We would all like to have and be more. To accomplish our lofty goals, we need to increase our productivity. This post will offer 7 life hacks to increase your productivity. Those hacks are focus on starting early, scheduling, doing complicated task first, the unproductiveness of multi-tasking, working in intervals, the necessity of a deadline and the importance of awareness. Let’s get started!
As the saying goes, “The early bird gets the worm.” So, get up early & have a morning routine. There are a few essential elements to a well designed morning routine. Begin by doing something physical to jumpstart your system. Read to feed your mind. Meditate to clear your head and get focused for a productive day. These are just a few things that successful people do. To learn more about constructing an effective morning routine, read 7 Parts to Build Your Best Morning Routine.
The best way to become more productive is to know exactly how it is you are spending your day. If you haven’t sat down and written out exactly how you spend your time, you might be surprised how much time you are actually wasting. A great way to make sure your are not wasting more time than you should is to plan and keep a schedule. It will not only let you see exactly how you are spending your time but will give you an opportunity to prioritize, eliminate and or outsource task. That is, maximize your productivity.
Use the Pareto Principle. That is, 80% of our results are derived from 20% of our efforts. Therefore you should focus on the most effective & probably most complicated task first and leave the other 80% to the slower parts of the day or week. For example, focus on landing the big sales clients and leave the administrative work for later. You may even consider outsourcing the especially mundane tasks. We have a finite amount of time. Spend your time doing the tasks that return the most.
When switching from one task to another there is an unavoidable intrinsic warm up period. The context, the particular intricacies of the new task, takes time to get adjusted for. If you are constantly switching task, you are probably spending too much time warming up. It would be like warming a car up in the cold and just when the car is ready to go, turning it off and warming up another car instead. You never go anywhere. Focus and drive.
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method wherein intervals of work are paired with short breaks. A typical time interval is 25 working minutes followed by a 5 minute break. Usually there is a total of 4 working sessions before a longer break is taken. Some people prefer longer 90 minute intervals. Record productivity results from a variation of time assignments and find a method that works best for you.
If you don’t already have a deadline, impose one on yourself. I don’t know about you but when I was in school I would always find a way to procrastinate before getting started on big papers or projects. If it weren’t for the deadlines and the fear of having terrible grades, I would’ve got nothing done. If you are trying to be more productive, impose a deadline on yourself. Schedule it. Enforce it.
Be aware of your systems. Compare inputs and results. Do they match your expectations? Notice patterns, evaluate and make changes if necessary. At the end of each day summarize the day’s progress and schedule the next day’s activities. As they say, “Inspiration is a fickle friend.” Do the work to create a system optimized for productivity.
There they are, a few life hacks to increase productivity and help you be everything you have ever imagined. For me, the most significant on this list is awareness. The importance of the ability to recognize what is working and what isn’t cannot be overstated. Awareness is intrinsic in all the other hacks and is a necessity in becoming your most productive self.
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