7 Incredibly Simple Productivity Hacks To Get More Done In Less Time
Sometimes the productivity industry
likes to make things much more complicated than it actually needs to be.
Personally, I believe that complexity is the enemy and that simplicity is
something we should strive more for. So, in alignment with that belief, I’d
like to share 7 incredibly simple productivity hacks that you can apply today
in order get a lot more done in a lot less time, while doing so with a smile on
your face!
Productivity Hack 1:
Turn Off Alerts & Notifications
Alerts and notifications are the
biggest sources of distraction for the modern day knowledge worker. Every buzz,
sound, light or pop-up pulls for your attention and opens a new mental loop
that wants to be closed. Fighting the temptation of checking your phone or
social media is incredibly hard, and only becomes harder as your willpower
depletes during the day. Therefore, make the decision to protect your valuable
time and focus by turning these alerts and notifications off.
Keep in mind, these notifications
exist to suck you back into social media and messaging apps. In other
words, you’re serving the agenda of the app developers instead of following
your own path.
One of my friends, who
can be found a lot on his phone during work hours and his free time, actually
shared his statistics with me during an average week. He received a
stunning 1607 notifications and spend an average of 3 hours
and 15 minutes per day on his phone! That’s 1600 times he got disrupted during
his work, thought process, social interactions and creative problem-solving. If
that’s not a productivity killer than I don’t know what is!
Productivity Hack 2:
Follow An Empowering Morning Routine
My morning routine is one of those
habits that allows me to consistently have high-performance days. By doing
habits like meditation, affirmations, goal-setting & reviewing
goal-reviewing, and setting my intentions for the day, I set myself up for a
highly focussed and productive day. Because of my morning routine, I feel more
energized, aligned with my goals & ambitions, and highly motivated to
tackle the day ahead.
I clearly notice that on those days
where I don’t follow my morning routine, I have much more trouble being
productive, staying focused and working on my priorities. Therefore, create and
follow your own morning routine asap! If you want to learn more about morning
routines, check out this article below.
7 Essential Morning Ritual
Habits For A Productive, Energetic & Successful Day
Hack 3:
Stay Hydrated!
One of the simplest but most
overlooked ways to improve the performance of your brain is to drink enough
water. drinking enough water is incredibly important to your ability to
concentrate and focus.
The brain consists of 75% of water,
so it’s no wonder that we start to experience immediate effects when we don’t
drink enough water. I always ask people who feel sluggish, unfocused and low on
energy if they drank enough water and the answer is almost always no.
In short, drinking enough water
makes sure the energy production of the brain is functioning well, while not
drinking enough leads to lower energy production, leaving you to feel foggy,
fatigued and not sharp. All of which leads to heavily decreased productivity
levels.
Therefore, when you’re giving your
body the adequate amount of water, you’ll be able to think faster by 14%, stay
focused for much longer, experience less brain fog and fatigue — and feel a lot more
energized. That’s one easy way to boost your productivity!
Productivity Hack 4:
Set Daily Goals & Intentions
One of the main reasons why so many
people are unfocused and struggle with being productive is because they don’t
know exactly what to do right now, today.
They might know that they want to
earn more money, lose weight or build a business, but those are all goals
somewhere in the future. But what about right now? What about today? Despite
your long-term goals, procrastination will kick in when you don’t know exactly what
it is that you’re supposed to be doing today.
If you lack clarity about what it is
that you should be doing today, your mind will start making other plans. Easier
plans, lesser important plans, plans that might be pleasurable and rewarding in
the short-term, but not in the long-term. In other words, you’ll procrastinate,
lose focus on your main goals and take a hit in your productivity levels.
Therefore, always set 1–5 daily
goals and write them down in a productivity planner or your journal. Make sure
you create the clarity of knowing exactly what it is that you
should be doing today. Make your goals very precise and specific so that you
know exactly what to do. Giving this structure to your day will help you work
with a lot more focus and determination.
Productivity Hack 5:
Avoid Multi-Tasking
According to research, once we get distracted or try to shift from task to
task, it takes on average 25(!) minutes to regain our full focus on our task at
hand. This is a phenomenon called ‘attention residue’, which implies
that some of your attention is ‘left behind’ at the previous task (or
distraction) your brain was dealing with. Your brain can’t simply shift from
task to task effectively, as its capability to focus has literally decreased.
Furthermore, shifting your
attention back and forth between tasks and distractions drains energy from the
brain — as it uses glucose — making us feel tired,
less motivated and less
productive.
This is why so many people are
completely worn out by a day of work, even though it’s physically not that
demanding. Therefore, avoid multi-tasking and instead focus on one task with
your full attention. This way you have more energy and focus left to really
crush it.
Productivity Hack 6:
Schedule Your Days & Weeks
By scheduling your days and weeks,
you’ll become a lot more effective. I clearly notice how my most unproductive
days are the ones that I didn’t schedule or didn’t schedule well enough.
If you don’t schedule your days and
weeks, you will just wander around. You kind of know what to
do, so you’ll have a kind of work ethic. You need to protect
your time for those most valuable tasks or else it’ll fall prey to distractions
or other people’s agenda.
Therefore, create a solid
battle-plan for your days and weeks. One that you can simply follow and
execute. This will help you save valuable decision-making energy (which is
proven to be a limited resource) during the day — and work with more
determination and focus.
Productivity Hack 7:
Declutter Your Work-Space
When I’m doing deep work, there’s
literally no object in sight on my desk except for my water bottle, my earbuds
and my laptop. In a study done
by Harvard University, it’s shown that a decluttered working environment leads
to a significant increase in your ability to focus. Furthermore, it turns out
that the participants who worked in a decluttered environment were able to work
for longer periods of time compared to those who worked in a messy environment.
The reason why is that all objects
in your vision (without consciously seeing them or not) fight for your
attention, which costs your brain a lot of energy to resist or filter out.
After a while, your brain will be too tired to continue this process and you’ll
feel more sluggish, unfocused and unwilling to work hard.
Furthermore, realize that every
object leaves an impression in your mind and that those impressions create
thoughts which then can be distractions. Really be strict about this if you
want to perform at your highest possible levels.
Jari Roomer
https://medium.com/personal-growth-lab/7-incredibly-simple-productivity-hacks-to-get-more-done-in-less-time-13a2cd65a78
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