How to be more productive?
Productivity to me means puttting your effort in things that really matter to you, it is how you should manage your time to do the important tasks that you need to do in less time possible. So how can we be more productive in our day?
I'll list some things that I think are important and it made a difference for me, but there are a lot more things that can be done.
Tricks to be more productive
First of all you need to think in your most important tools: your brain and your body. How can you be a productive person if you're always tired? Or if you're giving yourself a bad fuel? If you're always sick?
Here is a short list of things that you can do to make your mind and body a little better:
Go to bed and wake up at the same time
This is good because your brain will learn when it needs to work and when it needs to go down. The brain really like habits.
Eat healthy
Your brain and your body need good fuel to work well, your brain needs good fats, minerals, vitamins, proteins. This doesn't need a lot of explanation because everybody is aware about it.
Do exercises
Exercise help increase the levels of endorphin in your body, decreases the sugar in your body, therefore it decreases the chance of depression, increases the blood flow in your brain. These are just a little bit of the benefits of exercise.
Meditate
This helps you take control of your mind, be more focused and it's really good to relax the mind. You don't need to meditate for hours to get the benefits, a few minutes is enough, but do it frequently.
Now I'll list some general tricks:
Make a routine
Your brain works better when you have a routine. When you have a routine you don't need to spend time thinking what you need to do because it is already scheduled.
No distraction
When you're doing an important thing, don't stay with your phone and try avoid people during this time.
No multitasking
Our brain can't focus 100% in more than one task, the brain just switch between tasks while you think you're multitasking.
Make a short to do list
Before your day starts, plan a short list of important items that you need to complete in the day. This will be a guide for you during your day.
Tools
Some tools you can use to be more productive, you need to try the tools to see if they work to you:
Pomodoro technique
This is a technique to work completly focused in a short time and then take a little break. It normally goes with 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of break to refresh the brain, but the time can be adjusted your way.
Binaural Beats
This is a form of sound wave therapy that puts a different frenquency in each ear. Depending on the frequency, it is used to increase focus, relaxation, deep sleep and so on.
If the task is big, cut in little parts
Normally we procrastinate less when the task is short, because you know that you can finish it quickly.
Conclusion
This was a short helper to help you increase your productivity, maybe some of these may not work for you, but it is good you try to see if it's working or not. If you want to go deeper in productivity, a book that I really recommend about it is Deep Work by Cal Newport. This book goes so much deeper into this matter.