How to Stay Productive
Truth be told, I am a recovering “busy” person. Before I learned how to be productive, I spent all my time being “busy” without actually getting things done. I called myself a “firefighter” because I felt like I was just putting out fires and dealing with urgent issues. I wasn’t actually getting work done that accomplished my goals.
I never felt accomplished at the end of the day or the end of the week; I was always exhausted and I was finishing projects at the very last minute. Something had to change.
I dove headfirst into Productivity and Time Management trainings and made a commitment to myself to be productive and give up the habit of being busy! Here are my top 10 productivity tips that I’ve learned, and I hope that they can help you too!
1. Eisenhower Matrix
The Eisenhower Matrix is the first thing I learned that got me started on a mission to be more productive. I spent a week tracking my activities and learning where I was spending my time.
I was spending the vast majority of my time in the Not Important/Urgent quadrant, which meant that I was using my time to take care of tasks that were Urgent according to someone else.
This kickstarted my desire to stop being busy and start getting more productive and proactive! I recommend using this matrix whenever you don’t necessarily know where to start with your productivity and prioritization.
2. Set Yourself Up For Success
When do you work best? When are you the most productive and most focused? Learning how you work best is a great way to set yourself up for success.
I do my best work early in the morning before the rest of the world is awake. I’m the most creative and energized at that time, and can knock out a day’s worth of work in a few hours if I’m up early enough. Once I interact with other people (whether in person at home or online with work), I find myself more distracted with ideas and needs that others have.
If you discover that you work best in the morning, try rearranging your schedules (if possible) so you can get stuff done early!
3. Time Blocking and Theming
Instead of jumping from task to task and forcing your brain to reset frequently, use the Time Blocking Method. Group similar tasks together and accomplish them together! This saves your brain from having to jump around to different thoughts and allows for time to really get focused.
Day theming is a great tool too! If you can chunk up all your similar “to-do” into large scale chunks you can stay on the same topic for a full day. For example:
4. Plan, Plan, Plan
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Failing to plan is planning to fail?” I hadn’t until I started on my quest to be more productive and now I think about it daily.
If you aren’t planning your days and weeks, you are setting yourself up for chaos and unpredictability. When you don’t have a plan, you are being led by other people’s sense of urgency and allowing someone else’s to-do list dictate your life. If you are not actively planning, you are choosing to be busy and overwhelmed.
Imagine if you knew exactly when you needed to work on a specific project because you planned it out in advance. Knowing that this week and next needed to be focused on research, and then planning for the two weeks after to be for organizing and first draft would make the whole process of doing such a huge project much easier.
Before you know it, you’ll plan to have the next two weeks after that be dedicated to editing and rewriting, It feels a lot easier to accomplish that big project in smaller sections and that is possible if you PLAN ahead.
5. Dump, Chunk, Sequence
This is my favorite way to get all the tasks out of my brain and into a cohesive and coherent plan!
Dump:
Also called a Brain Dump. Set a timer for 20 minutes and write (yes hand write, don’t type because you'll want to edit as you go) everything you have to do, in the smallest increments you can think of.
Don’t edit as you go. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar or neatness, just get it all out of your head.
Chunk:
Review your brain dump and start to edit and organize it
Identify what tasks belong together. What tasks are similar? What tasks use the same parts of your brain? Creative tasks? Strategic tasks?
Sequence:
Use the Eisenhower Matrix to determine which of your chunks are urgent vs. non-urgent and important vs. not important.
Prioritize based on deadlines and responsibilities to others (Is someone waiting on you before they can do something?)
6. Weekly planning
In order to be successfully productive, you need to ensure that you know what you need to be doing each and every day of the week. The best way to do this is weekly planning.
Every Sunday night, I set aside 25-45 minutes where I look ahead at my calendar, my to-do lists, my deadlines, and I determine what needs to get done and when. I prioritize based on deadlines and urgency and I do my best to plan my week as far in advance as I can.
I do this in pencil because I know that each day I’ll need to re-examine that schedule based on my daily planning. However, starting with a basic outline each week means I am more likely to stay productive and stay on track.
7. Daily planning
If I’m being honest, I plan my day twice each day. You don’t have to this this, but I’ve learned that it works best for me! Here’s how I do it:
Every night before I go to bed, I write down any thoughts that I’ve been ruminating on between the end of my work day and going to bed. It’s a brain dump and doesn’t make a ton of sense, and isn’t a set plan for my day. I’m just getting everything out of my head so I don’t have to worry about it and sleep :)
In the morning, I do another brain dump for anything that is on my brain when I woke up.
I check my emails, Slack, and organize my to-do lists accordingly and schedule my day as necessary.
As long as you’re planning on a daily basis, it doesn’t matter how often you do it but just make sure you’re doing it!
8. DWYDN - Do What You’re Doing Now
Did you know that every time you interrupt your brain to work on something else it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds for your brain to reset and get back on track?!?!?!?! 🤯 That is exhausting and proves that multitasking doesn’t work!
So, what can you do instead? Instill the “Do what you’re doing now” habit. Keep a notebook, scratch paper, open document, etc. next to you all the time and when a thought pops into your head write it down.
This way, you aren’t interrupting your brain to work on it now, but you also aren’t taking the chance that you’ll forget it later. By writing it down, you are documenting the thought AND allowing your brain to stay on task. It’s a win/win!
9. Decision Fatigue & Energy Management
Why does Mark Zuckerberg wear the same gray t-shirt and jeans every day? Why did Steve Jobs wear black turtleneck and jeans every day? Decision Fatigue and Energy Management!
The most brilliant minds know that brain energy is finite and that each decision we make requires brain energy. The more decisions that are habitualized (done without thinking) the less energy we’re using.
Not thinking about what to wear everyday frees up energy for other, more important decisions; not thinking about what to have for breakfast frees up energy for other, more important decisions.
If you find your energy is draining and you need to replenish, here are some quick ideas:
Stand up and stretch
Go outside for fresh air and sunshine (or get close to a window if you can’t actually get outside)
Move around
Meditate for 10 minutes
Eat something healthy
10. Be Ruthless with your time
Every decision you make affects the rest of the decisions you’ll make. If you say “yes” to something you will need to say “no” to something else. If you are aware of this, you’ll be able to be more selective with your time.
I say be ruthless with your time because time is finite and you can’t make more of it. If you aren’t careful and ruthless with your time, you’ll always feel busy and not productive. You’ll always feel exhausted and you probably won’t be achieving your goals.
Your time is YOURS and how you spend it is entirely up to you!
Final Thoughts on How to Stay Productive
There are many different ways and methods to us to help you stay productive, and there’s no right or wrong way to put them into practice in your everyday life! These tips can help you in school, work, and a lot of other avenues in life. Don’t be afraid to put your best foot forward, and use your time wisely! You got this :)