Productivity Advice
“I’ve tried everything — and none of it works!”
Our productivity capability can be divided into three energy patterns:
• Power zone is the period of the day when you’re at peak mental ability and should tackle tasks that require more focus.
• Activity zone is a period of high energy— your brain is moving a mile a minute and you’re able to focus, but for shorter periods of time. You should tackle shorter, more interactive tasks during this period since you’re going to want to jump from task to task.
• Low energy zone is the period where your energy is low, you can’t focus, and you feel very overwhelmed. For some people, this is the time of day when you feel like taking a nap. Take a walk, stretch, or talk to someone.
Start with easier tasks to warm up. Every time you start losing traction on the more daunting task, return to a task that’s shorter or more energizing, and as soon as your brain kicks in, jump back into the more daunting task.
Lists
Instead of keeping a to-do list, plan by project. Ask yourself: What are the projects I really need completed now? Then narrow down that project list to no more than seven, including any that are lingering unfinished. Once a week, look at your projects and ask yourself, “What do I need to do this week that would make that project progress?”
Routine for Home
“I find that keeping to a routine and spending 15 to 20 minutes a day doing a form of an exercise helps me to stay focused and motivated to work from home.”
I have been trying a 10-minute method. I can do anything for 10 minutes. If I have some things that need to be filed or put away, I deal with 10 things that need to be put away.
I am trying very hard to keep to my actual in-office work hours so that I don’t lose myself. I love Yoga with Julie Marie on YouTube, so that helps me get some exercise and grounding while indoors.
Your Personal Productivity
Working on difficult tasks during the time periods when my brain is most ready to work (which for me is the morning) helps me get tasks done quicker, rather than wasting time procrastinating on them.
I have structured my day around the times I have found myself to be most functional and alert.
Timers for Focus at Home
I have been using alarms and timers on my phone to help with productivity.
Apps for Focus at Home
The Forest app allows to you set ‘whitelisted’ apps/pages that you actually need to use. I put on energetic music and use my Spotify playlists I will try to set up a standing desk and wake up earlier.
Priority List How-To’s
1. When new requests, ideas, and tasks come your way, use the list to do a quick mental check of where they fall in your priorities. If a task isn’t a high-priority item, schedule it for a later time. That doesn’t mean that you will never do it. It means you shouldn’t get the task done before your more important items. And that means you need to get good at scheduling your tasks.
2. For your priority list to work, look at it often. I suggest you set a reminder to look through your list first thing in the morning — before you open your e-mail, before you start responding to other people.
3. Set a reminder to review your list of priorities at least once a week to make sure it still rings true. Scheduling a weekly planning session is essential to making sure your priorities are aligned with your goals. This planning session doesn’t have to be long and tedious.
4. Make sure that the self-care habits that give your brain fuel and ability to focus are high on your list. Ignoring them is easy and risky. You must take care of your brain for it to take care of you.
Accept that perfection doesn’t exist. Plan-do-review. Choose what is working for you.