How to make sure you have a productive day – everyday?

By: Asma Shums,
1. Create a Good Morning Routine
One of the best ways to start your day is to get up early and eat a healthy breakfast.
CEOs and other successful people have similar morning routines, which include exercising and quickly scanning their inboxes to find the most urgent tasks.
You can also try writing first thing in the morning to warm up your brain
2. Prioritize
Sometimes we can’t have a productive day because we just don’t know where to start. When that’s the case, the simplest solution is to list everything you need to get accomplished, then prioritize these tasks based on importance and urgency.
3. Focus on One Thing at a Time
One of the biggest killers of productivity is distractions. Whether it be noise or thoughts or games, distractions are a barrier to any productive day. That’s why it’s important to know where and when you work best.
Need a little background noise to keep you on track? Try working in a coffee shop.
Can’t stand to hear even the ticking of a clock while writing? Go to a library and put in your headphones.
4. Take Breaks
Focusing, however, can drain a lot of energy and too much of it at once can quickly turn your productive day unproductive.
To reduce mental fatigue while staying on task, try using the Pomodoro Technique. It requires working on a task for 25 minutes, then taking a short break before a 25 min session. So make sure you take breaks and do not burn out.
5. Manage Your Time Effectively
A learning strategies consultant once told me that there is no such thing as free time, only unstructured time. For example, reading the news while exercising or listening to meeting notes while cooking can help save you time. Many of the mundane tasks we routinely accomplish can be paired with other tasks that lead to an overall more productive day.
6. Celebrate and Reflect
No matter how you execute a productive day, make sure to take time and celebrate what you’ve accomplished. It’s important to reward yourself so that you can continue doing great work. Plus, a reward system is an incredible motivator.
Additionally, you should reflect on your day in order to find out what worked and what didn’t. Reflection not only increases future productivity but also gives your brain time to decompress and de-stress.
Therefore, try your best to have a productive day, and then at the end of the day make sure you reflect on your day you have had. We keep moving. We push through. We don’t stop to reflect. We stay in jobs that are (literally) killing us, relationships that zap our energy, circumstances that leave us stressed, unhappy, frustrated, and tired.
We keep running on the treadmill of life thinking we don’t have time to waste. So we keep moving in order to keep up. But too often, we just crash and burn. That’s because the only way to keep up with the pace of life is to STOP. To hop off the treadmill. To reflect on what’s working and what’s not. To identify what to keep and what needs to change.
Email info at asmashums@gmail.com