Do you feel like you are wasting time, despite working throughout the day? You are not alone as it is quite a common syndrome. Productivity killers are what limits us from achieving our full potential.
"You have 24 hours in a day, and so does the President. If he can run a country, can you not finish your tasks?"
My uncle said this to me when I was a kid, and I have believed in this ever since. Most of us have certain things in mind that we want to achieve. It is not necessarily things like office or school, but the little things (errands) that we wish to finish along the day. But more often than not, we end up procrastinating them. Thinking how we accomplished most tasks planned for the day and, 'we still have tomorrow'. Sadly, that 'tomorrow' never comes.
Over time, there is a sense of unproductiveness, and it is hard to beat. But there is a trick! Our mind and body are everything that we make them believe. And so, if we identify our productivity killers, we can achieve all we plan to do in a day. Without wearing ourselves out!
Productivity killers are the defence mechanisms that we use to reason out procrastination. Heavy? "I will do this tomorrow because I woke up early and I am tired." " I shouldn't strain myself because I have a long day tomorrow." "It is ok I need to cut myself some slack." "I will do it tomorrow because I can." -- All of these are the reasons we give ourselves to justify why we should put something off for the next day.
No doubt, sometimes school, office or college might get overly exhausting. But not every day. The later is only a part of the day, not the entire day accounting for only eight hours out of the 24 hours at our disposal. Our mind and body are what we train them to be, and The Bridge Chronicle brings to you five ways in which you can teach yourself to be more productive.
Mentally map your day: Creating a map for the day is an excellent way to know how your day looks. Account for all the time you will spend in the office, meeting friends, and other planned activities. Then according to that, plan what errands fall on your way. This way, it's easier to get work done while you are still out.
Form habits: Habits work for most things that you want to achieve. Be it a start-up that you wish to kickoff or a project that you are willing to take up along with work. Teach your body and brain to be productive at specific hours apart from work. Be it an hour before bed or a late evening slot. Dedicate this hour to working on your project and do it consistently until it becomes a habit.
Create a timeframe: You cannot finish everything in one day. That the beauty of life. It is uncertain. And so it is essential to give yourself a timeframe. Make a list of all the things you need to get done and give each task a deadline. Try to complete each of it within the time frame and reward yourself on completion.
The concept of rewarding oneself changes as we grow up. But one should never undermine the effect of small rewards. Give yourself challenges for a week and rewards for completion. It could be anything from a cheat meal to a night off. Works like a charm and helps in bringing self-discipline.
It's ok to say no: Most of us (including me) have a hard time turning people down. But it is the one thing that can help us get a lot of things done. It is not just about saying no to people, but to ourselves too. Our mind and body have their ways of procrastination - because it is easy. Completing tasks is hard but helps increasing productivity. So we must learn to say no to our selves and others to get work done.
Finally, remember
Office or college is not a task: Understand that working or attending college is not a task. It might take up a chunk of the day. But unless you learn this fact, you will have no energy left at the end of the day. If you treat work or college as a task, you teach your brain to shut function after that. To get more productivity out of a day, you need to believe differently.
As we grow up, responsibilities and workloads increase. If we do not teach our mind and body to function specifically, work turns into stress; causing our brain to decrease in size.
