“You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.” – Tony Robbins
Maybe you can feel frustrated right now because you want to continue your productivity but you get distracted. You’re not alone. The lack of focus and the lack of time management can rush your productivity.
Of course, there are so many ways to manage time and focus. Starting from applications on your smartphones, planners, and other things galore. But unless you realize the one thing in every task you do, no tools, strategies or gadgets will help you. The one thing is your mind. How you think about productivity and how consistent it is in your mind is the important key.
You know that juggling from one task to the next, thing to thing, and dealing with small problems at work may make you happy. But it’s not sustainable or productive for a long period of time.
Here are some ways to think about consistent productivity and getting more done.
1. Set prioritization
When it comes to prioritization, everything seems important. This is why setting prioritization becomes the important thing to stay productive.
Setting priorities can create good habits in your work-life balance. If you want to be consistently productive, you’ll want to develop a reliable and flexible schedule that can be repeatable.
By setting priorities you can determine the thing you want to accomplish, how to organize your tasks, set your time and resources, and decide the non-urgent tasks which can be deferred.
You can find your natural high productivity and low productivity throughout the day. It means that there are specific times during the day when you can be more productive.
If you can find your naturally productive times and you can set priorities to do the most important task first. Then you can set priorities to do the other tasks.
As you continue to improve your productivity skill set, the habits you develop will make your day more satisfying and feel the best of you.
2. Schedule your tasks and time
According to Stephanie Frank, a Social Engineering Behaviorist and Cyber Intelligence Advisor via Inc.com, these types of tasks might include your technical tasks such as email, appointments, and so on. You can schedule and set the time if you do the type of tasks and stick to it for high productivity. The type of time might include your focus, flexibility, family, and free time (which you create, it doesn’t just happen).
You can focus and be flexible at work, and turn off any distractions from your gadgets. Family time is also important, so you can make time for family. Free time is free from what you have to do and you can do what you want to do. You can use this type of time wisely to lead a happier and more balanced life.
Moreover, you can explain to your co-workers and anyone who interrupts you during your focus time about your plans. Maybe you want to do a “do not disturb” sign, or other visible sign that you are doing uninterrupted time and will be available later.
3. Eat the frog
The eat the frog method is the way of productivity and prioritizing to detect difficult tasks. You pick one difficult task (the frog) and accomplish it first thing in the morning (eating it). When you decide to prioritize your important task, then you can choose how to tackle the day.
Many experts advise spending time on your most important task first each day. Mark Twain wrote, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” It’s not only doing the important task out of the way, but it can also motivate you to do the rest of your list.
A small win in the early part of your day will motivate you for the rest of the day. Sounds familiar with this good advice? Try this method, and maybe you’ll never regret it.
4. Beware of the sunk-cost fallacy
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the sunk-cost fallacy is the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial.
As you go through consistently being productive, it’s important to be flexible. Planning something is kind of guessing the things that we can possibly do. No one knows what the future holds. Sometimes the tasks we work on don't turn out to be as good as our expectations. It might lead to disappointment or else. But don’t let that skew your judgment.
When you feel forced to do something just because you already put much time and effort into it, it will be such a waste of time. But remember that the reality is that no matter what you spend on your time, you never get that time back. Sometimes it’s better if your effort is used in different ways than spinning one’s wheels.
5. Respect yourself
Respecting yourself is such a thing to give self-reward in a simple but good way. You can respect yourself and your effort by setting appointments with yourself on your favorite calendar app. This schedule can be the time for you to make time for your well-being. Maybe you can use this schedule to make an appointment with the dentist or go to the gym.
You also can respect yourself by setting a schedule to do your hobby or joining the class to improve your skills. Do the important thing for your wellbeing by respecting yourself as much as you respect anyone else. Don’t try to cancel an appointment with yourself if there is no critical thing to do.
When you realize that respect for yourself is important, you’ll never miss choosing the best for yourself.
6. Stay away from multitasking
The lack of priority of tasks and the number of distractions can be the main causes of decreased levels of productivity. There is one more thing that can make your time less efficient and productive, namely multitasking.
Multitasking can make your brain hard to focus. More so, it makes it difficult to get things done. Of course, multitasking makes you unproductive. When you try to be consistently productive, you don’t need to do everything at once. Take it easy to move from one task to another. Don’t be so hard on yourself.
Learn to control your task, set the deadlines, and track your progress. You can use task management apps to help you collaborate and coordinate with your teammates. By doing so, you ensure a clear mission of work responsibilities without any confusion and delays.
Conclusion
To stay consistent in maintaining productivity is not easy. There are many things we must do and moreover we have to be consistent in doing them. Try to do simple things like the above, make a list of what needs to be done, break down the tasks into smaller ones, and learn to do them mindfully.
