Are you here to learn how to be productive? We will give you 10 easy tricks to follow that will surely help you to become more productive.
Do you know what productivity means? Well, don’t get it mixed up with other things. Productivity is not about how long you stay at work or the hours you waste doing unnecessary things.
Productivity refers to the effectiveness of the effort you put into work.
It measures whether your input produces a valuable output or not. So, understand what productivity means before you start looking for how to be productive.
Many people spend hours at work without being productive. Don’t put yourself in such a pitiful situation. Let us show you the best ways on how to be productive.
How to be productive?
1. Keep track of how you spend your time
Of course, productivity has to do with you getting the most out of your time and effort. So, if you don’t know what has been taking up your time, you will have problems with becoming more productive at work. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is to keep track of how and where you are spending your precious time. It may take you a few days to fully understand how you are spending your time but it will be worth it.
What takes up most hours of your day? Are they productive things? Do you spend more time on productive activities than the unproductive ones? You need to provide honest answers to these questions if you truly want to become more productive at work. The essence of answering these questions is to help you change your focus from the irrelevant activities to the important and positive ones.
So you asked how to be productive? Know how you spend your time first so that you can take the necessary actions or adjustments.
2. Create a to-do list
Let’s be candid. Everybody has the tendency of wasting time on the least important things.
But these least important things are the major culprits of less productivity at work. One important thing that can help you in this regard is having a to-do list. The list will help you pay attention to the things that truly matter at work; hence, you can avoid those that are not essential.
When creating the to-do list, don’t make it look cumbersome. Make your list simple and easy. Avoid adding any complex tasks. Even if a complex task must be included, you can break it down to make it look simple.
List them out in the order of importance. The most vital tasks usually contribute more to your productivity than others. So focusing on them is a great way to become more productive.
Creating the list is not enough. Prioritizing and sticking with the list are the most important aspects.
To organize your to-do lists, we recommend you to check and try these 2 amazing software:
Evernote
Evernote has the capability to be the only online notepad that you’ll ever need. It is equipped with task management features, organizing notes, and creating to-do lists. What we love about Evernote is that you’re allowed to connect your devices and sync your notes and access it using any of the connected devices such as mobile phone, laptop, or desktop computer.
Click here to visit Evernote Official Website
Note: Click the link above to get a free month of Evernote Premium.
Todoist
Todoist is one of the most popular productivity applications especially in handling to-do lists. It has powerful features wherein you can create, organize, and prioritize tasks. Also, if we’re talking about large scale, you can create projects and subprojects.
Click here to visit Todoist Official Website
Note: Click the link above to get free 2 months of Todoist Premium.
3. Eliminate the distractions
Do you often spend more time checking your emails or social media pages than working? Are you fond of chit chatting excessively with your workmates? Do you tend to doze off while working? If yes, these are the distractions that will take a large chunk of your time. Well, wasting time on these things will make you less productive. So, it goes without saying that you need to get rid of these distractions.
Look for a quiet place in your workspace to work. This will send a signal to your workmates that you are not in the mood for small talks. If you have earbuds, put them on to show you are not ready for chitchat. In case all these actions don’t produce the desired result, don’t hesitate to tell your workmates that they shouldn’t disturb you.
If email notifications or social media notifications are distracting you, then you need to turn them off now. You can dedicate 10 to 15 minutes to check your emails or social media feeds after working for a couple of hours. There are also amazing innovative tools you can get that will help you eliminate distractions such as:
FocusMe
FocusMe has the tools to do time tracking, website blocking, scheduling, and many more. Their website blocking feature will block selected distracting websites that will allow you to focus more on the work instead of unwanted notifications.
Freedom
Their brand name says it all – freedom from distractions. Using this amazing tool, you will have the freedom to do all your work without these distracting websites and have the time to stay focused on what really matters the most.
4. Create small personal targets
Have you ever wondered why people often accomplish tasks or projects more when they have a deadline or target than when they don’t? It is simply because of the mental images that the deadline or target creates. Naturally, people will take action when they can picture a particular time-bound target. So, use this particular trick to work on your psychology and spur yourself to take the necessary action that can help you become more productive.
Don’t just set an unreasonable target that will be almost impossible for you to achieve. Apply the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based) technique. In other words, set a specific target that you can measure. It must be something achievable as long as you work smartly. Make sure the target is relevant to your work and has a deadline.
By creating small personal targets at work, you will have a focus. And whenever you achieve them, you will get some levels of satisfaction. Over time, this will make you more productive than ever before. This is definitely one of the ways on how to be productive.
5. Avoid multitasking - handle one task at a time
How many times have you heard about how multitasking can help you become more productive? You have probably lost count. Also, there is a faux sense of productivity that comes with multitasking. This sense makes you think that multitasking helps you get more done.
But you couldn’t be further from the truth if you have ever believed such an idea. Rather than help you maximize your time, multitasking often seems like a time-wasting exercise. This is primarily because when you multitask, you will be distracted. You will need some time to adjust when you move from a task to another.
In a study by the American Psychological Association, it was discovered that you can lose as much as 40% of your productive time when you shift from one task to another.
Henceforth, avoid any form of multitasking. Check your to-do list, pick a single task and continue doing it until you complete it. Afterward, you can move to another work until you have done everything on the list.
Again, handle one task at a time.
6. Take care of yourself
This probably doesn’t sound like what you would expect from this list. But it has been proved over time that healthy people are more productive than unhealthy ones. If you are healthy, you will be able to concentrate at work and do the things you need to do as quickly as possible. However, the reverse is the case if you are unhealthy. In fact, being sick may even force you to take some time off work. So, why not take care of yourself so that you can be more productive?
Anyway, how do you take care of yourself to be more productive? Firstly, you need to eat healthy meals. Forget about those unhealthy junks and focus on proteins, healthy fats, fruits, and other food items that can boost your well-being. Walnuts, eggs, dark chocolate, bananas, salmon, brown rice, and avocado are all known as productivity-enhancing foods. These healthy meals will fuel your body and make you remain active; hence, you are more likely to be productive.
Another thing that you need is exercise. Take a walk down your street. You can ride a bike or hike to stay active. Run, swim or get engaged in other activities that can break you away from any form of a sedentary lifestyle. Don’t be so workaholic and then forget to sleep. Sleep for 7 to 9 hours every night. With this, you won’t feel drowsy when you ought to be working.
Commit some moments of your day to meditate. Learn about how you can focus so that you will be able to get more out of your day. Taking care of yourself does not only make you more productive at work, but it also improves your overall well-being. Therefore, never overlook this particular trick.
BetterListen!
BetterListen! offers a wide variety of self help, inspirational, and transformational audiobooks, courses, streaming video and products. This means that you can find the right mindfulness or meditation guide here for you.
Sounds True
Sounds True has the world’s largest library of transformational teachings that will help you in spiritual awakening and personal transformation. On that note, Sounds True will help you to find your inner peace and will guide you on how to be mindful which contributes a lot in your productivity.
It is worthwhile to note that taking care of yourself shouldn’t be limited to your workplace only. Factually, most activities can only be done at your home. However, their benefits will reflect on your productivity at work.
7. Take a break from work
Doesn’t this sound counterintuitive when you desire to be more productive?
You want to know how to be productive and yet you’re being asked to rest.
Of course, it does. Nevertheless, if you take a closer look at this trick, you will realize how crucial it can be.
Let’s look at it this way: if you are working for a long period, a time will come that you will feel like stopping the work. Well, you may want to continue but your productivity level will drop dramatically. In fact, what you normally complete within 15 minutes may take you as much as 1 hour to be completed.
This means that forcing yourself to continue working when you don’t feel like doing so will only make you lose concentration and reduce your productivity. So, whenever you don’t feel like working, take a break for about 10 to 15 minutes. Walk around the office. Go out and see what’s going on outside. Take a cup of water. Just do anything that will take your mind off the work. When you come back, you will feel rejuvenated to continue your task. Of course, this will make you become more productive at work.
8. Find your optimal focus time
Generally, everyone has a particular time in which they perform at their optimal level. This is the time you are more productive. It may be late at night, early in the morning, midday and so on. The main thing is that you need to find your optimal focus time.
After finding the time, make sure you do most of your tasks during this period. This trick may be a bit dicey for people that work in organized places where everyone must be at work at a particular time. But you can still find a way to work around it.
If possible, you can shift your most difficult tasks toward your optimal focus time and spend other periods on the simple tasks you need to do.
9. Delegate duties
Do you often find yourself doing everything without getting enough results? Are you usually overwhelmed by different tasks? These challenges may be because you have not been delegating tasks to others. Sadly, being overwhelmed doesn’t make you more productive or effective. In fact, it has a way of making you waste your time on irrelevant activities.
Henceforward, you should learn the simple trick of delegating duties.
Learn to trust others to do different tasks.
However, you need to keep an eye on those delegates. Follow up their works to ensure that they are doing what they ought to do. There are tons of project management and collaboration tools online, so you should have no problem following up on their works. In the long run, you will have time to concentrate on the most important things. As a result of this, you will be more productive at work. Check out these amazing project management and collaboration software:
Wrike
Wrike is an all-in-one project management and collaboration software that brings thousands of teams around the globe closer to success. It connects tasks, discussions, and emails to your actual project plan. You get an up-to-date picture of the project and can keep your team aligned with your strategy without boring status meetings.
With Wrike, your teammates can collaborate on projects in real time. They are more engaged because they know exactly what to do and how their work connects to others. As tasks are handed off, new contributors get the complete context, access to previous decision-making discussions, and relevant files are already attached, so they have all the info they need.
Teamwork
A project management and collaboration software that has all the features you need to deliver amazing team deliverables without any form of miscommunication and delays. Create an efficient team that works great together!
Zoho
Zoho has many tools but one of which is the Zoho Projects which is a cloud-based project management tool that allows you and your team to plan the work, track the progress efficiently, and collaborate with your team wherever they are.
If you need something to be outsourced, we also recommend you to check out this online services website:
Fiverr
Fiverr offers a wide variety of services, if not all, which you can outsource. You can go to their website and hire freelancers to do the job for you which helps you to free up your time to do the most important work. Not to mention, the quality of the works of their freelancers are commendable.
10. Reward yourself for a job well-done
In psychology, there is something called the Reward and Punishment Theory of Motivation. This theory focuses on rewarding people for doing good and punishing them for doing a bad thing. Well, you can also use this trick on yourself to become more productive at work. That is, reward yourself after achieving any small personal target that you have set.
This trick will work on your subconscious mind and make you work all around the clock to achieve your target so that you will get the reward. Also, it makes you feel great about the target you have attained. Notably, the reward does not have to be expensive or massive. A simple treat, a few minutes on Twitter or other social media platforms or some moments to indulge in pleasurable activities can go a long way to boost your productivity at work.
Final Thoughts
In a nutshell, you should now have a good understanding of the best ways on how to be productive at work. The ball is now in your court to either follow these tricks or not. However, there are lots of benefits you will gain from following them and becoming more productive at work.
If you want to learn more about how to be productive, you may check these amazing articles that we gathered for you: