Top Productivity Hacks to learn this year

What is Productivity?

No matter what line of work you’re in, chances are you’ve come across the concept of productivity. Productivity comes down to a lot more than just ticking off as many tasks as possible during your work day. Productivity also means knowing how to plan, what to prioritize and what to avoid or delay in order to achieve maximum results. Learning the top productivity hacks has become so important, if you want to achieve better results and ultimately more success.

What is a Productivity Hack?

A Productivity hack is any tactic or habit that allows you to achieve better results within the same time frame. It could simply mean doing something in a better way or avoiding it at all to ensure you’re utilizing the same time to do another task that will get you closer to achieving your goals. 

In the fast paced work environments we spend the majority of our time in, it has become even more important to be productive in your job or business. Competition is at an all time high and in order to be successful in your job or building your own business, you need to learn the top productivity hacks.

Why can’t I be productive?

There are so many obstacles to productivity. Research suggests that lack of productivity can come from so many different aspects of a person’s life. It can be both internal and external factors that dictate a person’s productivity.

For instance, things such as anxiety, lack of confidence, lack of rest and poor diet can all overall lead to unproductivity. Similarly, external factors such as workplace processes, noise and even your lovely colleagues can cause you distractions. 

While it’s okay to get distracted and lose focus sometimes, you need to ensure you’re still putting in an adequate amount of quality work on a consistent basis if you want to become productive. The good thing is it’s totally possible to achieve great levels of productivity despite any internal and external obstacles. 

Below are the top 10 productivity hacks you should learn this year.

10 Top productivity hacks you should learn this year

• Go to bed early & wake up early:

We all know how important sleep is for our health and well being. If you want to be more productive, fixing your sleep cycle and ensuring your body is well rested is essential. The simplest way to fix your sleep cycle is to start going to bed early and waking up early. This makes it a lot easier for you to start your work day earlier than the majority, giving you the perfect opportunity to start your day right.

• Meditation:

Meditation has been proved to have amazing benefits to your health, wellbeing, focus and even creativity. In order to become productive, you need to see things clearly from a stable mind. I highly recommend starting a meditation practice if you don’t already have one. If you’re totally new to meditation and don’t know how to start, please read this post about meditation for beginners. 

• Plan your day:

Even if you are clear on your bigger goals and what you want to achieve in life, you still need an action plan on how you are going to achieve your goals. This action plan is made up of small daily tasks that will ultimately lead you to where you want to be.

Hence, it is very important to have a daily plan of tasks you are going to work on, prioritize it in order of importance and how long you are going to work on each. Taking the time to make this plan at the end of your day or in the morning before you get started is super important. This will ensure you are aligned to your goals, monitor progress and most importantly stay motivated.

• Set a dedicated time for emails:

Emails are still a very important part of corporate careers. Most businesses communicate with each other via official email and this means that you probably have to respond to emails very frequently. 

Responding to emails can be very time consuming. Therefore it would be a smart idea to set dedicated slots of time from your work day to attend to emails so that you can be fully focused on other more important tasks throughout the day. The focused work that you do during this time can compound into amazing levels of productivity overtime.

• Don’t multitask:

Being able to multitask is being popularized as a great skill. Being able to multitask when necessary is great. But if you’re always trying to multitask, chances are that the work you’re putting out may not be of the best quality.

Instead, if you have dedicated time for each task and are fully focused on whatever you’re working on, you will be able to produce much better quality of work which translates into productivity in the long run. Remember, productivity is more about better results than output.

• Block out distractions:

We are all guilty of this, all too often we find ourselves checking messages, and then without even knowing we are scrolling through social media wasting precious time we could have been doing an important task. Another distraction is people, especially if you’re working in an office with many co-workers or even at home around your family

Make a rule not to check your phone unless it’s a dedicated break time planned in your work routine or unless you know it’s an urgent call. You can also tell your family that you are working on something and not to disturb you unless it’s urgent. 

• Work in short bursts:

It is more difficult to do focused work for longer hours and it may seem unachievable. You can start using something like a pomodoro also known as a tomato timer to set bursts of 20 minute work sessions where you are very focused allowing you to get more quality work done. It can be followed by a 5 minute break as a reward where you can walk around or check your phone etc. 

Doing this ensures that you’re putting in 50 minutes of focused work every hour without feeling burned out as you’re also taking short breaks to rest and reset.

• Take an actual break:

We are not machines and need to take rest to avoid burnout. Short breaks throughout work hours may not be enough if you’re working every day. Hence, ensure you take a longer break for lunch and make time to eat your meals properly.

It is also important not to to check your emails and messages during this time to give your mind the actual break it needs.

• Stay on track with your goals:

When we are working on so many different things, it is sometimes easy to go out of track and distracted from your goals. You might find yourself working on or spending time on things that actually don’t contribute towards your goals.

So it is very important to check in regularly whether the tasks you’re putting in your time are actually helping you get closer to your goals. When you find yourself doing things that might not be very helpful in achieving your goals, make the conscious decision to take a step back and focus on what’s important.

• Review and Reflect: 

Once a week or more depending on your goals, it is very important that you take the time to review your week and reflect on the work that you have done. This process when done regularly will remind you why you’re doing what you’re doing and make sure you get back on track whenever you lose focus.

This process can be done in the last hour of your work week before you take a day off for the weekend. It is as simple as just acknowledging the things you have worked on in the past week and thinking how it is contributing towards your goals.

Takeaway

Productivity is not a straight line and there will be days where you will not be productive at all. But rather it is more about being aware of your goals, knowing what to do to get closer to them and putting in the work on a consistent basis.

Learning and implementing the above productivity hacks will help you stay focused, motivated and consistent on achieving your goals. Remember, the only thing standing in the way between you and your dream life is yourself.