It’s the age-old question: how can I become more productive? With so many distractions in life, particularly from our phones, it’s difficult to find ways to be productive that work and make a lasting difference. Read on for some key changes you can make today that can have an effective impact on how productive you are. Plus, each of these tips can be easily executed without disrupting your day-to-day life.

1. Avoid Your Phone When You Wake Up

Our phones are quite literally with us at all times. We rely on them for everything and that includes an alarm clock. It can be tempting to reach for your phone as soon as you wake up in the morning. Whether you want to check your emails, scroll social media, or take a peek at the news, it’s become part of a normal morning routine for many. Consuming content right when you wake up can lead to stress and start your day off on the wrong foot. Instead, spend some time with yourself.

“I used to be obsessed with scrolling through my phone the second I woke up, but I started to realize how anxious it made me feel”, says Yuvraj Tuli, Founder of Compound Banc. “I decided to ditch my phone the first hour of my day. I lie in bed and check-in with myself, I journal my thoughts, and I do my morning routine without my phone. I’ve found such a sense of peace in putting myself first each day and that has led me to have more productive days with my work and increased my mood. Win-win!”

2. Practice Time Blocking

Instead of creating a to-do list every day, practice time-blocking. Map out your day or week and fill in when you’ll be completing your tasks. This type of schedule doesn’t have to feel rigid, instead, it allows you to be proactive about how you’re going to complete your work promptly to give yourself more time freedom.

Brooke Castillo of the Life Coach School utilizes the Monday Hour One approach to time block her tasks. “Monday Hour One is an approach to time management that can transform not only how much you get done, but your commitment to yourself,” Brooke shared. “When we start writing down all the to-dos and all the things we want to do and all the things that we have put on the backburner. Part of Monday Hour One is bringing that all up and then asking ourselves why are we doing this, does this even matter to me? Does this make sense? Nothing will steal your dreams faster than not managing your time and not honoring your relationship with yourself.”

3. Take More Breaks

It sounds counterintuitive, but taking more breaks throughout your work day can lead you to be more productive. When you’re not prioritizing yourself during the day and giving your mind a chance to relax with a sense of calm, it can lead to burnout. Working from home, at a computer, or running from meeting to meeting all day without a break in between will leave you feeling rundown and unable to focus. So take more time out of your day for breaks, even if they’re just 10 minutes long.

“Taking multiple breaks in the workday has been a game-changer,” Natalia Morozova, Partner of Cohen, Tucker & Ades P.C. shares. “I go for a short walk around the block, call up a friend for 15 minutes, or have a drink or snack without looking at my phone or computer. Those little moments let me recharge and I come back to my desk more energized and ready to tackle the next thing.”

4. Reduce Email Check-Ins

Keeping a tab with your email open has become customary, but checking emails as they come into your inbox can throw a wrench into your productivity. Not only can they be distracting, but they can derail your current task, which could result in your work piling up.

“During the workday, I check my email once every hour,” shared Jimmy Minhas, Founder and CEO of GerdLi. “I dedicate no more than 15 minutes to my emails each hour, which leaves the remaining 45 minutes to get more work done. Now, I don’t worry about constantly checking my email and it reduced my stress and allowed me to stay focused on my work.”

5. Ditch Multi-Tasking

It might seem like multitasking is a great way to increase your productivity, but in fact, the opposite is true. When you divert your attention to more than one task, you’re not able to put your full focus on each project, which can have an adverse effect. Multi-tasking can mean you spend a long time completing a task and leaves room for more mistakes to be made.

Ryder Carroll, author of the book The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future, explains how multitasking can prevent us from accomplishing our tasks to the best of our ability. “Inevitably we find ourselves tackling too many things at the same time, spreading our focus so thin that nothing gets the attention it deserves. This is commonly referred to as ‘being busy.’ Being busy, however, is not the same thing as being productive.”

6. Unplug More Frequently

Phones are a huge distraction and it’s easy to get sucked into content online. Aside from distracting you from other things, the constant scrolling can affect how you feel. Whatever you’re watching could make you feel anxious, unmotivated, or discouraged. This causes your productivity to plummet and you’re not able to get anything done. And that’s not just during the workday either. Constantly using your phone can prevent you from enjoying the things you love.

“So much of my downtime used to be spent on my phone,” says Colette Shelton, Founder of Chirpyest. “I didn’t think it was all that bad because I was connecting with friends and family online. But it was draining. Now, I opt for in-person interactions with my friends and family, and boy does it make a difference. I don’t find myself craving my phone. Being with a community of people fills me up in ways that I never realized could affect how productive I am in my work.”

Not so scary, right? Take these tips one step at a time to slowly ease your way into a routine that leaves you feeling more productive and gives you the time and freedom to enjoy your life.

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Have you ever wondered how your best friend can handle a job, two kids and still manage to go to the gym each day?  Some people just seem like they have superpowers, right? Regardless of the activity, these types of people always seem to be on top of their game , whether they are handling tasks at the office, taking the kids to their after-school activities, or picking the perfect gifts for grandma ahead of her upcoming milestone. Instead of wasting your time thinking about how other people do it, start changing your daily habits with ones which will keep you on your path and motivate you in reaching your goals. Here are our favourite tips to help you hack life and boost your productivity.

1. Create A Morning Ritual

If you ever followed very successful and productive people, you know that they swear by having an efficient morning ritual. From the time they wake up to the way they drink their coffee, successful people always have everything planned out each day, as a way of saving time. Their morning rituals usually include meditation, working out and getting dressed in an outfit that is well put-together, yet comfortable. From earrings down to socks, everything is carefully selected – most probably the previous night.

2. Wake Up Early

This might be an obvious one, but waking up early is not only about getting more things done in one day. It’s about getting good quality and restful sleep every night. Besides being healing and recharging, a restful sleep will help you wake up early in the morning and keep your body and mind sharp. Instead of waiting until your eyes are closing, start unwinding and switching off early in the evening, so you can fully disconnect before bed.

3. Practice Self-Care And Mindfulness

Living a balanced life means taking the necessary time to preserve and enhance your greatest asset, which is yourself. This means creating time for self-renewal each day in the four main aspects of your life: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Besides being a great way of alleviating stress, focusing on just being present can help keep you aligned with your objectives.

4. Start The Day With The Hardest Task First

Taking on the most difficult or frustrating task first thing in the morning may sound daunting, but it’s a tactic that highly productive people use each day. Instead of spending all day dreading the moment you will actually have to tackle that undesirable task, start your morning with the hardest jobs first. By eliminating the worst thing from your list, the rest of the day will seem easy in comparison.

5. Write Down Your Thoughts

Before you start reading your emails or checking your social media, make sure you take the time to gather your thoughts and plan out your day. From daily tasks to creative ideas and feelings, writing things down is the best way to stay focused and combat forgetfulness. Instead of stressing out all day about everything, develop the habit of adding several notes daily to help improve your productivity and keep you organized.

6. Learn To Say ‘No’

Productive people are not afraid of saying ‘no’, as they understand the value of their own time. After all, time is our most precious resource. If you are serious about stepping up your productivity game, you should keep in mind what your priorities and goals are. Try not to say “yes” to things that don’t contribute to your objectives, as you will end up wasting your time and resources.

7. Go On A Walk Each Day

Sometimes, all you need to do to become more productive is to change your setting. Whether you are spending your whole day at the office or at home, changing your surroundings can help clear out your mind. Studies show that physical movement can lower stress levels and boost your mood by releasing endorphins. A quick daily walk in nature can help improve brain function, while keeping you fit and active.

Author Bio

Monica is a content writer and creative copywriter with a passion for fashion, health & nutrition and photography. When she is not out travelling the world, Monica loves to combine her creative side with analytical skills, to create high-quality and relevant content.

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It’s almost euphoric, the feeling of ticking away boxes on the to-do list, at the end of a long day. It’s like you have seized the day or something. With cell phones buzzing every minute with notifications or ringing with a large number of versatile options, it can be hard to maintain focus on your work, and be productive. Luckily with a little determination and following some tips, you can be productive, provided you either cut down on certain things or give them up altogether.

Here’s a list of twelve things you need to give up if you want to be productive.

1. Give up the unhealthy lifestyle 

It’s not easy, it requires a lot of effort but remember that if your body runs on little to no sleep or a bad diet such as junk food, then only a handful of energy is left for your brain to use! These days people are so focused on saving time that they are hesitant to spend it on shopping for a healthy meal, let alone cooking it for themselves. To save time they forget the cost which is the loss of attention and focus, which they lose when they aren’t consuming the right kind of fuel for their body.

2. Give up trying to save on business tools

A good lumberjack spends 70% of the time sharpening his ax. Why? Because the quality of your tools is a deciding factor to how good your output will be as well as how efficient you will be in achieving the desired outcome. Start by picking up your bulk email service or your CRM as it is a long-term game and solving it sooner is going to save you time in the long run.

“Never mistake motion for action.” — Ernest Hemingway

3. Give up on transactional relationships 

Building relationships takes a lot of time and effort. Throw in the introductory or get-to-know them phase and you have spent a lot of time. Plus, imagine spending so much time doing all that and having to let them go at the end of the month because of their incompetence. Therefore, If you are going to invest time building relationships, invest in the long term. For example, train one employee to stay with you for years instead of hiring low-paid assistants that you will have to say goodbye to in a few months.

Juggling way too many tasks isn’t healthy nor beneficial for your potential productive day. It will be draining and demotivating if you fail to achieve all the tasks on your list. It is the ultimate mistake of busy entrepreneurs. You think you are achieving more, while in fact, you are achieving less. 

Statistics show that multitasking leads to as much as a 40% drop in productivity as well as a 10% drop in IQ.

5. Give up that solo-fighter mindset

People need people to achieve goals and to aid each other in reaching desired destinations. Look around you and see that there are so many answers and solutions to your problems in your immediate circles, and even more – in your online communities. You are not alone in your battles! Give up the idea that you need to do everything by yourself and start asking for help.

6. Give up working on the weekends

Ok, let’s rephrase. You can work any day of the week. Just make sure you have a day off or a time out so that you could move your body, stir up some creativity or be social; If not for the joy of it, then at least in the name of productivity. Some CEOs advise as little, as 4-day work week for maximum productivity. Studies show that stepping outside your business gives you a much-needed perspective and allows you to come up with creative solutions. Plus, take the example of Wordsworth and other late poets who used to go out for walks when they wanted to conjure up new ideas for their masterpieces.

7. Give up working for the sake of work

Solidify the roadmap to your desired goal. Be clear about the kind of outcome you are aiming for. Take a closer look at the steps and break them down. Identify the actions which are pushing you towards your goals and those which are taking you and your time away from them.

8. Give up people-pleasing

Following the last point, get intentional about the things you say “yes” to. Does it contribute to your immediate goals? Does it help to build long-term relationships? Is there any joy in them or are they providing you with peace of mind? If none of the above then learn to say no.

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” — Walt Disney

9. Give up your social media addiction

Addiction, by definition, is something we can’t give up so easily. To curb it, firstly start by introducing a “mindful consumption” of social media. For example, whenever you open any application, start by asking yourself the question “What am I here to do today?” If your answer is say, engaging with your followers then say it out loud, for better effect. Once you achieved what you came to do, you can even say—out loud again— “I’ve accomplished what I came here to do.” then close it and move on to do some of your work. Take baby steps to tackle your addiction.

10. Give up the need to control 

You do not need to be in control of everything let alone introduce others to your business by yourself. Work on building systems that would allow others to know the state of your business at a glance. From weekly reports, to project management tools, spend extra time developing the system, so you can save time.

11. Give up anything that has to be done more than once

By looking at everything that you are doing repeatedly, try to turn it into a system, and systems can be automated or outsourced. Unless, of course, the repeated action is something you truly enjoy.

12. Give up working without a to-do list

When you let emails, messages, and requests replace your to-do lists, you feel like you are working and checking things off. However, in reality, you aren’t progressing towards your chosen goals. Try to tick off one thing before you turn on the chats or open emails. Trust me, the feeling of accomplishing small tasks off your list is thrilling!

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Research shows that people tend to require more leisure time when they are stressed. This extra bit of relaxation is used to boost the drop in mood that can come with excess stress, and the resulting lift in mood can bring a decrease in stress and an increase in productivity and balance. So a reasonable amount of leisure time can be a good way to relieve stress and become more productive.

The main issue with using leisure time for stress relief is that we only have a set amount of time in the day, and this time is valuable. Increasing leisure time can feel counterproductive for busy people (which probably includes most people in need of stress relief). There’s a danger of spending too much time relaxing and thereby increasing the pressure busy people face as a result–there’s less time to get things done, so back comes the stress.

Here’s how you can use leisure time for stress relief while maintaining balance:

Be Aware Of Your Needs

There are two things that can help you to relax without throwing you into full procrastination mode: Knowing what your goals are for your leisure time and having a list in your head to meet these goals. Do you simply need a break from work because you’re becoming mentally fatigued? Or do you need to get yourself into a better mood? If you are aware of what your needs are, you’ll know when they’ve been met. Most of us benefit from doing something that gets us into a good mood. If you just need a quick mental break, read on, that’s addressed next in this article.

“It’s a good idea always to do something relaxing prior to making an important decision in your life.” ― Paulo Coelho

Find Fast-Acting Pick Me Ups

One important key to fitting leisure time into a busy schedule is to find leisure activities that meet your needs in a short amount of time. It may seem counter-intuitive to “rush” through leisure time, isn’t the whole point that you get to relax and forget about rushing for a while? However, if watching a half-hour comedy can give you an adequate sense of relaxation to meet your needs, it’s important to think of doing this instead of seeing a movie.

Finding quicker leisure activities that work for you and keeping them in mind for when you need them, leaves you with more time left over to do everything else that needs doing. Here are some quick-acting pick-me-up activities. You can use them to start your list and add to them as you find more activities you enjoy.

• Take a quick walk.
• Look at a funny video or two online.
• Call a friend for a few minutes.
• Dance to a few songs.
• Do a sudoku puzzle.
• Ask a kid to share their favorite joke.
• Have a coffee break.
• Write in a gratitude journal.
• Meditate for a few minutes.

Motivate Yourself In Positive Ways

Sometimes you have the urge to take a break but you need to get back on task and stay there as soon as you can. If you’ve taken a break and need to get back to being productive, it helps to find self-motivation before you jump back into your day. Getting in touch with your inner motivation can also help you to avoid feeling depleted at the mere thought of facing the day’s challenges, and delving into procrastination mode. 

But rather than beating yourself up for wanting to relax, or trying to motivate yourself with fear, here are some gentle ways to get yourself engaged in the idea of doing what needs to be done.

Review your accomplishments – When you think of the successes you’ve had already, you can find yourself wanting to do more. If you take a minute to think about all that you’ve done already, you can get yourself more excited about creating more of these accomplishments.

Think about what you’ll gain when you’re done – Why is it important for you to get back to your challenges? What do you gain? If you remind yourself of the rewards that come with getting yourself back on track, it’ll be easier to motivate yourself to cut the leisure time shorter so you can truly enjoy the rewards that come from being done.

Promise yourself rewards when you finish – If these built-in rewards aren’t enough to get you motivated to close your social media pages and get back to work, you may benefit from coming up with something extra. For example, I used to reward myself for going to the gym by letting myself get new clothes after a certain amount of visits until the workouts themselves felt like enough of a reward.

“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.” ― Alan Cohen

Maintain Regular Resilience-Building Habits

How would you feel if you could make yourself less reactive to stress in general? When your stress levels are lower overall, you are less likely to need as much leisure time to balance out those stressful days–your stress levels will already be somewhat managed. Fortunately, it is possible to build resilience toward stress–certain habits really do make us less reactive to it over time. Maintaining some of these habits can take time, but not as much as you’d think, and they bring other benefits as well.

Here are some of the best ways to build resilience.

• Exercise regularly – It’s good for your body and your mind.
• Try meditation – It’s simpler than you may think, and it really works!
• Gratitude journaling – It can really build positive thinking and relieve stress. Give it a try.

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