Have you ever noticed how we tend to be the least productive during the days when we need productivity on our side? Believing we can multitask while giving our strongest potential is a misconception we sometimes fail to admit. Don't get me wrong; most of us do that, but is it really the best way to showcase our capabilities?
Luckily, there are a few ways that might pave the path to a more productive lifestyle, whether you're working from home or from the office.
Take regular breaks. Don't jump to your lunch break just yet. The longer we spend on one task, the more our productivity decreases. It's not rocket science, but many of us forget that taking this short break will boost our productivity. It will go from a descending scale to a semi-fluctuating one. However, taking long breaks might break your concentration chain and increase procrastination. Stick to short but frequent breaks, and you'll thrive.
Set self-imposed deadlines. Whether a deadline is set or it's just an ongoing "do it whenever you can" kind of task, setting a deadline closer to the expected time will actually boost your concentration level. Our bodies naturally have a mechanism called "fight or flight mode." It's when you are in a very stressful situation, and your body chooses to either fight the stress out of your body or just run away from the thing/person stressing you out. This is relevant to us because being stressed about a deadline makes us concentrate, hence increasing productivity. If you decide to choose running away from your deadline, that's completely up to you. No judging.
Follow the "two-minute rule." This trick is easy and simple. Just look through your long to-do list and evaluate if there are any tasks that could be done in 2 minutes or less. If you do find a few of those easy tasks lingering on your to-do list, then you know where to start. Make sure you get rid of the things that need little to no time, and your to-do list will automatically shrink.
Quit multitasking. Intensive research has been done by psychologists studying the effects of multitasking on productivity. As much as we would like to think that multitasking is helping us speed up our to-do lists, it's actually adding to a loss of both time and productivity.
Give up on the illusion of perfection. Can we agree that perfection is relative? What's perfect for me is not for you, and vice versa. We spend so much time chasing something that's just non-existent. Let's start thinking about accomplishing our tasks rather than perfecting them. Regardless of the scale of perfection, just aim to do your best. If there are a few things that you can fix, it's fine; just go back to them later.
Turn off notifications. I'm pretty sure this point is self-explanatory. Just minimize the possibilities of distraction. Your notifications aren't going to delete themselves. Unless your phone breaks before you get to see them, then I'm sorry.
Try working on increasing your productivity so you can maybe decrease your working hours.
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