Often, it seems, we’re so busy putting out daily fires that we don’t ever get to accomplish anything of real significance—those things that would make us happiest in the long run. Life becomes something to “get through” instead of an exciting path to greater fulfillment.
The efficiency of technology only increases the pressure we feel to do even more than ever before. All of it leaves us feeling too busy and robs us of a sense of accomplishment. So, what can we do to increase personal productivity? Below are five tips to help you to get more done in less time—and do what you really want to be doing.
Mission possible
Often busy-ness is a cover for not really knowing what’s the best thing to be doing. To get around this, you have to know what your priorities are in the moment. To determine this you need know what your larger life priorities are.
Try writing a personal or organizational mission statement, a statement that summarizes your higher purpose and goals in life.
Without a mission, you won’t be able to say no to tasks. You can only know what to say no to when you know what to say yes to, first.
Self-motivate
We can learn all the self-management tricks in the book, but none of them will be worth a dime if we don’t follow through and use them. That’s where self-discipline comes in. There’s no easy, painless way to enforce self-discipline, but if we don’t utilize it, we will be left forever unfulfilled.
Simply start doing what you know you need to do. Stop pushing it off for later. Once you start seeing the results that active self-discipline yields, the desire for the payoff begins to become greater than your resistance to taking action.
To more easily promote successful self-discipline, and increase personal productivity, break down tasks into smaller chunks, then focuse on taking the first steps. This way, your tasks and goals won’t feel so overwhelming, which makes it easier to take action.
Clean up the loose ends
Work on unfinished tasks to open up your creativity. It’s more difficult to focus on the bigger, more urgent tasks when you’re painfully aware of ongoing but necessary projects that you never seem to start, such as reorganizing your files, catching up with your accounting, or updating your phone book. Set aside some time—even if it’s just an hour or two a week—to work on these longer term, but less urgent, projects.
Balance stress and recovery
Top athletes around the world know the value of alternating periods of intense activity and focus with periods of rest. Balancing stress and recovery is also critical to managing personal energy—and thus, productivity—in all areas of our lives.
Work when you’re supposed to be working!
If you want to maximize your productivity at work and balance it into the larger scheme of your life, focus is crucial. The reason people’s lives get out of balance is not because they have too much work to do, but because they do too little work. People waste too much time when they’re supposed to be working. If you have to, turn off the phone and shut down your email. You’ll find the more work you do get done, the better you feel—which motivates you to keep doing more of the same.
And some quick tips…
- Write out your goals.
- Break down your goals into actions.
- Break down these actions into bite-sized chunks.
- Schedule these chunks into your planner.
- Follow through with action.
- Intersperse periods of intense work with periods of recovery, even if brief.
Make it up, make it fun and make it happen.
Related: A Stoic View of Emotions in Business