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Want to Increase your productivity?
Have you often asked yourself how you can increase productivity or how to create the ideal mindset that will help you improve productivity? You may have been easily distracted by your phone, or unable to find the motivation to get some work done. It’s a common problem and everyone suffers from it. In this article, you will find different ways- external and internal boosters for productivity.
What is productivity?
The state in which one can create a larger output at high speed along with high quality of work. While this does sound mechanical, let’s try a real-life example.
You and your colleague have the same amount of work to do in a day. You can complete it in 5 hours, but it takes your colleague only 3 hours and they manage one more task as well. This means they are more productive than you. So how can you become more productive and boost productivity for your work?
Being productive on a daily basis correlates with putting in the work (input) to get the preferred result (output). This does not necessarily mean one has to work longer hours, rather just smarter hours to do tricks.
Here are 4 simple habits to increase productivity and boost your focus!
- Adopt a growth mindset
- Change your environment
- Pomodoro technique
- Task Batching
Productivity Hack #1: Adopt a growth mindset
The difference between growing through your workday versus just churning out what you’re told to do can play a big role in your productivity. If you like your work and are passionate about it, chances are you will increase productivity. On the other hand, if you keep telling yourself that you have to finish an assignment because your boss will get upset if you don’t then chances are you will submit the assignment but at substandard quality.
Having a growth mindset is step one to boosting your quality of work. It also reduces the added stress when you do a task to really learn something or fulfil a need that you see as useful. If you believe that your work is redundant, chances are, you will have zero motivation to complete it. Only if you believe in yourself will others give you any validation. Believe in yourself and believe in the work you do and watch your productivity bloom!
Productivity Hack #2: Change your environment
The environment has a huge effect on our productivity. You are engaged in your workplace and trying to make the most in the time you have. To do that, make sure that all your 5 senses are comfortable with the surroundings.
You can increase your productivity by engaging your senses with pleasing sounds, good ventilation, no clutter inside the office, greenery outside or a few plants in an indoor office and possibly natural lighting. In fact, studies have shown that plants in the office, combined with natural light and lack of background noise can increase productivity, make you happier and provide better well-being!
Having a comfortable environment is directly related to increasing your productivity.
If you really think about it, the only time we get distracted is when one of our 5 senses switches the object of attention. For example, loud music or someone talking while we work will most likely distract us. If the office is not well ventilated it might cause us to breathe shallowly which gets us tired faster. You may not realise it but the environment plays a large role in increasing your productivity.
Productivity Hack #3: The Pomodoro Technique
This proven technique to improve your productivity is the Pomodoro method developed by an Italian named Francesco Cirillo.
The Pomodoro method dictates you should pick out one task you want to focus on. This technique involves working in short bursts of 25 minutes and taking a 5-minute break. And once you repeat this 4 times or after 2 hours, ensure you take a break of at least 30 minutes.
Why is this so effective to increase productivity? Your brain, like any other part of our body, gets fatigued and tired after some time. Imagine if you were lifting weights continuously for a few hours, if you would go at it for 1 hour nonstop, your muscles would be exhausted. Instead, you should do 3 exercises of 5 minutes each to give your muscles some rest.
Numerous studies have shown that an optimal level of attention is 25-45 minutes. After 25 minutes, our minds are likely to start wandering anyway and get distracted thinking about what’s happening on Instagram or what’s there for our next meal. And that’s completely normal. So instead of continuing to try and focus, take a 5-minute break and give your brain some downtime as well.
Productivity Hack #4: Task Batching
The last technique you can try is task batching or grouping similar tasks together. Very often, you have many tasks to do in a day and you tend to jump from one task to another. But what if you try and rearrange your to-do list so that you finish off similar tasks all at once. For example, set aside one hour where all you do is reply to emails. If you’re in a high-pressure job, make these more frequent. Maybe half an hour first thing in the morning and half an hour post-lunch. But through the rest of your day, don’t check your emails!
It ensures while you’re in a flow of doing a task, you finish off something similar next.
You can also batch work based on your energy levels. When you’re not feeling too productive, try and batch a few easy tasks and get them done.
If you want to boost and increase your productivity, try our bite-sized journey on Evolve which helps you unlearn your previous attitude and grow a proactive, fresh mindset charged up to increase your productivity!
Evolve’s guided audios help you focus and stay productive every day! Try our bite-sized audios to beat the distraction and achieve more each day. The Evolve app is now live globally on Android & Apple, click here to try for free!
With over 300 articles published on Evolve. Jash is one of the most viewed writers on topics such as Sleep, Mindfulness and Stress. Drop a mail at Jash@evolveinc.in to connect with him.