In Today’s, managing several tasks with limited time and energy is considered an art. Not just it impresses others, but it also relieves you from a lot of stress and anxiety.
If you struggle to be productive in your day-to-day life, these tips will help you to get back on track. Just remember, every step counts.
1. A Good Day Requires Good Rest
Your busy schedule and productivity goals should be fine with your sleep cycle. A good night's sleep is the key to having a fresh mind for a new day. In the modern days of hustle culture, it's better to not get caught up in racing with others and losing your rest time.
The interesting thing here is that the more work you want to do, the more need for proper rest arises. Also, survival on less sleep is very short-lived as your body will tell you that it needs rest at some point in time. Pushing one's self to that point of exertion is not only bad for mental health, but also physical help.
Given this, try to take a good 7-8 hours of sleep. If you’re comfortable with it, try to sleep in a dark room as it helps the body to sleep better. Ensure to keep your body hydrated when you go to sleep and stop your mobile or laptop usage at least half an hour before bed.
2. Stay Hydrated
This is one of the most underrated tips to ensure good productivity. A well-hydrated body works way better than a dehydrated one. With winters coming up, the water intake level decreases and it contributes to the laziness that this weather brings with it.
But proper hydration ensures that your mind is awake and your body can cope with your daily activities. Most possibly your own experience can be how dehydration has impacted your body when you delayed your water intake for long hours.
Less water intake can lead to headaches, nausea, dizziness, lack of concentration, sleepiness, and the list goes on. This all hinders your progress in daily activities. Thus, ensuring proper and good water intake is essential.
You can buy an affordable water bottle with affirmations and timings for water intake on it. A lot of mobile applications can act as a reminder to drink water. If drinking plain water is the issue, you can add some flavour to it of your choice.
3. Journaling
One should understand that being productive is a personal venture rather than a competition between them and others. You should ensure that your daily goals are met means being true to yourself and being able to reflect on your progress.
This can be done through journaling. To-do lists act as a compulsion and an obligation. Sometimes, that kind of pressure feels a little extra and one tends to give up. But journaling doesn't act as a compulsion, as it is about reflecting on your progress and limiting it to yourself.
The personal suggestion is to journal at night after the day is done and you are about to go to bed. Think of your day, and start with enlisting your achievements. From completing a 15-min exercise routine to achieving your target, write everything you are happy about at the end of the day.
Secondly, enlist the tasks you thought you could complete but completed partially or were not able to complete it. Don't think of it as a negative aspect, as it shows no compulsion in completing right now or the day after. Think of it as a review of the day.
Third, write down why you were unable to complete the tasks listed in the second step. This part will help you to identify your constraints and act as a guide on how to overcome them. Also, whenever you decide to get back on the tasks listed in the second step, you'll have an idea of possible constraints that you might face.
Lastly, write down how you can complete the tasks enlisted in the first step. This part of the journal will help you to identify your strengths and build on them. Also, it'll give a positive end to the journal for the day.
4. The 5 – Minute Rule
Procrastination is the biggest enemy of productivity. Whether it comes from wanting 'perfection' or 'the right setup', it only contributes towards the delay of tasks rather than getting them done correctly. The simplest way of overcoming procrastination is the 5 – Minute Rule.
This very popular method suggests that if you don’t want to do something, just tell yourself to do it for five minutes and then leave it. There is a high chance that you’ll end up doing it for more than five minutes.
Putting it simply, the concept of this rule is to just start. Mostly, the task requires lesser time than the time we put towards just thinking about it. So, initially, the best way to do a task is to just start. Simply thinking about is way less productive. Even if it is difficult to work, the ideal way to do it can be found while working on it, and not just thinking about it.
5. No Pressure
As stated earlier, reaching your desired level of productivity is a personal journey and not a competition with others. Elimination of the competition factor allows one to take breaks, relax and avoid burnout.
Written by: Simran Mahon
0 Comments