We all had kind of a weird 2020. Some of us were focused on trying to get our stuff together while dealing with a pandemic, and some of us were just trying to survive with our online classes and teachers.
We think everyone’s New Years resolution is to have a more productive 2021, right? Saying it may be easy, but putting it to practice is where we tend to fail. Being productive is not from another world, it is actually acheivable.
Productivity describes various measures of the efficiency of production. It’s getting the results you want with less time and effort. When you’re trying to understand how to be productive, what you’re really seeking is a way to achieve your goals while having time to spend on what matters.
How to be more productive?
There are different ways of being productive, but it also depends on what you do, if you are a student, if you have a 9-5 job, or if you are both. Trying to juggle everything might feel overwhelming. These are some of many options you can take to have a more productive life.
- Track your time
- Take breaks
- Less screen time
- Exercise
- Let it go
Track your time:
Ever had that feeling that 24 hours is not enought time? We’ve had it also. This happens because we can’t seem to organize our time well. So in order to be more productive it’s important to start tracking our time. How? Start by breaking down a major project into manageable individual tasks. Eventually, you will be in the habit of accurately predicting how long a task is likely to take and can then plan your week around that accordingly.
Take breaks:
We have said it a bunch of times but it will never be enough, taking breaks is essential in our everyday life. Our brain can only handle so much new information before we begin to tire and lessen our retention. By pushing our mind beyond their capability, we can only experience greater stress and fatigue. When you start tracking your time, you’ll find out that there will be some free time, if you don’t have it, try to squish it into your schedule. Free time to do whatever you want, whether is to lay down, meditate, play, walk, read, eat. This will help you wander off from your duties, projects and come back with more energy to finish everything you have due.
Less screen time:
Procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something. This can be a result of being with our friends, or just sitting there staring into space, but mostly from putting our projects aside and focusing in our phones. We can fool ourselves by saying that we just have our phones to read the news, or emails, but this will just lead us to more procrastination. Use your breaks to catch up on social media, on your emails and have some leisure time. But remember that when it’s time to start working on your projects again, you need to put that phone down, put it in a drawer to avoid temptation.
Exercise:
We get it, having to juggle between studying, sleeping, working, taking breaks it’s too much. Exercise is shown to reduce stress, combat fatigue, improve performance. Some of us are just not that type of exercising, but lets admit it, this is just as important as the rest. Having a healthy body and mindset can help our brain perform at full capacity.
Let it go:
Each of us fails to achieve our goals occasionally, and as we look back on our past performance it is easy to see things we should have done differently. Make use of this kind of insight as you set new goals, but don’t dwell on your failures. It is important thought that we look back just to see what we learned, but it’s just a glimpse, don’t stay there you will loose your focal point. Focus instead on what you’re going to do next.
We are humans, we are not born perfect, but you know what they say, consistency, practice can make perfect. Let’s start our 2021 with the right foot, the correct mindset and with the eagerness to do everything.
