How you spend your day can make a big difference in your productivity. Here are a few small changes that can help you get more done in a day.
For example, if you check your email every time it buzzes, you could lose up to 25 minutes per hour! Instead, try scheduling an hour each day to work on emails.
Create a daily to-do list.
A daily to-do list is a great way to keep yourself accountable and ensure you get the most out of your day. The best tip is to make your list the night before, so it’s a clear and concise reminder of what you need to accomplish the next day. It’s also important to keep a “done” list to track the progress you’ve made throughout the day.
Try to limit the number of tasks you put on your list to around 10 or 15. Having too many items can quickly become overwhelming, and it will also make it harder to motivate yourself to complete them all. Instead, focus on the bigger projects and tasks that are essential to your success and wellbeing.
High productivity people often have several lists, including one for daily activities, a weekly project list, and a monthly goal list. They also schedule multiple working time slots, typically in one- or two-hour increments, to work on these larger goals.
To increase your productivity, break down the tasks on your daily to-do list into small, manageable steps and assign a realistic amount of time for each task. This will help you feel more in control and less overwhelmed by your responsibilities, and it will also make it easier to stay on track.
Lastly, consider making your list public so that anyone relying on you knows what’s expected of you. This will hold you accountable if your family, friends, and colleagues see that you haven’t finished the tasks on your to-do list.
Don’t forget to celebrate the smaller tasks you finish, even if they seem mundane. It will give you a sense of accomplishment and encourage you to tackle the more difficult tasks.
Do the hardest tasks first.
It’s tempting to think that productivity is about crossing off as many tasks as you can, but that often leads to a feeling of failure when you don’t finish everything. Instead, focusing on quality work and setting realistic goals can make you feel like you’ve had a productive day.
One way to do this is by making sure you have the hardest tasks at the top of your list for the day. This will encourage you to tackle them first, rather than putting them off until later in the hope that you’ll have more motivation to do them then. Taking some time to plan your day in advance is also a good idea, as this will give you a clear sense of what you need to do and ensure that you don’t end up with too much on your plate at the end of the day.
You can also break down your tasks into smaller steps, which will help you estimate how long each will take to complete. This will allow you to create a timeline for each task and improve your overall productivity. In addition, it’s important to limit your meetings so you don’t waste any time chatting or discussing trivial issues. Instead, try to use tools like Fellow’s Streams that let you create and share meeting agendas that the entire team can contribute to.
When it comes to getting more done, there are a lot of little tricks that can make a big difference. Try out these simple tricks to see how much more you can achieve each day — you might just surprise yourself! For more tips on how to increase productivity, check out 19 Easy Tricks to Boost Your Productivity.
Limit your phone usage.
You likely reach for your phone out of habit or boredom, but those small distractions are a huge waste of time. Studies show that it takes 25 minutes to return to the original task after checking a notification, so avoiding them will save you loads of time in the long run.
Try tracking your time for 15 minute increments each day to see where you’re losing productivity. It may be tedious, but it’s also incredibly enlightening to see where you spend your time and put systems in place to stop you from wasting it!
If you’re struggling to get through your to-do list each day, start by doing the hardest tasks first. This will help you feel accomplished right from the start and you’ll find that you have a renewed energy to tackle other tasks throughout the day. Additionally, you can use apps like Moment to help track your screen time and limit certain types of apps during specific times of the day. Lastly, try to reduce the amount of in-person meetings you have and instead, email or call people for quick conversations. This will help you be more productive in a short amount of time and can also cut down on meeting related stress.
Focus on one thing at a time.
It’s a lot easier to get more done in a day when you are focused and not distracted. Try to limit your distractions as much as possible – put your phone on silent, don’t watch TV, turn the radio off etc. Especially if you have a task on your list that needs a lot of brain power – make sure to work on this in a dedicated time frame where no one will disturb you and you can give it your full attention. Many people find it is helpful to start with the hardest tasks first – this way they are out of the way and they often have renewed energy to do more afterwards.
Don’t attempt to multitask – your brain can only focus on one thing at a time and it’s easy to lose track of what you are doing if you switch between tasks too frequently. Instead, try to group similar tasks together i.e. all your errands can be run in one trip to the shops, or you could block off an hour each day to do all of your emails – this way they won’t constantly distract you throughout the day.
Another way to stay focused is to set small goals for yourself and reward yourself after achieving each of them. Visualizing yourself achieving the goal will help to keep you motivated throughout the day and it can be helpful to work on tasks that further your life goals or ambitions. This can be something as simple as scheduling a certain amount of time each day to work on exercise (if you are trying to lose weight), or working on your budget if you are saving up for a particular purchase.