Productivity is something everyone wants and strives to achieve, but life and other issues often get in the way. When you look at your life, it can be hard to find places where you could change your habits to be more productive. You may be finishing everything on time and are not behind on work or personal projects, but that doesn’t mean you can’t improve your productivity to make your day to day life better. Productivity in your everyday life is critical because those days add up to years, and when you look back, you want to be able to see what you accomplished. Being more productive is a great goal everyone should keep in mind, but starting and making progress towards that goal will be unique for each person. Part of being productive is knowing yourself and what methods work for you, so don’t assume all suggested methods to be more productive will solve your issue right away. Being more productive as a habit takes regular practice along with internal reflection and self-awareness, skills many people are lacking in today’s modern world. With all the factors in mind, here are a few tips, tricks, and suggestions you can incorporate to be more productive in your everyday life.
Never Stop Learning
One of the best ways to stay productive is to keep your brain engaged and used to learning new things. Once you stop learning, your brain can forget the skills, much like how you lose muscle mass if you stop working out. Keep your brain agile and able to shift focus by always trying to learn new things. You don’t need to sit down and get a degree to keep your brain active as mLearning courses, online modules, or even educational articles on a new subject can stimulate your brain. If you are working from home, learn how basic computers work so you can be your own IT support or find an online class to start learning a new language slowly. Whatever you are interested in, indulge the curiosity and learn as it will help you in other areas of your life, including productivity.
Technology Is Here To Help
Thankfully, you are not only reliant on your willpower to become more productive as there are plenty of gadgets and apps that can help. You can set reminders in apps to keep you from wandering off task, alerts when you have something due that isn’t done yet, and even create a full schedule with notifications, time blocks, color coding, and more. If you prefer pen and paper planning, there are a slew of adult planners that let you map out your daily life with extra tabs or date ranges depending on your preferences. Use the tools around you to plan each day, how that day connects into a week, and how all these days eventually create a year. Now is the perfect time to start a daily planner so you can see how far you have come by the end of the year.
Better Visibility
Chances are, you are working on a single monitor or laptop screen if you are working on a computer. Single screens are great for saving space and money while remaining portable, but they are not useful for productivity. Everyone has had to search their screen to find where that one tab they want went, but that search is even more challenging on a single smaller screen because everything is already small. Instead of fighting to find what you want and squinting to read details, it is time to invest in a secondary monitor. You do not need to spend an outrageous amount of money on a second screen when there are plenty of cheap deals on 1080p monitors that specifically target people working from home. With one extra monitor and some connecting cables, you can keep your same computer but double your visibility and waste far less time trying to do simple things.
Everyone wants to be more productive, but knowing where to start can be challenging. Everyone has different vices, distractions, and methods for better productivity, but there are some general suggestions that can help anyone get on the right track. Keep your brain active by always learning something, use tools, digital or pen and paper, to track time and assignments, and give your eyes a break by adding a second monitor to your work setup.