How you can be more productive without burning out

Being productive is one of the things that we desire to be. We want to make our time worthwhile instead of being wasted on things that we find addicting. However, the idea of being productive sounds so daunting that we are hesitant to start the first step into doing it.

This myth that productivity equates to being so burnout one has no time for anything else is unhelpful. Being productive does not mean that you are busy all the time with no time to rest or do some recreations. I believe that being productive is actually the opposite. It is being able to do the things we enjoy with an ample amount of time; because the things that needed to be done are already well taken care of.

How can you be more productive without burning out?

Here are some tips that can help you become more productive without harming yourself. This list has been effective for me and I wanted to share it with all of you in case it will work for you too. However, feel free to modify it to suit your lifestyle better. After all, we are different people so we have our own ways of doing things.

1. Prepare a to-do list the night before

   My day starts the night before it even arrives. This is why I know how to manage my expectations about my day.

   This works especially well if you have multiple activities to do. Do not rely on your memory to remind you of what you should be doing in a day. Write it down the night before to ensure you will not forget. It will also save you a lot more brain power that you can use for other useful things that just remembering stuff you could have just written down.

2. Do activities according to your energy

   I see so many productive gurus preaching for people to wake up at as early as 3:00am to get the most out of their day with multiple blocks of activities to do. If it works well for you then feel free to continue doing it. But I have tried that for some months and all I can say is never again.

   The extra time that waking up early has provided is just not enough benefits for the zombie-like state I was in the whole time. Even power naps cannot take the tiredness away. But maybe that is just me, because I am no early bird.

   However, if you are an early bird and you have more energy when it is daytime, then you might feel more comfortable doing most things early in the morning then resting at night. If you are a night owl then you might prefer the opposite.

   Just work according to the energy level that you have, instead of trying to be productive the whole 24 hours knowing that your body cannot keep up. It is always better to produce one good quality work over a thousand bad quality works.

3. Schedule breaks in between

   Having a small breaks in between your activities can help you be more productive and produce better quality work than forcing yourself to continue working on something. These small breaks can be dedicated to stretching, eating some snacks or just browsing through the web.

   There is even a famous time management technique that many productivity guru swear by. It is the Pomodoro technique.

   Pomodoro basically works by having a time where you a focused work, meaning no distraction or anything. This will be 25 minutes of uninterrupted work and then taking a 5 minute breaks.

   One Pomodoro cycle is 4 repetition of the pattern I mentioned above. The only difference is that on the 4th break, instead of just taking a 5 minutes break, you take 30 minutes break.

   Does Pomodoro technique works?

   I am speaking from personal experience because I have also tried doing this and I can say that it indeed works. It works in keeping me more focused and I mostly will not even notice that I had already been working for 4 hours straight.

   However, it is probably not for everyone. Especially when you have multiple things to do at once. I stopped using the Pomodoro technique because of the small breaks in between. Though to be fair, the reason for that small break is to rest my mind instead of my body but still, it is barely enough for eating some snacks (unless I already prepares it beforehand).

   In this case, I would suggest doing a similar structure such as the Pomodoro technique but adjust it accordig to how you see fit. As of now, I am following a 45 minutes uninterrupted work time with a 5 minutes break after. Sometimes, if a task is something that is tiring, I would do an hour of focused activity then take a 30 minutes break.

   This works well for me because I am off the phone longer but I still get to have enough time to browse through the web or do some light reading before getting back to work.

   So find a structure that fits your energy and also schedule breaks in between. Breaks make our mind think better than if we work continuously without breaks.

4. Have a dedicated place for each activity

   This is probably one of the most useful advice one can give but it is also one that is hard to do, especially if you only have a small space for doing everything.

   However, that is not to say that it is impossible. You can try makingbuse of different placements of your things to connect that pattern to one activity.

   This will help you in getting more mentally prepared for what you are about to do. It will be a routine and you will know exactly what to do by just some placement of things during different times of the day depending on your energy.

   This can also just mean that you will do an activity after something mundane. For example, you will have no set time when to start doing something but you will always do it after you have some coffee.

   Additionally, you can also continue working on something until you feel some parts of your body start to ache.

   Just ensure that you have some kind of signal that will help your brain remember that it is now time to switch to working mode.

5. Avoid distractions while working

   This is connected to the first few advice where you have to do focused work. This means that you have to turn off the notifications of your phone for a bit. Set exceptions if you are worried about emergencies. However, try your best to make sure that your phone will not be a distraction.

   If you are working on your phone, it also works in the same principle. Just turn off all the distracting things on your phone and stay on your working app/s until you finish what you are doing.

   It will be difficult at first, especially if your used to just switching to different apps in an hour, but if you pushed through you woll be surprised at how quickly you can do your work.

   The main hindrance here is your self-control. If you are not as motivated to stay focused then it will be harder to just do one task. There are actually studies that proved "multi-tasking" is ineffective and ultimately leads to shorter attention span and less quality works because one keeps getting distracted.

   However, like I said in the beginning, you do you. I am just sharing what I learned but if you truly believe multi-tasking is effective for you then you can continue doing it.

While being productive is something everyone wants, it will always be important to remember that you are not a robot. You are a person so you will have to work accordingly or you will burn out. It is okay to take breaks, and to stop, as long as you are putting your health first.

These are just some of the advice I want to share with you guys. A bonus one will be the reminfer that it will always be hard in the beginning because you are probably used to doing unproductive things before. To combat this, you can start small, like maybe in the first day you will just set the timer on your phone and then you are done. Just keep doing this until you find yourself more used to dedicating time to actually start. It is hard to build a productive habit if your foundation is weak. So the repetitive motions of just showing up to try and be productive is slowly building your foundation. A few seconds will turn to minutes that will turn to hours. The important thing is that you do it everyday. No excuses because it is just a simple thing of just deciding you will do it, even if you stopped immediately.

Just a reminder that all things I have written here are based on my own experience. This list of productivity advice may or may not work for you. Hopefully, it will still give you an idea that you can also use for your productivity routine.

If you have some time to spare, you might want to visit more of my articles. I made summaries to keep it easier for you to browse through them.

Here is the link for my May 2021 articles: https://read.cash/@ZehraSky/may-2021-articles-summary---59e3f5b8

Here is the 1st week of June 2021 articles: https://read.cash/@ZehraSky/week-1-june-2021-articles-summary-6e15cf71

Thank you for reading my article, guys!