How not to lose productivity during the day

1. The most unproductive thing is to be dishonest with yourself

This item is listed first not without purpose. This is the most important thing to improve your efficiency and keep it high for a long time.

For example:

— Do you carry out your tasks immediately or just postpone for later?

— Do you set an ambitious goal but after a couple of weeks pushes it aside, or do you break a goal into clear sequential steps and then accomplish it?

— Do you wake up at the first time as soon as you hear the alarm or try to sleep for at least 5 minutes before getting out of bed?

— Do you realize when you are tired of work and you should rest?

— Do you spend a few hours watching TV and then trying to figure out why you do not have enough time for some things?

The more you depress yourself, the less honest and productive you will be. At first, you will spend a lot of effort to push yourself to do something, but then will look for reasons to postpone the business for tomorrow. That is not going to work. Be honest with yourself, do not do business when you do not have the strength to them, this is not conducive to productivity.

2. Only one work direction

Unfortunately, many investigations have shown the human brain is not designed for multitasking. What is deemed to be multitasking is nothing more than switching from one task to another.

Multitasking reduces productivity by 40%. Constant switching between tasks makes it difficult to concentrate on something specific, fills short-term memory, causes stress and mental exhaustion.

So increase your productivity by focusing on one task in a single period.

3. Ideas need to be written down, not kept in your mind

According to David Allen, author of ‘Getting things done’, “The Mind Is For Having Ideas, Not Holding Them”. There is nothing more to add.

A great way to improve your organization is to write a list of unfinished tasks and new ideas in a notebook, on a computer or smartphone. Or in the Weeek app.

4. Ideas need to be written down, not kept in your mind

According to one of the effective methods, in the morning you should identify three main things that should be carried out by the evening. Throughout the day, these things must remain the focus of your attention. Also, start every work week as well. By the same principle, you can plan personal time.

The fact is that our brain is adapted to think like “three steps”: the beginning, the middle, the end or three types of awards (gold, silver and bronze), the tale “Goldilocks and the three bears”, the novel “The Three Musketeers”, etc. So, coming to work, you first need to mentally go over to the end of the day and ask yourself what three things I would like to see completed by the end of the work process.

5. Create a comfortable workspace

According to DeskTime's series of studies, a well-ventilated and well-lit workspace leads to increased productivity. An additional monitor would also be a great solution. Such changes affect the work of any person. No wonder.

Interestingly, even knowing this information, many people continue to work in uncomfortable conditions, not realizing how much this affects their work productivity. What would you like to improve in the workplace? For example, creative people like paintings on the walls, which increases overall satisfaction and brings better results. As for Weeek, it has a dark and light theme.

6. Noise and music

Do you think music distracts from work? Based on the study of the influence of music conducted by the University of Ottawa, people who listen to music are in the best mood. As a result, it led not only to an increase in productivity, but also to think outside the box during the time of work.

Another interesting study was conducted by the scientific journal of Consumer Research. People worked with background noise. Their productivity and creativity were significantly higher than those of people who work in silence. So if you're ready to try to work to the sound of noise instead of music, the most popular apps for your phone are Coffitivity or SimplyNois.

7. Turn off unnecessary push notifications

There is no escaping the fact that every year in our life becomes more “social noise”.

Every time the phone informs you about spam, reply to a chat, a new like or comments on Instagram, you get distracted.

It sounds harmless: “Whatever, it's just a second.” But when your focus is constantly lost, you gradually lose the ability to concentrate. Check notifications once an hour or twice a day.

8. Without a deadline life is not cute

With the help of research it was found that the participants who had a deadline achieved the best results. Try to set reminders for tasks through the calendar or just make a to-do list. You will have time to do everything you need, and sometimes even more.

9. Work Smart, Not Hard

“Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution”

This is my favorite quote from Brian Tracy about productivity.

If you do not spend time planning, you will not be able to achieve a high level of efficiency in the work. You should plan your activities first and then start working, in this way you become more focused, can direct your time and energy to several specific goals, achieving greater productivity.

10. Does the task seem impossible? You have broken it badly into sub tasks.

If you had to return to the task more than two times and each time with the thought “It takes a lot of time, I will postpone it later”, then there is a high probability that you just didn’t divide this task well into sub tasks.

DeskTime conducted a study for the magazine FastCompany, in which it showed that people working for 52 minutes in a row reach the highest results in productivity, with a 17-minute break at the end of each segment.

The sizes of the sub tasks should be such that you have time to start and finish it within one interval; Experiment with the best length for you.

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