Five Daily Habits That Can Transform Your Productivity

Small improvements in your daily habits can change your life forever. Here are five small changes in your daily routine that can transform your productivity.

Make time for self-reflection

“Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better” — Émile Coué

You can’t transform your productivity in one day or even in one week. You need to make gradual changes consistently to make a tangible difference in the productivity. Thus, irrespective of your busy schedule, make some time for self-reflection. You simply need 10-15 minutes per day to quickly reflect on the things that you have done. Think about what you could have done better. Pick one critical thing that is consuming a lot of time or breaking your attention. Prepare a plan to fix this issue. From that day onward, review your progress on a daily basis. Remember that, in order to have a successful personal development plan, your progress must be examined daily, not on a weekly or monthly basis.

Simplify your to-do list

In your to-do list, don’t include every activity that needs to be done on a particular day. List the most critical stuff. Note that all urgent things are not all critical. Similarly, not all critical things are urgent.

Many people spend a significant amount of time doing things that are urgent, but not critical. This results in a situation where you don’t deliver anything significant despite working hard all day. It also leads to stress and burnout in the workplace.

To counter this, you need to focus on things which are important to your career and organizational goals. Thus, de-clutter your to-do list and include only crucial things that you must do on a particular day. Schedule the most challenging and arduous tasks at the beginning of the day when you are fresh and have the energy to tackle such tasks. Also, completing difficult tasks first will boost your confidence for the remaining time of the day.

Minimize distraction

Don’t be a superhero and stop multitasking. If you want to improve your productivity, then you need to be focused. In fact, you can’t improve your productivity until work on your attention span. If you attain phone calls, check emails, talk to colleagues, eat or drink while working, your productivity will never improve.

It is better to focus on one thing, complete it and then move on to the next task. For instance, you focus on the work for 45 minutes without any distractions (that is no email, social media, news, coffee, discussions or chat with colleagues). And then take a break of 10-15 minutes to deal with other activities. If you work in this way, your productivity is bound to improve over time.

Don’t confuse productivity with laziness

Many people spend a lot of time on social media, reading news items or chatting on WhatsApp just because they don’t feel like working or handling a difficult situation. Don’t confuse this with productivity. If you are disinterested in your job, then no matter what you do, you will never be able to focus on tasks at hand. In this case, it is better to find a way to like your job or make a switch.

Conclusion

No technology will ever improve your productivity until you make a proactive effort towards it. Above mentioned techniques will help you get started and move in the right direction. Remember that it is a continuous process. Thus, you need to work on it consistently to excel in whatever you do.

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