Do you assume that being productive simply means that you are getting more done in less time?
While productive people definitely accomplish more in a couple of months than others do in years, there is so much more to being productive than meets the eye.
Productivity is the result of a commitment to focused effort, intelligent planning and striving towards excellence. Being productive means that you spend more time, attention and energy on working towards what truly matters to you instead of wasting your time on things that are irrelevant.
If what you do is aligned with what matters most to you, then you are being productive. If you are spending time on things that don’t really matter, you are being unproductive. Productivity is all about prioritizing, knowing when it’s the right time to do things, focusing on your current activity and being able to get started without procrastinating.
On your quest to being more productive, you will most likely come across a wealth of different tools, tips and techniques to employ, which most of the time can seem like common sense. Unfortunately, common sense is not necessarily common practice, that’s why we all struggle sometimes to increase our productivity.
We’re not here to give you a magic pill that will make you achieve anything you want without any effort, but we’re here to share with you our TOP 8 WAYS to increase our productivity.
#1 Get Out of Your Own Way
A lot of times, we get in our own way and fall prey to self-sabotage. We first look at all the external factors that stop us from being more productive and blame everyone and everything but ourself. And once we cannot direct the blame externally, we resort to excuses, desperately searching for a justification that we have no control over what happens. Excuses is an avoidance technique that we subconsciously use. Get out of your own way and put results before comfort. Nike said it best… Just do it!
#2 Change Your Self-Talk
There is a huge difference of how productive people think and talk to themselves. Challenge your thoughts and develop a productive mindset. Forget the negative self-talk like I am stressed, I am overwhelmed, I have so much to do I don’t even know where to start and replace it with positive self-talk. What can I do to minimize stress and manage this situation, what can I do to improve the current circumstances and what is the best action plan to get things done. Words are powerful and they can either make you feel better or worse about yourself and the situation you are in. Empower yourself with positive self-talk and change the way you think to be more productive.
#3 Identify Your Time Thieves
We all do mindless things that waste our time. Identify your biggest time thieves and get rid of the activities and situations that distract or interrupt your flow of productivity. Let go of the things and situations that throw you off course and keep you from performing better. If you can identify your time thieves and cut down at least one of those activities, you will be amazed how much time you can gain that you can devote to pursuing your dreams, feeding your mind and being more productive.
#4 Challenge Yourself Physically
A lot of people think they don’t have the time in their busy schedules to fit in a workout. But we’ve found that people who are committed to a regular workout routine are much more disciplined and diligent in every other area of their lives. Besides the physical benefits of exercising regularly, it’s now been established in plenty of studies that regular exercise has a huge impact on your brain as well and you will be more focused and productive after a good workout. Your energy increases, your focus gets sharper and you can make decisions more easily. So schedule your workouts and make sure you stick to your exercise routine.
#5 Be Courageous
Most people lack courage because they can’t distinguish between real and perceived risk. If we perceive a high risk of failure, we get scared and shy away from even trying. Instead of focusing and giving all our attention to the task at hand, we split our focus and attention among many different smaller projects that aren’t important to our overall goal. Successful people aren’t afraid to fail and courageously take risks to get where they want to go. If you want to be more productive, organize your resources. Courage is the first, then comes wisdom and only then follows labor. So go courageously in the direction of your dreams instead of wasting time and energy on tackling tasks that get you nowhere.
#6 Use Your Willpower Wisely
You only have a certain amount of willpower in the day, so be aware that you don’t fatigue your mind on useless activities. A study by Roy Baumeister demonstrated how willpower is a finite resource. He instructed participants to either eat or resist freshly baked cookies before completing a difficult mental task. The ones who were forced to resist eating the cookies had used up so much willpower not eating the cookies that they performed significantly more poorly on the mental tasks. So if you are trying to use your willpower to push through mindless tasks, remember that you will have less and less available to use it for activities that matter most to you.
#7 Get Enough Sleep
A third of Americans doesn’t get enough sleep to be able to work at their best. We tend to forget that sleep is a way to reorganize and reactivate recently learned material, which will help boost performance and improve memory. Rest and relaxation are huge productivity boosters and allow you to concentrate on what matters most to you and be effective in achieving your goals.
#8 Practice
You’ve heard about the 10,000 hour rule before. To become a master in anything you do, you need to put in the work and practice. It’s not just for high performance athletes and musicians, no task is too small to practice. Just think about it, if you can succeed in making simple tasks automatic, you can free your brain power to focus on more complex goals and can be productive in what matters most to you.
Ultimately, we all respond to different techniques and tools that work best for us to increase our productivity. Give at least one or two a try and see how they affect your level of productivity. You CAN change, we see people transform in amazing ways every single day, you just have to get started.
START RIGHT NOW. BE PRODUCTIVE!
Joschi & Monika
#BoldNaked
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