Tag Archives: Productivity Hacks

3 Nifty Productivity Hacks To Keep In Your Back Pocket

3 Nifty Productivity Hacks To Keep In Your Back Pocket

Has working from home increased or decreased your productivity. As a work from home veteran (14 years and counting), we at The Help have come across a sh*t ton of productivity hacks. Some of which are gold standard: stop multitasking, have a routine, take regular breaks, etc. Here are 5 Tips To Power Up Your WFH Productivity. And if you want to know what your productivity style is, find out here (What Is Your Productivity Style?).

I’m sure you already know some of these by heart and now you’re at max prod. However, we have some secret weapons that most of you may not know about. Here are 3 nifty productivity hacks to pull out of your back pocket for days when you have to drag yourself out of bed because you’re “just not feeling it.”

1. One Goal A Day (OGAD!)
On days that you feel not up to acing the work day head-on but need to get things done, this tip might just get you through. Set yourself a priority for the day. This means having one goal for one day. If you have a list of running apps (that’s what I call unfinished tasks that take time to plow through – e.g. e-book writing) set that aside and work on it when you’re in the right mind set. For slow days, identify the tasks that you can check off quite easily but still feel like you’ve accomplished something meaningful for the day. Let’s take e-book writing as an example. You might set yourself this goal for the day: research reference materials for chapter 3. This task is pretty easy to complete but has a great impact on your ultimate goal of writing the e-book. Don’t fall into the trap of doing “busy work.”

2. Short Bursts of Work
An activity can only hold an adult person’s attention for short bursts of time – approx 10- 20 mins. That means an hour is too long for anyone to stay attentive and focused. This is why short bursts of work make perfect sense. That logic has given birth to the Pomodoro Technique which advises working in 25 minute intervals with 5 min breaks in between. It’s one of the most popular productivity hacks out there. Others are the Get Things Done or GTD method and the quirkily named Eat That Frog method.

3. Decompress
One of the challenges of any digital worker is not being able to turn off work. We now have emails, SMS, instant messaging, project management systems, team trackers, etc. – million and one ways to keep track of work. It’s always there, always available to be checked on. The best way to increase your productivity is to rest and recover after a hard day’s work. And you can’t do that if you’re ON all the time. So unplug, relax, decompress, and get ready for another day.

What is your favorite productivity secret weapon? Share them with us in the comments. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

More Productivity Hacks

More Productivity Hacks

A few weeks ago, I ran a series of posts on finding efficient work strategies and discovering productivity hacks. You can read about them here, here, and here.

Here are a few more tips, but this time, the tips are all about mindfulness so that you can find the best hacks that work for you. Let’s proceed.

Find your objective:
Is your goal to reduce your stress while working? Is it to work efficiently within your work hours to avoid overtime? Is it to manage a 4 day work week? Find your goal and focus on that. Clear your mind so that you can find the answers to your questions and write them down. Once you have drilled down to what your main priority is, you can create a plan and tailor your productivity hacks around that.

Manage your energy:
You have to complete step no. 1 to get to this as you would have to be clear on what needs to get done before you can allocate your resources and energy to your tasks.

Focus:
In this day and age, there are hundreds of things that bid for our attention: phones, noise, social media, the smell (and promise of) food, etc. When you learn to control your attention and focus, you are ready for high performance and productivity. Avoid distractions and time wasters like the plague. Don’t multitask. Create an environment that you love and is conducive to focused work.

Have a system:
Figure out and craft a system that works for you. Start by clearing out your space and getting rid of clutter. I don’t mean just physical clutter like papers and trinkets. I also mean digital clutter. That would entail clearing out your desktop as well. Create organizing and filing systems based on how you work – for example, labelled digital folders, a desk organizer for paper files, cloud storage or portable hard drives for backup files, etc.

Use a calendar or planner to efficiently manage your time. List down no more than 1-3 priorities per week (list more and you’re just going back to square one). Then list down action steps you should take to get those priorities done. Here’s where your to-do list comes in. It’s best to map this out in a planner or calendar at the start of the week.

Stay on task:
There are productivity techniques listed on this blog that can help you stay on task:
The Pomodoro technique
The Get Things Done technique
The Eat the Frog technique
The Action Method
These are just a few of them. Find one that works for you and is the best fit for your productivity goals.

Avoid distractions:
There are a few apps that can help you avoid distractions on your PC, apps that can help you avoid getting lost in cat videos or stalking your ex. This can help you hit those deadlines or finish writing that report.

What productivity hacks work for you? Share them with us in the comments. Stay humble and hustle hard!

 

Written by Jaie O. The Help