No matter who you are, or where you live, it often seems impossible to get all of your daily tasks completed without rushing like a maniac just to keep up with your frantic pace.
Instead of continuing to live life running around like a chicken with its head cut off, you’ve decided to make some changes. In particular, you’ve decided to incorporate productivity tips into your daily routine that could potentially change your life for the better.
If you’re like most people, you spend the better part of your day running on fumes with hardly enough energy to complete your next task. You then look at your to-do list and recognize you still have too much to accomplish, so you realize it’s time for a caffeinated picked me up.
But your current brew of choice just isn’t getting the job done. We’d like you to consider an alternative. We recommend cold brew coffee and guide to make it because it’s a tasty cold beverage with a caffeinated kick that’s so strong you’ll start bouncing off the walls as soon as you take your first sip.
Getting an afternoon energy boost is only one way to kick your productivity levels into high gear. We also have a few other tips we’d like to share with you today, so sit back and get ready to read about the best ways to change your productivity habits and lead a brighter, much happier future.
1. Do Your Hardest Task First Thing in the Morning
Most of us have a tendency to barely make it into the office on time. Once we get there, we lazily turn on our computer and begin checking email for the next hour. After we’ve gone through our messages and respond accordingly, we make our way over to the break room to grab a cup of coffee and a doughnut. While we’re there, we begin chatting with our coworkers. Before long another half hour has passed and so far we haven’t really accomplished anything productive with our time.
Does this sound like you?
You continue to perform this dull, energy draining ritual day after day. It’s no wonder you can never seem to get anything done! You’re starting your day off in the worst possible way, and if you want your productivity numbers to improve, you have to change how you approach your workday first thing in the morning upon entering the office.
Instead of immediately answering email, forget about getting bogged down in other people’s problems as soon as you walk in the door. You should take a look at your priority task list for the day instead and see which item is the most difficult. Take that task and make it your number one priority. Focus on it immediately right when you get to work and don’t do anything else until it’s finished. Once you have this monstrously difficult task off your plate, not only will you feel like a million bucks, you’ll also feel like you’ve achieved something great and you’ll have started your day off on solid footing.
Stop wasting precious time first thing in the morning and tackle your most difficult task while you are alert, awake, and ready to take on a new day. If you don’t, you’ll end up getting held up by other problems and you may never get this important task finished. You’ll have to scramble at the end of the day to complete it halfheartedly. Since nobody wants this, remember to work on your biggest challenge immediately upon entering the office.
2. Use Designated Time Blocks
We typically don’t leave ourselves enough time to complete our tasks for the day, which is another reason why our daily productivity suffers. Instead, we have a tendency to shortchange ourselves almost religiously and spend large chunks of our time focusing on everything but our most important tasks.
As an example, many of us tend to take “short” breaks during the day. We’ll pop onto our phones and open up the Facebook app. We scroll through recent posts on our timeline and everything seems fine at first, but suddenly we get sucked into the social media rabbit hole and before long 45 minutes have essentially disappeared while we read the latest political rants or watched funny animal videos!
No one is saying you shouldn’t take a break during the day. But you do have to use your time more productively. When you set up your schedule, make sure you block out chunks of time to complete specific tasks. By designating this time in the beginning of the day, you’ll have an easier time staying on track while completing your responsibilities during the allotted hours.
Try not to let too many distractions throw off your schedule. Stick to your plan; focus on your tasks when you’re supposed to work on them, and even allot time to catch up on Facebook posts and funny videos.
3. Overwhelm Yourself With Your To-Do List
You may think this is absolutely bonkers. You may think the author of this piece is crazy for even suggesting it. But you’d be surprised how much you’ll actually get done when you overload your to-do list with more tasks than you can handle.
Believe it or not, when you have this humongous list in front of you you’ll begin to get serious and buckle down to get to work. You’ll start knocking tasks off your list one by one because you’ll feel good knowing you’ve taken care of your responsibilities and you’ll love the feeling so much that you’ll want to do it over and over again to continue feeling this great.
There’s also something exhilarating about a gigantic task list. Sure, you may feel dread in the pit of your stomach at first. But once you begin working to take care of your responsibilities, those feelings of dread will turn into adrenaline that you can use to knock tasks off your list one at a time. So, experience the overwhelm of a giant task list, but don’t get discouraged because you’ll feel amazing as you cross off completed responsibilities and begin to experience the freedom and satisfaction from a job well done.
Final Thoughts
Even though the new year has barely begun, many of us have already thrown our hands in the air in disgust and gave up our dreams of becoming more productive. But now that you’re armed with the right information, you can revitalize your spirit and use these tips to make 2018 your most prolific year ever!
About the Author:
Ashley Lipman write for Home Grounds.