Productivity Habits

by Robert Hensley

  You need to sleep at least for 5-6 hours every night. If you must encroach in your sleep time, ensure that within 7 days you make up for the time lost by sleeping in a little extra. Pay attention the following must-dos:

  Night sleep cannot be replaced by day rest. The brain repairs and regenerates itself during the night sleep – not daytime sleep. It explains why people who work the graveyard shift feel tired and rundown in spite of sleeping almost the whole day to make up.

  It would help if you eat your last meal at least 3-4 hours before bedtime. Heavy and undigested meals interfere with the quality of your sleep.

  Ensure that there is no distraction (such as noise, light, too cold or too hot atmosphere) while you sleep. Keep the TV out of the bedroom if possible.

  Use an alarm to wake up so you would not worry about waking up on time – which will not allow you to sleep peacefully.

  Ensure that the bedrooms are adequately aired so you can breathe in fresh air while you sleep.

  Go to bed at least 2-3 hours before midnight. This part of sleep is the most beneficial for your brain function.

  Wake up the same time every day – even on holidays.

  Develop a habit of taking power-naps midday for a boost in brain function and energy.

  Fun Time and relaxation

  You cannot work best unless you have enough time to have fun as well. It would help if you balance your work hours with pleasure. Make time for hobbies, leisure activities that give you joy and make you laugh.

  Laughter is, indeed the best medicine. Hearty laughter removes the harmful effects of stress from your mind and body. You need to socialize with friends and feel loved and appreciated. It is imperative that you have fun and good times with someone who loves you. This is why pet therapy works so well with terminal patients and people who live alone.

  Relaxation and fun are terms used interchangeably, but they aren’t the same. While fun is relaxing, relaxation is time off to rest or do nothing. You may use your weekend to relax and have fun – as this would recharge your energy and renew your zest to work.

  Chapter 9: Identifying Things That Waste Your Time

  Time Killers

  Time killers get the best of all of us at times. These are things that cause you to be late, not reach your goals, not be able to complete tasks or make you lose track of time. Of course, you want to get things done and if you have the drive and motivation, then you need to watch where your time goes. It can be any number of things. Below are examples of things you may be doing that are time killers.

  Spending too much time on Social Media. For example: Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, or even dating sites. You may want to check it r quickly to see what is going on, but then you find yourself watching videos or just scrolling for an hour. It happens to the best of us from time to time. However, if you are aware, you can stop this habit. Alternatively, make it part of your personal time.

  Procrastinating. (This is one of the biggest time killers. Putting things off because you think you can just do it later) If you keep putting off something because you don’t like it, it will not be any better when you finally get around to doing it. It may make it worse because you have had so much time to think about it. Just do it and get it over with.

  Overbooking yourself. You can’t be everywhere at once. You don’t always have to feel obligated to do what people ask of you. Always think about what you need to do first and make sure you have the time. You will have to accept the fact that people will always expect things from you and that it is okay to let them down sometimes.

  Watching too much TV. Give yourself a time limit. An hour a day is usually enough relaxing and unwind in front of the TV. And you can find small things to take care of during commercial breaks. You could sweep the kitchen, take the dog for a walk or even get in a little exercise.

  Spending too much time looking at your cellphone. (most people are guilty of this) A cellphone is a great device, but don’t become a slave to it. If you can’t go an hour without picking up your cell phone, then you are spending too much time on it.

  Worrying about things that you can’t change or control. If you can not do anything to change a situation, then don’t waste your time worrying about it. It will consume you and keep you from doing the things that need to be done.

  There are many things that cause us to waste time. The things that waste our time are different for everyone, but the outcome is the same. We end up overworked and overstressed with nothing to show for it because we never finish the things that need to be done. When you tend not to get things done it causes you to stress out and waste even more time. It is a vicious cycle, but you have the power to stop it. Now is the time for you to take back your life and your time.

  You can be productive and successful. The first step is identifying your time killers and start weeding them out.

  Dealing with Time Wasters

  When you are working on your important tasks, you should not allow other people or events to divert your attention from what you need to do. If you give notice to time wasters, you will not get anything done. Here are some strategies on how you should deal with time wasters:

  List your time wasters

  This is what happens when the phone rings or when it notifies us that we received an email. We habitually give attention to the source of the signal. The first step to stop these things from affecting your productivity is to be aware of them. You should go back to your time log and check when these habits happen. When you have identified the culprits, you should make a list of the habits that cause you to waste time.

  Resist the urge to respond to distracting stimuli

  You should do the same with other sources of distraction that tend to have the tendency to take your attention away from your work. Some of the common causes of distraction are the television, smartphone apps, and unproductive tabs on the computer. You should remove them from your work area if you want to focus on your task. If this is not possible, you should learn to resist reacting to their notification signals.

  Remove social media apps

  Among the most common sources of distractions, today are social media apps. They are in our phones and other mobile devices so we can carry them pretty much everywhere. If you notice that checking your social media accounts is taking too much of your time, you should remove these apps from your phone. These apps are designed to get your attention and to keep you hooked on them for long periods. You should remove them from any devices that you use for work.

  Make your breaks boring

  When mental and physical fatigue sets in because of work, most people feel that they need a reward. They seek activities that provide them with a psychological or material bonus. The problem is that most of the rewards we give ourselves are addictive. Over time, we develop a craving for the reward. There comes a point when we unknowingly overdo the rewarding part of the process.

  Keep your environment tidy

  A messy environment can also be a reason for wasting time. It is difficult to find things that we need if the surroundings are untidy. You will also have some difficulty in moving around because of the mess. When put together, these small factors can cause you to waste a lot of time.

  When tidying up, you need to create a space where you can move freely. It would help if you practiced the same principle at work and at home. If there are too many things lying around, you should consider reorganizing your space or giving some things away.

  Prepare activities for waiting and commuting

  Most people also consider traveling as a waste of time. Traveling is a time waster only if you do not do anything while you wait. For example, if you drive to work, you can listen to an audiobook while driving. It will allow you to catch up on your readings while on the road. If you love reading, you could also put digital books in your phone for those times when you are made to wait, like at the bus stop or train station.

  Chapter 10: Managing Your Productivity

  Divide your day into qua
drants

  During planning, you should divide your day into 4 quadrants. If you are awake for 16 hours per day, each quadrant should contain four hours. By planning your day this way, you will be able to put tasks into blocks of time. You will also be aware of how productive you have been by checking your output at the end of each quadrant.

  We usually spend the first quadrant preparing for the day ahead; this is where your morning ritual takes place. If you live far from your workplace, part of this time will also be used for commuting. Part of this quadrant will also be spent for the start of your workday. You should take on your most essential tasks in this quadrant.

  The second and the third quadrants are where the rest of the workday happens. It is when we are most awake and productive. The last quadrant is usually spent with the family over dinner (or personal leisure time if you live alone). If you have a unique project, you may also use this part of your day to work on that.

  Divide each quadrant into 15-minute chunks

  If the 4-hour quadrants do not work for you, you may also choose to divide your working period into 15-minute chunks. A 15-minute period is long enough for you to start something and short enough for you to start and finish most of your shorter activities. Let’s say you plan to work for an hour. You set your alarm to go off every 15 minutes. Every time the alarm goes off, you check your mood. If you still feel like working, you should continue until the alarm clock goes off again.

  If you feel like you are tired when the alarm clock goes off, you should take a break. Your break time should only be 15 minutes long. The next time the alarm sounds, you should get back to work. It works better for people who get bored quickly.

  This method is also beneficial if you often neglect essential tasks because you think there is not enough time. We often neglect tasks that we classify as “important but not urgent.”

  Manage your energy

  Your will power to work weakens as your energy level goes down. By the time you start your final quadrant, your energy level is at its lowest. This is the reason why most people no longer have the will power to work at home.

  Now that you know how your energy level depletes during the day, you should try to readjust your schedule so that the most critical tasks are done at the time of day when your mind is most awake. If you are working on a personal project outside of work, for example, you should put it in your schedule early in the morning right after your morning routine. If there is too much commotion at home, you can also do your project in your office right before you start the workday.

  Motivate yourself for work right before a new quadrant starts

  The advantage of dividing your day into parts is that you get to restart your day for each division. Let’s say you are already tired after your day’s second quadrant. Most people will give up on the workday. They will spend the rest of the workday with half the energy level they had in the morning. When doing their tasks, their attention is on time rather than on their tasks.

  It is not that they do not have the energy; they lack the motivation to do their work. Over time, this becomes a habit. They habitually decrease their energy level on the third quadrant of their day. For most people, the pattern develops because they forget their reason for working at this point of their day. Even if they were extremely productive in the morning, they still end up providing the output of mediocre quality.

  If you usually enter the same mental state in the later parts of your day, you should find ways to re-motivate yourself right before you start a new quadrant. By doing so, you remind yourself of the things that motivate you to work.

  Chapter 11: Improving Your Time Management Habits

  Identify the nature of your activities

  From your records, you should categorize your activities. For a working mother, for example, the activities may be divided into these categories:

  Family

  Work

  Personal time

  Socialization

  Some of us are guilty of spending too much time in one category. We usually over-do something that feels good. The goal of categorizing your tasks is to become aware of how you balance your time. When you are aware that you are spending too much time in one aspect of your life, you will be able to modify your behavior.

  Analyze and re-strategize

  In this activity, you should examine your weekly planning notebooks. It would help if you compared your plans to what happened. If things did not go as planned, you should not be too hard on yourself. Instead of blaming yourself or others, you should focus on what you can do to prevent deviations from the plan in the future.

  It would help if you looked for time-wasting events that occur regularly. You should identify the causes of these time management problems and try to look for solutions. If a particular strategy does not work for you, you should look for other ways to deal with your time management problems. After all, dealing with the same issue may not always require you to stick to just one approach.

  Look for positive changes and make them your habits

  As you examine your logbook and your planner, you should look for areas where you have improved. You should see if there are changes that you can make that would further enhance your performance. It would help if you also made habits out of these positive changes. By developing time-conserving habits, you will be able to make positive changes permanent.

  Aim for efficiency

  The ultimate goal is to continually look for strategies that will improve your efficiency at work and home. You will only reach maximum effectiveness if you are no longer distracted by time wasters. You will need the self-discipline to resist the urge to give these time wasters your attention. However, if you successfully ignore these distractions, you will reach your goals sooner, and you will have more time for your other priorities in life.

  Eventually, you will begin to improve your efficiency with time. As you improve, however, you may become complacent. When this happens, you will become more susceptible to distractions. You should continue applying the strategies suggested in this book so that you will never become complacent with how you use your time. It would be best if you also were alert for ways on how you can further improve your efficiency and productivity. If you feel like you are losing focus, you should reread this book again to remind yourself of what you need to do.

  Chapter 12: Enjoying a Motivated and Productive Life

  Enjoying life isn’t necessarily about having free time and being great at everything. It’s about disciplining yourself and making it a point to improve on your weak points. Some people are content with the way they are.

  To enjoy your life as being motivated and productive, you must learn to put the procrastination habit on the shelf and leave it there to rot. It’s not easy. If you are used to putting aside tasks until you feel like doing them, making yourself do them right away is going to feel uncomfortable for a while. Once you get into the habit, you will find that you enjoy being productive and laugh at yourself for the times when you would procrastinate it.

  Not only will you enjoy being productive and managing your time well, but others will notice the difference in you. You will find that you’re more relaxed and not feel pressured by large amounts of work. It will all come in time. You’re not going to be able to change years of habits overnight.

  Just remember, procrastination leads to stress, and stress leads to a less enjoyable life. Just because you’re intimidated by the list of tasks before you, don’t make the situation worse by procrastinating them. Take some of the tips that I’ve mentioned and make yourself face your struggle head-on.

  Once you’ve found a balance between time management and focus, you will notice that your tendency to procrastinate has gone way down. Great job! Continue to build healthy time management habits so that you won’t fall into the trap of procrastination again.

  There are a thousand and one ways that each of us starts our morning. Although some of us start our morning much later, all of us have a specific time tha
t we consider morning. Productivity is usually very high in the mornings; hence, it is vital that you accomplish as much as possible during this time. It makes a morning routine a very fundamental part of effective time management as well as productivity.

  Mornings are the perfect time to be creative, exercise as well as have some ‘me time’. Additionally, science has indicated that a person’s willpower is most influential in the morning. It means that if we want to be productive, we must take advantage of these and perform tasks that will be more difficult as the hour’s pass. How you spend your morning is also a precursor to how your day shall progress. A calm and productive morning will yield calmness and productivity throughout the day, while a hectic and frantic morning ritual will generate much of discord during the day.

  Conclusion

  Thank you for making it to the end of this book. We all struggle with something in our lives. Time management is nothing but a plan to get the most out of your day and life. Contrary to common belief, it is not difficult to incorporate into your life – especially, if you have defined your life’s goal. The moment you have your eyes on your goal, motivation to get your life in order will come to you automatically.