Use These 11 Psychological Tips to Boost Productivity
Checking things off makes us feel good, and our desire to always achieve results grows. As a result, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be productive. But when we get behind on things, anxiety, burnout, and stress can occur.
Productivity is more than just finishing a to-do list. It’s a mindset that the more mentally poised we are for productivity, the more we achieve and the less stress we feel. To help you get started, we pulled together a list of eight tips that help transform your mindset and help boost your productivity in work and life.
Many think that psychology is only for treating mental health issues, but it also has a lot to say about how we handle the little details of our everyday lives. Here are eight productivity tips you can use to change your perspective and get more done.
Use These 11 Psychological Tips to Boost Productivity
1. Identify that most of what you do doesn’t matter
If you take a look at what you have done in the last 48 hours of work, you’ll likely see that about 30 of those hours were spent on things that were either unplanned, unnecessary, or even downright unproductive. And it’s not just the last 40 hours of your work life, it’s a week-in-week-out problem.
The Psychology of ProductivityIf you don’t believe that that is the case with you personally, take the time to do a 15-minute interval diary for the next 40 hours of work. Write down what you work on every 15 minutes. Tally up all the periods at the end of the 40 hours. You will likely be amazed at the unproductive tasks in which you are engaging, even if you believe you are 80%+ productive right now.
You will likely see that becoming more productive might not be so much a matter of adding something to your day but instead first eliminating everything that doesn’t belong in your day. Once that happens, and you have pared a 40-hour week down to 10 hours, then it makes it easy to add a little more in.
2. Do what you know is a priority & Important
We tend to spend much of our mental energy putting things off. But if instead, you were to prioritize things that need to be done, and do them as quickly as possible, you may be amazed at what happens to your productivity. You see, when you are using negative energy on worrying about doing something you don’t want to do, that energy can’t be used on being creative or productive.
7 Things You Can Control in Life For Mental Focus & ProductivityThese “need to do” things should be done AFTER your MIT your most important task of the day. You see, your most important task, when done first, tends to get done each day. The first thing you do tends to get done!
Productivity Model You Should Know So your production schedule for the day is this:
1) Most important task (MIT)
2) Most needed-to-be-done task
3) Everything else, bounded by a limited time frame (for example, 2 hours per day on these “everything else” tasks)
3. Delay your rewards
Reward yourself for doing something great, and give it immediately after something great occurs. This programs your brain to believe that you will reward it for tasks well done, on time, and priority. When you do this consistently, you’ll likely find that you are more motivated to do your MIT each day and to do the most needed tasks. You may even find it’s easier to just not do the less important tasks – and they may just evaporate!
How to Improve Productivity Using Momentum| Time Management4. Make sure that you have a clear conscience
If your mind is dragging with negative thoughts, worry about what you need to do, or even shame or guilt over things you are doing wrong, you simply can’t be as productive. So get rid of those negative thoughts, fix the things that lead to a negative conscience, and get your mind clear!
4 Daily Scheduling Methods to Bring More Focus to Your Day5. Compliment yourself with what you accomplish
Your mind will subconsciously work harder when it believes that it will be appreciated. But the only way to train your mind to believe it will be appreciated is to appreciate it. Do this once a day for 30 days and you may be amazed at how much clearer your thinking is, and if your thinking is clearer, your productivity should increase!
6. Focus on what you can do
This is a huge key to productivity. Simply focus on what you are good at, and do the things you are good at. Prioritize them. You may find that the things you aren’t good at simply resolve themselves, or you may find that when you have done everything that you are good at, there is only a small part of the project left, and the motivation of being “nearly finished” will drive you to finish faster.
WHY IS PRODUCTIVITY IMPORTANT?When you focus instead on what you are not good at, it may be a small part of the project, but the act of focusing on it makes you feel like it’s a huge part of the task and demotivates you to get the task done.
When you get the bulk of the task done before concentrating on your weaknesses, it simply becomes easier and faster to complete it.
7. Concentrate on how to help those who will use your product or service
When you focus on how you can help others through what you are doing, it gives your mind a much-needed reason for finishing quickly. Our minds don’t like to work on things that have no purpose, and if what you are doing is helping someone else, then it gives your project purpose, which leads your mind to get the job done.
8. Aim for balance
This goes back to the idea of doing too many of the wrong things, and this limits your productivity. When you, instead, strive for balance in your day, doing more of the right things, and getting rid of the 30 hours a week of non-productive work, you become more productive with less effort.
9. Stay connected with people
Sometimes when you work alone, your productivity goes down, your creativity goes down, and your effectiveness goes down. As humans, we are social, and if we take that away, you may find you can’t focus as well. So you may need to increase your social time during work, and find that the rest of your time is more productive.
The flip side of this is that if you are spending too much time with other people, your productivity may go down. So use good judgment. Look around and see what needs to change.
10. Transform your environment
When you change your environment, you release your mind to be more creative, which often leads to increased productivity.
Here’s why: when you change your environment, you release your brain to be more curious (looking around at things that are not the same as before) and when you release your mind to be creative about your surroundings, you release your mind to be more creative about what you are working on.
And when you are more creative about what you are working on, you tend to get better results with less work – hence increased productivity!
11. Keep track of your time
When you keep track of your time, you become intimately aware of the time you are losing through doing unnecessary things. One of the most effective ways to get more productive is to simply track your time. Know what you are doing each 15 minutes, and over time, that awareness will yield additional results.
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