The latest buzzword in today’s workplace is all too common, one that we are way too familiar with – productivity. So what does productivity means to you? For many it’s about getting things done or GTD as we know it but for me, it means matching the effectiveness of the result(s) to the efficiency of the action(s) required. In many sports, we are accustomed to the notion that one gets better with practice at one’s own specialised sporting field. Let’s say we take swimming for example, it’s all about the practice of trying to shave one’s own timing to beat a personal record or to set a world record.
It’s no different at the workplace where we are trying daily to achieve a greater number of things within a tight allocated period of time and that requires full concentration without any means of distraction. Although it is okay to let one’s mind wander sometimes, to allow for creativity space, we often tend to take that for granted immensely but fully indulging in mind-wandering. And we would find it difficult to snap back into “reality”.
For whatever reasons one might be as tempted to “escape”, I would like to share with you some of my best productivity tips starting right from when I first get out of the bed (yup, you read that right).
Dawn
Do you make the bed when you first get out of it? If you don’t, maybe you should consider starting. A seemingly simply ritual of making one’s own bed after one has woken up will definitely inspire oneself to start the day on a productive note. It cements the sense of accomplishment within oneself and once again, you would already feel happier knowing that you’ve gotten the first thing right at the start of your day.
Morning Commute
If you’re like the rest of the others, and me, who travel to work in the morning, do take the commuting time to read a book and/or catch up on the news. Many successful people whom I know, have taken this time to catch up on their reading when their day demands full attention, leaving them with little or no time for their own. Even if you do not read, take this time to just silently meditate and you would have sharpened your mind to embrace the day’s demands.
Work
There are plenty of distractions ironically for the time when one should be holding full focus on their work at hand but fret not, here are some useful tools for you. Unless you’re a bank teller or telemarketer who is required to be on the phone or engaging customers all the time, I personally have stumbled across and love these websites that assist in your work productivity.
Focus@Will is a great music-inspired website that allows you to continue your work while you plug into the music for a period of time and while you can simply subscribe for free to the basic account, they have more paid options if you desire. Do check them out if you’re a classical music lover like me. 🙂
SimplyNoise and SimplyRain are both of the same but as their names suggest, you can choose to listen to either the different types of noises or rain music while you tap away at work (personally I am now using both Focus@Will and SimplyNoise for this blog post). SimplyNoise has 3 different types of noises that suit the different environment/occasion you desire – White, Pink & Brown – while SimplyRain allows all you rain lovers to choose the types of rainfall, ranging from light patter to heavy thunderstorms.
Dusk / Evening
Take some time to relax and chill with a quiet reflection of the day passed while giving yourself a great pat on the back for having such an awesome productive day! But not so fast! Before you slip into bed and hide under the covers, a great productive thing to do is to look and plan for the next day’s activities! Do you want to go to the gym? Pack your gym stuff before you go to bed and you will be inspired to hit the weights than to wake up and find your stuff in your morning stumble. Whatever you want to do for the following day, prep as much as you can so that you will not give yourself excuses not to.
And finally, being productive also means the ability to free up your time for whatever else you want to do than to play last-minute catch up. I personally have found it effective and efficient to establish such great habits that sustain my productivity daily. Let me know what works for you!
Crates Life 