Increasing your productivity is all about getting the most out of every day. Usually, this means for work tasks but often there’s some degree of overlap with productivity tricks that save time outside of work environments too.
Here are 11 easy ways to boost your current productivity levels.
1. Remove Distractions
When wanting to get more done and learn how to increase productivity, try out an app or browser extension like Block Site that prevents access to distracting websites. This type of app is designed to stop you from losing time checking Twitter feeds and watching playful cats on YouTube when you should be working!
2. Eat the Frog
As Brian Tracy’s book Eat the Frog explains, tackling the most difficult or unpleasant task as the first one of the day has many benefits. Most of all, it lets you use your best energy to pursue the task that is most critical to complete. In the morning, you’re cognitively at your best to think through what’s required and the steps to completion.
3. Turn Commuting Time into Learning Time
Whether you’re driving into work or riding the train, turn this time into a period of learning.
Use Audible or another audiobook service to listen to instructive books that will get you ahead in business or life. Instead of listening to the daily news or radio commenters, educate yourself and make the most of your daily commute.
4. Single Task Through the Day
While you may think that you’re the best multi-tasker on the planet, the truth is that it won’t matter if you are.
Why is that? Because working on a single task at a time before moving onto the next one is going to be more productive than trying to bounce between several incomplete tasks.
5. Get Enough Sleep
When you don’t get a regular 7-8 hours of sleep a night, you have a problem with energy levels and how much you can focus. It’s easy to make mistakes and not spot them because you’re fatigued. At that point, it will take longer to fix the errors too.
Whilst it takes a night or two to catch back on lost sleep, napping is very effective in dealing with a day when you’re suffering too much.
6. Trim Down Your To-Do List
Trying to work through a To-Do list that’s overly long will cause you to be less productive because of the cognitive dissonance that it creates. Instead, pull out a handful of the most important tasks, make a separate list for today, and proceed with those.
7. Eat Healthy Foods
When consuming snacks that are high in simple carbohydrates and sugars, it gives you a quick energy boost, but the inevitable sugar crash follows it soon enough. As a result, the boost in productivity will only be temporary.
However, by switching to snacks like fresh fruit, nuts, and other nibbles to maintain your energy levels, you’re more consistent without the peaks and troughs.
8. Reduce Your Stress Through Exercise
Regular exercise gets the blood flowing and your body moving. The process of exercise lets your body reduce built-up stress that makes it more difficult to perform optimally.
The exercise doesn’t have to be too much. A 30-minute walk every workday is sufficient.
9. Use Batching
Rather than switching from tiny task to tiny task in a race for completeness, batch up the same tasks until you have enough to make it worth plowing through them.
Batching saves on the time it takes getting started only to stop soon after. It reduces repetitiveness and lets you build momentum as well.
10. Turn the Ringer Down
If you get calls that you’d rather not deal with on your personal line, then turn the ringer off to cut out the distraction. Work on the principle that if it’s important, they’ll follow-up with a message or leave a voicemail.
Check for messages or voicemails once on a break.
11. Reduce Meeting Frequency
Meetings aren’t very productive uses of time. Reduce them to less frequent standing ones that only last a few minutes (not a half-hour plus).
Also, don’t ever have a meeting without a fixed agenda.
When using simple ways to improve your productivity, it’s possible to make significant strides in the right direction.
