9 Steps to Reprogram Yourself and Stay Productive
We all have different ways of keeping ourselves focussed and productive. I have seen many hardworking fellow students with a variety of strategies, and there are some habits I’ve adopted myself. I don’t pretend to have a comprehensive list of all the tricks and habits that can work. However, I do think that there is an underlying theme to these approaches. Here, I want to share what I believe to be some of the essentials to keep in mind.
Step 1: Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Different approaches work for different people, so it is important to sit down and assess yourself to figure out what works for you best. Some of the things worth asking yourself are:
- What do I find passion in?
- What is most important to my happiness and sense of fulfillment?
- When are the times when I was really focussed on something?
- When do I get distracted or unproductive?
- How long can I keep myself focussed?
For instance, I find that I can focus well when I feel excited about something, such as when I am working on an idea or vision that I care about, or solving a non-trivial problem. I work better when I have someone in mind whom I want to impress, or if I can feel my progress and growth. On the other hand, I tend to lose momentum once I lose my enthusiasm towards the vision I started off with. I often get distracted when I am trying to finish multiple tasks at once, and during lockdown, I noticed that I am spending too much time on my social media news feed.
Once you have identified what makes you excited and productive, and what is preventing you, you can start adapting your schedule and daily routine to your advantage. For instance, when I start a new project or set a goal for myself, I tell my close friends about it to make myself committed and motivated. Writing on Medium is also a great way of keeping myself motivated to learn new things and reflecting upon the things I have learnt.
Step 2: Identify Your Purpose and Priorities
When you want to use your time wisely, it is important to identify what you mean by a “meaningful use of your time”. I will be honest here and admit that I am far from perfect. There are many hours in my day in which I don’t produce any apparent progress. Having said that, my goal is not about optimising the use of every single minute of my day. What matters is that you feel satisfied with how you spent your time while being aware of your purpose and your priorities.
A big mistake I used to make is to reduce the hours of my sleep. If you are someone as busy as Elon Musk, you might have justification for that. You might have spent every single minute of your day purposefully and meaningfully to the extent that you might not have any other alternative. However, most people cannot claim to have spent all their waking hours for things that are truly valuable to them. At least for me, pulling an all-nighter has usually been a result of my bad planning and procrastination, rather than because I had 10 other grand missions to save the world. By pulling an all-nighter, you not only sacrifice your health and the quality of your work, but that damage carries on to the next few days when you could have been more productive, creating a vicious cycle. So I would say, reduce your hours of sleep only if you can do so healthily and sustainably. Otherwise, you can always make an extra hour by cutting out something that is low on your priority list.
So what should you cut out?
The answer will depend on what you want to achieve. An important thing is to be aware of your purpose. Let’s say you are scrolling through Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. If you don’t have a purpose, you are just consuming information passively. If you let the stimulation take control over you, you might end up spending hours on the platform having gained very little. On the other hand, if you are actively seeking information or trying to learn from their UX or their revenue model, you navigate such platforms with a totally different intent and efficiency. You will probably learn far more than a passive user.
We also have to be careful when you start off having a purpose but then you forget about it and allow yourself to be a passenger rather than a driver. Reading a book is a good example. You don’t read a book just to see the number of pages you’ve flicked through increase. You have a set purpose, which is to gain knowledge from the book. If you are losing focus and reading the same lines over and over again, or if the book is not yielding useful information, close the book and open another book, or take a short break and come back with renewed focus.
There is one thing that you can’t really plan in advance — socialising. These things happen organically and spontaneously, so even if you have a beautifully planned out schedule, you may have to abandon it if you value the time you spend socialising. Again, it depends on what kind of value and meaning you assign to such interaction. Personally, I look for enjoyment, relaxation and refreshment, so I prefer to be flexible once I decide to join a social gathering. I try to balance that out by choosing how frequently I join such gatherings.
Step 3: Visualise Your Goals and Accomplishments
Goals that are not written down can be easily dismissed or forgotten. I have a bulletin board in front of my desk where I write what I want to do in big fonts with a thick marker. If you have multiple tasks, this is a good way to off-load your brain so that it can focus on one specific task until it has been accomplished.
Seeing yourself making progress is really motivating and can amplify your productivity. When I was studying for my entrance exam, I had a list of exercise books I have to finish with a progress bar next to it. When I complete a chapter, I colour the progress bar in so that I can see my progress even before I finish an entire book.
While it isn’t good to be overly self-confident, looking back upon your past achievements and things you are proud of is also a good way to reignite your motivation, especially when you are feeling burnt-out or have lost your self-esteem. We are all human (hello, GPT-3!) and we all make mistakes and have failures. Upon these tough times, it is good to have something that can remind you of your value and how you have overcome many other challenges before.
Step 4: Find a Companion. Have Motivated People Around You.
It would be ideal if you could motivate yourself persistently to achieve whatever goals you set. I do enjoy programming, online courses and listening to podcasts, so for those I don’t need external assistance. However, for the things which aren’t necessarily enjoyable but still important for life, such as preparation for exams, it is good to have a companion.
During my undergraduate studies, I was fortunate to have a study partner who really helped me keep focussed and motivated. She was much better than me at planning out study schedules and making this a daily routine. She would often ask me questions, which forced me to revise the material so that I can give her a proper answer.
With COVID-19, physical study sessions have become rather difficult. Although it is slightly inconvenient, remote companionship also does the trick. I have friends who keep their Zoom or Skype on while they study in silence with their friends, or even with their family.
Companionship can also work outside of study. During the lockdown, I joined a remotely organised six-week event of building a web service from scratch. There were more than a hundred participants who joined, and we formed a team of three to build our product. Although we only had two hours of Zoom classes each week, it was very motivating to have teammates, and to know that there are a hundred other students who are working on a product of their own. There were some teams where no one had prior experiences of building a web service, but after six weeks, they came out with a working product. This shows how such initiatives can make you push your boundaries.
Step 5: Warm Up with Something Simple and Easy
It is very difficult to force yourself to do something when you really aren’t in the mood. Getting up from bed and going for a run, for instance, is one such example. Especially during winter, the thought of going outside in the cold for a run is not appealing when you are warm in bed. That is why it is helpful to break things down into smaller steps which gradually prepares you for the ultimate goal.
The trick is to start with something very easy that you can do passively. I found that a good way to start my day is to listen to an episode of a motivational podcast. After 10 minutes, I feel slightly more awake. On a sunny summery day, I go out for a run immediately, but in the winter, I spend an extra five minutes on a warm-up exercise in my room while listening to music. When I finish that, I feel awake enough to brace the cold.
The same strategy can be applied when you feel that you want to do something that is bad for your productivity — like binge-watching some series on YouTube. You know that you should go back to work, but the temptation is strong and you feel addicted. It would be very difficult to just start working, because you aren’t in the proper mindset. Here, you also want to start with something easy and passive. Listen to an episode of a motivational podcast / audiobook, calm yourself down with a cup of tea, clear your desk and get back to work.
Step 6: Set Up a Productive Routine
A painless and easy way to bringing yourself to a proper mindset is to make that process a habit. The key is to make that habit something enjoyable. Audiobooks have been one of my favourite pass time since when I was a kid, and recently I learnt about some really good podcasts. Since listening to podcasts and running go together very well, this motivated me to properly adopt running as my habit, which has become my new hobby. Many of the podcasts I listened to were either educational or motivational, which helped me start the day off with increased energy.
Step 7: Create Associations and Separations
Warm ups, routines and habits are all about training the brain to move into productive mode when you perform certain actions in sequence. This works because the brain learns what to expect, and tunes into the right state of mind you want to be in. More broadly, this is about creating associations.
It could be useful to create additional cues for your brain to indicate that you are switching from leisure mode to productive mode. Some people like to relax in their rooms and study in the library. Separating out where you sleep and where you work is helpful to make you sleep better without anxiety, and be more focussed when you are working.
What I found helpful is to have two laptops, one for work and another just for leisure (usually I won’t be able to afford two laptops, but the department provided me with a laptop). In this way my brain knows to switch gears when I switch laptops. It also helps me monitor the time I spend on my leisure laptop, so that I feel guilty if I spend too much time on it.
Step 8: Make it Effortless to be Productive and Difficult to be Distracted
Designing your work space is important for increasing your productivity. Putting your daily and weekly goals on the wall, clearing your desk, maybe even changing your background image of your laptop and smartphone to a motivational quote that matters to you are some of the effective ways to remind yourself to be productive.
Another way to subconsciously signal to your brain to be productive is to make it effortless to be productive and costly to be counterproductive. Setting up app blockers are one such effective way. If you want to make an exception and have a sneak-peak at your Facebook, make sure you don’t let yourself get away with it without at least a bit of sacrifice. Even something as simple as doing 10 pushups every time you are tempted to open your social media might be enough to discourage you from doing that too often.
Distraction is the biggest enemy of all. A notification on your phone can easily break your concentration for 30 minutes straight. If you want to keep focussed and get things done, it won’t hurt to set your phone on airplane mode for an hour.
Step 9: Say it Out Loud, Monitor Your Progress and Turn Your Words into Action
The final step is the most important — do the thing!
Committing to your plans and goals is a challenge. It is so easy to give up mid-way and allow yourself to get away with it. That is why writing down your goals is useful, and even better, to tell someone else about your goals. This will make you more responsible to follow your goals.
Decide on a measure or a weekly / monthly target to keep track of your progress and monitor your performance. These targets can start small. When I started running, I decided to run only on sunny days and run a minimum of 1 mile. When I feel like it, I would run 4 miles or even 8 miles. This flexible goal has allowed me to be persistent without quitting. I also told a lot of my friends about this new habit I adopted because I was very excited about it.
To Recap
Here is the summary of all the steps:
- Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses
- Identify Your Purpose and Priorities
- Visualise Your Goals and Accomplishments
- Find a Companion. Have Motivated People Around You.
- Warm Up with Something Simple and Easy
- Set Up a Productive Routine
- Create Associations and Separations
- Make it Effortless to be Productive and Difficult to be Distracted
- Say it Out Loud, Monitor Your Progress and Turn Your Words into Action
Make your goals something you feel excited about, so that you are compelled to tell your friends and family. This will then make you commit to those goals. I don’t know about your brain, but my brain is lazy by default and easily distracted, so it is very important to make it clear why something needs to be done and what I get out of it. Designing a routine, a habit and an environment also helps our brain to operate with increased productivity and incentive.
Thank you for reading this through! As I said at the start, this is no where near a comprehensive list of what you can do, and I am eager to learn other tricks and strategies that can help my personal development. If you have any tips and strategies that you have found useful, I would be delighted to hear!
