How to be more productive: 6 essential tips
We can do more and accomplish more in a day, it’s not a myth. Compound the effects of productive days and you will see how successful you can become. The Pareto law states that 20% of the cause produces 80% of the effects. I believe that more efficient methods on how to be productive exist out there.
The first rule on how to be more productive: be clear about what you want
Why do you work? Is it just working for the sake of work or do you have a higher purpose? What are your goals? Clarity helps us get motivated and achieve what we set our mind to. To get there, we need to follow these few principle:
Eat well
We excel at our best physical and psychological state so how can we be more productive at work? The first rule is to eat well, preferably natural and unprocessed foods. Junk food will not only make us unproductive but also fat. They have negative effects on our body on a cellular level. This causes internal organs malfunctions, risk of cancer, inflammation.
So it’s all about boosting our metabolism. This doesn’t mean that we increase our calorie intake, just that we make sure we adopt a balanced diet. Do you practice juicing? I usually juice fresh fruits in the morning on an empty stomach. This way, our body assimilates the nutrients faster.
A little exercise to be more productive
I observed that exercising creates other great habits. If I don’t exercise, I notice how I care less about my diet. We can practice a sport assiduously. The psychological and physical advantages are many such as a better quality of sleep, a faster metabolism, less stress and anxiety. So do we have to go to the gym every day? Not really, especially at the beginning. We can always start to exercise 3-times a week and make it a habit. As I mentioned in a previous article, it takes 66 days to form a habit. On top of that, if you exercise regularly for one year, it will become a life-long habit.
Have enough sleep
People are unhealthy because they neglect their health. We all know what to do to keep our physical energy but do we really apply these methods? It is sometimes obvious as we repeatedly say: Eat more, work out more and have enough sleep. But sometimes common sense is not common practice. We recommend the usual 7-8 hour sleep. A solid body of research underlines the correlation between poor sleep and diseases and psychiatric disorders, even obesity. I personally found it useful to reduce the light after 09:00 pm (especially in winter) and turn off my phone to avoid any temptation to browse the internet or check the last notifications.
Use your biorhythmic cycle
We are sometimes reticent because of our critical thinking. We hardly accept how biorhythmic cycles affect every human being: emotional cycle, intellectual cycle and physical cycle. Each of them follows a specific period respectively 28 days, 33 days and 23 days (we use our birth as the starting point). Thousands of researches have shown how many accidents happen during the critical points of each curve. Respect your biological rhythm and avoid any burnout. Realize that it is safer to avoid any important decisions in critical periods and on the contrary make ones on the favorable ones.
Cut down on distractions and be more productive
“Let’s just connect for a few minutes” is the lie we all tell ourselves. Often times, we are the worst enemy of our productivity. We are not conscious of how little things become time-consuming. Every change starts with more awareness. To help you cut on distractions and how to be more productive, you can use tracking software or applications such as RescueTime, Stayfocusd or leechblock which are applications that will allow you to block/limit the time allowed on time-consuming websites. A weekly report will highlight how much time you spent on productive websites and how much on distracting ones.
And as for email, is it really smart to check our inbox every ten minutes? I used to do that particularly while waiting for an important message. But checking our Outlook or Gmail account 50 times a day is useless and it kills our productivity.
Tidy up and have an optimized work environment. Last but not least, turn off your phone and the internet connection, especially if you are in a “deep focus” mode.
Conclusion
Our professional life is like a marathon, not a sprint. As a long-distance race with ourselves, we need to consider our energy as a finite resource and manage our effort appropriately. Let us all have a long-term strategy and achieve the expected productivity.