You want productivity so that you can create something useful. Any action of being productive gives you a sense of achievement which enhances your final persona and gives your monotonous life a purpose. This is the most common thing entrepreneur hopes for and another common thing is that – they don’t excel in the same. You fail, fail miserably and time mercilessly moves on. Nobody cares about you and your hope to be productive and achieve something. And the sad thing is that you are part of this downfall of yours. Not only this, you lead your downfall unknowingly.
Remember 2016? And – 2017? The first few days were awesome, you were so close to your dreams and then a couple of weeks down the line everything is taken for a toss. Dramatically – You decided to take a nap and by the time you woke up people were gearing up for 2018. You did not realize how the time went but did realize that it took your dreams away.
Being productive is all about managing time wisely. It’s not impossible and neither it’s rocket science. Yeah, a small confession – It is tough but then who wants to walk the easy route anyways? Apologies, this blog is not for you if you are expecting some mystic wand. This post is for those who want to make sure to understand that time is valuable and needs to be used wisely. Someone who controls time and doesn’t get controlled by time. Again – Please refrain from reading it further if you want some easy way out. Continue reading if you are ready to walk on a tough but guaranteed result path.
Here we present the most simple but tough, most common yet innovative ways to be more productive. You might have read some or most of them somewhere online, however, let’s elaborate the details together to decode this stuff and commit in 2018 to be more productive.
1) Be a Time Killer
What if someone calls you to meet and doesn’t inform you about the location and time to meet? How sure are you to reach the destination? 0%!
This is the exact way you are living your complete day – without any direction simply because you don’t know the importance of prioritizing the schedule. Your time goes in a flash because you are not going with the time. Prioritizing is the ultimate positive time killer.
Wake up and prioritize your day well in advance. Include everything important for a time slot and ignore everything else. Write down everything if needed but focus only on what is important, not on what looks important but isn’t in reality. Remember you don’t want to look busy you want to look productive.
2) Stop Blabbering and Start Working
Learn to say no to unwanted meetings and people. 90% of the meetings do not result in a productive outcome. The work that you do matters to generate productive results. Warren Buffet is famous for conducting one meeting at the start of the year. Be like Warren! You don’t need multiple discussions to know what needs to be done – you just need to do what must be done.
3) Release energy to gain it
Exercise releases endorphins and gives you a stress-free mind. Exercise is a natural energy booster. Nothing is more productive than the energy that is used wisely for your goals.
Take mini-exercise breaks between your working hours. You don’t need to lift weights or run in your office. You don’t need to buy an extra pair of tracks or shoes. Just push your chair back and stretch your hand and legs muscle. Circle your neck with closed eyes. Breathe deeply and exhale smoothly. Do this for 5 mins after every 2 hours during your shift and see the results. You will experience a rise in your energy.
4) Make Tomatoes work for you
Developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late ’80s, the Pomodoro technique is a time management method that can help you to be more productive instantly. Quoting Wikipedia, “The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. These intervals are named Pomodoro’s, the plural in English of the Italian word Pomodoro (tomato), after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that Cirillo used as a university student”. The rules are simple –
Yes, it’s that simple and yes it works.
5) Two Eyes – One Brain – One Vision
Multi-Tasking is a myth that was created to make you sound cool. In reality, there is nothing called multi-tasking. Neurologically and Psychologically your brain hates to focus on multiple things at one time and decides to utilize more energy and be less productive. It looks like it’s possible and simple because we lack the understanding of how it works. Remember the time when elders used to say – Don’t talk or watch television while eating your food?
Yes, there is a logic behind it and that is what we just discussed. Focus on one thing at one time. Don’t worry about other commitments. Ignore everything until and unless it’s important or super urgent. Outsource if needed. It’s wise to spend some money on outsourcing and buying freedom and peace of mind rather than slogging to save money temporarily and facing a major loss in the future.
As it is – 90% of things that you feel are important are not in reality. It’s just an illusion that your brain is creating to escape. Focusing is boring and your brains need to run off from it hence a gimmick. It is OK to take a small break and get back to work. Don’t move to another task until the first one is done. If you manage to cover even 3 important tasks in a day that comes to a total of 1000+ important tasks in a year.
Accept it – This is something you have not done in ages.
6) Work like you Brush your Teeth
OK, this title sounds funny but it’s not. Do you know what is the similarity between brushing your teeth and being productive?
It boils down to one word – Discipline!
Since the time you were a toddler, you were told to brush your teeth first thing in the morning. Today, you are in your ’20s 30’s or 40’s and still excel in doing this activity without any pressure, or lousiness. Discipline forces you to do what needs to be done without any objection. You might hate it or feel bored doing it but will still do it.
Be disciplined in your work life. Get up on time and start your routine on time. If you miss your routine time due to any circumstances, then forget the task and move to other that is set for a mentioned time. Stick to what you have decided for a time slot. Be enough robotic to follow time and maintain schedule and be enough creative to increase the value of time and see how you master it.
7) You Are Your Real Friend, Ignore The Virtual One
Social media is a new age addiction. It’s not fatal but surely able to make you insane if you don’t know how to use it wisely. On the other hand – there should be a limitation to use it even if you know how to use it wisely.
Why?
Simply because it’s a new age word for distraction! I know those notification numbers in red dots are tempting but that is temporary and the time that you will lose behind it is permanent. Stay away from it during your working hours. Silent your cell phone and switch off push notifications pop up. You realize this fact that the maximum things you see on social media posted by your friends is just a preventive way to show how happy they are and this is far from the truth. These feeds don’t co-operate with your productivity. No sense in looking at what your friends are up to. Anything that distracts you is not good for your productivity and social media – on the cell phone or computer leads in this matter.
Remember, you are your best friend and you are with you – Who else do you need as a companion to be more productive?
8) The World looks Beautiful From The Tip
Stay on the edge to get your work done.
Let’s play a trick game – Imagine yourself walking in the park. How will you feel? Cool, relaxed and casual right?
Now imagine sitting on the edge of the mountain and enjoying the breeze. How would you feel? Adventurous and at the same time alert. That’s how you work in real life to save time. Enjoy everything that you do as an adventure to keep the energy going but stay alert or else you will fall rapidly. Time slips fast and by the time you realize that it will be too late, and you will touch base on the flat ground of failure from the height of success.
Save time or else you won’t be in a position to save yourself later when you fall.
9) Be a Sleeping Beauty
Irony has its call here. To be more productive you will have to sleep more. This surely sounds fun but let’s be honest – it is True. No matter in what field you serve, your body needs proper rest. Contradicting the popular belief, sleeping doesn’t make you lazy but it refreshes your mind and increases the energy that gives you the clarity to focus more on your work and to be more productive.
Like Air, Water and Food even proper rest and sound sleep is a natural way to stay healthy and it’s God’s gift that we need to embrace.
10) Failure is the Real Success
You try and you fail but don’t be sad. It’s OK to fail. It is OK to accept that you were not able to follow your routine and were not able to save time or be productive. That’s cool because at times, situations are not in our control and it’s wise to accept them and move on. Failure is not different from Success, it is just an extended branch that we forget to see. People fail, learn and move on. You will have to do the same. There is always another day to give your best shot. You don’t have to walk towards failure upfront but if you happen to fail then face it, accept it, learn from it, and move on for another day. This is equally wise – like the above-mentioned points to be more productive.
Task Papa is NOT INTERESTED to wish you a Happy New Year but heck yeah – We wish you a Productive New Year and if it turns out to be productive then we are sure it will turn into a HAPPY NEW YEAR automatically.
Need help or consultation with anything else? We are around to do anything possible to make your new year productive!
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