Productivity is good management of time, resources and talents. When you manage your day, week or month to perform a task efficiently and intelligently using the tools. You have it at your disposal. Productivity is directly linked to efficiency, to focus.
Many end up confusing the concept of productivity, thinking that to be extremely productive, they must work all night or perform millions of functions simultaneously. Wrong! To be a productive person, you must do your work with quality!
Have you ever heard the expression “lazy people do double work”? Rephrasing it a bit, it fits here very well, as a person who is not focused, does several things at once and does not give himself time to rest tends to have to perform the same task several times, either because of mistakes or not being good enough.
A productive person may even take time to finish his work, but rest assured, he will only do this once and will be able to continue with his other tasks.
How to become a productive person?
This is a question that many ask themselves, searching the internet and articles; after all, productivity helps with quality of life and work. Some habits and routine changes help a lot to be more productive. Genthe has separated some tips to boost your productivity:
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Set goals for your day
Don’t try to hug the world! Is it packed with things to do? Divide them into priorities: what is most important to do first? What can’t I do today? From that, create goals for your day; for example, today, you want to perform X number of tasks.
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Total focus on your tasks
This is one of the keywords for productivity: focus! After all, it’s better to work 1 hour focused than 5 distracted. You may only have one thing to do, but if you are distracted by looking at social networks or talking about personal matters with friends, an activity that you will finish in 30 minutes takes hours to complete. With that, you start to get discouraged and think you’ll never be able to finish your task.
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Make-to-do lists
You may not do everything you had planned for your day simply because you forgot. Either in a notebook or in some tool like Trello, Todoist or Mindmeister, put everything you want to accomplish and a deadline to execute each.
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Have time to read and respond to emails
But how so? I receive my demands by email; I need to be attentive to it all the time… Reading and answering emails is also a task which requires time and attention. It won’t help you to interrupt an activity you are doing to check emails; it takes your focus away from the primary task you are performing and can make you much more anxious, as you will be thinking about the next demands. Check your email every 30 minutes or 1 hour and disable notifications so you don’t get distracted.
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take breaks
Just like your body, your mind also gets tired, and if you keep forcing it to work, the result may not be as satisfying. Know your limit, take breaks to go to the bathroom, drink water, look at your cell phone, etc; this will help you to relax, and you will be able to perform your duties with full focus afterwards.
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Know how to say no
Do you know those little favours that are asked of you when you are extremely focused on your tasks? It’s time to say no to them! That’s not to say that you shouldn’t do any favours to your friends. However, if you’re overwhelmed or in the middle of something important, it’s best to let them know that you can’t help right now or that you can only do it later.
