Your Ultimate Productivity FAQ Guide With Top Book Picks
Productivity is defined as ‘The amount of work an individual or group accomplishes within a certain amount of time’.
Why Productivity needs to be included in your life, you ask? Following are my opinions:
- Life feels fulfilled, and being productive gives some meaning to time spent on a daily basis in achieving goals.
- I have learnt time management better.
- I know what to prioritise.
- I have found new ways to push myself and hence expand boundaries.
- I feel in control of life as opposed to watching days pass by without doing anything
With one query under the belt, let us look at a few FAQs regarding Productivity and their solutions (with book recommendations).
How can I improve my productivity?
The most praised method to improve productivity is from the book ‘Getting things done‘ by David Allen. GTD is simple and easily applicable. The steps to GTD methodology are given below:
- Capture Everything: Use a trusted system (such as a notebook or digital tool) to capture all tasks, ideas, and commitments.
- Clarify Next Actions: Break down tasks into actionable steps and define what needs to be done next for each project or goal.
- Organize Tasks: Use categories, lists, and contexts to organize tasks based on priority, location, or time constraints.
- Review Regularly: Conduct regular reviews of your tasks, projects, and goals to stay on track and make necessary adjustments.
- Take Action: Once tasks are clarified and organized, take consistent action based on priorities and available time.
You don’t actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it
Getting Things Done
Motivation or Discipline, which fuels productivity better?
My take is, it is always better to rely on discipline than on motivation. Because Motivation can not be found every day and hence consistency is not guaranteed. It is most important to show up on days when you do not want to. ‘Atomic Habits‘ by James Clear addresses the issue with motivation as follows.
- Environment: Design your surroundings in a way that you are drawn to be productive. To start with, remove distractions from your workspace. Further, you can reduce all or any resistance in your way to start the task. For example, keep your needed tabs open for the study session tomorrow / pick out your gym wear before night.
- Habit stacking: Develop a new habit by placing it after an already well-established habit in your routine. Want to start eating healthy? Resolve to eat Fruit/Veggies with breakfast every day. Habit stacking gets extra points because the possibility of forgetting the new habit as it is stacked with an old habit is the least. One excuse out of the way.
- Implementation Intention: Having a clear plan regarding your actions increases the chances of completion of the task greatly. James Clear in his book advises to be specific about the Location, Time and Action of the task. This is the template for Implementation Intention given by the Book. “I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].” Better when it’s written down. So pick up your pen.
The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.
Atomic Habits
What are the benefits of incorporating breaks into my workday?
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang Author of ‘Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less‘ brings us a new point of view stating taking frequent breaks does not decrease productivity instead breaks are needed to rest and recover. Sounds ineffective, right? It did to me too. But the following 4 points from his book made me realise the importance of taking breaks. Also, My word of advice is do not overdo or underdo the number of breaks figure out how many you need depending on how you feel on a particular day and the amount of work to be done.
- Productivity Enhancement: Pang writes taking frequent breaks is very necessary, in the long run, as we need to replenish energy.
- Creativity Boost: The book probes how being outside of the work zone and doing unrelated activities helps increase problem-solving and creativity.
- Restorative Benefits: To reduce stress and burnout Author encourages you to try different types of rest like Physical rest, Mental rest and Deep play. Learn more about Deep play.
- Strategic Breaks: Try different techniques like Pomodoro or Time blocking to find your optimum frequency of breaks to improve productivity. Also, the Author recommends taking longer breaks during lunch or leisure activities.
Work and rest are not polar opposites; they complement each other. Properly managed, rest fuels and strengthens work, just as work fuels and strengthens rest
Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less
What are some strategies for overcoming procrastination?
The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play by Neil Fiore a psychologist and expert in the field of productivity and overcoming procrastination. The book gives these 6 effortless approaches to overcoming procrastination.
- Unschedule Technique: Rather than loading your calendar with tasks Fiore recommends putting down leisure activities of your choice first then filling the big time chunks in between with tasks. The author says this helps in reducing work pressure.
- The Five-Minute Rule: Is Initial friction to start a task the biggest challenge you face? It is to me. The author guides deciding to work on the task only for Five minutes to eliminate this resistance. After which continuing with the task becomes effortless.
- Chunking Tasks: If the task to be done overwhelms you (Often this is the reason for Procrastination). Eliminate this fear by breaking down the tasks into manageable and less intimidating chunks and completing them one by one.
- Preventative Techniques: Like an overwhelming task there may be some other underlying reason for procrastination. Figuring out the reason is the first step taken towards finding a solution. Also, try Positive self-talk and having realistic goals.
- Reward System: Motivate yourself out of the slump of procrastination by setting a reward for yourself at the end of the task or in between chunks of the task.
- Positive Self-Talk: Being kind to yourself is vital. Do not beat yourself up for having an unproductive day. Acknowledge how far you have come and re-adjust your focus on getting back on track. I have noticed that not criticising myself works better than feeling bad about me all day. Enables me to get out of the negative mindset.
Procrastination is not a character flaw, but a self-defeating habit that can be changed by employing simple strategies to shift the focus from avoiding pain to gaining pleasure.
The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play
If you found the solution to your Productivity hindrance in this blog or have any query regarding your productivity that you want me to find a solution to, write it down to me in the comments section. Feel free to mention your views about the blog. I am always eager to hear from my Readers.
Until next time.:)
Comments
This post is so dense!
The first part talks about planning.
The other parts talk about execution, the importance of breaks and steps to get away from procrastination.
The first part is a valuable skill and is usually expected of the leadership team.
Getting to know about a lot of new books and ideas every blog. Deep play was quite interesting to look at. Reward based action seems to be the key for effortless productivity.