While going through everyday life, you will face ups and down, that is the harsh reality of life. What matters at this time is what you do with these situations. Do you sometimes feel like you have a lot to do but very little time to do it? You are definitely having productivity problems but relax, it happens to everyone. We are here to help you eliminate those problems and be the best version of yourself!
What Is The Meaning Of Productivity?
We know what productivity is, I mean we are actually paid for our productivity at work but how do you define it? Productivity is a very broad word with a very large meaning, it isn’t just related to work but all different areas of life. From a work perspective, it could be how many hours you worked on the job. From an academic perspective, it could be the number of words you wrote or how many subjects you passed. Now tell us, what is common in both of these scenarios? Productivity is just output measured by input!
How much output can you get by providing a certain level of input? You increase the input and the output automatically increases, seems simple enough right? Although it is much more complicated, sometimes there are certain barriers between the input and the output, and we are here to help you remove those barriers.
Many people use time management techniques to be more productive at work, this works for some people, but not all of those who use it. Yes, time management and productivity are definitely interconnected but we often see people with poor productivity that have excellent time management skills.
For people that don’t know, time management is a range of different skills and tools that enhance the effective use of a person’s time, you learn to do more in your time. Productivity is something different, these are the results that are achieved within a certain amount of time.
What Is Toxic Productivity?
Now you know the importance of being productive but have you ever heard about toxic productivity? This is basically the need to be productive at all times at the expense of everything else. You ignore every other aspect of life and only focus on your work, that is completely wrong. Life is all about finding and having that crucial balance between your professional and personal life.
You ever saw those social media trends like #girlboss? This is where young women are encouraged to have it all, a six-figure salary, working out intensely, going on multiple vacations annually, and even having healthy meals. All of this seems great but they also represent toxic productivity, you will always feel like you want to achieve more.
In desperate pursuits like these, we lose track of ourselves and focus only on what we are doing. During COVID-19, our lives became very different. Since we shifted to remote work, the lines between professional and personal life became very blurred, we always wanted to go that “Extra Mile”. Now that things have finally returned to normal, we still have that feeling of doing great every day, this has nothing to do with productivity. Being like this might increase your productivity in the short term but will also cause you to have burnout where you will just shut down eventually.
How Can You Be More Productive?
In all aspects of life, being productive is the one thing that matters the most. Although a person should be productive in every field of life, being productive at work is a necessity. Not only will this allow you to perform better at work but will also give you job satisfaction.
The modern workplace has now evolved, and we have the pandemic to thank for that. There is no longer the traditional 9-5 because most work timings have become hybrid, remote, or combinations with in-person jobs. Since working has now become very flexible, how can we become more productive? Some of us have been motivated to do even better than before while some of us are now facing dynamic challenges. This goes for both employers and employees, we must find new ways to provide us the motivation and track efficiency.
Here are some adjustments that we can make in our work schedule to improve overall productivity.
- Stack Your Habits: In order to be better, we can start by stacking our habits. We don’t have to start with the big habits, make small but meaningful changes in your life. Combine different habits and stick with those that make your work a lot easier.
- Be A Master Of Time Management: Focus on the skills that help you make the most out of your work hours. If you are spending time on a specific task then you must also yield the required results.
- Be More Accountable: Motivation and accountability can make huge changes to your work routine. If you can hold yourself accountable then it is great, otherwise, you will have to find a work buddy. This work buddy will motivate you, hold you accountable for your work, and also do weekly checkups. You can even create weekly or monthly goals to enhance your overall performance.
Important Tips To Improve Productivity
Here are some important work tips that you can follow to improve your productivity.
Focus On One Task
Some people have the habit of multitasking, which is great but it might distract you from the bigger picture. Multitasking might help you with different tasks, you might also feel like the jack of all trades but your productivity won’t increase in the long run.
Focus on one task at a time, this will allow you to complete that task with high standards. When the said task is done, you can move on to the next one.
Learn To Take A Break
This might seem a bit unorthodox at first but you really need to know when to take a break. Regular breaks are actually great at the workplace, they help in reducing stress and also increase your overall productivity. You can take a look at this course from Monash University, this will allow you to improve your performance by reducing/eliminating stress.
Most workplaces ensure that their employees take regular breaks, this enhances their overall productivity. You can also try this approach at home, if you are not being monitored while working from home, try taking breaks of 15 minutes. Move away from work and focus on yourself, then return back to work, this will allow you to proceed with work effectively.
Set Small But Effective Goals
You will be given large and intimidating tasks at work, what matters is how you deal with them. Stress might be the normal response here but you can also play it smart. You are going to get the task done eventually but let’s make the process even more efficient. You can break any large task into small but manageable tasks, this will help you stay productive and will also make the best of time.
Think of it like building blocks, you will have to focus on one small task at a time but the end result will be fascinating.
Set Self-Imposed Deadlines
Setting self-imposed deadlines can actually help you be more productive at work. Stress is a bad thing, but self-imposed stress can actually help us focus and be better. You can do really well with open-ended tasks or projects once you give yourself a deadline.
Stick to that deadline and you will be surprised by the miracles that you can perform at work.
Try Following The “Two-Minute” Rule
Steve Olenski is one of the finest Entrepreneurs to date and he has given wonderful advice in the shape of the “Two-Minute” Rule. The Two Minute rule is basically about making the best out of small windows at work. Olenski tells us that if there is a task at work, and you can do it in 2 minutes then you do it post haste. When you complete that small task, you don’t actually have to waste more time getting back to it, which also increases your productivity.
It is because of this rule, he has now become one of the most influential content strategists.
Make The Most Of Your Commute
What do you do in your free time at work? Do you check out your feed on Facebook? Or stroll through Instagram? In order to make the most of your time, focus your mind on your own productivity. Come up with ideas that will actually make your job easy. This is the best time to brainstorm!
Forget About The Idea Of Perfection
Entrepreneurs love getting hung on trying to perfectly execute a task, but the thing is that perfection doesn’t actually exist. You can only do the best according to your abilities and wait for the results. You can also revisit some tasks or projects and try to improve them if you can.
Powerful Quotes To Help Improve Your Productivity At Work
We want you to be successful in every field of life, especially work. Borrow these powerful and inspirational words to motivate yourself at work. Enjoy!
It’s not knowing what to do, it’s doing what you know.
Tony Robbins
Focus on being productive instead of busy.
Tim Ferriss
The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.
Stephen Covey
Ordinary people think merely of spending time, great people think of using it.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.
David Allen
Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.
Coco Chanel
If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.
David Allen
Action is the foundational key to all success.
Pablo Picasso
The best way out is always through.
Robert Frost
It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.
Nathan W. Morris
Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.
Franz Kafka
Life is too complicated not to be orderly.
Martha Stewart
You don’t need a new plan for next year. You need a commitment.
Seth Godin
The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today.
Nolan Bushnell
Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.
Peter Drucker
If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.
Bruce Lee
Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year–and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!
Tony Robbins
It’s fine to decide not to decide about something. You just need a decide-not-to-decide system to get it off your mind.
David Allen
Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.
Napoleon Hill
It is not enough to be busy…. The question is: What are we busy about?
Henry David Thoreau
There’s a tendency to mistake preparation for productivity. You can prepare all you want, but if you never roll the dice you’ll never be successful.
Shia LaBeouf
You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.
Warren Buffett
When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that in itself is a choice.
William James
Effective performance is preceded by painstaking preparation
Brian Tracy
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.
Walt Disney
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.
Steve Jobs
You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.
Zig Ziglar
Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night.
Michael Jordan
Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.
Norman Vincent Peale
Plans are nothing; planning is everything.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction.
John F. Kennedy
Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.
Leo Babauta
Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition–in having put forth the best within you.
Henry J. Kaiser
The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.
Tom Peters
If you have time to whine then you have time to find a solution.
Dee Dee Artner
No matter how many personal productivity techniques you master, there will always be more to do than you can ever accomplish in the time you have available to you, no matter how much it is.
Brian Tracy
Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.
Stephen King
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.
Theodore Roosevelt
To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.
Corita Kent
Time is not refundable; use it with intention.
Unknown
Create with the heart; build with the mind.
Criss Jami
Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.
Oprah Winfrey
Starve your distraction and feed your focus.
Unknown
Reflect on what you do in a day. You may have never realized how some simple, harmless activities rob you of precious time.
Vivek Naik
Start by doing what is necessary, then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
Saint Francis of Assisi
Remember that failure is an event, not a person.
Zig Ziglar
He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.
Muhammad Ali
To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is no substitute for hard work.
Thomas Edison
When we truly need to do is often what we most feel like avoiding.
David Allen
Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.
Paul Gauguin
One of the great challenges of our age, in which the tools of our productivity are also the tools of our leisure, is to figure out how to make more useful those moments of procrastination when we’re idling in front of our computer screens.
Joshua Foer
When you waste a moment, you have killed it in a sense, squandering an irreplaceable opportunity. But when you use the moment properly, filling it with purpose and productivity, it lives on forever.
Menachem Mendel Scheerson
Words may show a man’s wit but actions will show his meaning.
Benjamin Franklin
You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Martin Luther King
You don’t get paid for the hour, you get paid for the value you bring to the hour.
Jim Rohn
Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.
John Wayne
Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.
Sam Levenson
Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.
Napoleon Bonaparte
All our productivity, leverage, and insight comes from being part of a community, not apart from it. The goal, I think, is to figure out how to become more dependent, not less.
Seth Godin
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Will Durant
While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.
Henry C. Link
Don’t confuse activity with productivity. Many people are simply busy being busy.
Robin Sharma
Watch: Robin Sharma’s Legendary Hack to x100 Your Productivity
Robin Sharma is one of today’s top leaders and his work has made a huge impact all over the world. Enjoy this video where he shows us how to effectively enhance our productivity!
Recap
Life is full of ups and downs, but it is also about getting back on your feet and being better. There is going to be a time when you just don’t feel like working, and that’s fine, but we must also find ways to increase our productivity and set an example for ourselves.
Increasing your productivity at work will not only be beneficial for your employers but also for you in the long run and for others all around you. With these methods that we have mentioned, we are sure that you will definitely notice a change in your professional life, some of our techniques can also be applied to our personal lives which is the interesting part.
We would like to share these amazing words from Denholm Elliott, to give you courage and motivation:
Surprise yourself everyday with your own courage.
May you find the strength to be better in every field of life!
