Whether you’re a business owner or a working professional productivity plays an important role in your daily life & happiness. If you’re a growth marketer like me or if you run a digital marketing agency, then increasing your productivity is the most important thing in your life.
Why Increasing Your Productivity is Important?
It doesn’t require much explanation but some of the important reasons why you should improve how fast & how much work you can accomplish are as follows.
- Better work / output.
- More free time.
- Easier to manage large projects.
- Happier clients / employer.
- More importantly, you can do things that you always wanted to do.
- Peace of mind.
How Your Productivity is Affected?
Normally, when you work on something continuously for a long time, your mind gets bored. However, in order to achieve anything, you need to spend a considerable amount of time, without deviating your attention. Unless you’re living inside a spy thriller, your daily life will be covered with mundane work that doesn’t offer any novel challenges. It is the norm for almost 95% of people in the world.
How to Increase Your Productivity in 15 Days?
Being productive is a big challenge for this 95% of people but it is simple. I say simple, as the steps are easy to understand and anyone can do it without any need for training.
At the same time, you should remember that not all simple things are easy to do.
Follow the 3 steps & see your productivity soar through the roof in just 15 days. You can see visible improvement even from Day 3 but by Day 15, you would have doubled your productivity with ease.
Step 1 – Plan & Schedule Your Work
Start your day with journaling – Plan your works for the day. It is better to do it the previous night itself. Even if you’ve your mornings planned, journaling before starting the day helps a lot.
Proper planning is the key for proper implementation or execution. If you fail to plan, it is equivalent of planning to fail. Break your work into smaller tasks that are easily doable. This way, you won’t be overwhelmed by the work. As the old adage goes, “Well begun is half done.” & there is no better way to begin a work other than planning it. Planning without scheduling is like building your castles in your mind.
They look great but is of no use. Always schedule your tasks. It helps you to find the lack of resources or any lacunae that you have missed.
Step 2 – Remove All Distractions from Your Work Area
Secondly & most importantly, remove all distractions from your work station. Put your mobile phones on silent or just get offline, so that you don’t get distracted by a random WhatsApp message, Facebook / Instagram or LinkedIn notification.
If you expect any calls from clients or employers or team members, then don’t schedule your serious work at that time. Do routine maintenance or follow up works during that time. This way, you can use your concentrated effort for the works that really matter. In fact, you can even use this time for your recreation.
Step 3 – Stay Focussed at Work
Use a metronome to let you know of the passing time. Additionally you can have 30 minute alarms / reminders in your clock or system. You can simply search for “metronome” on Google & play it on your browser. Otherwise, you can also install something like the “Free Countdown Timer” on your system. It acts as both the alarm & metronome.
Another way to stay focussed is to keep artificial deadlines for yourself. Or as Cal Newport says in his book “Deep Work”, you can follow a grand gesture. It greatly helps in maintaining the focus.
For instance, I switch on the AC in my office room, even when it is not hot in Puducherry. This way, I provide an artificial grand gesture that improves my productivity. I force myself to stay inside the room and finish the task at hand.
If you think switching on the air conditioner is not a grand gesture, you should have a look at my electricity bills!
You can shift your workstation to some place that is premium or where you have to pay like a coffee shop or a restaurant & then do the same. If it is a crowded location, then it could be distracting too. Most cafes in Puducherry are free during weekdays & offers a good ambience for peaceful working.
Use Ambient Music to Your Advantage
Another thing that differs from person to person is the ambience music. I prefer to keep some instrumental music going on at the background. My choices are Hans Zimmer & Ennio Morricone. Danish National Symphony Orchestra is another gem that you shouldn’t miss. These music will keep you focussed. Also the rhythm with alternating cycles will create an artificial rhythm to your work. A good paced music goes a long way in increasing your productivity.
This works great for writing, designing, & even coding. If your work consists of conversing with someone else or coordinating with many people, then the metronome or the ambience music could be disturbance to the other people.
Additionally you can use the important & bonus step 4.
Step 4 – Give Yourself Lesser Time than the Normal
If a work normally takes 30 minutes for you, challenge yourself to do the same within 15 or 18 minutes. This might be hard to do in the beginning. However, if you have properly planned your work and made it into smaller chunks, then you will soon be able to finish it faster than 15 minutes.
For one, I’ve improved my writing (not just typing) speed for 450-500 words of content from 30 minutes to 12 minutes. Of course, I spend 5 minutes of content planning & topic finalisation. Even if I include that 5 minutes, it takes a total of only 17 minutes. That is almost half the original time.
You can improve your productivity within 15 days by following the above said 4 simple steps.
If you still find it hard to increase your productivity, you need a better goal or a career change. Your goal or work should make you wake up from the bed with eagerness. If the thought of work, doesn’t interest you, then you’re at the wrong job.
You might have to start your own business or pursue your passion or just take a long holiday in order to rejuvenate your mind, body and soul.
Increasing Productivity – Steps
So, in short you can improve your productivity by
- Proper planning & scheduling your works.
- Removing all distractions.
- Staying super-focussed during work.
- Forcing yourself to do the work in half the time.
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