Sometimes, you just have one of those days where you can’t concentrate and wonder how you’ve ever managed to focus and get something done. Right? Well, we all have those days and that’s totally normal. Luckily for you, we’re sharing with you our top daily productivity tips to help you stay at the top of your game. This way, you can avoid the stress that comes after an unproductive day due to lack of motivation. Once you've been bitten by the productivity bug, you'll feel so much better and wonder how you ever managed to work beforehand.
Productivity Tips from Mankind
Set Goals
If you’re working through a large pile of paperwork for an interview, important meeting or any other reason; set yourself a reward for getting through a certain amount of papers. Got 100 sheets to read through? Every time you get through 20 sheets, reward yourself with some chocolate, a favourite drink or anything else that will motivate you to work through quickly and effectively.
Allow Breaks
It’s a popular belief that taking breaks will cause you to get distracted from your task and make it even harder to be productive but sometimes, a break is just what you need. For every hour of full focus on the task, take a 15 minute break. When you return to your task your mind should be refreshed and any previous mind blocks should have disappeared. Besides, we are only human and we can’t work non-stop like a machine!
A trip to the spa at the evening or on a weekend is also beneficial to reset your mind and body. You can discover the many benefits of spa experiences for men in our post below:
Spa Experiences for Men
Contrary to popular belief, a spa in the modern day is not somewhere visited exclusively by women for pamper days. In fact, the majority of spas offer treatments especially designed for men, whilst some locations are specifically male orientated. Not only are spa experiences for men enjoyable, we believe that they’re essential due to the large array of health benefits.
Schedule Email Time
When you’re trying to put off working on a task, you can spend countless hours reading and re-reading emails. Usually, this results in wasting time rather than starting that dreaded project. In the end, you end up spending more time procrastinating and less time being productive, so set a 15 minute block to check emails then get started on that task – no matter how much you don’t want to. Will power is key.
Strengths & Weaknesses
To figure out how you can personally be more productive, you need to discover your strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, the one size fits all method doesn't work when it comes to personal productivity, so make notes of what you find easy and which you struggle the most with. This will help you to notice areas where you need to improve so you can make necessary adjustments.
Quarterly Achievements
It’s most likely that you’ll have some long term goals which you’d like to achieve. If you don’t make plans for these, chances are that you won’t meet them – or at least by the time you want to. Make a note of everything you want to achieve within a year and split them so you have a goal to hit for each quarter. This way, you can keep track of progress and you won't feel stressed trying to do everything at once at the end of the year.
Get Enough Sleep
Without a healthy amount of sleep, its near impossible to concentrate. Make sure to get the necessary amount of z-time that your body needs, you’ll be surprised how much easier it is to be productive! If you struggle with sleeping, have a browse through our tips to get to sleep earlier post.
How to Go to Sleep Earlier
With so many big days approaching, there is a mountain of things to do. Working wears you out so it’s really important to get some shut eye a lot earlier than usual. Check out our top tips to help you to go to sleep earlier!
No Multitasking
Even though you may think that completing several tasks at once is utilising your time effectively, it really isn’t. Your brain spends more time switching between tasks and adjusting rather than contributing with useful ideas. Set your tasks apart and do them one after another rather than all at once and your to-do list will clear quicker than you think.
Ignoring Tasks
Similar to the emailing scenario, when you have a large task which is incredibly valuable but perhaps a bit bland, you want to divert your attention elsewhere to avoid doing it. Make it a priority to recognise large chunks of time that you are spending to do low value tasks. Next time, swap to complete the important, more productive task. It’s quality over quantity at the end of the day.
To-do List
We've mentioned this tip before and we will mention it again. Writing a to-do list will set out your tasks in front of you so your mind isn’t clogged with thoughts of what needs to be completed next. It frees up that final part of your brain so you can think clearly about the task in hand. Keeping your day planned out also prevents you from going off-task for ultimate productivity. If you struggle with this, check out our time management tips!
Top Time Management Tips
One thing which we all know we could do better at is time management. Whether it be to go out and do the shopping, keep up to date with tasks at work or stay on top of home tasks, sometimes it seems too difficult to manage.
Exciting Tasks
When you find a task enjoyable or exciting, you look forward to completing it. Attempting to put a spin on each task to something you’re passionate about will motivate you to get started and you’ll look forward to working on it.
Stress Management
When you’re stressed, you end up focusing on the stress which has built up rather than solving what is cause. You then get even more stressed and this goes in a continuous cycle. To break the cycle, check out our tips for stress management. This way you can ensure that you’re fully focused on the details which need attention.
Stress Management with Mankind
One thing which everyone can admit to being guilty of is letting stress get the better of them. Right?
What are your best productivity tips? Have you tried any of our top tips yet?
Let us know over on Twitter: @Mankindcouk!
