How to increase productivity

I was having one of my usual writers’ blocks when my friend Victor messaged me. He gave me an idea of what to write and also a way to be productive each day and how to set my priorities right.

What is the first thing you do when you wake up? You pick up your phone, check the notifications and check your various Social media accounts right?. This is a common thing everyone does, but this is the wrong way to start your day

Studies show that setting off your phone notifications really affects people's productivity. Even if I don’t know how the study was carried out and how the conclusion was made, I can agree with the result based on personal experience. Notifications are constant distractions for most people. After checking a single notification, the next thing you check is something on the internet. You check your phone for a notification, and then you move on to something else, and before you know it, hours have passed.

When you don't receive a notification, it doesn't take your attention away from what you're doing, and you can focus more on what's important. I’m not saying that you should turn off all notifications because some are very useful for productivity (like reminders, or weather/traffic alerts).

Are you guilty of checking your phone notification? Do you want to know how to get things done?

Here's how to take back control over your focus:

-Samantha Lorgan (Olivier from my favourite TV series - All American. I wrote something on the movie a few weeks back) once said since she started ignoring her phone for an hour after waking up each day, she’s been having a productive day. If you’re the type that your phone is your working tool, checking it first thing in the morning for emails or other important notifications isn’t bad but if you are someone like me, putting your phone aside for some minutes or hours after waking will be a good help for you.

- Turn off all notifications from your mobile device - If there's nothing new waiting for you, you won't be distracted

- Stay motivated by only checking your phone for important emails twice a day - Schedule time each day to check your emails

- Start each day by writing a list of the things you want to accomplish that day - Prioritize them - Do the most important ones first - Get them done one by one, tick by tick

- Take a 5-minute break after an hour of work. We don't like breaks when we're working but it will help you get more done

These simple steps will help you stay focused on the task at hand and accomplish more - be more productive.

Don't wait for motivation to work on what matters, set up the environment for productivity, not distraction.

To lay more emphasis on the 4th point

To avoid procrastination, try to have a scale of preference. If you have a lot of tasks to do, decide how important they are and start with the vital ones first.

As the hours' pass, our ability to focus and prioritize diminishes. We're bombarded with messages and our brains struggle to keep up. We try harder, mixing in more tasks, but instead, we begin to disengage. Answering a hundred emails in pursuit of one important one can lead us from productive to frantic as we lose perspective on what really matters.

The original goal of the task list was to help people get stuff done by getting it out of their heads and down into a list. But in an age where managing email inboxes is a full-time job, the old task list strategy doesn't cut it anymore. You might need to change your list every day, it might be stressful but one thing is assured, at the end of the day you will be satisfied with what you’ve achieved.

Thanks for Reading! ✍💚✍