Many times, we experience a phase where we wonder at ourselves. Wonder in terms of fluctuations in our productivity levels. Once we considered ourselves super active and efficient. Then suddenly experience a plunge. And we find ourselves in a situation where we start performing far below our own expectations.
Don’t worry, it’s just a phase, try to figure out what triggered it. You can’t implement any time or life management strategy on your life unless you know what are the hurdles.
Let’s analyze the impediments and their solutions side by side.
1. Kill the stress before it kills your productivity
Stress is the warning sign for both your personal and professional life. The problems on both sides can induce it and start deteriorating them further. Learn to take control of your own nerves. Don’t let emotions rule and ruin. Peace of mind is a key element in executing any productive task.
Quality should precede quantity. And quality maintenance calls for attention to details. Try to eliminate all the stress triggers from your life. If it’s a person, reduces interaction, if it’s a task switch it. There is a solution to everything. If you are overburdened or bored with routine, take a short trip or small vacation to recharge yourself.
2. Disorganized people mess up things from their own hands
Whether it’s time, routine or priorities if you aren’t organizing them accordingly. You are going to face a setback for your life goals. Make a plan for every day ahead of it. And try to stick with it. Going with the flow doesn’t always work and very rarely in professional life. If you want to stay productive you should know what you ought to prioritize.
Without setting goals you can’t reach them. It also involves your lifestyle. Staying up till late hours for some tv show, sleeping longer than usual, wasting time while at work can all contribute towards mismanaged life and decline in productivity levels.
3. Discard the distractions
One of the primary ones is social media! Then comes your phone calls, emails, and regular chit chat. Social media is the biggest productivity killer. No matter if you were resolved to take a one-minute sneak peek into your phone but it will get you glued to itself. It’s kind of intoxication that stays even after you put your phone away.
Your mind shall keep hovering around a certain friend’s text or their latest story. Put your phone away from your sight or turn it off. Allocate time for reading your emails rather than opening them in mid of any task. You will keep checking them the whole day.
4. Learn to decline
Those who try to act as Messiah for everyone are the ones that suffer most when it comes to their own productivity levels. People try to manipulate those who are willing to help at their own expense.
Being helpful and supportive is great but not at your own expense. First, look out for your personal interests. If you have pending tasks, then don’t act gracious and comply with the requests of help by others. They won’t show up when you need them.
5. Multitasking annihilates productivity
Don’t ever try to be over smart. You will regret. Set realistic goals. Commit what you know for sure you can handle. Never offer a service that you can’t execute in defined time and space. One can excel in one thing at a time.
Spreading legs in two boats won’t make your journey pleasant. Multitasking triggers bouts of procrastination. You start viewing even an easy and menial task as a huge challenge when you look at your existing commitments piling before your eyes. So one task a time!
6. Learn to refresh yourself
If prolonged conversations with coworkers can harm productivity, a little chit chat after every once in a while, can reboot your system. Monotony in routine can frustrate you from work. To employ the Pomodoro technique and take a 5-minute break after every 20 to 25 minutes.
And after taking four breaks take a prolonged one for half an hour. Plan a trip out after working hours with your colleagues once a week. When you feel bonded with your coworkers you will love to stay in your workplace. And this desire will make you dutiful towards your work as well.
7. Time management is a golden rule
Gone are the days of manual time tracking or filling up timesheets. With modern technology, you can follow your productivity levels with the help of efficient time real time monitoring.
This will curb your urge to procrastinate, waste time, delaying tasks for longer etc. When you know your every hour is counted and tracked you will try to make the most of it.
8. Work/life balance leads towards a relaxed life
Don’t try to disturb either of them by prioritizing the one. Both share equal value. When any of the two is shaken it will take a toll on the other. If you are getting overburdened at work talk to your supervisors about finding a way to manage it.
Staying at work for unusually long hours will eventually make you irritated with it. Likewise giving too much time and attention at home while neglecting work will have obvious consequences. A balanced lifestyle is an ideal one.
Conclusion
There is no single and specific recipe to stay productive. It’s an amalgam of multiple strategies and organizing them accordingly that can help in the long run.