How to Become More Productive?
There are probably thousands of articles out there on becoming more productive. However, people still struggle with problems like procrastination and don’t find themselves making the most out of their day.
That’s probably because it can be overwhelming to follow a plethora of ways, tips and methods to increase productive all at once.
So here are we, discussing not tens, but just 4 ways of becoming more productive that are not only simple to follow, but would help boost your productivity as soon as you start to follow them with some determination.
1. Planning Your Day in Advance
A lot of the problems that lead to procrastination are a result of not having any plans for the day and just trying to do things as they come. This approach can never allow you to be productive enough.
So, what you can do is simply plan your day in advance. You would ideally want to do it the night before, as this may also make you feel relaxed about what’s going to come the next day.
This, in turn, may help you sleep better, and wake up more energized. However, the more important thing is that you will be able to hit the ground running and just be more productive throughout the day.
This is because you will have a clear idea of what you need to do next and how much time you should be taking to do it. It’s a great way to cut out distractions, as if you’re struggling to get the things done that you had planned in the time that you wanted to, your mind may not wander off to things that may make it harder for you to stick to your plan.
2. Trick Your Brain into Learning Productive Habits
The reason most people struggle with being productive is that they have let their brain develop unproductive habits. These primarily include spending time on sites you love to even when you’re supposed to work.
To work on giving up on these habits and learn the habit of being productive when you’re in your “work” mode, you can use an app like Self-control for Mac and Self-Restraint if you’re a Windows user.
When you’re starting to work on something important, you can use these apps to block certain websites for a certain amount of time. Once you do that, there’s NOTHING you can do to access those sites until the time you set is up, meaning that you will have no option but to go back to your work whenever you feel distracted and feel like spending time on time-wasting sites when working.
This will eventually help your brain learn the habit of being productive, and after a few weeks, you wouldn’t even have to use the said apps; your brain will automatically prevent you from getting distracted until the task you’re working on is completed.
3. Avoid Checking Your Phone Before Hitting the Bed
Too many of us tend to spend a lot of time on our phone checking social media notifications and whatnot, right before going to bed. However, studies have revealed that doing so drastically lowers the quality of your sleep, and of course, not getting the kind of sleep you need can make it a struggle to get through work the next day smoothly and efficiently.
That said, it’s highly recommended to turn off your phone and other electronic media 30 to 60 minutes before hitting the bed.
4. Avoid Multi-Tasking
No, multi-tasking doesn’t help you be more productive, but instead, it does the exact opposite of that! When you’re multitasking, you’re doing several things at once but the focus and concentration just aren’t there.
Needless to mention, your overall efficiency takes a hit, and you end up spending more time on each task than you otherwise would. Of course, the quality of work, too, turns out to be inferior to what you could have achieved had you been working on them one at a time.
So, to put it in short, just avoid multi-tasking, especially when working on tasks that call for some level of concentration and aren’t just mindless, repetitive tasks.
