My work has been seen by millions of people. I have more than a decade of experience delivering digital experiences for small businesses, startups, inventors and big brands like Nike, Disney, Porsche, Fendi, Tiffany, Beats by Dre, Audi, Bosch, Metro, Hipp, and the list goes on.
Still, to this day, I am constantly aiming for wins in the productivity game. Why? Because time is money, time is energy, and you know what, being productive makes me feel good.
Productivity tips are for everybody, and by everybody I mean even people are are already down the productivity rabbit hole. KPMG did a study where they found that only 15% of organization spend time on improving their productivity. This means that even as a freelancer, a student, an agency or a small business, you may be more productive than a lot of big companies out there.
Here are 55 productivity tips to help you stay productive, reduce anxiety, FOMO (fear of missing out) and get the job done more efficiently. We put some of the cool tips here, and there, not all at the beginning… so make sure you read the whole list of productivity tips!
1. Set Goals + Have a Vision
A ship without a destination drifts away, navigating the seas without a purpose. Before you even start working, it is important to have a clear idea of what you want to complete and what you will strive to accomplish. It is important to set goals that you will push yourself to meet. On top of that, your goals should be aligned with your long-term Vision.
Do not hesitate to cut the elephant into smaller bits and pieces (and feel free to outsource part of the work.) You should avoid setting unreasonable goals, but at the same time, make sure that you’ll need to put in a significant amount of effort to meet your goals. Finding the perfect balance between goals that are too easy and goals that are unreasonable can be challenging but once you find that balance, it will help you get more work done by continuing to meet these goals that you regularly set for yourself. I use Notion to set goals and keep track of work. You can read out Notion Review.
It is useless to set goals if they are not related or beneficial to your Vision. I have goals for the next: 5 years, 3 years, 12 months, the current quarter, the month, the coming week plus daily goals. It may seem a lot, but think of it as Matryoshka Russian dolls.
2. Places have Energy; Select Carefully Where you Work.
Avoiding distractions is vital to being productive. I believe that some areas in a home have certain level of energies (same with offices, cafés, etc.) Just think of clubs: the energy on the couch (is different than on the dance floor. If you happen to be working from home, have a designated work area in your home. For example, an office and a dedicated workplace in a room. You can distance yourself from potential distractions by closing your door or using a folding screen, for example. Also, most people tend to work more efficiently in a quiet environment. If possible, work away from children and pets that might distract you while working at home. The same goes for working in an office. I never like the concept of open space offices. Movements distract me. Plus, when there is loud people or music in the background, forget about it, I have 0 focus.
3. Have a Clean Workspace
A clean space means a clean mind. This next tip touches the previous tip. In order to avoid distractions, you must not only close your door, but you also need to ensure that what is on your side of the door is distraction-free too! You can help reduce distractions at your desk or in your office by keeping it clean. This will also reduce stress as you will not have to worry about cleaning the area around you and thanks to that, you can focus on getting your task done. I heard that some HR managers ask candidates to sit on a messy desk, and wait for 10-15 min. They want to see if the candidate will clean up the mess or ignore it.
4.Use an ergonomic Dvorak keyboard
Another important tip for office workers, developers, writers, designers and freelancers (and those working on computers!) The Dvorak keyboard layout has been proven to offer faster typing speeds than other keyboard layouts. Consider changing/upgrading your keyboard layout in order to spend the least time typing as possible. The time you save by doing this will add up, we promise you! I do not use a Dvorak keyboard, but I do use an ergonomic keyboard: it makes me type faster and helps with wrist tension. If you are interested in knowing me just reach out to me on Facebook.
5. Avoid Music, Do this Instead
While some might find that the time goes faster while playing music and working, music is for most people, a distraction that should be avoided as much as possible. Especially if it is music with lyrics. The best alternative to music is background noise (e.g., sounds of nature, rain, fireplace, waterfall, birds singing, etc.) or steady sounds like white noise (e.g., fan, airplane, etc.)
6.Give Up Perfection aka “Done is better than perfect”
I like to say that “Done is better than Perfect.” Many people start new jobs thinking that they will achieve perfection. Just forget that. There is not one human in this world that is perfect, and we need to accept that. Do your best, but know that even your best is not perfection. Make stuff move fast and flow. If you aim for perfection, you will not succeed and this will frustrate you.
7.Keep a Pen and Paper Nearby for Braindumps, Notes and Ideas
Since you should be focused on just one task at a time, you won’t want any ideas distracting you. If you think of something that you will need to remember, write it down on a piece of paper! Braindump all thoughts, ideas, tasks… that come up in your mind. Do not let thoughts unrelated to the task at hand run idle in the background. Keep a pen and some paper nearby while you work since you never know when a great idea might cross your mind. I love index cards. I move them around, make lists, stack them… Of course, write it down then get back to your original task to not forget where you left off since doing that would slow down your progress which is not the objective of productivity!
8. Don’t Live to Work, Don’t “karoshi”
There is more to life than work. I used to work 100 hours a week, sleeping at the office. Not cool. You won’t get a “Hustlin’ medal”… In order to remain productive, it is important to ensure a healthy balance of social life and work hours. No career should require you to give up your family. Always be sure to take advantage of the time you spend with friends and family and don’t let work get in the way of your social life. You can only work for so long before you need a change of scenery! Don’t spend days working without relaxing with friends or family, because no matter what you may think, this is not one of the steps to becoming productive. The Japanese have a term for people who pass away due to work exhaustion: karoshi. I personally know 3 digital agencies where it happened! Don’t let that happen to you.
9. Focus is Gold (or Bitcoin, you choose.) Ignore your Phone.
Learn to set priorities: if your phone beeps and you lose focus, then your phone has more power over you than the task you are focusing on. As previously mentioned, one of the most important things that you must do to be productive is to avoid distractions. In today’s world, phones are one of the biggest distractions, if not the biggest. For this reason, you should ignore all texts and phone calls that are not related to the task you are working on. If you receive a phone call that can wait, let it wait. Don’t forget that you are currently unavailable! Unavailable since you are focused on one task only, of course. If you can’t trust yourself to determine which calls are urgent and which ones aren’t, just put your phone away. Keep it out of reach and it is one less thing to distract you! I have a policy of “all requests by email.” Other channels are simply for emergencies that need immediate attention, or just for casually chatting.
10. Avoid Checking Your Email (and Social Media) Excessively
You might be thinking “How can work emails distract me? They are the last thing I want to deal with”, but in reality, even work emails can be a major distraction that may also retard the task that you need to complete. You can check your email before starting work and again near the end of the workday. Twice per day is sufficient! I check emails at 10am and 4pm, thank you very much. You should not simply focus on “work” in general, but rather one task in particular. If you think about everything related to work, you will be overwhelmed and will not get your one important task done in a reasonable amount of time, or even worse, at the quality level you or your boss were expecting. For this reason, you should not be constantly checking your email, even if it is your work email.
11.Social Media Detox
Yeah, you read that right. Social. Media. Detox. In my opinion, if you want to keep your sanity, you should go on social media detox at least 2-3x a year. You then realize that social media is eating away from your productivity. What do you get, and gain, from social media?
12. Work In A Comfortable Environment
If you are going to be spending a significant amount of time in your office, it’s worth investing in some comfortable furniture. It’s no surprise that time goes by faster when you are comfortable! You should also make sure that the temperature of the room you are working in is appropriate for work. Working in a room that is too cold or too warm will cause you to be uncomfortable and this is not what we want! A room that is too cold or too warm can also be a distraction since you will be constantly looking for ways to warm up and cool down. If your workplace is a bit chilly, bring some blankets with you. On the other hand, if it’s a bit hot where you are, well, desk fans have been around since 1822, it’s no news!
13. Save Your Progress
If you are working on a computer, it is extremely important that you avoid losing progress with corrupt files and similar. Two important tips to avoid losing your progress on a document or file on your computer is to firstly, save every once a while. After each significant step that you make in your progress, be sure to save it! Don’t just save it in one place though, try saving in two different places in case one save fails. For example, you can save your progress somewhere online (OneDrive or Google Drive) but also store a copy of your work on your computer or on a hard drive.
14. Take Breaks, then Do Push-ups or Meditate.
It’s important to keep a fresh mindset. In order to do so, taking regular short breaks is quite important. I use a mix of the Pomodoro technique and what the folks at Ultraworking do: I work 30 min, take a 10 min break, then every 4 hours I take a longer break. I usually drink (a lot of tea) and when I get a bit sleepy, I go for pushups. I’ll do up to 8 sets of 25 push-ups per day. I don’t overdo push-ups as I already train and had a shoulder injury.
You can have a quick snack between work sessions or maybe even try some meditation! Meditation and yoga can help relax your body in the case where you are stressed. YouTube offers many short yoga and meditation videos to help you relax your mind and body quickly. Don’t make your breaks last too long though! A 10 to 15-minute break every hour or so seems appropriate. If such frequent breaks seem excessive to you, just keep in mind that as humans, we lose focus quite quickly, so frequent breaks are a necessity for maximum productivity.
15. Eat Breakfast, or Don’t. Keto breakfast is the best??
What you eat before work can also influence your productivity rate at work! It is important to start your day with a healthy breakfast rich in proteins. I personally avoid dairies, carbs, sugary stuff, and heavy/greasy foods as well… 2 eggs with olive oil and an avocado OR an almond shake with hemp protein powder (I add flavor by adding sugarless chocolate powder, moringa powder or Japanese Matcha green tea that I bought in Kyoto.) For some people, including myself, skipping breakfast is a must at least once or twice a week. You can also reap the benefits of fasting once in a while. If you are hungry in the morning, you will continuously be thinking about food and what you can eat later, so if you do fast, make sure you’ve got some liquid with the right minerals in it just to keep that belly quiet a little bit.
16. Get Some Fresh Air
Now that you’ve eaten a healthy breakfast, why not go for a walk before you get to work? Maybe you prefer to jog! Whatever it is, get outside and enjoy some fresh air. This will help you feel more relaxed and refreshed when it’s time to start today’s task. If going for a walk isn’t quite what you want, maybe you can bring a book and sit on the poarch! Even if you are just sitting around, being outside can change your mindset completely and help you be more productive during the day which is our goal, isn’t it?
17. Go Step by Step
There is no point in trying to do everything at once, it just doesn’t work! It’s important to break down what you need to get done into little pieces. Take baby steps, lots of them. By focusing on a small part of the task, you can give your full attention to that specific mini-task and get it done more efficiently. Forget about all the other work you have to do, just think about the little chunk of work that you are currently giving your full attention. Once you’ve taken one baby step, you can take another, and so on. Pretty self-explanatory, right?
18. Stick to a Schedule
You’ll want to have a clear schedule of when you want to work, and make sure that schedule is reasonable. Don’t forget to include family and friend time in that schedule as per tip 8! By knowing when you have to work, you can prepare yourself both mentally and physical in advance. This way, when it’s time to get to work, you can start right away without having to prepare at the last second. This can also help having to cancel plans in your personal life because of approaching work deadlines, for example.
19. Don’t Give Up
We all have them, you know, hard days. Sometimes work goes by quicker than other days, but that’s just part of the deal! Even when a day is long, don’t give up. Keep putting all of your effort into the task you are handling and tell yourself that you have a schedule to follow and you need to keep working until the work day is over. You will face challenges, we all do, but we need to overcome them to stay productive.
20. Drink Water
It might seem simple but this tip is effective! No matter where you are working, whether it be in an office, from home, on a construction site, anywhere! Have water with you. Like being hungry, being thirsty is also a distraction that you will certainly want to avoid. Not only will it help avoid another distraction, but it will also keep you refreshed! This is especially important if you are working in hot temperatures, even more so, outside. On the other hand, if you are warming in a room that is a bit chilly (or outside), why not have a cup of coffee or tea with you? This will also help you feel more comfortable at work.
21. Have Patience
As discouraging as it may be to see no instant results following your hard work, you need to have patience to be successful. Every minute of effort will add up and eventually, you will achieve even your biggest goals! In most cases, your work will not be rewarded overnight, but that reward will come sometime in the future. Keep up your hard work, know that your dreams will not come true overnight and enjoy the reward when it comes. Until then, keep pushing and meeting those goals we mentioned earlier!
22. Switch Things Up
If your workspace allows for it, you can also try working from different places. Depending on your job, you may be able to work from home, from the office, or even at a local cafe! Just remember that public places such as a cafe are more likely to have distractions, so maybe bring headphones, they can help reduce noise distractions. If you are working from home, it can help even to move around your house, for example, from the living room, then the kitchen table, then by a window, for example.
23. Work with the Lights On
You might find it more comfortable working in the dark (especially when working on a laptop) but there are multiple reasons why you should avoid doing that. Firstly, looking at any kind of screen in the dark (television, laptop, phone, etc) can cause eye strain as your eyes will need to adjust to the constant changing lighting in the room. But only that, you will be more likely to get tired in the dark which, as you can imagine, can also delay your progress and lower your productivity while working.
24. Sleep Well
Being productive at work doesn’t just start from the day you have to work! In fact, your productivity can be influenced by your decisions in the last few days before you have to work. It is important to be able to focus while working and in order to do so, you cannot be yawning every few minutes. To avoid that, you’ll need proper sleep, as you can imagine. Adults should aim for 9 hours of sleep per night when possible! Of course, for some people, especially those with children, etc, getting that much sleep per night is simply impossible. Either way, aim to get the most sleep per night so that you can be well-charged the next day. Doing so will help you get more work done and in some cases, give you more motivation to work.
25. Know Your Peak Time
Every person is different and everyone works better at different times of the day. For some, they get most of their work done as soon as they wake up early in the morning, for others, they tend to be more productive at night. It is important to evaluate your work over different times of the day and find what time of the day works best for you. Once you have determined when you are most productive, build your schedule around that. If you know that you get lots of work done in the afternoon, plan to work during those times and leave the morning and evening for family and friends!
Pardon the interruption! If you are interested in productivity, you could also have a look at our handpicked selection of 44 Best Focus Books to Help you Boost Deep Work.
26. Compete with Others
If you are struggling to find motivation to work, why not challenge your colleagues? Depending on what kind of job you have, you can, for example, challenge your colleagues to see who can answer the most emails in a today (keeping significant work quality, of course). Another example of a competition you could have with your co-workers is who can fix the bug the quickest! Of course, the latter competition concerns those working on computer softwares and similar.
27. Watch Cute Animal Videos
Ok, you’re joking, right? Nope! It’s been proven that watching videos or even looking at images of cute animals can boost your motivation. Since you’ll be taking regular breaks (if you follow tip 14), why not spend a few minutes watching videos of puppies falling asleep or cats playing with toys! Anything you can think of that involves cute animals, watch it, it will help you. Of course, you’ll need to be able to control how much of these cute furballs you will watch since you need to get back to work after your break, of course.
28. Enjoy Your Commute to Work
If you happen to work outside of your house, for example, in an office or any other building that requires you to drive, walk, take the train, etc to work, why not enjoy the time spent getting to work! By preparing a podcast or a playlist of your favourite songs, you’ll be in a better mood when you get to work. Don’t sit on the train being bored, instead, listen to something you want to hear to get you in a good mood before walking into the workplace.
29. Clear your Inbox
Yes, we already told you to avoid checking your email too many times per day, but when you do have a few minutes to spare, such as when you are on a short break, it would be worth clearing through your email inbox. Doing this can reduce stress and will help you find things more easily when you need to pull up an email from your boss or colleague, for example. This way, you spend less time sorting through emails and more time getting work done, which is exactly what you need to do to be productive!
30. Watch Motivational Videos
Just another way to spend time during your short breaks, but watching motivational videos can certainly boost your productivity and as you can guess, it also gives you motivation to keep working (something many of us need especially during hard days). Motivational videos is a rather vague term, but anything that you find motivation can help you. If you aren’t sure what kind of videos to search for, you can consider watching business success stories on YouTube, for example. These will keep you thinking about work, but still allow you to relax during your breaks.
31. Get The Hard Work Done
If you’ll be taking on several tasks in a day, make a plan of which ones you want to complete first. Ideally, you will want to place the tasks in order from least favourite to favourite. This way, you can get the worst tasks done early in the morning (if that is when you start work) and by the end of the day, the easier tasks are left. That is a great way of getting your work done since many of us lose interest in work by the end of the day and are often more tired then.
32. Reward Yourself
Once you’ve completed a large task, you deserve to be rewarded. You worked hard to get to where you are, so why not treat yourself? You know what you like, so you choose the reward! Depending on the size of the task you completed, maybe you earned yourself a chocolate bar, or even a dinner out, and for massive projects that you’ve been working hard on for a long time, maybe you deserve a vacation! It can also help to establish your rewards before starting work so that you know what you are working towards.
33. Keep a Calendar Nearby
This tip mainly applies to those working indoors. Whether you are working from home or from an office building, having a calendar next to you can come in handy. You now know the importance of having a clear schedule, so be sure to insert your schedule into a calendar. It is recommended to specify task deadlines, staff meetings or anything else coming up that you know of. This will certainly help you build both your personal and work schedule around those upcoming events that you have inserted into your calendar.
34. Get up Early!
Another tip for those working from home during this ongoing pandemic! If you have a noisy household, such as your kids, pets, or maybe your husband/wife (who knows!), it can be difficult to get work done during the day with all of the distractions around you, even with your door closed (tip #2). As hard as it may be to get up in the morning, it feels great once you get into the routine of waking up before anybody else in your house and enjoying the quiet of your home. For many, this is a perfect opportunity to get work done before the rest of your family wakes up. If you are up early enough, you may as well get set up next to a window and watch the sunrise while you are working! Oh, and don’t forget that coffee.
35. Consider Outsourcing
This tip is not for everyone, so be sure to take into consideration whether or not this is possible for the kind of work you do. Depending on what your work allows, you may be able to get some help from freelancers looking for projects! If you find yourself overwhelmed with projects, it may be worth visiting online freelancing sites where thousands of talented individuals are eagerly waiting to hear from you. This way, you can focus on other tasks, while your hired-hand gets another project done for you. It’s like working at double speed, right?
36. Read Faster
Some of the most productive people have the ability to speed read. What this means is that you are able to scan a page and take out the important information and forget the rest of it. This way, you do not need to read each word on the page and doing this can save you plenty of time. You can then put that saved time into progressing with your work. There are apps out there that can help you improve your reading skills and help you develop the skill of “speed reading”. Check it out!
37. Don’t Hesitate To Say No
If you feel overwhelmed, there is no harm in saying no when you get assigned another project! Your work quality should never decrease because of an excessive amount of work, so next time you are feeling stressed and your boss gives you more work, politely say no and explain that it would be unreasonable to take on another project when you have not finished your current one.
38. Use Keyboard Shortcuts
It might not seem like it will save you that much time just to use keyboard shortcuts, but in reality, if you are working at a PC all day-long, each second saved adds up. On top of this, you’ll be increasing your computer knowledge while at work! There is a keyboard shortcut for almost anything you want to do on your computer, you just may not know them. So there’s another thing to do during your break! Learn keyboard shortcuts and make use of them when you get back to work. You could also show off around your colleagues with your newly discovered keyboard shortcuts!
39. Improve Your Typing Speed
We know it’s easier said than done, but being able to type more quickly can certainly help you advance in your work more quickly. Not only is your typing speed important, but also your accuracy. There is no point in typing quickly if every second word needs to be corrected in the end, afterall. If you do not currently use the proper typing posture, it’s never too late to learn it and train yourself to use it more frequently, so forget the index-only typing method, you are a professional now!
40. Work from a Stable Internet Connection
Network delays can cause serious delays with your work. The problem with unstable internet connections is that you never know when there may be an outage, and for many of us, outages seem to occur at the worst possible time, for example, right before a tight deadline. Thankfully, many internet service providers offer more powerful internet plans that may be worth investing in if you are working from home and spend lots of time online. This way, you can avoid delays caused by your internet connection.
41. Try New Methods
If you’ve been doing the same thing every day at work for the past months of years, switch it up! For some people, repetition works well and allows them to work more quickly, but for others, they get tired of repeating the same steps every day. Make every day at work unique by changing up your routine and trying different strategies to do your work. This way, you might even discover a more efficient way of doing what you have been struggling to do for years already. By trying new ways of getting things done, you can also figure out what works for you and what simply doesn’t!
42. Enjoy What You Do
It’s a known fact that time flies by when we are having fun doing what we are doing and it’s no different at work! If you tell yourself that you hate your job and you make no effort to make yourself like it, time will drag on and on, no doubt. By applying many of the tips mentioned so far on this list, you can turn your job from a place you never want to be to an enjoyable place to be. For example, try new methods, be comfortable and reward yourself!
43. Watch What Others Are Doing
Tip number 5 should have priority over this step, until you feel that your personal method doesn’t work anymore. If you are out of ideas on how to get something done, watch what your colleagues and the experts are doing then learn from them! Thankfully, we are in the 21st century where you have access to the internet (if you are reading this, at least). Thanks to this, you can find experts in almost every industry posting videos of their tricks and techniques on the internet, so surf the web a bit!
44.Have Confidence In Yourself, no more FOMO
Asking questions is great, doubting yourself is not. In order to be productive, you need to trust yourself. Don’t forget that you are an expert in what you do! Never forget that. If you can’t convince yourself that you are doing your work properly, then how can you progress? Doubt is a roadblock on the path to productivity, so get rid of it because you don’t need it!
45. Establish a Pre-Work Routine
Having a routine that you perform before each work day can help your mind understand that it is soon time to work. We’ve already mentioned eating a proper breakfast before work, so include that in your morning routine! Perhaps you also check your emails before starting work, so that can also be part of your pre-work routine. This routine does not need to be excessively long but it will help you feel less stressed and more organized since you know that you have done what you needed to do before work. Then, when the time to work comes, you can give the task at hand your 100%!
46. Know What You Struggle With
Since you should have a pen and paper nearby (as per tip 22), it can be helpful to note down everything that happens during your work day that causes stress or anxiety. This way, you can look at the list you have written at the end of the day and know where you struggle. Once you have created this list, you can sharpen your skills in order to be more knowledgeable of the things that you were previously struggling with. Not only will this help you be more productive in the future, but you will have gained knowledge that you didn’t have before which is always good for you, no matter the situation.
47. Have Someone Audit Your Work
This person can be a friend, colleague, boss or anybody else. By having someone review the work you do during the day, they may notice things you do that take an excessive amount of time and they may even know ways to increase your work speed. It’s always helpful to hear what others have in mind and to consider their suggestions. Of course, depending on your job, you may not be able to have a friend audit your work, but someone within your team may be able to do so for you.
48. Write an Email Of What You Did Today
This next tip may seem weird, however, many people have tried it or still use this technique today to help them get more done at work! You can decide to actually send this email or just pretend, however, it is even better if you find a real person to email every day to share a list of the things you accomplished today. This way, if you feel embarrassed to share your list because you feel that you did not get enough done, it will help you work harder the next day to get more done and have a longer list with more things listed on it. This person can simply be a friend who won’t actually mind if you do not get a lot done, but having a real person read what you did today can boost your motivation to put in more effort in the future.
49. Remind Yourself Why You Need This Job
It can be difficult for some people to remember why they spend so many hours of their day working on something when they could be at home resting or hanging out with friends and family. We all have different reasons for working, but many of us work to keep a roof over our family’s head. Tell yourself this before work, maybe even add it to your morning routine before you start work. Your family is important to you, and you do the work you do for them, so you should feel motivation to continue with your hard work.
50. Start as Soon as Possible
Most people look at the deadlines of projects, but in many cases, there is a better way of looking at said task. Instead of looking at when you need to finish work, look at when you can start. While respecting your work and personal life schedule, get a head start on work as soon as possible. It will feel great when you have extra time at the end before the deadline. You can even use that time to improve the quality of your work. Oh, and don’t forget that bosses love hard workers that never push deadlines!
51. Reply Only to Important Emails
If you receive many emails per day, it is worth ignoring many of them. Of course, when you are going through your emails, you can quickly check to see if an email is important or not, then throw it in the trash. This is a great way of keeping your inbox organized, just like your desk and workspace! Try to answer only emails that really require a response since responding to all of your emails will not only take up time answering them, but chances are that the person on the other end of the email will feel obliged to reply back to you and this back and forth email-sending can go on for a while. Instead of continuing the conversation, be the person to stop it.
52. Use Apps/Softwares That You Are Familiar With
If you are someone who works on a computer, try to use apps that you are familiar with. For example, if you are a video editor, there are hundreds of video editing softwares out there, and you have likely tried many of them already. Getting used to a new program or app can be time-consuming as the layout of these apps are often different and they are each unique. In order to avoid spending time understanding new apps (when new apps are not needed), work with what you knew best. This will help you get the work started and finished way before you would have been able to do so with a new program.
53. Stay Off Distracting Websites
For those who don’t know, you can find many browser extensions that allow you to block certain websites from your PC so that you can stop yourself from accessing those sites during work hours. This way, you can forget about what might be happening on Twitter (for example) and stay focused on the task you need to complete. Try to only open the tabs and applications that are needed for the task that you are currently working on.
54. Be Prepared
This next tip is rather vague, but it is an important one, nevertheless. If you know what work you need to complete, have the tools needed for that task at your disposal. It is better to have an idea of what equipment you will need for the job you are handling before starting, rather than along the way. So, in other words, make a plan of what you will need and prepare yourself. Once you have everything you will need, you can get to work. Doing this can avoid wasting time running around your office/home looking for equipment or looking through files on your computer to find the document you need.
55. Use Productivity Apps
There are some great apps out there that allow you to track your progress and stay productive. Most of these apps allow you to manage your upcoming events, deadlines, meetings and keep a clear schedule which is perfect (as you know from our previous tips). So check it out on the App Store! There are some great options out there available to you.
56. Do Things Your Own Way
If you feel obliged to do things a certain way because it is the way others are doing it, forget that. Find your way of doing things. Being forced to work in a certain manner that is not most comfortable for you can cause serious setbacks in your progress. If you know a way or strategy that you are more comfortable with, use that to your advantage. Do not try to copy what others do if that is not what is easiest for you. I used to work in digital agencies and everybody uses email as a way to chat… I only checked my emails 3 times a day. Focus is gold, and email won’t ever steal that from me ever again. Work can be difficult enough, so why add an unnecessary level of difficulty?
57. Don’t Be Shy
That’s right! Being shy can in fact delay your progress. If you work with many people, it can be helpful to have strong relationships with your colleagues. By doing this, you will feel more comfortable asking for help from one of those friends. If you are stuck, sitting around will do nothing. In case you didn’t know, the answer to a problem will rarely appear in front of your eyes. So instead, take a short break and go ask for help! Asking for help is not an imperfection, don’t forget that.
There we have it! We hope you enjoyed our 55 tips to help you stay productive. Consider our tips and get more work done this year!
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