After an incredibly busy week, both at work as well as with regards to my personal projects, I decided it was time to share some of my productivity tips. At work I rocked three projects this week, all with a lot of features and tight deadlines. And after hours I’ve been blogging, promoting my blog, finding guest bloggers, coding my second app and following several e-courses. This is how I managed to complete all my todo’s and stay productive, even on days where I felt tired and just wanted to give up!
#1 Work in blocks
For most of us, it’s very hard to focus on a task for hours at a time, and we often get distracted by emails, social media and random things on the internet. The best way to counter that is to work in small blocks. I work for 20-30 minutes, then a five-minute break. Although, when I’m very focused I often go for 60-minute blocks of work, with a 10-minute break in between.
#2 Use noise canceling headphones
Last year I bought noise canceling headphones from Bose, and they’ve been absolute lifesavers. I can’t hear the ventilation, street noise or my coworkers. Working in an open office space, they’re really needed to eliminate all distractions. And fewer distractions equals higher productivity.
The battery life is pretty good as well, they last me around 2-3 weeks, depending on how frequently I use them. There’s a green light when the noise canceling is turned on. And when the battery is low, that light will start blinking. After that, I usually can survive another few days until the battery runs out completely.
The ones I’m using are an older version. Bose recently released a series of wireless noise canceling headphones. If you have an iPhone 7, or are planning to buy one, getting wireless headphones is probably a smarter option.
#3 Make a planning
Planning is the most important thing when it comes to getting work done. Before I start working on a project, I make a to-do list with different colored post-its. I use a red color for tasks with a high priority, and a softer color for other tasks.
I group them in three categories: To-do, in progress and done. It gives me a quick and easy overview over how much work I have left to do, and how important each item on the to-do list is. If I ever low short on time, I know which tasks I can postpone or scrap.
To plan out my blog and other personal projects in advance, I use Asana. This is an online tool that makes scheduling tasks very easy. I don’t plan my blog or apps in detail because I work on them in my free time, so there’s always a chance something else will pop-up last minute. But I do mark the days where I want to publish posts (every Wednesday and Saturday) and days where I want to work on my apps (Sunday and Thursday).
#4 Remove distractions
At work, I turn off the sound of my phone (and often leave it in my purse instead of on my desk) and I also turn off Slack, the chat app we use at our office. Once an hour, during my break, I check my mails, chat messages, and other notifications. I also have a smart watch, so if someone calls me my watch starts buzzing. If it’s not important, I can reject the call without having to check my phone and get distracted by other apps.
There are also lots of apps out there that can restrict your computer’s access to specific websites or apps, or prevent you from going online altogether. I personally rarely use them, but if you’re often on Facebook instead of studying you might want to give them a try.
#5 Drink water
I already wrote about this in my post with tips to stay energized, but I guess the best energy boosts from cold air and cold water. Coffee prevents me from sleeping, but it doesn’t make me feel awake, so I absolutely avoid that at work. Instead, I try to drink 2 liters of cold water each day. I also love cold homemade teas. My favorite these days is rooibos-cinnamon tea from Kusmi, mixed with a few droplets of Gotu Kola extract.
#6 Clean your desk
A cluttered desk is a cluttered mind. The less there is on my desk, the less I can get distracted by. The only things you’ll find at my desk while working are my computer, a glass/bottle of water and my todo list. Since I organise my todo’s with sticky notes, I don’t need a pen to check off todos, which means there’s no possibility to start doodling instead of working.
#7 Take breaks
Less is more. And the same actually goes when it comes to working. You won’t be very productive when you’re tired, overworked and stressed.
It’s a mistake I made when I just started working. I spent most of my evenings and weekends at work, and it really killed my productivity and the quality of my work. I was tired because I worked instead of sleeping, which lead to making mistakes, which led to working more nights, which again made me tired.
For my current company, I don’t work more than 40 hours per week. If I go over that, I can take off those hours on another day. I’m less tired, less stressed and more productive. Big win!
#8 Work while feeling productive
I have the most energy the first four hours of the day and feel most creative the last two or three hours before going to bed. I plan my days around these time, which helps me a lot to get work done faster and better.
At work, I’ll tackle the most important and hardest tasks first thing when I arrive, when I still feel energized and focused. In the evening at home, I first relax a bit, and then make art or write for my blog closer to bedtime. During the weekends I work in the mornings, relax in the afternoon, and clean the apartment or do laundry in the evening. That way I can be productive and get a lot of work done, while still relaxing enough to be fresh on Monday.
This post contains affiliate links, but everything I wrote in this post is my own and honest opinion.
26 Comments
These are such great tips! I have trouble concentrating. I am going to try working with noise cancelling headphones for sure.
Making a planning is CRUCIAL to be productive in my books!
This is so on point. To be more productive requires proper planing and discipline. I love the pictures as well, well done.
Planning is so important! I think many people underestimate the power of it.
Great tips girl! I’m a procrastinater and often get distracted by silly things, so these will definitely come in handy for me 😍
Xxx
Amazing tips! Thank you for sharing.
I’m using excel for blog planning 😀
~ Jasmin N
littlethingswithjassy.blogspot.fi
Thanks 🙂 Excel sounds like a smart way of planning things as well! There’s so much you can do with it, and the result still looks easy to understand.
These are such good tips thanks! Will help me loads. Ree Love30
Great tips! I love the sticky note idea.
This could be very helpful for some
Fantastic tips, I would love to try the noise blocking headphones.
You should, they’re really good 🙂
Great tips, and believe or not eating pomegranate makes me relaxed and happy lol.. xoxo
https://theninebyivana.blogspot.com/
Hi Lavender,
Thanks for all those great tipps. I also have Bose headphones (noise cancelling) and those are really great.
All the best,
Rebecca
Thanks for Sharing this..
I think I need noise canceling headphones too
They’re so awesome, I’m really glad I got them. It cancels out my boyfriend playing video games, people at work talking, etc. Helps me focus a lot 🙂
Such a cool post. I am glad I came across. Being productive is very important and difficult in life.
These are great ideas and I actually do some of them! Although, when I take breaks, I tend to get distracted and start doing a different task…not sure how productive that ends up being for me 🙂
Do you time your breaks? I have a 5 or 10 minute timer going during my breaks, so that I get a reminder to get back to work 🙂
Thanks for the tips
The noise cancelling head phones are definitely key to being productive!
Great post!
TQR x
thequietresolution.co.uk
Good points to add to my notes, despite I am a well organised person ! Noise canceling headphones seems like a good addition 🙂
-Lify Gent http://www.lifygent.com
I find this interesting, thanks a lot for sharing these great tips! As I find it difficult to manage my time I’ll definitely have to try this out!
Love , Tina ♡ http://www.savourbytina.com
I really really love this ideas! I struggle with keeping ip my productivity as times, so I appreciate this!
this is a great list, since starting university again after being off for so long I’ve found myself struggling to be productive. this has given me somewhere to start, now off to clean my desk up lol
I’m really struggling to be as productive as I’d like to be at the minute- thanks for the tips, hopefully I’ll be back at full speed soon!
http://taradaniella.com/