How to increase your productivity.

This article demonstrate realistic and applicable principles that can be implemented to enhance how to increase your productivity.

Productivity is the process where an individual understands his goals. Identifies the tasks that need to be focused on to help him achieve those goals.

Sets a time frame to accomplish the goals, and makes sure to accomplish them within the specified time frame.

You reach the end of your workday and read through your to-do list and realize that you have barely completed half of your task for the day.

You’ve been at your desk all day, working effortlessly. Yet none of your important tasks has been done, except for a few tasks that are optional.

Being productive means getting the most out of your time. It means being efficient and effective with your work.

It’s a good idea to set important goals daily. If you know exactly what you have to do and the time you need to complete it, then it becomes much easier to accomplish such tasks. Proper planning is the secret to peak productivity.

Use these principles as a guide to help increase your productivity

1. Create a Plan

One of the most important factors that’ll boost your productivity is to set goals and create a plan. If you have a specific goal in mind, you’ll be more likely to work towards it. And if you have a plan of what you need to do, you’ll be more likely to stay on track.

2. Make a to-do list

Write down all of your tasks, as well as everything you would like to accomplish for the day/week. Be as concrete, specific, and reasonable about your tasks as possible.

If you are spending all your time thinking of things you need to put on your list, that can be as bad as not keeping anything at all. Try to create your to-do list in one sitting and don’t let yourself add to it throughout the day unless you have to.

3. Set goals

Whatever you do, always set realistic and achievable goals for yourself. How long do you have to plan, create, and activate. Don’t let yourself quit until you’ve accomplished the goal you set for yourself.

Make sure to break your goal into daily, weekly and monthly task. This makes it much easier for you to measure your success on daily basics, once you are unable to complete your task for a day then you are lacking behind, and you know it immediately.

Try to be positive about your goals and don’t let them intimidate you. Know that you can accomplish them if you stay focused.

Consider creating rewards or punishments for yourself around your goals. Promise to treat yourself with something you want when you accomplish your task. Threaten yourself with an undesirable consequence, such as donating money to a cause.

This works best if you can hand over control of the reward or punishment to a friend who won’t let go back on your agreements.

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4. Keep your tools and materials organized

Nothing will slow you down like not knowing where to find some vital file or object, or having to search through emails to remember the time of an appointment. Create robust systems to file information, store instruments, and record your appointments.

5. Become an Early Riser

This is an important productivity hack that needs to be considered. If you really wants to boost your productivity and amplify your performance. Ever since I decided to start waking up early every day, my productivity level has increased dramatically.

Most people aren’t up that early, so no one can bother you or disrupt you from what you want to do. A productive person will use this time to exercise, meditate, and get ahead with his task. It could be difficult for some to wake up early in the morning when others are still sleeping, but nothing beats a quiet workplace.

Before others come to join you, chances are you would have completed almost all of your task for the day.

6. Celebrate Small Wins

Every time you check off a task from your to-do list, you automatically release a “happy chemical” in your brain and this chemical is called dopamine. Dopamine gives you the motivation to move forward and accomplish other task you have for the day.

For example, after I have finished writing this article and crossed it off my list of things to do today. I’ll get a nice burst of “happy chemicals” released in my brain. This gives me a sense of accomplishments.

7. Avoid Interruptions

Interruptions are the major barriers that steals a significant amount of people’s time everyday, making them achieve little after spending so much time on a task. Interruption from phone, social medial notifications, and from colleges.

Engaging in a conversation with a college when you have a serious task ahead of you. Every time you’re interrupted in the middle of a task, your level of productivity takes a hit and it usually takes a while for you to become as focused as you where earlier.

In this process, you are loosing time. Meanwhile, your goal is to be able to accomplish a lot more with less time so its important you cut off all form of distraction during your working hours.

For instance: you’re fully focused in an important project until suddenly, the workplace chatterbox appears out of nowhere and starts talking about the crazy night they had last weekend.

By the time s/he’s gone, you’ve already forgotten where you were, and it could take a lot of time to get back on track.

8. Shut Down the Digital Disruptions

The most common time wasters include mobile phone notifications, social media notifications, instant messenger, television, and extraneous internet surfing, as I have mentioned earlier.

Talking about productivity, its important you put your phone on silence while at work. Switch of your notifications and avoid unnecessary conversations.

9. Measure Your Success

Every now and then, it’s a good idea to measure your results and see how far you have done.

Are you moving towards the right direction? How has your progress been? It’s always a good idea to track your progress regularly.

Of course, to track your progress, you need to set specific milestones, so you know that you’re on your way to achieving any goal you set for yourself.

10. Get out of Your Own Way

Sometimes, all you need to do is to get out of your own way, stop telling yourself excuses that sounds good enough for you not get the needed task done. Stop sabotaging yourself and get out of your own way so the productivity principles you are learning can become impactful to you.

Sometimes self-sabotage can be obvious, like when you completely avoid moving forward with projects. Other times, it can look like imperfection, when you are not satisfied with the end result and because of that you decided to not to try again.

You might tend to look at all the factors, reasons why you can’t be more productive, and you might blame, complain, and point fingers at everyone and everything except yourself.

When the blame cannot be directed externally, you might resort to excuses, desperately searching for a justification that will give you comfort because “you have no control over what happens.”

How many excuses do you have and live by each day? Saying you couldn’t do this because of so and so. Or you don’t have time to do this because…

Your excuses might be valid, but in the end, they’re only slowing you down; it is an avoidance technique that people subconsciously use when they don’t feel capable of completing the important tasks at hand.

Not dealing with procrastination is a clear example of standing in your own way. If you don’t tackle it, it will be there the next time you attempt to do whatever it is that you are procrastinating on.

11. Talk to Yourself Differently

Productive individuals think and talk to themselves differently. You need to challenge your thoughts and develop a productive mindset.

Say only positive things about yourself and don’t listen to people who suggests reasons why you can’t do something. Instead, try another means and find a way to get ahead.

A productive person avoids thinking about all the things they won’t be able to do for X or Y reasons and remain focused only on things they can do and will do.

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Instead, they think:

I need to do this and this. What is the best way for me to get everything done?
What is causing the stress, and what needs to change so that I manage this situation better?

How can I improve this, considering the current circumstances?

The words and phrases you use immediately empower you, or they don’t; they either make you feel better or more stressed. You can use positive affirmations as a form of positive self-talk if you aren’t sure where to start.

The words you use to talk to yourself are pivotal to everything in life because they will be your guide, whether they support you or not.

Being more productive will get much easier when your words build you up instead of tearing you down.

12. Plan a vacation day

Having a little something or a day to look forward to can increase your productivity drastically. Setting a vacation day, even if it’s just to get to the beach on a Saturday, can bring you peace in the weeks and days leading up to that trip.

Conclusion

The principles in this guide is capable of increasing your productivity, and to help you accomplish any goal you set for yourself. 

The only way to get the best result from these principles is to put them to practice and you are on your way to improve your productivity, get more done in less time, and achieve your goals faster.