Productivity Tips

We are faced with distractions. All day. From the moment we wake up, with our phones next to us as our alarms, we are shown notifications. On the weather, from social media sites, to how full your phone’s memory is.

We then climb into our transport to work, be it public, or shared, or our own cars. Here we have the radio, people we can chat to, or WhatsApp messages.

When we arrive at our workplace, we have access perhaps to Wi-Fi, so more opportunity for social media to sway our focus, we have colleagues to chat to, perhaps coffee to make, weekend plans to make, that mound of filing we have been ignoring. And before we know it, we have lost an hour, or more.

Productivity is also influenced by your health. If you are feeling ill, or sore, you will find any excuse to take longer to do a task. To be more easily side-tracked. To put things off longer than they should be. If your home environment, or even work environment, is not optimal, the same thing will occur. You will find your mind easily strayed and constantly going back to the issue at hand

These things are all a part of being human. Nobody is immune to having these things crop up. The trick is to be aware. Be aware of your actions. Of looking for excuses. Of pushing back deadlines. And start to train yourself.  One of my life teachers and mentors always uses the words ‘How Fascinating’ when things are not going according to plan. When you feel your thoughts drifting off to the clouds, or home, or the office next door, just say as loudly or softly as you like, HOW FASCINATING! I am busy with x but keep thinking about y! and just keep bringing your consciousness back to the task at hand.

For me there are no real tips, except, be conscious, and be prepared. Plan your day, your week, your month. So that you know what you need to deliver on and by when. That way, you can prioritise, and break your tasks into bite-size chunks. After all, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. So should you want to write a book, break the task into chapters. Plan the skeleton of your book, considering what you would like to write about, and cover in each chapter. That way it will seem much more palatable and achievable than one huge mountain ahead of you.

If you do not finish what needs to be completed today, always remember that your task will spill over to the next day, and have a snowball effect.

Plan. Prioritise, and be aware. There is no uniform approach so just find what works for you and always strive to be better today than you were yesterday. And be kind to one another.