4 of the Best Methods to Increase Your Productivity

Productivity is a topic we all struggle with. We’ve all been there. Putting out fires and just trying to feel accomplished at the end of the day. I’ve summarized 4 of the best methods to increase your productivity and time management. You’ll be off surpassing your goals in no time!

To-Do List Reinvented – Quadrants for Efficient Time Management

To-do lists can be a vicious cycle. You can easily end up spending significant time simply writing them! Be sure to limit yourself on these lists. Brainstorm for 5 minutes all the things that come to mind. Then spend the next 5 minutes prioritizing them.

Instead of starting your day writing down your tasks, try writing them the evening before. This allows you to analyze your past day and prioritize what’s most important for the next.

You should prioritize them following the strategy defined in Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. (Basically the bible of productivity, if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend!) This book applies to everyone. Parents, students, etc. In the chapter that covers prioritizing your tasks, you learn about the 4 quadrants of of time management.

The 4 quadrants consist of:

1. Important and Urgent
2. Important and Not Urgent
3. Not Important and Urgent
4. Not Important and Not Urgent

The Quadrant of Necessity – Important and Urgent

These are tasks you MUST do. If you don’t, it will negatively effect something. An example of this is doing your taxes, or medical emergencies. If you’re a blogger, this would consist of posting a new picture to instagram. You get the idea.

If you feel burnt out and the end of the day because you’ve been running around doing these urgent tasks, you’re spending too much time in this quadrant. It can be hard to shift your focus to the other quadrants. These are tasks that have to be done NOW after all!

It’s important to realize that these items are always short term wins. Not to mention their “urgency” could have been avoided. You know ahead of time that your taxes would be due in April. You know that you need to post to social media every day in order to grow your following.

The Golden Quadrant – Important and Not Urgent

This is were you want to spend your time, and if you plan ahead, you will! Here lies the key method to increase your productivity. These are items that directly affect your goals in life. It may be spending time with your family, or it may be something that’s really going to get you noticed at work. For bloggers, it could be improving your previous posts, or reaching out to companies that align with your brand.

Remember to take a step back when determining these tasks. We have a tendency to associate urgency with importance. Honestly consider the task’s importance and if truly it aligns with your goals, you can place it in this quadrant.

Deceptive Importance – Urgent But Not Important

Again, this is the trap we fall into thinking that since a task is urgent, it must be important. This is a dangerous quadrant, and usually these tasks originate from other people. These are the situations where others are asking you to do tasks that don’t align with your vision.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to selflessly help others. However if it hinders your ability to complete tasks that matter to you, learn to say no. Especially if it will negatively effect you. These distractions can come in many forms, such as checking facebook or going down a rabbit hole of email chains.

The Leftovers – Not Important and Not Urgent

These tasks are pretty self explanatory, and you should avoid unless you have extra time. Tasks such as watching tv (really any past-time) fall into this category.

Focus on Being Productive Instead of Busy

It might feel like you’re getting more done because you’re doing multiple tasks at once. In reality, it’s taking you longer to do those tasks than if you approached them separately. If you have a hard time staying focuses on one task, (or get distracted by social media while trying to work) check out these apps!

• Forest – stay focused: This app is so creative, and great for competitive people like myself. Basically, you set a timer for the amount of time you need to focus, and it gives you a sapling. That sapling will grow as the timer ticks by. If you exit the app, IT KILLS YOUR TREE. If you successfully stay focused, your tree will be added to your forest. The more you succeed and use the app, the more trees (and different species of trees) you get! You’d be surprised how well this works. It makes a game out of productivity!
• Flora – Focus, Study, Forest 2: Same concept as forest, with a few more features. Track progress and habits!
• Productive – Habit Tracker: This is a simple concept, you set habits you want to keep, and check off the ones you completed that day. It gives you a visual of the week or month of the habits you successfully kept.
• Pomodoro timers: There are many apps that fill this concept. It is the concept of working for 25 min periods, with 5 min breaks in between. There are numerous studies on the effectiveness of this method to increase your productivity.

Organize & Optimize your Workspace

Declutter your desk! A cluttered desk emulates your state of mind. Take time at the end of each day, or once a week (I prefer Friday just before I leave the office) and tidy up your desk.

Put away or shred papers that don’t pertain to your current projects. Dust. If your office allows, bring in a few pictures or other decorations to make it feel more at home. Your mind works best when it’s in the comfort zone.

Set up email rules so you have less clutter in your inbox. When incoming items are organized in folders and categories before you even see them, your mind can process them better! Use technology to your advantage.

Happiness Inspires Productivity

I touched on making the most out of your morning routine in last week’s post, but I’ll say it again. Utilize your morning commute! The ability to listen to podcasts or audiobooks on your way to work is a gift. This is time that is otherwise wasted. Use this captive time to expand your mind. There’s no distractions and absolutely nothing “better” to do!

While at work, be sure to take regular breaks. Wether these are the 5 minute breaks in between your 25 minute work sessions, or a few 15 min ones, breaks are key to increase your productivity. It allows you to refresh. We tend to go go go until we’re burnt out. Avoid this at all costs.

Even better, take exercise breaks. If you have the ability to go to the gym during your lunch, do it! If you can’t, try walking the parking lot once or twice. I promise you, you’ll feel 100 times better. Walking the building and using the stairs every once in awhile is tremendously better than sitting stagnant all day.

Take care of you. I’m sure you’ve heard this a thousand times, but getting the proper sleep is an necessary method to increased productivity. Wake-up with determination, go to bed with satisfaction.” A tired mind is a messy job. Be sure to check out my post on 14 steps to self care and a happier you.

Avoid afternoon slumps by keeping healthy snacks within reach. This can be some nuts, apples, bananas…anything quick that will give you a little boost when you need it most.

Go forth and be productive!

Comment below – what method is most helpful for your productivity weaknesses?