We like to use September as a time to reflect on the last few months of the year by planning ahead and setting new goals. We find this helps our productivity levels and increases our motivation in completing these tasks and achieving these goals. Research has found that during the pandemic, especially more recently, people are understandably much more likely to be procrastinating. Reasons for this include additional stress from the prospect of job cuts, the inability to see family and friends and/or dealing with illness and loss. Priorities have also shifted for people where extra care responsibilities have arisen. Burnout has also become more common as people are faced with additional and excessive stress and the lack of social interactions negatively impacts our motivation.
In this blog we are going to share resources we love and tips we use to maintain productivity when things can get busy. These techniques and tips can be adapted to any working style and personality as one-size-fits-all models usually do not work, especially when it comes to work.
But what is productivity?
Productivity is working efficiently within a given time. It is untrue that the more hours you work, the more you get done. Someone who works 4 hours a day could be more productive than someone that works 10 hours a day. It is important to recognise and understand the meaning of productivity to help you develop you habits and thinking.
The first is trusting the process. Habits are usually not created overnight; small, baby steps add up over time to create new thinking and learning, leading to changes in behaviour leading to changes in productivity. Secondly, hold yourself accountable. Setting actions or deadlines for yourself and telling someone about these is a big help in pushing you to complete the tasks you outlined. The final basis of productivity is not being so hard on yourself. Punishing yourself for not ticking off everything on your to-do list for the week is not good. Things will get in the way and you will not always complete everything you set out for yourself. The important thing is to be realistic in setting your goals and tasks and forgive yourself if something does not go to plan. It is essential for productivity to keep learning what works for you and not focus on your mistakes. This New York Times article shares lots of tips for each different type of worker and how to become more productive depending on your working style (multi-tasker, procrastinator, desk workers, computer users, those who power through).
How can I increase productivity?
Productivity is about getting things done efficiently in a certain time frame. Time is the important concept here. We all have 24 hours in a day and there is nothing we can do, spend or switch to change this fact. Once it is gone, it is gone forever. And we cannot save some time for future use. This should mean we need to use it as best we can. The concept of 168 hours is a helpful tool in allocating the time in one week to complete our tasks, whatever they may be. Research shows that these 168 hours work best when split into three: 56 hours work, 56 hours sleep, and 56 hours of “free time” spent doing everyday tasks and other things. Using these 56 hours of free time emphasises the importance of taking time for yourself but also helps us prioritise what is important to us. This is one of our favourite tools for balancing our time and planning our weeks.
Below are some resources we use and love and that help us increase productivity.
Flora – a free app that aids productivity. This app allows you to set a time scale for focused working and shows the image of a tree growing. During this time, if you leave the app before the time is up, the tree will die. This is an incentive to fulfil the time you originally set. The app also partners with a real tree planting organisation that plants real trees alongside the ones you grow whilst being productive! You can also grow a tree with a friend – sharing your tree growth means sharing your productivity.
168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam – a book that goes into detail on what is the most productive way to spend the 168 hours of your week and how not to over plan your week like many people do – guilty! We like the concept of thinking of your whole week and what you want to achieve in it. We will all have personal goals along with work goals, and sometimes are personal goals or well being gets put to the bottom of the list when work gets busy. This helps provide a very objective view to your weeks planning so you can make sure you account for all your work and life goals. This is a nice complement to the ‘Wheel of Life’ coaching card we shared previously as you might have noted some areas of your life that need more focus. Planning time for it can help you meet any goals you have set for balancing your life. It is worth searching online for ‘168 hours’ as there are several planners and tools to help you use this model.
The Pomodoro Technique – a time-management tool we use to help us be productive and power through distractions. It involves bursts of focused work with short breaks and ensures consistent productivity in short sprints. Each Pomodoro sprint is 25 minutes and it’s long enough to get something done without feeling overwhelmed. I am sure we have all sat there looking at a blank screen wondering where to start so Pomodoro technique encourages you to take action for 25 minutes and then you get a reward of a 5 minute break which is meant to give you a cognitive rest. You repeat this cycle for 4/5 rounds and then you get a 30 min break that you use to relax or take a walk or some sort of break from your work. It’s a great tool to keep focused for the day and especially useful for routine tasks or those that require deep work. We use it for research writing or marking assignments. All you need is a timer and work to be doing!
We hope this information and these resources will be useful for you as they are handy tools for us. Please let us know what you think or if you are struggling with increasing productivity and motivation, contact Clare at [email protected] or on 07594946166.
Click here if you want to discuss your coaching needs.
Written by Siobhan Headd
