8 Wise Ways to Boost Your Productivity
Feeling unproductive can be stressful and frustrating. If you’ve been struggling to be productive, here are some steps to help boost your productivity levels.
Tidy space: Getting rid of clutter and keeping tidy spaces improves your environmental wellness which can give you mental clarity helping to improve your decision-making ability, productivity, and overall well-being.
To-do list: Organisation and Time Management skills are essential for boosting intellectual wellness and including ‘to do lists’ as a written plan of action have been shown to increase productivity. It’s especially helpful to organize your to-do list in order of priority, so you know what to tackle first.
Simple Focus: Try doing one task at a time rather than trying to do multiple things at a time. We might like to think we can multitask bit the human brain is simply not wired todo it, so you’ll be more productive if you focus on one task at a time, rather than trying to switch between multiple tasks and causing your brain added stress and confusion.
Block out your diary: Start designating specific amounts of time to focus in specific tasks and block that time out in your diary. This technique is known as time boxing and it can be used for work-related tasks or even household chores that you’ve been putting off. You can use an online diary or a paper based diary for this task – whatever you choose.
The Pomodoro technique: Have you ever tried the Pomodoro Technique? It involves dividing tasks into 25-minute intervals, known as ‘pomodoros’, with a 5-minute break in between each interval. You can use a timer or an interval trainer app to help you stay on track. This again helps to boost your intellectual wellness because it is a great activity for improving organisation and time management skills.
Limit interruptions: Distractions and interruptions can be one of the biggest issues when trying to be productive so try to limit them the best you can. This could mean switching off your email notifications while you’re working or signing out of your social media apps so you don’t get tempted by them. You could also designate one or two days of the week for uninterrupted work and avoid scheduling calls or meetings on those days.
‘No’ is a complete sentence: If you want to boost your productivity you have to learn to say No to other requests that take your time, focus and energy away from what you actually need it for to meet your desired productivity goals. Failing to do this can leave you feeling like you’re always busy but never able to complete anything you need to get done.
Meditation: Give your brain a break through Meditation and help boost your productivity by improving your concentration, motivation, creativity, memory, and emotional intelligence.
Remember: You want to stay in the side of positive productivity and not venture across into toxic productivity which causes you to work all the time and not give yourself adequate time for rest and fun. Toxic productivity can lead to burnout and that is something we all want to stay away from if we want to have optimal mental health and wellbeing.
These tips and many more resources and tools are available as part of the 8 Wise™ Wellness Programme which is available as one to one coaching sessions, training, through our book resources and podcast and through our new membership platform, launching soon. Through the programme you can develop the knowledge and skills needed to ‘Live the 8 Wise Way’ and develop optimal mental health and wellbeing for an improved quality of life.
