Productivity Pump

I don’t know about you but lately I’ve been finding myself a little “overwhelmed” by all the things I’m trying to juggle. You see it’s been a busy time for me – with my online business I have a couple of products that are deep in development while at the same time I’m preparing to launch my new offline venture which also brings it’s own unique trials and tribulations.

I’ve been coasting along for a couple of weeks now (at least!..) and I think it’s about time I got my head re-focused and back in the Game. I know from the amount of hours I’ve been spending at my desk that I’m putting the hours in but how Productive and how valuable are those hours?

I thought I’d take the opportunity this week to motivate myself with some awesome time management and productivity tips and tricks that will hopefully help me avoid wasting time on “non-productive” tasks and only focus in on those that really make a difference.

Just Start
In my search for ways to increase productivity I found a guest post over at Lifehack.org written by Kim Roach from BuzzBlogger. In it she outlines 50 ways to increase productivity and as I read down through the list I am drawn to No. 8 – Just Start.

I know I am guilty of procrastinating and often put things off until the last minute. Often these tasks aren’t half as hard as I have imagined them to be so I need to take charge, make a plan and then execute it. Often starting is the hardest part of this process but once done you get on a roll and could be surprised by how much you accomplish.

Plan Each Week in Advance
We know how important it is to have a long term vision for your goals but what about the short term? How about each week or even daily goals you have to achieve?

Well Susan Regier’s article at Evan Carmichael’s Blog emphasizes the importance of weekly and daily planning. At the beginning of each week sit down and prioritize your tasks and organize each day for the week ahead. I rely on this technique a lot to keep myself focused. It’s easy to have a 3 month goal to aim for but it’s the little things that we do on a daily basis that ensure that we achieve these targets.

Prime Time
This is an interesting concept that Brian Tracy talks about on his blog whereby you allocate your time so that you are able to work during your Prime Time – the time of the day when you are at your most productive. This is different for every individual and it’s important to figure out when you are at your most productive and then target that time to work on your most productive tasks.

I know for me this is the morning, I love getting up early and getting stuck into work, but not so much in the evening. I do try and fit in an hour or two some days when I’m trying to meet a deadline but I always feel like I’m fighting a loosing battle and know that I’m not as productive as I was earlier in the day.

Don’t Multi-Task
I know this might sound a little strange given how much importance multi-tasking is given in the workplace but it could really be killing your productivity. Instead of trying to juggle a handful of things at once just take a step back and prioritize your tasks. Choose the most important and work on it until it’s completed – then move onto the next.

Niro from UndergroundSuccess  argues that multi-tasking allows you to avoid doing the high-value tasks by just jumping from one little job to the other. You can avoid thinking and prioritizing the importance of your work based on each task and it’s merits. Simply by banning multi-tasking for a week will force you to make these strategic choices and your productivity will rocket as a result.

Take Timeout to Look after Yourself
Ken from TheNetworkDad talks about this in detail and I think it’s worthwhile to highlight it here. No matter how much work you have on or how much pressure you are under you must always put yourself first.

At the end of the day “your health is your wealth” so don’t let the stresses of work life get on top of you. A few simple steps will allow you to work better and feel great :

• drink plenty of water – it’s important to keep yourself hydrated and unfortunately a lot of us neglect this when we’re working.

• get enough of sleep – sleep is very important for many different functions in the body so don’t think you can get by on 4 hours a night, not for long anyway! Aim for 7 – 8 hours and allow yourself the rest that you need to recover and prepare for the day ahead.

• take some exercise – after about 6 months of getting my first desk job out of college I joined a gym. Why? Simply because I felt like crap! Sitting down for 12 hours a day is not good for you so make the time and take some exercise. You don’t need to spend hours in the gym but it is important to look after your health, plus exercise is a great stress reliever and way to clear your mind from all the travails of work life.

So that’s it guys just a few tips that will no doubt help you get a better balance in your work-life and get that Productivity Pump going! Even just by trying a couple of the tips outlined I’m confident you’ll see a dramatic increase in focus and motivation and hopefully overtime you’ll really up the ante and start seeing the results for all your hard work.

Have you any other Time Management or Productivity tips up your sleeve? Care to share?….Leave a comment below and let’s add them to the list 🙂

P.S. I’ve been busy putting together the Zero Sum List Building report which I mentioned a few weeks ago…here’s a sneak peak of what you can expect when it’s finished (Click HERE to view)