PERSONAL SPECIAL.... INCREASE EFFICIENCY

INCREASE EFFICIENCY IN DAILY LIFE



Try out these five unconventional ways to increase productivity in your daily life

If you've tried all the advice from the productivity gurus out there but still find yourself drowning under the weight of your to-do list, these unconventional, sciencebacked tips might just save your sanity.

When it comes to productivity advice, most of what we read online is simply anecdotal. If you've tried implementing any of these tips, you'll instantly know that just because it worked for them, it doesn't mean it'll work for you, too.

And then you have the more evidence-based productivity tips that are repeated all over the show. Find your perfect morning routine. Start a meditation practice. Get enough sleep. Listen to the right kind of music.

Some of this advice will work, no doubt. But since each of us reacts differently to different stimuli, much of it won't actually make a real difference. Instead, it's a matter of trial and error.

And that's where this list comes in. If you feel like you've tried most of the productivity advice out there, and nothing is working, don't resign yourself to a life on the sofa eating takeaway and never getting anything done.

Here are a few unconventional, science-backed productivity tips that might just work for you even if nothing else will.

1 Become a master procrastinator

There's a huge amount of advice out there telling you to tackle your most important task (MIT) first. But for many of us, facing a daunting task first thing in the morning commonly saps morale, and acts as a demotivator.

Instead, try procrastinating.

Put off your most important task for an hour or two while you knock a few smaller (and easier) things off your to-do list, and keep track of what you're accomplishing. This allows you to leverage the science of “small wins.“

After studying thousands of diary entries from 238 employees, Teresa Amabile of Harvard Business School found that tracking these small wins enhances our motivation. How you decide to track these small wins is up to you. You could visually display your progress in a spreadsheet, or just cross off tasks from your to-do list. It doesn't really matter.

The reason this works is that each small win gives a small hit of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which increases motivation and energy levels. It can easily lead to a domino effect that'll see you tackling your MIT with far more gusto than if you'd turned to it first thing in the morning.

2 Put your money where your mouth is

Rewarding your successes may work for some people, but for others, punishing your failures is a far more effective motivator.

In psychology, this is known as “negativity bias“ and it's been demonstrated in a number of studies.Due to negativity bias, the threat of losing something was consistently shown to be more motivating than the promise of gaining something.

So try using negativity bias to your own advantage by putting your money where your mouth is. There's nothing like risking some of your hard-earned cash to keep you on the straight and narrow.

3 Start a journal

First of all, don't be turned away by its self-help reputation. It's a method that comes in many different forms, but it essentially boils down to “recording expressive communication.“ That could be as a diary, a place to store ideas, or a way of keeping track of thoughts and progress, or something else.

One study has shown journaling to be effective at improving problem-solving skills, which could be a great way to help you move forward with difficult challenges.Another study, by Psychotherapy Research, showed that by expressing your emotions through expressive writing, you're more likely to see a “greater reduction in anxiety.“

This stress-relief could be an effective way to relieve some of the pressure that's negatively impacting your productivity.

4 Work fewer hours

When facing a huge backlog of tasks, one of the worst things you can do is to up your work hours. The science is clear on this.

A 2014 paper by John Pencavel of Stanford University is just one study that supports this claim. This research found that each of us has a threshold at which output per hour starts to decrease. It takes only a small amount of reflection to notice our energy levels and output dropping when we reach a certain level of fatigue. This is when procrastination starts to kick in, and we realize we could have done more during one hour of hard work than we've managed in an entire afternoon of being exhausted.

We have to be able to recognize this point of diminishing returns and pull back. Not just so you can come back stronger tomorrow, but so you can avoid burnout in the long term.

5 Delete your email app (and more)

For most of us, when we check messages we're just “making sure everything's okay.“ It's as if we're on call 247. We all know this is a bad move. A 2016 study revealed that this “always on“ culture leads to a depressed mood, decreased calmness, higher stress, and lower energy levels. These effects were not just seen outside of work hours, but also when we return to work in the morning.

The solution, it seems, is to completely detach ourselves from work when we're not there. We need to disconnect and allow our body and mind to recover effectively, in order to maintain high productivity levels in the long term.

As mentioned, since each of us is different, not all of this productivity advice will work for you. But with the weight of scientific research thrown behind these tips, they have a good chance at being useful to a larger group of people.

This article first appeared on http:www.makeuseof.com

Rob Nightingale

Oct 19 2017 : Mirror (Mumbai)