Increasing Personal Productivity

Personal productivity could be an elusive concept especially as one who is struggling through this maze called life. With every challenge life throws at us, attainment becomes even more distant.

Considering Lao Tzu’s words;

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”,

It is only practical that you aim at daily productivity. No doubt, attaining commendable progress will leave you feeling well fulfilled at the end of the day. Sadly, many fail to and so many factors are responsible.

Here, I’ve put down a couple of tips that will aid daily productivity.

1. Define your success

We all have wide differences in everything choice related (EVERYTHING!). It applies to success as well despite the many generally accepted definitions. Channeling your energy into people-induced success actions is tantamount to taking giant strides in the opposite direction. A self-conceptualized definition of the term “success” is extremely crucial on this journey to continuous productivity. This definition should resonate with individual skills and passions. With proper consideration, you should be able to come to a suitable one.

2. Mind work

The mind is the master/core of the human body. The mind, working through your brain and body makes your world. It is an incubator for every thought, theory or idea conceived and controls every function of the body.

Therefore, you must set your mind in the right state to work for you to attain productivity.

Search for affirmations that will fuel your willpower. It will be helpful to start your day listening to motivational podcasts, serene music or even a success story.

Know this; your mental attitude is the bait that attracts everything we may need to bring our desires to reality. Once the mind is set, everything else follows.

3. Planning

Research has shown that to reach a desired level of productivity, the days should be planned before-hand.

Set goals and make catalytic plans and changes to suit them.

Summarize these plans into bite-sized steps to be incorporated into your daily activity list.

Hours of the day should be allocated to activities that will be instrumental in reaching set goals and also give room for breaks to prevent mental and physical break downs. Ensure that the more difficult tasks of the day are tackled first as we are most active in the early hours.

Time management apps such as Trello, Notion and the likes could come in very handy here.

Ultimately, actions validate plans. Without implementing, plans are just plans. Take further steps to do the things on your list. In doing, productivity builds up faster. So, the more things you get done rightly, the more productive you are.

4. Eliminate obstacles

A student studying in a quiet and conducive environment library is likely to retain a larger percentage of information more quickly than one studying in an extremely noisy and uncomfortable environment. This applies to everything and everyone else as well. With this in mind, to improve the outcome of every activity, set up an encouraging physical environment that that will spur progress.

Rather than struggle to contend with hindrances, do away with them wholly. I for one uninstalled all social media apps from my smart devices for a while as I realized that I was spending more time socializing compared to working. This boosted my progress in attaining the goals I set because this way, my focus was well directed.

5. Rest

On some days, you just might not feel motivated to take actions. It will do you good to know that you are not alone in this as even the most disciplined feel this way sometimes.

Understand that it is okay to take a break and refuel. Do a general self-assessment, reflect within and bask in the satisfaction from previously attained goals. Then, spend the rest of the day on non-tasking activities that make you happy. In fewer words, HAVE FUN. It will most certainly feel like a day well spent.

However, if you find yourself in this state more often, there is a tendency that you feel terrible about it. Let feelings play and that stab of ennui might be all you need to spur you back to action. Then, PUSH.

“A productive life is not an accident” — Dr Mike Murdock.

With proper implementation of the aforementioned, your daily productivity will improve a great deal further leading to all-round personal productivity. Be intentional about it and you’ll get great results.