Whether you love your job or you don’t, if you want keep it, being highly productive is critical.
And by highly productive, I mean creating high output compared to your input. For example, cooking a fancy schmancy 3 course meal in 1 hour is pretty awesome (at least to me anyway).
However, being highly productive can be a challenge if you have trouble focusing while working remotely or if, for you (like me), the afternoon schlump is real. And the fact that your bed is walking distance from your home office doesn’t help in either situation.
Productivity doesn’t just apply to work either. Remember that interior design project that you’ve been talking about since 2017? Or the ‘hobby’ that you don’t actually do?
Sometimes, just thinking about what you should be doing can make you feel overwhelmed and like a failure. So what do you do? More nothing.
No judgement here; I’ve been 100000000% guilty myself. And I still struggle with being highly productive. True story: I had several unproductive moments while writing this article (the irony).
However, I’d like to believe that I’m not as unproductive as I used to be. A few years ago, I had a Eureka moment out of the blue, which actually sounded like ‘Bam!’ (that’s the sound of a figurative ton of bricks hitting my consciousness).
I suddenly realized that my life’s output would be the culmination of all the little habits that I did every day. Every big moment that I had in my life up to that point was in reality the sum of all these ‘little’ things. Therefore, in a holistic sense, my productivity as a human being, would be determined not just by how well I try to do an activity, but also what I choose to do.
In this way, being highly productive is actually a two-step process: what we are doing and how we try to do that activity.
Note to self: Check out theories like mini-habits and habit stacking.
Going back to my Archimedes moment, I began to work on becoming highly productively through a series of techniques. Then, once I started writing this article, I began to wonder, “Do these techniques really work or am I experiencing a placebo effect?” “Do they work only because I believe that they work?” (a typical train of thought in Camille-land a.k.a. my brain).
As a result, I put on my research hat in order to understand better what happens when the average brain is ticking along smoothly.
So, what determines productivity anyway?
Let’s assume that this walnut is your brain.
Note to self: No allergy or sensitivity to walnuts? Try eating some. It is said that walnuts are great for your brain and heart health.
For the purpose of this post, we will focus on three parts of the brain:
- the frontal lobe, which does all the heavy lifting when it comes to reasoning and higher level cognition;
- the temporal lobe, which is responsible for interpreting sound and language; and
- the occipital lobe, which processes visual stimuli and information.
As Captain Obvious would say, the brain is complex.
It seems that these are the main areas of the brain that connect and interact when you are engaged in a cognitive activity. Makes sense to my layman expertise. But that knowledge doesn’t answer this question: can your brain engage in more than one cognitive activity at the same time?
You may have heard that mere humans cannot multi-task effectively. It’s not an urban legend. Actually, according to this study, when you try to dual-task, for example, your brain actually delays the completion of the second task. This is effectively task-switching, not completing both tasks simultaneously.
In other words, my mother is right: you can only effectively do one thing at a time.
Since multi-tasking is apparently a unicorn, I wondered what other factors might affect your brain’s productivity. Then, it dawned on me: does the order in which you select your tasks make any difference to your productivity?
If this question has occurred to you too, excellent work Watson!
Ten to one, if you have a ton of work to do, you will probably select the tasks with shorter completion times to start, that is, the easy wins (I know I did). Unsurprisingly (since there are a lot of intelligent human beings roaming around), there was already a study done in response to this very habit.
Surprisingly, that study discovered that a person who selects the easier tasks when faced with a heavy workload is less productive in the long-run, athough their short term productivity increases.
Ergo, just completing tasks in order of urgency and important, whether easy or difficult, appears to make you highly productive in the long run.
Of course, faced with these answers, like Alice, I began to wonder some more: what else can affect your productivity?
Studies show that your productivity is affected by your well-being and your environment. For example, this paper suggests that a person who is intrinsically motivated (because they believe that their work is meaningful) is more likely to be highly productive.
As another example, this article proposes that a culture of trust in an organization boosts productivity, among other benefits.
In addition, happier people are apparently more productive, according to this study. Introducing play into creative endeavours seems to increase productivity as well.
Finally, if you haven’t been convinced of the importance of exercise already, this study shows that “devoting work time to physical activity can lead to higher productivity”.
Therefore, being highly productive is not just determined by how our brain works, but also by our well-being and our environment.
Unfortunately, many of us (myself included) cannot hand in a resignation letter today if we work in an undesirable work environment (in a bid to avoid homelessness and starvation). Instead, there must be careful planning. So that when you’re gone, you can stay gone.
Note to self: Check out these posts on choosing a meaningful career here and here if your job/career is a total joyless, soul-stealing chasm of boredom.
Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that we can only change ourselves, not others. You might surprise yourself as to what you are capable of, even in the most adverse circumstances. Consider focusing on a single task and addressing your tasks in order of priority, in order to be as productive as you can be, no matter what the circumstances.
Techniques to be Highly Productive
Friends, remember those productivity techniques that I mentioned earlier? Turns out that they were (mostly) backed by the research that I did on the brain. To be honest, one thing that I will not be doing anymore after writing this article is choosing to complete the easier tasks first.
Bearing in mind that these techniques cannot address your environment or overall well-being, without further ado, regard the following musings of a (hopefully) productive mind:
Identifying and Selecting Tasks
1.Make a list of what you want to achieve the evening before.
Note to self: When it comes to your personal life, one evening probably won’t be enough to figure out your overall goals and aspirations. Check out the psycho-babble on my last post and consider seeking professional guidance.
2. Start working on your most important and urgent items, whether they are easy or not.
3. Try to do the bulk of your work at the time of the day when you are most in sync or in your groove. Whether you love the quiet of the early morning or the stillness of the night, work with yourself, not against yourself in order to be highly productive.
Eliminate Distractions
4. Focus on one activity at a time
5. Try a micro-focus technique (10 minutes absolute focus, then 2 minute break, 10 minutes, then 2 minute break) or any other time share between work and breaks that helps you.
6. Minimize ambient noise as much as you can.
Note to self: Noise-cancelling headphones are great for shared work spaces.
7. Silence the phone. Then step away from it.
Take a break
8. Touch your toes and stretch.
9. Take a bathroom break.
10 Start taking notes (true story: this is how I prevent myself from falling asleep on my most tired days or in meetings.)
11. Been working in groups or teams all day? Work alone for a while.
12. Working alone? Bounce your ideas off a colleague if you can.
13. Try a power nap during your lunch hour if you’re really sleep deprived.
14. Try teleconferencing instead of video calls if you’re ‘over’ video calls.
Taking care of your body
16. Hydrate
17. Eat properly. If you’re snacking, snack healthily. Nibble on some walnuts and dark chocolate. Munch on some fruit. Slurp down chia seed pudding or a healthy smoothie.
18. Commit to at least 10 minutes of exercise every day.
Your physical environment
19. Use additional light at your workstation
20. Turn the heat up or down so that you’re working in a comfortable temperature (if you have that option).
That’s all I’ve got on being highly productive for today. For other perspectives on this topic, check out this post and this article.
And remember friends, when all else fails, there’s always the option of a cup of strong black coffee.
I’d love to hear from you on what you do to keep yourself highly productive. Type a comment below!
Also…big news! I finally figured out some website mumbo jumbo…which means that you can subscribe to receive notifications of new posts here! Looking forward to seeing you (digitally) in emails!