With many people still social distancing due to COVID-19, a lot of us are spending almost all of our time at home. When you’re not working or when working from home, the days can seem to blend and this can lead to a drop in productivity. The good news is that everyone can increase the number of tasks they accomplish in a day. We have put together a list of 10 tips to help you master your time and be as productive as possible:
- Live a Balanced, Healthy Life: This is the MOST important aspect of being more productive. By exercising regularly, you will notice you have more energy, more focus, and more ambition. Part of a healthy lifestyle includes getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night, eating a nutritious diet, and being physically active. Being healthy boosts energy levels by 60% within the first two months, which can greatly improve both your career and interpersonal relationships.
- Organize Everything in One Place: Make sure all your appointments, scheduling, and deadlines are in the same place — streamlined. This can either be a notebook agenda, your phone, or your computer calendar, as long as you make sure it’s all in one master organizing system.
- Plan your day/ Make a list: You should plan for every day, week, and long term. Separate the important and less important activities and plan to do them accordingly. Set your goals for a day and write down the list of activities to be finished in a certain amount of time.
- Prioritize: This is a big one! Next to each bullet point item, put an A for a must-do item of the day, a B for a should-do item of the day, and a C for something that could wait if you run out of time.
- Do not confuse busyness with productivity: Oftentimes, the most productive people have plenty of time — because they know how to get what is important done! This is how they avoid getting overworked and overwhelmed.
- Know the difference between urgent and important: Last-minute distractions from yourself and others are not necessarily priorities, so learn how to distinguish what’s most essential.
- Time Management: Experts say that 80 percent of the importance of what we do on any given day lies in only twenty percent of the activities. This means, if you focus on accomplishing the top twenty percent of the most important tasks, you will feel more productive and satisfied at the end of the day.
- Use your natural rhythm: Observe yourself for one week and note when you have the most energy, and when you start feeling natural lags in energy and motivation. If you’re most productive in the morning, start knocking out important tasks then. Schedule tasks that require complex thinking, creativity, or interaction for your energetic hours. Fill your natural downtimes with easier tasks like handling paperwork or organizing your working space.
- Set a timer: For thirty minutes or an hour, set a timer, and focus your energy for that amount of time. Turn off all other distractions for that period and just focus on the task at hand — you’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish in that amount of time. After the timer goes off, reward yourself with a well-deserved break.
- Recharge and Refresh with breaks: A 10 to 15-minute break after a dedicated period of work can help you refresh yourself, recharge your mind, and help you be more productive. You can use this break to eat lunch, meditate, do some light reading, or find some other way to relax for a few minutes. Recharging can help invigorate you and reset your mind to work more efficiently for your next productive period.
- Don’t Procrastinate: It’s easy to blame slow computers, distractions, stress, and an array of other factors for not getting work done. But truly, it’s on you to not procrastinate and maintain a bright outlook on getting things done. You’ll get more done if you focus on solutions and stop wasting time making excuses.
