Would you like some productivity tips to help you achieve your goals faster?
You will feel amazing when you have accomplished many things in your day and checked off everything from your to-do list!
But why do so many people struggle to get things done and are often thinking more about things than actually doing them?
Stop the procrastination and start doing the things that need to be done!
Here are 15 easy tips to implement in your daily routine to increase your productivity to its maximum!
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15 tips to increase your productivity
1. Make a Plan
Everything always starts with a plan, at least according to me. It’s wise to make a plan for the next day so you can start your new day all fresh and energized and you know exactly what to do first!
Planning your next day the night before will help you to organize your day more efficiently. You will save more time and productivity by preparing this way.
It will help to have a nice planner, paper or digital, to help you put everything together. I prefer a paper notebook for writing down more details, but important appointments are also always visible in my phone calendar.
Make a to-do list for the next day or even week so you know what you have to do the moment you wake up.
2. Take Breaks
You can’t focus all the time you want to be productive, this is humanly impossible. So that you can be the most productive you can be, you need to take some breaks between your focus periods.
One of the well-known productivity tips is maybe the Pomodoro Technique. You can use the Pomodoro Technique, which goes as follows: you focus on your task for a period of time followed by a short pause, in this case, 25 minutes focus, 5 minutes break. After repeating the working time for 4 times, you can take a break of 15 to 30 minutes.
If you are some kind of genius and are able to focus for a longer period of time, you could adjust the time settings according to your situation.
Taking enough breaks will give you time to recharge and start back with a clear mind and more focus.
3. Clean Up After You’re Done
Every time you make a mess or leave some clutter behind, try to declutter it immediately. At that specific moment, it won’t cost you a lot of time to declutter it. When you have to declutter everything you made messy throughout the day, it will seem like a whole lot of work that you probably don’t want to clean at the end of the day.
It also helps to keep your mind free when you can work or do things in a clutter-free space.
Living in a mess leads to stress. Do it instantly if you have the time, the only time that you can leave it is when you have a deadline to be somewhere!
4. Commit Yourself
If you want to be productive, you have to make a commitment to yourself to do the tasks you need to do. This could be a commitment to yourself, but it also could be to someone else!
When you are a die-hard procrastinator, you might benefit from a few deadlines to keep things exciting and urgent. You could also make some deadlines for smaller parts of a bigger task to make sure you finish the entire thing on time.
Use your planner to write your tasks down for the next day then you will be more committed. When you can check all your tasks off, this will feel great! You will feel so accomplished this way! So productive!
5. Reflect on Your Goals
You should always have long-term and short-term goals to keep in mind when doing your tasks. This way, you can prioritize the tasks you need to do first to reach those goals!
Reflect on these goals maybe once or twice a month to see whether you are making some progress.
If you are not making progress and therefore not being as productive as you would like, adjust your goals to make them more achievable or up your productivity.
Divide your big goals into smaller ones to make them feel more doable. It’s a lot easier to keep pursuing your goals if you reach one once in a while.
6. Start with the Most Difficult Task
This could mean starting your day with the task you dread the most or waiting for the time of day that you are most productive to do this.
Figure out what time during the day you are most productive, motivated, and energized. This could be early in the morning for the early birds, but some people, only start to feel awake in the afternoon.
When you are at your most productive, you should plan the biggest or most difficult task so you can give it all your focus. When you are over this hurdle, nothing can stop you now! And even if this is the one thing you do, you did the most important one so that’s not bad at all!
7. Pareto Principle – 80/20 Rule
The Pareto Principle says that 80% of the output or results you have is mostly made by 20% of the input or work.
It is all about knowing what works for you and what generates the most results. Prioritize these tasks that will help you the most in getting the desired end result!
If you are a perfectionist, you probably want to give it your 100 % or even 110% but this is really not worth the effort because it will only get you 20% more output for 80% more effort.
8. Rest and Recharge
Some of these tips for more productivity don’t seem to be so productive, but this tip will end up giving you more productivity! Resting and recharging your battery is so important!
Earlier we talked about taking regular breaks, which is good, but don’t forget to prioritize a good night’s sleep as well! When you wake up in the morning feeling well-rested, it will set you up for a great day filled with productivity!
Everything you do costs you so much more effort when you don’t sleep well. Make your sleep a priority in order to be the most productive you during the day.
If you didn’t get a good night’s sleep, maybe try a short power nap early in the afternoon. Not too late or you will set yourself up for laying awake at night.
9. Create and Stick to Routines
Productivity and routines go hand in hand, let me give you some tips about creating and sticking to routines.
A routine is something you create to get things done every day and eventually free some space inside your head. You will have to make fewer decisions during the day if you establish multiple routines.
Every day we have to make a ton of decisions, big or little it doesn’t really matter to our brains. Every decision we have to make takes away some mental energy and at some point during the day, we are done with it. We can’t think straight anymore because we use up all of our thinking capacity. There will be no more room for creative ideas as we face decision fatigue.
So what do we do? We create and stick to routines! When you stick to your routines, they become habits and that’s like going on auto-pilot when you’re doing things. You do stuff without even being properly awake or without thinking really. Habits will help you save tons of mental energy you can spend somewhere else.
Create routines that will help you to organize your day and stick to them. You will feel productivity increasing if you create the right routines for you, and as they become habits, you will feel that you have more energy left at the end of the day.
10. Single Tasking
Do one thing at a time. Multitasking really does not work. It’s possible that you can multi-task, I’m not saying you’re not capable. But it will not save you time when you multi-task.
When you focus on one task, you will get it done faster than when you are constantly trying to find your focus again because you are also doing other things. You will also do a better job when you focus on your main task.
Set aside blocks of time to do one particular task and don’t stop until you finish it. You can however take a break when it’s a big project but try to do one aspect of it at once. When it’s a big project you are working on it is smart to divide it into multiple small projects. This way you can focus on one small thing while making progress on your project and without being overwhelmed because it is a lot of work.
11. Declutter
Set aside some time at the end of your working day to declutter your workspace. When you are working it is possible that you made a little mess and if so, clean it up so you can start with a clean desk in the morning!
When you get home you probably won’t even think about cleaning because you are tired from work. Nevertheless, it would benefit you if you could spend maybe 5-10 minutes cleaning up your living area or bedroom.
A clean home will give you more rest than when you live in a messy one. Declutter a little every day to keep the mess away!
12. Fun Time
These productivity tips won’t help you unless you add this one to your list, have some fun-time!
They say to work hard and play hard, and I totally agree with this saying. When you work your ass off all day, trying to be as productive as you can be, you need some time to just have fun!
This can be whatever brings you joy. The pressure can’t be on all the time and playtime is a very good reward for all your hard work.
Choose some fun activities such as hanging out with friends, playing board games, watching TV, listening to music, or going on a trip. Plan something to look forward to, this will motivate you to push a bit harder when times or difficult. You deserve this treat!
13. Delegate Tasks
When you want to save more time, you need to be able to delegate tasks that you can easily delegate.
Don’t delegate things that you are going to micro-manage and control after someone else did it for you, this way you’ll lose time!
If you delegate easy tasks, you can focus on more specialized or more important tasks for your business or household. This could be by hiring a personal assistant or a virtual assistant to help you reply to emails, schedule appointments, etc.
If you want to delegate tasks you do in the house to your kids, husband, or wife, start with easy ones. Make sure to explain everything to them, and try to have some faith.
Now you can focus on more important tasks. There is only so much time in a day, make the most out of it!
14. Take Care of Yourself
Self-care can not be overlooked when trying to be more productive! You need to take care of yourself to keep functioning properly.
How you take care of yourself is totally up to you but there are some basic guidelines most people would benefit from like eating healthy, getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and relaxing.
You could add some things like spa days, massages, therapist sessions, hair appointments, etc.
Pick whatever you feel you need!
15. No Distractions
Create a distraction-free environment to work. Distractions can be anything from social media sites, Netflix, and your family to a loud bird chirping his lungs out, loud music from your neighbors, a gross smell, etc.
Find out what distracts you from doing your job and try to eliminate it or remove yourself from the situation.
When you are working on your computer and are constantly looking at your social media pages, try blocking those sites for a while, there exist programs for this. You could also put your phone away or set it on airplane mode to not be disturbed.
Conclusion
These productivity tips can and will help you, so go try them out!
You need to be productive as much as you need to rest and recharge, don’t forget this or you will burn up sooner or later.
Humans in general like to be productive, we are not meant to do nothing and accomplish nothing in our lives. You need to find out what you want to do in your life and then use these productivity tips to help you reach your personal goals.
Let’s have a productive day!