Do you make big plans for your day but end up spending the whole day watching movies and tv shows and scrolling through social media. No matter what you do, you can’t seem to get yourself to work on things that are important to you? Then you are at the right place, In this article, we will discuss simple and actionable tips that will help you to become more productive.
1. Plan Your Day The Night Before
The biggest reason why most people end up wasting most of their day is because they have no idea what they are going to do on that day in the first place.
Every night before going to sleep make a list of things that you want to accomplish the next day. It is important to write down the tasks, You can do it on a paper or make a list in the notes app of your phone.
Make sure that the plan is as realistic and practical as possible. You should only write down things that you would actually be able to do on that day.
You can have rest in between or do something for your entertainment as long as you are able to accomplish your tasks by the end of the day.
2. Wake Up Early
Waking up early could probably be the best thing you can do to increase your productivity.
Try waking up between 4-5 am (before sunrise) for a week and assure you that you will become much more productive that what you currently are.
Waking up early is almost like adding a extra few hours to your day which makes it easier for you to get your work done.
Initially it is going to be difficult for people who are into the habit of staying awake all night and waking up late but after a few days it gets easier.
It is something that you have to experience yourself to believe, so unless your work doesn’t allow you to do it, you should definitely try waking up early and I promise you, it will change your life for better.
3. Start With The Easiest Tasks
Earlier I asked you to create a list of tasks that you want to accomplish during the day. From that list choose the easiest and the least time-consuming task and finish it first in your day.
This will give you a sense of accomplishment and would release dopamine in your brain. It is a good feeling for your brain and thus you would want to get it again and again which would make you want to do more work and therefore result in higher productivity.
Once you are done with one task check it off the list and move on to the next easiest task on the list keep repeating it until all the work is done.
4. Exercise and Eat Healthy
This might seem unrelated to the topic but in reality, eating healthy and exercising regularly will actually make you more productive.
When you exercise daily and eat a healthy diet you will feel better and your body will have more energy which would help you accomplish more throughout the day.
I would recommend you to do some form of exercise for 20-30 minutes right after waking up, it could be weight training, cardio, aerobics, yoga or any oter form of physical actiivity of your choice. Doing it first thing in the morning will help you wake up properly and would make you feel more energetic throughout the day.
5.Limit Phone Usage
Scrolling through the smartphone is the biggest time sink in our lives. Most of us spend the majority of our day doing nothing productive and watching movies, Tv shows or just wasting hours on social media.
If you stop wasting time on your smartphones or just reduce your smartphone usage, your productivity would increase drastically.
The best way to reduce the smartphone usage is to get rid of social media accounts. Is it going to be difficult, yes, Is it worth doing, absolutely yes.
If you think its too drastic for you, then I recommend deactivating your accounts for a few days and weeks and see how your life changes. This will not only make you more productive but will also make you happier and would improve your social life.
Another common time sink is binge-watching tv series. Watching tv shows is not bad, it is actually a great way of stress relief but binging shows at the time when you should be working is will lead to a very stressful life. A tip I can give for this problem is to leave shows in between episodes. The reason for this is that shows have cliffhangers at the end of episodes which makes you want to watch the next episode and thus the binging cycle begins but when you leave the episode in middle you don’t get that urge of watching all the episodes at once and you can always return to watching it whenever you get time.
6. Listen To Audiobooks
Reading books and listening to audiobooks is the most productive habit one can incorporate in his life.
Although both of these have the same benefits, I would recommend audiobooks over reading. The reason is simple, most people just don’t like reading and even if they do it takes a lot more time to read a book than to listen to it. And the best thing about audiobooks is that you can listen to them anytime even while you are doing something else.
You can listen to audiobooks while commuting, during your workout or before going to bed, it is just really convenient.
Listening to any kind of book is good for you but I would recommend trying some self-help books as they will have the greatest impact on your life.
The easiest and the most convenient way to listen to audiobooks is audible. Also, it is much more affordable than buying a physical copy of individual books. I would definitely recommend everyone to try it out at least once.
Click on the banner below to get one-month free audible membership and a book absolutely free (that you can keep even after the trial). I would highly recommend you to give this a try and see how it changes your life.
Here are some books I would recommend everyone to read: