Many individuals can consider themselves experts in procrastinating. It’s so easy to get distracted nowadays. What can you do to stay productive with social media, random chit-chats, overflowing inboxes and messy lists?
It’s not nuclear physics – and you’ve likely considered things to organise your productivity at some point in your life.
One thing’s for sure, they require you to be more systematic about managing your time. The great news is that productivity follows good lifestyle habits and the premise of healthy longevity.
What is productivity?
In other words, productivity refers to the work produced by a company or an individual to produce specific results or benefits.
Sounds complex? Let’s say you own a business manufacturing a specific product. You managed to have a certain quantity one month and double the next, so the succeeding month is “productive” because you made double the quantity within the bounds of the same timeframe [1].
Productivity is one of many things that may come to your mind as a busy person with a heavy workload, juggling several responsibilities simultaneously.
It’s about something other than getting more things done but the important ones. It’s about working smarter, not harder, which brings efficiency.
Efficiency versus productivity
So is productive the same as efficient? No. Productivity and efficiency, although similar, are different.
Productivity refers to the quantity of the ideas, products or services or ideas you come up with within a certain period and the efficiency of the quality.
Going back to the manufacturing business example, if a quantity out of the total you produced in the second month doesn’t work, your second month may be more productive but less efficient. Efficiency is seen in the first month with better quality, even if less quantity is produced.
What’s more important, then? The key lies in a good blend of the two. Subject to the situation, you might want to concentrate more on one or the other, but consistently pushing one approach and disregarding the other may damage your business and motivation.
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In terms of motivation, here are a few tips you can try to raise your productivity:
Listen to your body
Upon waking up, it’s something to feel grateful for (even on some days you don’t feel like it). You’re off to a great start.
As soon as you wake up, it would be beneficial to do a few things immediately:
Feel grateful: Too stressed and thinking it’s just another day in your life? It’s not – it is the one day given to you today.
It’s a gift. The only gift you have right now – gratitude is the only appropriate response. If you do nothing else but cultivate that response to the great advantage that this day is special and if you learn to take it as if it’s the first day and the very last day of your life, then you will have spent it very well.
Drink water: Have a big glass of water on your bedside before sleep. Immediately upon waking, drink all of it.
Soon you’ll get used to this and want/need more water. This is one important practice that you’ll thank yourself for later. There are many books about it, and it’s been well-studied, and your health will benefit from it immensely.
Breathe: Often overlooked but conscious breathing can be beneficial when starting your day and it can be as simple as follows:
- Sit on the edge of your bed.
- Take a deep, slow breath in for 5 seconds.
- Hold for a bit.
- Slowly breathe out for 10 seconds.
- Repeat 10 times.
Proper breathing is as, if not more important, than drinking water. Breathing is what enables the lymph in your body to circulate. Your lymphatic system moves waste, toxins and debris out and allows the nutrients in.
Establish a morning ritual: Your new routine can be as simple as the steps above. Drink water, breathe and stretch (don’t forget to shower and eat something as well). As time goes on, you’ll add more elements to it. Everyone needs a morning ritual.
The 15 minutes of morning “primetime” is what helps some people stay sane. How important is it to actually stop and proactively give yourself this time? If you don’t already do this, you’ll see a complete shift in your day in an instant.
During your morning ritual, you’ll want to practise and implement some habits that put you into a “fighter” (ready) state. The goal here is to begin your day on the right track.
Believe it or not, your effectiveness during the day all starts in the morning. It doesn’t mean you have to be outlandish and get ready at four in the morning.
You need to pick some excellent rituals and do them every day. Do them at home, when you travel and anywhere you might wake up. Make them easy, as this is not meant to be complicated.
Clear out distractions
According to research, the normal person working in an office in the UK is productive for only 3 hours every day [2]. Another study by Harvard reveals that an average knowledge worker spends 47 per cent of their time in a state of (semi)distraction [3].
Yes, that sounds like a lot and here’s what you can do about it. First, we will acknowledge that your phone is a huge source of distractions. You won’t do much if your phone constantly interrupts you with social media notifications and private messages – important calls excluded, of course.
You can put it on silent or limit notifications, at least for the period in your day when you’re working on your priorities. Background noise can make a massive mess in your head when you’re engaged in a task that needs your full attention. So aside from putting your phone on silent, you can play some nice music to keep your mind focused on whatever you’re doing.
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Try “one thing at a time”
Even though multitasking seems like a superpower, it still takes a lot of effort to accomplish numerous things in a short period of time. This can be a wise idea if you want to be more efficient and/or productive but taking things one step at a time will help you do them correctly.
Also, here’s a bonus tip – if you want to raise your day’s motivation, start with the task you see as the most challenging on your list. After you resolve that particular one, everything else will seem easier.
Shift your mindset: Feeling frustrated and overwhelmed can affect your productivity. When it feels like you can’t even take a minute for a breather at work, that’s exactly when you need to pause and think about what’s happening.
Any part of wanting to try and do things differently starts with understanding how we currently are and how we’re showing up – being mindful of what you’re doing and why you can get a clearer image of what is needed and what can be removed or delegated.
You can also perceive that what you choose to handle is often a subject of choice rather than feeling like you have no control. Simply accepting that you’re not helplessly waiting for someone else’s decision and that you have options on how you proceed can help you refocus, prioritise and get more done.
Communicate clearly: If you’ve ever used the phrase, “I thought you said or meant…,” you probably know how it is to waste your time and effort due to miscommunication. Make sure you grasp the aim of the task, its intent and any expectations about execution.
In other words, the statement “read the manual” applies in a situation like this. Investing some time upfront in understanding the project and its tasks, making queries and getting the necessary information can help you better understand how to use your time.
Reflect on the last time you went through an instruction manual for a gadget you bought. Could you take a few minutes to understand the device and how it works? Or did you dive in but become annoyed when something didn’t work out right? Understanding the “instruction manual” and getting apt training can produce many hours of return on investment.
Create a pleasant workplace
Having the right working environment is one thing many individuals don’t think about, but it has a considerable effect on how we do things – and you know what the best thing about it is?
There will always be some minor things we can do to improve it. For instance, is your chair comfortable? Do you have enough light in your area? Do you have a glass you can use when you need refreshments during your break time? Are your clothes too tight? Are you cold or hot? And the list goes on.
These may seem insignificant, but all of these can impact your concentration and make you lose focus. Our mind gets preoccupied very quickly.
Hence do yourself a favour and create a working environment conducive to your needs. You’ll thank yourself later.
Improve your processes: Big organisations feel like there are better models for saving time, but one factor their people often do well is systematising. Some people excel at analysing things that are urgently needed for the company to function and implementing time, cost and energy-efficient solutions.
Process improvement has become a whole industry and specialisation as more and more professionals attempt to make tasks easily replicable with less time and effort while not sacrificing quality.
Reflect on the tasks you do regularly and how you can construct a more efficient way of getting them done. Are you wasting time scheduling appointments every day? One suggestion is to look into automating that function using a scheduling app.
Are you handling a project with various contributors and version control concerns? Look at how you can make a system of getting feedback and ensuring all the stakeholders have access to current information with a cloud-based participation system colour-codes and date-stamps input for easy tracking.
Take those breaks
For some people, productivity may mean being able to sit straight for the whole shift without taking a break, but we all know your body and your brain won’t have it.
We’ve all had those “creative blocks”, and what could be the worst thing to do to yourself than to ignore what you’re feeling and continue “working” until you get completely frustrated and unmotivated?
Here’s one trick that might work: when experiencing a block, stop whatever you’re doing. Take a short break of around 10 minutes.
Have something to eat or drink, call your friend for a quick chat, play with a pet, go for a short walk – basically do anything that’s not connected with what you’re doing for work. Taking short breaks in your work day will energise your body and mind, and in such a state, inspiration will come to you in no time.
Leave some gaps: One handy thing to remember is not to overload yourself and others with “to-dos”. Often, you get lost on the way to the meeting or may run long, so it’s best to keep things simple and on point.
Sometimes you need to stop, breathe and have time to think. Highly productive people leave room for these kinds of things.
When your schedule is too tight, you can end up disrupting your productivity because if one thing goes off plan, your schedule could be interrupted for the rest of the day. Give yourself some time and you can indeed find a way to spend wisely.
Use your downtime wisely: Those 10 minutes until your next meeting or the few hours your flight is delayed can be good news for your productivity. When you have a list of tasks that need to be accomplished, you can quickly scan it and choose which ones you can do in the time you have. Answering a few emails or returning a phone call in the few minutes before your next meeting or starting the research for your upcoming agenda while you wait for your plane sounds very productive, doesn’t it?
Choose to let go of what’s not working
Reflect on how high performers are the “quitters never win” types. It may sound like a great idea but it’s not. Winners quit all the time – they’re just more thoughtful about how and when they do it.
Strategic quitting means saying no to things that you shouldn’t (or don’t want to) be doing because they are not worth your time and energy. Delegating those tasks that can be accomplished more cost-effectively or efficiently by someone else is a better option [4].
High-performance organisations hold workshops on quitting. Here, you’ll observe a ton of energy being released, and that energy is subsequently focused on new things that really matter [5].
Use the power of planning and routine: Take some time to plan each day (which includes priorities) to make sure that you don’t get side-tracked by less important matters. You can set yourself up for success by planning tomorrow.
Every night before heading to bed, David Novak, founder and CEO of David Novak Leadership and former CEO of Yum! Brands, Inc., which operates brands like KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, visualises his next day and the outcomes he wants.
Whether it’s a tough meeting or a one-on-one interaction, he mentally walks through his day and pictures each interaction going his way. Time for planning your day.
Another tip is to keep your days highly regimented. Waking up at the same time and following simple morning routines are effective. Even laying out your clothes the night before contributes to this.
It may sound boring but think about how much time is wasted wondering what to wear or have for breakfast. Reclaim those valuable resources by making them a routine. When you make the more mundane aspects of life routine, you have more brain power and time for other things.
Practice self-care
Let go of perfectionism: At the heart of procrastination, you’ll usually find one of its root causes: perfectionism. Let that go. It’s not attainable and will just lead to dread when it’s time to start big or challenging projects.
Your work desk doesn’t need to look super organized and perfect all the time if you don’t want it to – and your proposal certainly doesn’t need 10 drafts.
What you do outside the office has an impact on your ability to focus. If you’re tired and feeling bad because you’re not getting enough sleep, good nutrition, or exercise, that’s going to echo in your efficiency and productivity.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) call insufficient sleep a public health problem that costs the US up to $411 billion per year in lost productivity [6]. Think about what creates energy in you, versus what drains energy, and come up with strategies that keep you at your peak all day long. Assessing your skills can provide you with an idea of what energises you and help you focus more where it counts.
To the same effect, factors like weight, physical activity and dietary choices all make up for how well you function and your concentration levels. Eating concentration-boosting foods, taking helpful supplements, looking after your well-being and staying active can improve focus.
Make sure to consult your health provider first before taking anything, especially if you have medications for other concerns. There are vitamins and minerals that are known to clear your mind, boost your energy and improve your concentration.
MitoQ and how it can help
Introducing MitoQ, which was established in 1990 at the University of Otago in New Zealand when biochemist Robin Smith and Mitochondrial specialist Professor Mike Murphy analysed mitochondria and tried to deduce why antioxidant supplements, like CoQ10, were less productive than expected at supporting health. They learned that regular antioxidants could not penetrate the mitochondria very effectively even after successfully entering the bloodstream.
As determined and focused as we can be on ensuring our diets are rich with what we need, supplementing can significantly support to defeat brain fog.
The product was developed as the world’s first mitochondria-targeted antioxidant to empower individuals’ health and purpose. MitoQ is uniquely developed to address cell stress, letting you unlock more energy, mental clarity and provide faster recovery and healthier aging, authorising you to embrace life on your terms.
Is there any scientific evidence for MitoQ?
MitoQ has been tested in more than 700 independent, reviewed papers to administer benefits to organ health, oxidative stress and more. It has substantiated inspiring preclinical impacts in different studies in isolated mitochondria, tissues and cells experiencing apoptotic death and oxidative stress. Over 700 peer-reviewed studies, including pre-clinical and clinical trials covering many health areas have been published.
MitoQ has been included in 15 clinical trials. One of them showed that MitoQ enhanced arterial dilation in healthy adults by 42 per cent, indicating that it holds promise for supporting age-related vascular health.
As of late, MitoQ is being studied in further 40 clinical trials as a portion of an extended research programme.
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Can it enhance longevity?
Mitochondria are what we call metabolically active organelles that construct ROS or reactive oxygen species. It has been believed that ROS-mediated damage to DNA stacks up over time and causes associated aging phenotypes.
One way to extend longevity and postpone aging is to decrease ROS-induced damage or improve DNA repair [14]. A systematic study to gauge the output of MitoQ on oxidative outcomes linked to the aging process provided a statistically considerable decline in nitrotyrosine concentration, which is a product of tyrosine nitration mediated by ROS and raised membrane possibility. It signifies that MitoQ may be of some advantage in relieving oxidative stress connected to aging [15].
Upgrading your mental focus, efficiency and productivity is doable, but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. It will take commitment and consistency and making changes in your daily habits and practices.
[1] https://www.paldesk.com/ultimate-guide-to-productivity/
[2] https://www.vouchercloud.com/resources/office-worker-productivity
[3] https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/11/wandering-mind-not-a-happy-mind/
[4] https://www.fastcompany.com/90744453/3-things-to-say-no-to-if-you-want-to-succeed
[5] https://www.fastcompany.com/90761411/the-ultimate-guide-to-purposeful-productivity-your-mental-health-will-thank-you
[6] https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1791.html
