Whether you're programming sophisticated artificial intelligence or tuning a guitar, productivity is the elusive yet accurate measure of how much work you get done in a day.
Everyone wants to be more productive, but making it happen can be a challenge. A few changes in your daily routine can help you on your way to a much more productive habit.
Remember: your day starts the night before. To make the most of the next day, it starts the night before for you. Closing the evening with good habits will help you avoid feeling down and miserable and start the next day on the right foot with clear goals.
Stress is one of the biggest triggers of insomnia and one of the biggest triggers of stress is feeling overwhelmed by work and not being able to get it done.
Make an appointment on your phone an hour before you go to bed. This appointment reminds you that you should stop your screen activities for the day. This should apply equally to all devices such as phones, tablets and computers.
Use apps or settings like Apple's "NightShift" mode that adjust your screen's color temperature to the time of day. by dimming the light, too much blue light won't block the release of important sleep hormones.
Blocking it in the evening prevents natural sleepiness and disturbs nighttime sleep. In addition, recent studies have shown that blue light can cause long-term damage to the retina.
Make your to-do list the night before. When you wake up in the morning and write a to-do list, you will be tempted to speed up the process because you are already behind schedule for the day. So every night, review your priorities for the next day and choose one or two things that you will focus on.
A healthy breakfast will give you the energy you need to excel. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains are used slowly by the body and give you more energy throughout the day. Vegetables are also high in fiber and help you feel full.
You haven't forgotten, have you? Spend your first five minutes reviewing your priorities for the day. Spend the next five minutes looking through your emails, but only click on things that seem urgent and important - that is, things that could change your immediate plans and be very important.
Mute any notifications you have at your desk, especially notifications about new emails.
Try to get in the habit of closing unneeded browser tabs and other windows every time you switch to a new task: This will help you focus on the important tasks.
An app like TimeDoctor or RescueTime can help you identify your personal "time suckers" so you can develop new, more efficient habits and avoid your biggest problems. Some of them even integrate with to-do lists so you can seamlessly move from one task to the next.
The more focused you are, the more you can get done: But it's easiest to focus for short spurts of time. Try the Pomodoro technique: It alternates 25-minute work breaks with five-minute breaks. After three or four pomodoros, you can take a slightly longer break.
A break of even just five minutes can be enough to refocus if you do it right.
Take 10 long, deep breaths while looking at an image you find calming. Stand up, stretch, and walk around a few steps if you have room to do so. Think of three examples of things that have gone well throughout the day so far.
What about lunch? A short lunch where you really get away from work is more refreshing than a longer one where you try to do three things at once. It's even better if you have a little time to socialize. As a general rule, remember: multitasking doesn't work.
Noisy co-workers are a problem in some work environments. And even if you try to be considerate (and so does everyone around you), you can still certainly find their minds wandering from time to time. Several solutions can work - adapt them to your own office.
A simple set of noise-canceling headphones can block out office noise. An app like Focus@Will offers special soundtracks to help you focus. Some offices have had great success with subtle white noise generators.