Happy Monday people! Its that time of the year when everything seems to slow down. Summers tend to make me lazy, slow-moving and if I may admit, a tad bit unproductive. Perhaps its the heat, or maybe it is just the way an year paces, with most of our energy being reserved for winter and spring.
Dealing with poor productivity at work can be tough, and if you don’t tackle it soon enough, it creates a backlog which is even tougher to manage!
So to start this week and your Monday on an inspirational note, I am sharing some of my top tips for being productive even when you don’t feel like it! This is what I do on a regular basis to keep myself productive and on top of projects:
- Organize, plan and schedule like crazy! I am all about checklists and use two different apps for planning my work week and personal tasks; take a bow Evernote and Wunderlist!
- Plan your day the night before – this is something I do all the time! If I start my day with planning and scheduling tasks, I will most likely make no headway with the actual work on my plate.
- Start your day early. You can truly maximize the hours in your day when you practice the ‘early to bed and early to rise’ mantra.
- Start the day with a workout and a BIG breakfast to set the right energy and tone for yourself.
- Cut your to-do list in half and don’t schedule more than three tasks for a day.
- Tackle your most difficult tasks first thing in the morning. I know my productivity slows down as the day progresses, and I will most likely not have the energy to deal with a tough problem later in the day.
- Work at a stretch and take frequent breaks. According to the NY Times, top performers across many disciplines work in 90 minute sessions for no more than 4 hours a day (I have actually seen this in action at my own workplace!).
- Eliminate distractions when you are working on something. Log out from social networks, snooze your chat/email and focus on the task at hand. I prefer blocking out noise by listening to instrumental music while I work.
- Delegate where possible (this is something I am still learning to do).
- Try doing a brain dump! Another tactic which I have employed countless number of times.
- And last but definitely not the least – count your blessings instead of your sheep (song lyrics by Irving Berlin from the movie White Christmas). Positive, happy and grateful people are also the most productive!
The info-graphic below is my secret to planning a productive week. I strongly suggest you use Sunday evening to plan your week and you will never wake up to Monday morning blues again.
I hope you found these tips useful and are feeling inspired to plan a super productive week ahead! If you have a favorite productivity tip which works well for you and is not mentioned in my list, do share via comments below!
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