What I did to boost my productivity and how it resulted

I’ve been trying a few things to boost my productivity for over a month now. I got ideas from some admired people who had at least one or two things to say over productivity and also I thought some of them by myself — possibly coming from my blurry experiences. I’m a lean goer, so I don’t seek and find those people’s names and ideas just to write here but instead, I’d like to share my one month of experiments over productivity.

1. Timeboxing

This is the first one I have started with. I have read the Pomodoro Technique and decided to give it a try. Eventually, I’m still using this technique but in a minimal way: timeboxing. The main thing it protects you against is procrastination. Got some work to do? Divide and conquer. Split the work into small chunks. Don’t know where to start? Just start doing it. Set your timer to 25 minutes and just look at the work you need to get done.

You cannot know how to make it work unless you start it somehow. I’ve been using timeboxing for the last 2 months and it helps me to clear my head. I just sit down and start the small chunk. When I start, I know that I will sit there for only 25 minutes; then I will give a break. But by pushing myself to start, I’m helping myself to get the idea behind the work and I’m getting used to the task unknowingly.

2. Waking up early

I mean, really early… Like 4 AM. I could not wake up at that hour continuously and there is a reason for that (to be told later on this text). But if I can make myself wake up pretty early, I’m giving myself the perfect work environment: Everybody is on their sleep, you’re alone working. The motivation it gives you is another thing: You get to accomplish pretty heavy amount of work even before the work day has begun.

3. Cold showers

It is one of the most helpful things to boost my productivity. It helps me to really wake up. I’m still taking cold showers everyday even if I cannot wake up as early as 4 AM. It sounds scary, I know. You can also feel that you might get sick. You know what? I’ve been doing this for over a month now and I don’t want to take a hot shower anymore. Just try it!

4. Low carb diet

This one is very tricky. I’m an above-average weighted person. I like to eat. I also like to run occasionally. I found out that if I eat meals full of carbs, my stomach gets filled pretty quickly and I start to feel tired. The last year I lost almost 20 kgs (100 to 80) by doing a ketogenic diet (low carb-high fat) and running 3–4 times a week. And since my wedding is coming, I decided to lose some weight along with boosting my productivity. So I started the ketogenic diet again. I quit, just tomorrow. Why? Because having a diet containing low carbs is pretty good. You feel healthy and fresh all the time. But you know what? Extremity is dangerous :) You need carbs to work properly. Over the last two weeks, I had been falling asleep from time to time. I needed to sleep maybe over 10 hours. And this was also the cause of not being able to wake up at 4 AM. I quit and I got my stamina back. So, my advice on this is that just don’t get meals full of carbs into your diet. That way, you can feel less tired.

5. Be busy

This one is also very interesting. I found out that when I’m busy, I get more work done. I believe this is due to two reasons. The first one is that you don’t get to have free times. Having free times (and I mean, really free times — like you don’t know what do you want to do) is like being in an infinite loop. If you are in a free time, then you keep being in that free time. Otherwise, if you keep yourself busy, you keep being busy. It’s like basic physics law of inertia. The second one is mostly motivational. When you get something done, you get a boost in your morale. You finished something, so why don’t you finish another one? It’s alright if you can’t finish another one, because you have already finished something that day. Now think of the opposite: You haven’t finished anything today. You must finish something. It feels like being oppressed by someone telling you constantly that “you are wasting your time, today is totally wasted.” It makes you feel terrible. And if you have low morale, you certainly have low odds finishing something up quickly.

Being busy really helps. I’m constantly reading books between my time boxes, for example. That way, my work and learning processes support each other motivationally and I don’t waste time.

What are your ways to boost your productivity?