Improving Productivity: by Sandra M Rahman

Improving Productivity
By Sandra M Rahman
“It is not enough to be busy… The question is: what are we busy about?” – Henry David Thoreau
It’s 5 in the morning, the sky turning to lilac, faint noises of birds and vehicles reach your ears
and you find yourself breaking a sweat trying to finish the work you’ve piled up for the last two
weeks. With five cups of coffee in your system, one leg vigorously shaking, you muffle several
yawns and work harder to wind it up as fast as possible. Then you wonder “Only if I hadn’t kept
all this work pending, I could’ve slept the night.” At that time of anxiousness, nothing seems to
help; your mind has lost the ability to make sense of anything and you see the letters in front of
you jumble into what seems like a tumbleweed, then you curse yourself again. “WHY? WHY?
WHY? WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?” You realize how bad you are at managing your
timetable and at that moment a series of more unfathomable curses leave your mouth.
Why not find a cure to this misery? Why not find a way to squeeze your everyday work into the
span of twenty four hours? Why not improve our productivity?
As Tony Robbins once said: “Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most
people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a
decade!”
The First Step to take is to Just Start Now

The important thing to do is to just begin. Get started. You will then realize that whatever fear,
hesitancy and self-doubt you had, fade with the actions you take. Prioritize the task at hand and
refrain from multitasking. It saves you both time and energy giving you results way ahead of
time.
Eat the Frog

Mark Twain once said “If you were to eat a frog, eat the ugliest one first.” In other words, if you
have more than one important task before you, start with the one that is the most challenging.
Authorize yourself to start right away and you will see yourself automatically progressing. Make
a list of the tasks you’re most likely to procrastinate on and work on it.
LEARN
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. Educate yourself little by little every day.
The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you. It’s forever yours to
keep.
Expect the Unexpected

Always prepare yourself for the worst, as a life without failures is not a life fully lived. Focus
your mind on it and keep on trying, but if you see no results after the countless times of efforts
put into then move on. Do not waste your time. Try not to become discouraged. Rotello points
out that, we can all learn something valuable from our failures and eventually build on that
knowledge to find success.
Learn to say ‘NO’

Don’t take up small projects that may seem urgent but hold you back from the very important.
Even if it is asked as a favor by a friend, learn to politely deny. It’s not going to hurt them. You
cannot keep putting out fires and expect your crucial tasks to be completed within the given
time. More specifically know your capability to work, don’t waste your energy on less important
tasks. Always aim big. This is one small mistake people do, if you don’t have the energy how are
you supposed to fuel your work?
Lead a Healthy Life

Build yourself a healthy lifestyle, try going for a jog in the morning; start jogging for 10 minutes
in the beginning because as we know it is important to just begin. Exercise; even for five
minutes a day. Eat healthy. Go on a fast food fast for a week, the change will appear as you
keep on progressing. More importantly, none of this hard work you do is not going to matter
unless you are mentally and physically fit. Manage sleep, diet, exercise and your own
happiness.
Reward Yourself
The key to being productive is to take a vacation. Go away for the weekend. A trip to the beach
or just the mall, free your mind out of responsibilities for a change. You will feel a hundred
times better and refreshed. Engaging yourself in too much work every second of the day will
crowd your mind and take away your capability of free will.
Focus on Consistent Progress
Other than beating yourself up for a failed attempt; keep track of what you have accomplished.
Track your success and be positive. Keep note of the tasks you could succeed in to remind
yourself that no heavy weight is strong enough to bring you down. To remind yourself that you
can overcome anything. Don’t dwell on your failures.
Leverage your Networking Relationships

Choose the time you have, to spend wisely. Limit the amount of hours you spent scrolling
through social networking sites. Refrain yourself to give in to the temptation of ‘satisfying
videos’ to teach yourself new things. For example, read a book or download the app that
teaches you a new language. You could have all the time in the world and not enough at the
same time
Practice ‘Selective Perfection’

The technique is how to identify precisely how much time each level of work is going to
take. It will also draw out the subconscious plan of what you were thinking of doing to
accomplish this task. At this moment of time in comparison to everything else that is on
your plate you will be able to come up with a particular solution. This will provide a
round up time on how much time and effort.
Notice your Energy Levels

As a human being you definitely need rest and since we are not machines we have to
give our body some time to recover itself to its true form. At some points of day we feel
extremely energetic and the alternate times all we want to do is lay down and watch
some videos on YouTube or indulge in television shows. And honestly, what good will it
do to have tips on productivity but not enough energy to act on it? So the importance of
matching a task to your energy is heavily crucial. The key is to work smarter, not harder.
Get Enough Sleep

This is probably the most important step to take. Studies have shown that lack of sleep
reduces efficiency and interferes with your focusing ability. No matter how many cups of
coffee you drink or how many bottles of energy drink you gulp down, at the end of the
day sleep cannot be exchanged with anything else at all. There are so many ways sleep
to reenergize your body by sleeping for two or so hours. For example, The Polyphasic
Sleep Schedule, The Pomodoro Technique, etc etc…
Here are many different other ways to Improve Productivity :

1. Start a ‘to do list’
2. Always keep a journal and a pen with you
3. Make a ‘not to do list’
4. Play some music to boost your mood
5. Accept setbacks with open arms
6. Know when to move on
7. STOP multitasking
8. Learn how to read at ‘one glance’
9. Reward yourself upon accomplishing a task
10. Embrace technology

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Improving Productivity

The First Step to take is to Just Start Now

Eat the Frog

Expect the Unexpected

Learn to say ‘NO’

Lead a Healthy Life

Leverage your Networking Relationships

Practice ‘Selective Perfection’

Notice your Energy Levels

Get Enough Sleep

Here are many different other ways to Improve Productivity :

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