Today’s Solutions: October 17, 2024

Struggling with productivity? If you’re finding yourself procrastinating, a classic to-to list may not cut it for getting back on track to achieving your goals. Try one of these 6 techniques to more effectively boost your productivity.

  1. Personal mission statement. These aren’t just for companies. Reflect on your own aspirations to make a weekly mission statement for yourself to personally inspire action.
  2. An energy and attention audit. Rather than one big to-to list, categorize tasks as low or high attention and complete them based on your energy level throughout the day. For example, a low attention task could be clearing out emails and high attention could be writing a press release. 
  3. Have an accountability buddy or app. Communicating our goals to others makes us more likely to achieve them. If you don’t have a buddy in mind, you can try the app Focusmate which connects you with other workers around the world for heightened productivity.
  4. Make daily questions. Create a set of key questions to ask yourself at the end of the day to assess productivity. You can split them up into personal and professional for an overall personal check-in.
  5. Power hour. If deadlines work for you, sit down and actually set a timer for one hour and commit to focusing on one big task the whole time. No phone, no distractions. You will be impressed with what you can achieve. 
  6. Define your goals clearly. We are more likely to achieve a set of smaller goals than one big one. Consider breaking projects down into yearly, monthly, weekly, and even daily goals to get them done bit by bit. Smaller projects also make big achievements seem more manageable and give your days more structure. 

Burnout is all too common and can cause a productivity slump. You may find, especially if you’re working from home, that distraction is around every corner. Try or more of these techniques to bring more structure and focus to your daily schedule.

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