How to Increase Your Personal Productivity
If you’re struggling to achieve everything that you want to, then chances are you need a productivity boost. Where traditionally productivity was associated with business structures and processes, there’s now an increasing focus on making this change at a personal level.
Have you experienced the feeling of working all hours of the day yet failing to attain any sense of achievement? Are you finding that you are losing motivation and not getting as much as you want out of your day?
Read our five-step guide on how to increase personal productivity.
We Need Energy to Make Things Happen:
If you lack energy, you lack motivation. Without motivation, it’s nearly impossible to make things happen; it’s about making the most of your energy levels when they’re high and doing something about it when they get low.
Is there a specific time of day when your brain flies, and you can create solutions at the drop of a hat? If so, make a note and use this time to schedule your more challenging tasks. If you fire on all cylinders between 6 and 8 am every morning, then that’s the time to attack the big jobs!
Our energy levels are finite, so we must learn how to boost them, then use them to our advantage. If you have personal or work-based activities that give you a natural boost of energy – creative or physical – then take the time to schedule them across your week to maintain your levels.
Working continuously for hours at a time is possible but not productive. Your brain needs rest to function at its best. Take a look at your schedule and build in breaks between tasks to allow your brain to recharge. You could get smart with your schedule and plan different types of jobs across your day – a variety will help keep your energy levels high. Often it’s the repetition of the same kind of activity that can drain our enthusiasm. Mix things up for an added boost.
Get Organised:
Much of our time is lost being unproductive – and this escalates when we are disorganised. If you want to make a few easy advances towards productivity, try to introduce a degree of organisation to your day, week and life in general – prepare for the next day the night before, pack bags, charge phones, locate car keys etc. Create systems and system checks, whatever it takes to avoid time-wasting activities that will only derail your attempt to become more productive.
Focus:
Those of us who practise procrastination know all too well that it is the enemy of focus. The first step to becoming focused is mastering the art of shutting out distractions. We live in a digital age where 10 minutes rarely pass without receiving a notification of some kind. Learn to ignore all but the most important messages, or better still, disable notifications during this time. Focusing on the task at hand will fast-track your productivity.
Focus is also about how you work – your approach! Break your to-do list down into bite-sized chunks. If you struggle to focus for an hour, why not go for four blocks of 15 minutes instead? Remember to reward yourself for completing tasks. Even the act of ticking something off your to-do list can give you a sense of satisfaction and boost your momentum.
Prioritise Your Time:
When your to-do list starts taking on a life of its own, it can become overwhelming. In this instance, it’s best to prioritise tasks that need your immediate attention, remembering to set realistic goals for completion. Once you complete a job, you can review your priorities and revisit your list to assess which one you’ll tackle next.
Make Time for Personal Goals:
When prioritising your time, be sure to factor in time for your personal goals. Achieving productivity in your personal life delivers a certain level of satisfaction that will boost your energy and positively impact how productive you are in general.
If you haven’t already done so, consider writing a mission statement for your life, then treat it as a guide you refer to when making decisions about the present and the future. Assess the direction every decision will lead you. If something doesn’t contribute to your personal goals, consider saying no. Avoid unproductive activities and review your mission statement regularly; this will encourage you to remain open-minded and welcoming of change.
Remember, ramping up or improving your personal productivity won’t deliver instant results; it’s a work in progress that will take time for you to perfect. If you pay heed to the tips above and allow yourself to stumble along the way, you’ll find that a few simple changes to the status quo will quickly become your new modus operandi – your new M.O!