focus on what you’re doing. Instead of exhausting your brain by forcing it to work overtime on a number of things, try focusing on one specific task. One task after the other will bring you better results.
2. Take breaks
We sometimes trick ourselves into thinking that working longer hours without breaks will help us get more accomplished. But taking a break actually increases productivity. Some research have shown that those who work at a task for long periods of unbroken time are actually experiencing a gradual decline in cognitive performance – but short breaks during work lead to a consistent level of performance and productivity.
You can set reminders or alarms to help you take intentional breaks.
3. Manage Your Goals
Goals, expectations, and deadlines serve as a necessary structure for increasing and maintaining productivity. Every task you undertake should have a deadline, even if the project is open-ended. Self-imposed deadlines foster a greater sense of time-awareness and urgency, and the level of stress that comes from an approaching deadline has been shown to be beneficial to productivity and effective time management.
To manage your goals, ensure you prioritize your activities, give them deadlines and stay committed to meeting those deadlines.
4. Minimize distractions
In a world full of technology, social media and apps sending notifications literally every minute, we need extra intentionality to remain focused. If your phone will be a distraction to you, put it on airplane mode or do not disturb. If you need a full hour to word with no distractions, you can opt to either keep the phone away or off.
Identify what will be a distraction to your productivity and do away with it.
5. Be Kind to Yourself
Distraction is a basic part of human nature, and so it’s to be expected from all of us. Forgive your mistakes. Dwelling on errors or lack of productivity is part of a vicious cycle that only further decreases productivity. Accept that you’re human, and know that focusing and being productive is a lot like riding a bicycle: they get easier the more you practice, and even the best fall down from time to time.
How do you stay productive at work?
