10 Top Ways To Be More Productive
Have you ever felt like your to-do list is getting out of hand? Do you have a pile of tasks that you can’t seem to complete? Perhaps you’re one of the people who have such a dilemma and ask: How can I be more productive?
Developing habits that lead to a more productive routine is crucial in businesses that aim to provide quality services and increase profits. As their productivity increases, companies can transform resources into revenues, pay stakeholders, and generate ROI for future growth and expansion.
There are ways to be more productive while balancing work with your personal life. Productivity has taken on a different meaning, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some people found that the work-from-home setup has been a tricky adjustment, with dozens of distractions to deal with. For instance, parents faced balancing responsibilities with their children with household work and answering emails.
The lack of a game plan to stay organized, practice excellent time management, track tasks, and develop efficient work routines affects your overall productivity.
What does productivity mean in the first place? Productivity can be defined as the ability to perform tasks and responsibilities aptly, individually or in a group. They can segment time and resources to ensure the workload is distributed evenly.
Presently, multiple platforms are designed to assist individuals and teams in progressively carrying out their tasks and responsibilities.
In this article, we will share ten tips on improving your focus and being more productive.
Let’s get started!
Keep a good list to stay focused.
Distraction comes easily when hundreds of emails, pending tasks, and unending to-do lists get to your head. Some tasks will take your time, while others are a breeze to complete. Identifying which tasks would require more attention from easy and routine duties you can accomplish in a shorter period. Creating a to-do list is the first step to filtering possible distractions and planning your day ahead. Ideally, you want to focus on the easy tasks first since they take less time to complete. Once all that is taken care of, that’s when you shift your focus to more complex and challenging activities.
Think about the perks of completing a project.
Motivation is essential to be a more productive employee. Some ways to boost your motivation involve exercising or working out. Exercising helps release endorphins in the body. Endorphins are hormones that boost energy levels and enhance mood. You can do indoor exercises that involve stretching your muscles or jog every morning to get your body and mind pumped before work.
At times, the motivation must develop intrinsically. In other words, if not a boost in energy, perhaps you might need a shift in mindset. Visualize the possible benefits or rewards you can get from accomplishing your tasks at hand. What favourable outcome will you gain from it? It can be as simple as crossing out several undertakings on your weekly to-do list. Imagine the level of accomplishment you will feel by getting a big task done.
Say you have an upcoming presentation at work that feels overwhelming. Instead of focusing on the negative, try picturing something more encouraging, such as grabbing the opportunity to flaunt your ideas to your teammates and supervisors. You can also see your tasks as stepping stones to hone your skills and prepare yourself for large-scale projects in the near future. Once you identify the positive outcomes you can gain from accomplishing your tasks, you effectively increase your drive to get the job done.
Take a break and inject some fun into your routine.
Listening to upbeat or relaxing music (depending on your preference) puts you more at ease while focusing on your work. Take a break and walk outside to help you brainstorm ideas. Allotting time to cool down, let loose, and get fresh air is crucial if you want to be a more productive person.
If your task entails creating and organizing spreadsheets, make it more interesting by customizing the colors and layout. Do you handle multiple calls every shift? Remember to reward yourself with a nice cup of tea or coffee.
For employers, try organizing mini virtual games with your staff from time to time to break the monotony in the workplace. Simple games like bingo and scavenger hunt are some examples of helping relieve stress and pressure among employees.
Break tasks into smaller pieces
Procrastination becomes more apparent when tasks become too complex or overloaded. When your brain feels overwhelmed with too much information or experiencing extreme stress, being more productive seems impossible. There are several reasons why people procrastinate.
Start by breaking significant to-dos into smaller tasks. Set small goals for each task.
For example, if your to-do list is to write a 1000-word blog post on critical thinking, why not break that intermediate task into smaller chunks? Instead of getting started with writing right away, try conditioning your mind and feeding it with the relevant information first:
- Look up keywords related to critical thinking and efficient habits
- Read the top 10 Google results on critical thinking
- Brainstorm other methods to enhance the ability of critical thinking
- Organize the ideas you’ve found into an outline
- Jot down any specific thoughts using bullet points
- Check your bullet points one at a time to flesh them out into complete sections
At first glance, it might seem as though your to-do list just got longer. Looking at it more closely can help you get things done faster by giving you a clearer idea of where to start. Now, your oversized tasks have been reduced into six smaller tasks.
Don’t let your phone distract you.
Need a little help to be more productive in a world of distraction? Put your phone on silent mode. That way, you keep yourself from being tempted to check on your social media and gaming apps every minute.
You can finish your job without any unnecessary disruptions. Another trick you might want to try is changing your phone’s display to grayscale. Doing so eliminates all color from the screen and reduces stimulation.
Alternatively, you can explore Flipd, a free application that permits you to lock your telephone for a set period so you can focus entirely on your work or study.
Set small new goals for your tasks.
Let’s use tasks related to emails as an example for this tip.
Email is broadly used by people to communicate, particularly for business and work purposes. Imagine going through thousands of emails daily. The unending string of messages tends to drag along and create a mundane atmosphere at work.
Unless email support is your primary job role, the constant urge to check your emails could be a source of distraction. So, what to do to be more productive?
Minimize your inbox and check at specific intervals.
Next, focus on increasing efficiency in your email communications. Challenging yourself and setting new goals for handling work-related emails signals your brain activity to match the expectations you have set for your performance.
Write your emails so that the details are clear and understandable for the recipients. If you are tasked to schedule a meeting and disseminate the information to the participants, provide complete details. In this manner, you can send the invitation in one go. That’s more practical than sending five emails back-and-forth because some recipients had multiple clarifications about the event.
Add alternative contact information in the form of a mobile number, a WhatsApp or Skype ID (whichever is applicable) at the bottom of the email should the participants have follow-up queries.
Use Grammarly and other available tools online for checking grammar and spelling to make your messages seem more professional and refined.
Setting new milestones in your respective roles pushes you to give it your best regardless of whether you have a repetitive task or not.
Create a system
In the long run, you’ve probably developed a few counterproductive habits. You can manage to distract these habits by creating a system. If you get easily distracted by external stimulants not related to your tasks, try setting a schedule or time for when you can attend to other obligations. Or, you can use apps with a feature that can handle your emails.
Creating a daily or weekly schedule and sticking it to it enhances your focus. More importantly, it conditions your mind to minimize any thoughts that could potentially disrupt your momentum while you work.
Work before you get motivated or inspired
Some people find things to do to be more productive, while others develop habits to talk about needing to get inspired or motivated. However, highly productive people focus on getting started first — whether they’re motivated or not.
When you are experiencing difficulty maintaining focus and staying motivated, it’s because you are looking at the bigger picture. You don’t have to tackle everything simultaneously. You are scaling a project based on the level of commitment it demands. That is not a good idea because it leaves you intimidated by the sheer amount of tasks that must be done.
Instead, shift your attention to what you can contribute to complete the project. What makes you essential to the project? Highlight your skills and specializations. Doing so ingrains the relevance of your role, thereby diminishing the workload and demand on your part.
Taking action prompts motivation, which in turn leads to more action. Highly productive individuals don’t wait for motivation — they begin working, and the motivation follows. They don’t always wait for inspiration to come to them. Instead, they do what they can to stay driven and inspired.
Delegate tasks
If you are having trouble accomplishing all of the tasks on your own, delegate the work among your team members. Working in a group saves more time in completing difficult tasks. You can simultaneously check each other’s work for any errors and ensure that the final output is of the highest quality with minimal or no errors.
Also, delegating tasks allows you to work on other undertakings that may be specifically assigned to you alone.
Distributing the workload creates balance among the team. You also provide them opportunities to bring their skills and expertise to the table, considering that you will divide tasks based on their respective roles and responsibilities.
Download an organization app to help you at home or work
Everyone wants to make their life as easy as possible. Since technology is now in our hands, using apps to stay productive might be the best form of help. There are now apps carefully designed to assist you in achieving peak productivity. It might be time to download productivity apps. These apps allow you to manage multiple to-do lists, organize your address book, track your time, prioritize your well-being, and follow various tasks—all of which will increase focus and productivity.
7 Best Apps To Help You Be More Productive
Productivity is indeed crucial. Several people might be successful in getting things done more efficiently, but productivity tips that work for them don’t guarantee that they’ll work for you and your team. The same goes for productivity apps. There are various apps and tools available, and it’s significant to identify what exactly you need. Perhaps you are an efficient note-taker, yet you have difficulty focusing on assignments. Or, you have an incredible communication platform to speak with teammates and contacts, yet it lacks some essential features needed to plan and host secure meetings with your team simultaneously.
Fret not because we’ve researched for you. The list of apps below should help narrow down your choices and make a more informed decision.
Here are seven apps guaranteed to help increase your productivity, keep you on track of goals and tasks, and go beyond your limitations.
- Calendly
Calendly eliminates the hassle of back-and-forth emails by scheduling meetings professionally and efficiently. It creates your schedule only for the days and times that work well for you. It is easy for your invitee to choose a meeting slot and confirm their attendance instantly.
If you register on Calendly, it’ll sync your calendar, and you can choose your availability preferences (Whether it be 15 min, 30 min, or 45 min, etc.). If you need to schedule a meeting, simply give participants your Calendly link, and they only have to choose the best time slot that works for them. You can also check out Calendly alternatives, which offer different functionalities at various price points.
- Noa Coach App
Noa Coach offers chat applications that support productivity and well-being through solutions like insights coaching, goal pursuit for positive behavioral change, and emotional regulation to support rapid mindset shift. The coaching app’s impressive support tools include Noa Goals, Noa Reset, Noa Insights, Noa Tribe, and Noa Notes. Be empowered, educated, and inspired as you unlock effective ways to track your progress, thoughts, and motivation.
Noa Coach can be used anywhere and anytime, providing enormous flexibility in facilitating insight in almost any situation. Noa supports the best thinking for whatever challenge or topic is on your mind. The app guides you to help uncover the best possible approach to boost your productivity.
It is suitable for both professional and personal use.
- Todoist
Todoist is one of the user-friendly apps that you can use to manage your schedule. You can use it on the go as it is compatible with most devices. Do you want simple strategies to organize and monitor your daily to-do list? Todoist is an excellent task management app because it allows you to centralize all your work in one place. Organize and delegate tasks while keeping tabs on your progress and collaborating with co-workers on various projects. Other valuable features include location-based reminders and options to sort tasks according to priority and tags.
- Evernote
Evernote is a popular app for tackling notes and organizing all of your tasks in one place. It allows you to capture notes by adding photos, audio, digital sketches, and PDF files. Also, you can sync all your notes across different devices for an easy way to keep it all while on the go. Whether you want to get organized with your tasks, keep your personal life on track, or boost workplace productivity, Evernote has the right plan for you to get what you need together with its searching capabilities.
- Trello
Trello is excellent for managing your workflow — especially if your work requires consistent cooperation and teamwork. It effectively organizes projects and promotes productivity with its user-friendly layout. Its features include cards and boards assigned to groups or team members. Trello enables you to set a due date to make task management more seamless. Whether you’re an individual or a team of thousands, Trello can make you accomplish the most challenging and daunting tasks.
- Toggl
Toggl has been voted as the top time-tracking app. One of its most impressive features is it lets you track how much time you’re spending on different tasks. It also screens project and client profitability with a detailed report. Toggl leverages productivity by learning how you spend your time and plan your schedule accordingly. Toggl also offers detailed data reports that take a considerable chunk off your workload.
- Habitica
Habitica is a productivity app, and a fun roleplaying game all rolled into one. It utilizes gamification to monitor tasks daily, boosting productivity cultivating good productivity habits. Create a custom avatar by inputting your daily goals and desired habits. After completing your tasks, you can upgrade your avatar and unlock cool features, such as armor, pets, and quests. Now you can accomplish your goals with a single tap while having fun.
Final Thoughts
There is no guaranteed way to increase productivity instantly. Indeed, the commitment to be more focused and productive is one of the keys to success. At the same time, it cannot be attained overnight. The tips above are tried and tested methods meant to serve as your guide on encouraging a resourceful and systematic work ethic.
It is essential to be as consistent as possible to make the most out of all the tips in this article. Take all the time needed to acquire and foster your abilities to develop habits that lead to a routine that balances time and effort aptly.
