The One Productivity Tip That Can Change Your Day

It often seems there aren’t enough hours in the day, and sometimes it can be a challenge staying focused and get everything done, but here is the one tip that can bolster your productivity and change your day.

“Focus on being productive rather than busy.”

Tim Ferris

There are a lot of tips, tricks and hacks on how to increase productivity. Some even believing that a well thought out plan, or at least an intentional one is the trick. While all the tips are beneficial, there is one that takes the cake and is the best productivity tip you use.

Are you ready for it? The one productivity tip you need is actually pretty straightforward. It’s simply this: Do the most important thing first each day.

Better said, do creative work first and reactive work second.

The most important work, not the most urgent, but the most important should be the first thing you fill your day with. Take for instances many great best-selling authors ‘key to success’ is that they write first thing in the morning. They wake up and write before they check their phone, before they check in at work, before they do anything else. Well maybe they drink some Matcha Latte first, but that is beside the point.

The point is we have a limited amount of brain power each day to get things done. We can exhaust our brain, create fatigue and diminish creativity. So maybe the best definition of productivity is less about getting the maximum amount of ‘things’ accomplished and instead is getting the few importantly things done really well.

why is this works

Imagine your brain is a computer. At the beginning of the day, your brain powers up and you have 100% of your computer memory available to use on your life. The problem is that every time you add a task to your to-do list, a little bit of your memory goes toward the task.

Add checking e-mail, social media, scheduling appointments, attending meetings and everything else that can start piling on your day and you can see how you can significantly diminish your brain power. This leaves little motivation, drive and willpower to work on the things that are important.

create your own agenda

People spend so much of their time responding to someone else’s agenda. We open our inbox, check social media and look for someone to tell us how to direct our day before the day even begins. The idea of increasing procrastination does not just mean having a better plan for your day but stating your day with the most important. It means of managing your energy rather than your time.

To put your best and first focus on the creative, the meaningful work. Work that aligns with your values. After that allow your time to be spent on the reactive, secondary work.

Remember, divided attention is like a drag in your productivity. First thing in the morning is not only when willpower is the highest, it is also when energy and creativity are at the max. Can we also mention, there is much less risk of unexpected tasks coming up in the morning.

three tips take control of productivity

Here are four tips to work creatively rather than reactively and be the most productive you can be!

1. Never check e-mail before noon.

Don’t get us wrong, e-mail is important, but it is rarely the most important. Whenever we check e-mail we have become subject to someone else’s agenda rather than our own. Try skipping your desire to check e-mail until later in the day, even making it one of your last tasks. Then, when you do check it, don’t just skim it but commit to taking care of what is in your inbox.

2. Turn off all notifications.

Do you ever feel like your phone is constantly buzzing and beeping? Psychologist believe those phone buzz’s and beeps are training us like Pavlov’s dog. As soon as we hear something our attention is automatically driven from whatever we are doing to our phone. We live amongst context switching making it difficult to focus on any task. To prevent this reaction, turn off all notifications on your phone on your laptop, anywhere and everywhere. You may realize just how much space this creates.

3. Work in full screen mode.

We may be ones to have a few too many tabs pulled up on the internet along with the three projects we are working on at any given time, but here’s the deal, humans by nature are distracted beings. We see shiny objects and run to them. Instead of constantly fighting the urge to refrain from distractions eliminate them. Shut down tabs, close other projects, turn off your notifications, put your phone in the other room and opt for full screen mode {yes it really is a function on your computer}. Make it impossible {or as impossible as life has it} to become distracted.

plan of action

What is your most important work? What do you wish you had more time to do? What is it that you value? Write it down {e-mail us because we’d love to know} and then schedule it first thing in the morning. Let creativity be the defining point and secondary obligations fill in the rest of time.

Get rid of distractions and see how your view of productivity transforms from just another stress to the thing that eliminates stress!

Photo Cred = @FauxFoodieGirl

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