Note: If you don’t have much time or just want to get my 3 tips for productivity jump to the tips. Also you can check out my more up to date post about exam study.
All of us have looked for a quick fix for being productive, but for me it always seems as if it lasts a small time before it all falls apart and I go back to my old bad habits and procrastinate.
This cycle is annoying and depressing. You always feel as if you have potential but can never work out how to harness it. After a quick search online you find some more tips for how to be productive and the cycle starts again, over and over. I’m at University and I still have not fixed this issue. In my opinion this is not because of a lack of effort. It is more likely due to a lack of consistent effort. I think consistency is the more important thing here. Consistency gives you momentum, whereas working extremely hard for one day, gives you a nice high but a massive low when it all falls apart, as it inevitably seems to.
We have to realise there is no quick fix and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you, and most likely they are trying to sell you a course or make some money off you. However I am not saying that productivity tips are not useful. They are, and there are many people who’s tips on productivity are extremely useful. The problem is not understanding the tips, it is the consistent application of them to build a habit of productivity. Now I don’t think that this habit means that you will productive for ever. Work is not easy and there will always be resistance to work, but building a habit of productivity will reduce this resistance.
I think the issue for me is not making the initial productivity habit easy enough. I always load too much onto my plate and overestimate my abilities when really if I reduced it to an amount that should be easily managed it would help me to get in a routine of work (which I have never managed to achieve). Another issue I believe is not having scheduled down time where you are not allowed to work. For example if you told yourself that you couldn’t work after 4o’clock, then you would need to get all the work done that day before that time (increasing motivation). This is not the main benefit though – I believe that having scheduled down time is different to just procrastinating and not doing work. When procrastinating there is always that notion in your mind that you should be working. When you schedule yourself not to be working, psychologically it is different.
Sometimes when you have lots of work to do it overwhelms you, and you don’t even want to start any of it. It continues to build up and build up… and build up. You just don’t know where you should start and you are scared of starting. I find that when you find yourself in a position like that you need to write yourself a list of everything that you have to do. Writing it all down relieves some of the stress, especially when you write it on a piece of paper or in a notebook. There is something nice about writing it down rather then using your phone or you computer. It is also good practice to keep a regular to do list, and for this I use Microsoft To Do and just add things to it when I think of them (I try to note things down before I go to bed and when I wake up in the morning).
3 tips to get started:
I don’t plan on overloading you with tips so I will briefly sum up the three things that you should take from reading this article. Here are three tips for a serial procrastinator like me to become more productive. I haven’t solved this problem for myself entirely so these are theoretical based on my own experience. I hope they work for you but they might not. They are not overly complicated, and will not help immediately.
- Don’t overload yourself. Come up with a daily amount you think you can manage, and then half it, if you you’ve overestimated yourself in the past half it again! Once you have managed this amount of work every day for a few weeks, you can increase (but only if you feel it is beneficial – and do it in small amounts).
- Schedule yourself some time which you are not allowed to work in. When you are in this block of time, you are not allowed to work. I tend to stop at a certain time in the afternoon, and have the evenings to relax.
- Write a To Do list. For this I use Microsoft To Do or just a piece of paper. If you feel overloaded with work use the paper. There is a therapeutic feeling to regurgitating all of your worries onto a piece of paper.
Let me know your thoughts on productivity and whether you have any tips. I’m definitely open to tips since I am not perfect and I am nowhere near a productivity guru. I thought keeping it down to three tips would be useful so as not to overload with information.