Distractions plague our everyday lives. Distraction stares at us everywhere, from our homes to workplaces to social media. Some are legitimate, while others are not.
You wake up, take a moment to just run through your schedule for the day, and boom! You’re up and about. You take out the trash, have breakfast, shower, and go to school, work, or your desk.
The day starts when we’re back from school or work. Then we consider other things we want to do. Learn a song, do an exercise routine, or continue that online course you started heaven-knows-when.
By the day’s end, you look at your to-do list, and you’re often barely halfway through it. You fall asleep on your desk, drag yourself to bed, and your alarm wakes you up at 6 a.m.
Rinse, Repeat. This vicious cycle goes on and on, and more often than not, we do not achieve the goals we want to.
Twenty-four hours a day is not enough, or is it?
Stay with me if you want to become more productive so you can have time to do what you genuinely want to do. I’ll show how just 24 hours a day is enough for your daily tasks, and you still have time for yourself.
Here are six productivity guidelines to eliminate distractions and get things done faster.
Identify Your Obstructions
The best thing to do when something is not working out the way you want it to is to pause and think of possible reasons why your goals and plans keep falling through.
Three questions to ask yourself when your plan keeps failing:
Is my goal achievable?
This is the first question to settle down and decide the answer to. We sometimes have unrealistic goals so that a destination can hinder its actualization. Sincerely evaluate your goals, and you can always ask an extra set of eyes for an honest opinion. If they aren’t achievable within the set time frame, you can adjust the time frame and gently work towards actualizing that goal.
How much does this goal interest me? Of what importance is it to me?
Sadly, productivity is affected mainly by a lack of interest in the proposed outcome. A proportionate desire should be behind every goal. So go ahead and decide if that goal interests you as much. Suppose it doesn’t remind yourself why that goal was set in the first place. Revise what you stand to gain and map it out so you can keep returning to it for encouragement.
What stopped me from completing this goal? And what do I do about it?
It is time to identify various distractions, time-wasters, and significant turn-offs. When you’re aware of these hindrances, you can make some adjustments that will lead you to increased productivity and consistency.
Get The Most Out Of Your Time
Time is the capital you need to start the business of achieving your goals. When your productivity rate keeps dwindling, check how you spend your time!
The key to a productive day is to schedule every minute of it. Even your leisure time during the day should be prepared. Track your time diligently.
Account for every moment of your free time. When you account for every minute of your time, you will begin to understand yourself better. You’ll know your most productive hours, where your time is spent, and where fatigue kicks in during the day.
Accounting for every minute of your day doesn’t mean you have to pen down tons and tons of activities. No. It would help if you kept it as simple as possible. The actual reason for scheduling every minute is to instill an awareness that will keep you from entertaining distractions.
When there is already something you know you should be doing, it will be easier to eliminate distractions and get things done faster. When you consistently account for time wisely, your productivity will peak.
Focus On The Most Important Tasks
Often, our to-do list comprises all sorts of random activities ranked alongside very important stuff like meeting a deadline on a project. A productive day is not characterized by how many points you tick off a to-do list but by how many important tasks you accomplish alongside other lesser ones.
Get to the hard stuff and take them out. We often end up in a cycle because we do not take a few minutes at the start of each day to decide which tasks are more important in relation to each other.
Learn to pay attention to the most important tasks in your schedule and then attend to the others. In the long run, your productivity will show in your long-term priorities. So, you can classify these most important tasks as your long-term priorities and set aside time each day to do them.
That way, no matter how bored you get, you know it is a must-do. Work is never promised to be interesting, so learn to stay at it till you’re done, whether you feel like it or not. Somewhere down the line, motivation and inspiration will come. So, get productive first.
Learn To Say No
Research shows that successful people are those who’ve mastered saying no. They say no even in uncomfortable situations because they know that the less they have to do, the more productive and efficient they are at the most important tasks they have to accomplish.
It won’t happen in a day, but gradually, you should learn to say no. This will help you focus your time, energy, and best abilities on your long-term priorities and goals. This would result in heightened productivity in those specific areas.
Take A Break
A break in every sense of the word here doesn’t mean you’ve worked quite a while. It would help if you rested a bit. And then you lounge and get distracted under the guise of taking a break. No.
These breaks are structured and scheduled. And so you have time to deal with the legitimate distractions that come to mind while working. They also give you the time to recharge, strategize, and get back to work refreshed and with more ideas.
These breaks must be scheduled in a particular pattern and strictly followed.
For example, a 5-minute scheduled break after every hour of deep work will be helpful. It guarantees increased productivity every day and better work cycles.
At this junction, settling down and drawing up a simple schedule that gets the job done is okay. Also, set aside a daily time to review your plan where necessary.
Don’t Procrastinate
Now that you’ve probably figured it out let’s discuss the last enemy of consistent productivity: procrastination.
You can have a simple schedule with your most important tasks set forward and every hour of your day duly accounted for. Still, your decision to “get to it in just a moment” can rob you of everything your carefully crafted productive schedule promised.
Either you get to it, or you don’t. Identify the junctions in your day where you decide to “get to it in just a moment” and carefully eliminate them.
Consistent productivity is the only way to reach your pinnacle. It’s best to do the most important task of the day first thing each day. That way, it is out of the way, and you can gracefully proceed to other functions as the day progresses.
Conclusion
The concept of productivity has many schools of thought, but I have put together six tips that my friends, students, and I have discovered through practice to build and sustain a productive and successful life. As with anything at all, the input determines the outcome.
Consistency in productivity will yield a successful and fulfilled life. So, be determined to be consistent and never stop improving yourself. I’ve put together a course called Convert Confusion to Clarity. It is a step-by-step guide to living a goal-oriented life that will see you win at all you do.
You should get this training course to delve deeper and glean insight and experience from a clarity-filled existence.
