Thrive Global: Five Ways To Increase Productivity

"Procrastination is not easy to overcome, which is why many people struggle with it for a long time. If you want to overcome procrastination, you have to identify your skills and enhance them the right way to convert your weaknesses into your strengths and start benefiting from them.

1. Empty your mind

It would be best if you cleared up physical clutter to work more effectively or do something productive – it’s the same with your mind. If there are a lot of thoughts in your head, this won’t help you in any way, making it tough to focus on one particular topic because there are so many things going on in your head. To begin your journey against procrastination, you must learn how to control what you think about and prioritize your thoughts.

Stressing about situations you can’t control makes no sense because it will make you feel bad, and you will likely continue procrastinating. So instead of worrying about what people say, try diverting that energy into doing something beneficial for yourself.

2. Prioritize your work

While the first step in prioritizing your work is to clear your mind and ensure that you only focus on what is essential, you need to spend the time to sort out results based on what is more important or less important. There are very repetitive tasks you will have to do daily, and these will be the regular tasks you must get done.

Prioritizing your tasks also helps you identify where you are eating up your time and how small changes in your routine you can give you more time to focus on becoming successful. When you prioritize your time, and there’s an important task, you can focus on it more effectively

3. Break down your time

Instead of working consistently for an extended period, you need to break down your tasks into multiple sections that are no longer than 15 to 20 minutes each.

After each successful job completion, you can move on to the next. With this method, you can focus on small portions of the more significant task and ensure that you get them done well.

4. Don't pressure yourself

Let’s face it; we all have so much to do yet so little time that it can be daunting. First, you need to draw a line every day and decide that this is how much work you can handle and nothing more. When you take up too much work or more work than you can handle, it affects your productivity and quality of work, which means it will take you nowhere.

Sometimes a task could be completed in less than 2 hours, but it could drain you out of your energy completely, which means you need to rest before starting a new task, especially if you want to get it done just as well as you did the previous task.

Breaks are essential, and you have to consider how long your body takes to relax before you get back to work so you can maintain quality.

5. Eliminate Distractions

If you need to complete specific tasks within a limited time frame, you may want to eliminate all distractions in your work environment. One of the biggest distractions these days is the internet.

This will allow you to work without interruption and keep you very focused.

Putting your phone away can help increase productivity to a great extent. Not only does it allow you to focus better, but you save a ton of time and also manage to get the job done faster when your phone is away.

Try Various Methods

If you have been working hard and are not getting the right results, you need to change your working style. What may have worked for someone else will not necessarily work for you. Instead, always look to innovate with your work and do something different daily.

It may take a while to find something that works, so keep experimenting with different methods until you find your mojo, and once you do, stick to it."

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Reflection:

Do you procrastinate often? Why do you think you do so? What do you think will help you overcome it?

*I usually procrastinate when there is a lot to be done. Procrastination is like a stress response for me. But these days, I have finals to get done so I force myself to study even when I don't feel like it*

#Procrastination #Mindset #Goals #Productivity