Productivity Habits Read online

  PRODUCTIVITY HABITS

  PROVEN TECHNIQUES TO INCREASE PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY AND ACHIEVE GOALS

  Table of Contents

  PRODUCTIVITY HABITS:

  Introduction

  Chapter 1: What Is Time Management?

  Critical Elements of Time Management

  Developing Time Management Skills

  Identification of the components of a big task

  Knowing when to take a rest and reward oneself

  Honing a never say die spirit

  Dealing with pressure

  Observe patterns with your use of time

  Routine development

  Time logging

  The Control Mindset

  Chapter 2: Benefits of Time Management

  Greater Productivity

  Increased Output

  Increased Energy

  Freedom to Do What You Want

  Reduced Effort

  Minimum Wasted Time

  Increased Opportunities

  More Free Time

  Improved Decision-Making Ability

  Reduced Stress

  Fosters Self-Discipline

  More Productivity and Success

  Accomplish More with Less Effort and Time

  Increased Learning Opportunities

  Enhanced Flexibility and Spontaneity

  A Happy and Healthy Life

  Better Work Quality

  Complete Tasks on Time

  Chapter 3: Effective Time Management Tools

  Goal Setting

  Create To-Do Lists

  Making a Schedule and Sticking to It

  Time Blocking

  Start the Day Right

  Start early

  Make your bed

  Sit down and plan your activities for the day

  Wake your mind with the right stimulation

  Focus on how you start your workday

  Coming Up with Methods to Make Your Chores Easier

  Use Tools that Make the Job Easier

  Learn Tricks to Getting Tasks Done from Others

  Look for Ways to Cut Corners Without Cutting Quality

  Take the Advice of Others and Try it

  Establishing Your Daily Activities

  Prioritization

  Tackling the difficult tasks first

  Tackling easy tasks first

  Make a list of all the tasks your project involves

  Assess these tasks according to gravity and value

  Organize these tasks into categories

  Determine which tasks to cut

  Prepare Your Planning tools

  Get Organized

  Avoid Procrastination

  There is only now

  Once You Do It, You Will Be Ok

  Think About the Repercussions

  Do whatever it takes

  Take Breaks

  Delegate Tasks or Activities

  Control your instincts to hard work

  You Can Delegate Down and What You Can Delegate Up

  Give Clear and Concise Instructions

  Build the Competence and Empower People for Down-Delegation

  Delegation Means “Let Go”

  Avoid Multitasking

  Plan Your Time

  Plan Your Day the Night Before

  Do Not Get Overwhelmed

  Wake up Early

  Sleep Early

  Setting Deadlines

  Eliminate Distractions

  Train your brain to focus

  Break down huge tasks

  Track your time expenditure

  Block all distracting websites and apps

  Create a schedule

  Manage Interruptions

  Work When You Need to Work

  Minimize all of the Interruptions

  Ask Other People

  Chapter 4: How to Set Boundaries and Learn to Say No

  Create a mantra

  Keep a journal

  Practice

  Chapter 5: Improve Your Productivity by Identifying Your Personal Values

  The Purpose and Meaning of Your Life

  The Most Important Things in Your Life

  Believe That You Are Special

  Perform Self-Analysis

  Some Apps for Productivity

  Focus Booster

  Rescue Time

  Any-Do

  Toggl

  To Do Calendar Planners

  Remember the Milk

  Time Doctor

  Google Calendar

  Todoist

  Focus @ Will

  Atracker

  Evernote

  If This Then That (IFTT)

  Chapter 6: How to Manage Your Work Environment

  Get Rid of Physical Clutter

  De-cluttering Your Mind

  Staying Motivated

  Reward a Good Job Done

  Take a Quick Break

  Watch Out for Time Killers

  Checking Emails

  Watching TV

  Commuting

  SmartPhones

  Friendly Chatting

  Surfing the Net

  Social Media Networks

  Chapter 7: Managing Time Spent with Other People

  Always have a goal when meeting people during work hours

  Share information relevant to the meeting in advance

  Reduce chances of miscommunication

  Lead when no one wants to

  Chapter 8: Health’s Role in Time Management

  Eating right

  Exercising

  Sleep

  Fun Time and relaxation

  Chapter 9: Identifying Things That Waste Your Time

  Time Killers

  Dealing with Time Wasters

  List your time wasters

  Resist the urge to respond to distracting stimuli

  Remove social media apps

  Make your breaks boring

  Keep your environment tidy

  Prepare activities for waiting and commuting

  Chapter 10: Managing Your Productivity

  Divide your day into quadrants

  Divide each quadrant into 15-minute chunks

  Manage your energy

  Motivate yourself for work right before a new quadrant starts

  Chapter 11: Improving Your Time Management Habits

  Identify the nature of your activities

  Analyze and re-strategize

  Look for positive changes and make them your habits

  Aim for efficiency

  Chapter 12: Enjoying a Motivated and Productive Life

  Conclusion

  Introduction

  Time Management is how you organized your time and how long you intend to spend on each task. Everyone encounters time management issues. There are too many tasks, and there is too little time. You can’t help but feel stressed the majority of the time. It’s as if you have no control over your life; you cannot even think of the things that you consider essential. Your work grows more and more demanding and you seem to have no time left for yourself.

  This eBook will teach you the basics of time management. It explains how you can manage your time effectively and increase your productivity. You will get all the tips and tricks you need to effectively manage your time in this guide.

  This book has been designed to give you the bare bones on which you can build a more efficient and effective way of living your life, one that is structured, organized and one in which you are proactive and make the most of every opportunity that comes your way.

  The most productive people manage their time wisely. They can manage it exceptionally well, even when they face a lot of pressure and even when their schedule is super tight.

  This book discusses the skills, techniques, and other esse
ntial methods involved in fundamental time management.

  That way, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to enjoy your life more, on top of the goals you have set for yourself for business, self-management, and life goals. There are so many benefits that you can be gained from exceptional time management practices, which will be explained throughout this book.

  Throughout this book, you will understand that no matter what kind of job you do, time management is an essential aspect. Playing Games that will help you develop your skills on time management at your free time are also suggested.

  This material will arm you with time management hacks. That means you will have tips that you can use to plan your time well. These tips may be easy to understand but don’t be blinded by their simplicity just apply them in your daily life and you will not regret. This is the guide you need to achieve anything in life without further ado let’s get started.

  Chapter 1: What Is Time Management?

  Time management is a person’s ability to manage their time, just like any critical skill related to your career, it can decide whether you will succeed as a professional or not. Time is an irreplaceable resource that can help you achieve your dreams. Consider it as a crucial asset that you cannot hoard or recover. You need to spend time on everything you do and gain excellent rewards if you can accomplish many things within the time available to you.

  Time management is important in our lives because it enhances productivity and and improves our health. When you plan your time you will achieve inner peace, improve your mental health and build strong relationships. People who fail to manage their time are often stressed, anxious, or depressed. You will achieve higher energy and be more productive if you plan your time.

  Critical Elements of Time Management

  Desire – It is imperative that you have the desire to control your time and achieve an improvement in your productivity.

  Decisiveness – This characteristic plays a vital role in your success: you have to make a firm decision to practice your time management skills until they turn into habits.

  Determination – Becoming an effective time manager involves various challenges. When faced with temptations to forget about what you are trying to do and go back to your old ways. Without determination, your chances of acquiring the necessary time management skills are close to zero.

  Discipline – Experienced time managers consider this as the most essential characteristic. You must have enough discipline to treat time management as an enduring practice. You should be willing to pay the price, do what is right, and perform activities at the right time, regardless of whether or not it benefits you in the short-term.

  Developing Time Management Skills

  Identification of the components of a big task

  It takes talent to identify the small parts that make up a big task. However, you can learn this with practice. By learning how to do so, you can take small but sure steps towards your goal. Also, the good thing is you can distribute the other pieces to people who are willing to help.

  Knowing when to take a rest and reward oneself

  Believe it or not, taking regular breaks and rewarding oneself can improve a person’s performance. It also helps one achieve more and become more efficient.

  Honing a never say die spirit

  It will not be all laurels for you. Sometimes, you will face failures and frustrations. More often than not, you will have to deal with backlogs. However, take heart and learn to adopt a never say die attitude. This way, you learn to rise from your weaknesses and limitations.

  Dealing with pressure

  Have grace whenever you face a big task. Never bow down to pressure. See it as motivation instead of being a source of stress. From time to time, take a break and relax. Remember, pressure won’t go away if you succumb to it. Deal with it well and see good things coming your way.

  Observe patterns with your use of time

  Identify your peak time and label it as your prime time. Also, take note of those periods when you feel most distracted. Assess the kinds of activities where you waste your time and keep track of which ones are recurring. Of course, do something about it.

  Routine development

  Developing a routine for your work proves to be genuinely beneficial. In line with that, you need to keep your workspace as clean and as organized as possible, too. Also, you need to make a standard schedule for each of your workdays. Write down the details in case there are adjustments.

  Time logging

  A time log helps you avoid putting your precious minutes and hours to waste. In the process what you need to do is, create a chart for the entire week (divided into days). The days will then be divided into intervals of half an hour. For the next seven days, you should make it a point to note everything that you will and need to do. After seven days, examine the time log closely to look for periods where you could have been more productive. Also, you will see where your consistent “prime time” is and schedule your next tasks according to your findings.

  The Control Mindset

  Proper time management also encompasses the management of your mood towards work. Most people with no control over their emotions, motivations, and moods usually end up neglecting their plans.

  If you want to take charge of your time, you should focus only on the things that you can control. Even if you are in difficult situations, you should not allow your mind to start blaming others or your environment.

  You should continue the control mindset as you proceed with the rest of the book. In this mindset, you always ask yourself how you can control the situation. By doing so, you always expect a certain level of competence from yourself.

  You can only control the way you use your time if you can control your motivation. Motivation is the mental state, emotion, or thought that encourages us to move towards our goals. You need to be aware of your different mental states because they are essential factors that affect your ability to stick to your planned schedule.

  Chapter 2: Benefits of Time Management

  Here are significant reasons why effective time management is necessary for anyone aiming to accomplish goals and achieve success.

  Greater Productivity

  One of the most significant benefits you stand to derive from practicing effective time management is improved productivity.

  When you efficiently complete tasks, you save more time; you can then use the saved time to complete other essential tasks. When you complete more work your output increases.

  Increased Output

  Productivity increases when your mind is free from stress and hence, free to focus on the tasks that need to be completed without distractions. You not only complete the tasks you have set out to do but also find time to do other things that until now you could not do because of lack of time.

  Increased Energy

  Recall how you feel when you complete a task that required your intensive intervention. The satisfaction that you enjoy at the end of a work well done and completed on time releases the endorphins that make you feel good about yourself and more energetic. You will ready to take on the next task.

  Freedom to Do What You Want

  With time management you will find enough time to complete your “work” and still have enough left to bond with your family on a daily basis, socialize with friends and colleagues, take up a hobby, read a book – and in general do things that you would have otherwise thought impossible for lack of time.

  Reduced Effort

  You will find that with time management, the effort you require seems lesser because your mind is calm and focused, and you can concentrate your full attention on your work schedule.

  Minimum Wasted Time

  An unorganized person will spend much of the time searching for things, redoing things, handling situations resulting from mistakes, and so on. With time management, you learn how to work in a focused manner and therefore, commit fewer mistakes (ordinarily resulting from stress from mismanagement of time). It also
helps to eliminate the time you would otherwise waste when re-engaging in a task you interrupted.

  Increased Opportunities

  Clarity of mind helps you think more creatively and hence, find more opportunities to grow. An uncluttered mind is more likely to open to new ideas that a mind burdened with 1001 things on it.

  More Free Time

  Time management is very vital at work, at school, or home. At times, you may feel as if you have too many tasks to complete and not enough time. However, if you plan your tasks, schedule them, and complete every task within a set time, you will not waste time wondering what to do.

  Improved Decision-Making Ability

  Sometimes, when you feel as if you are pressed for time even when you must make a decision, it is easy to make the wrong decision without adequately considering the different options. On the other hand, if you practice proper time management, because you have planned, you will feel a sense of calm, which will eliminate the pressure, which often emanates from feeling as if you do not have enough time. Without the presence of this pressure, you will make conscious choices and spend your time doing valuable and meaningful activities.

  Reduced Stress

  When you control your time, you avoid the stress which comes with personal problems or frictions with others because you will know how long it will take to complete an activity and the best approach to use to complete a task within its prescribed time and deadline. You will have set goals for your day, prioritized essential tasks or activities, and created a detailed guide showing how you intend to tackle every activity or task.

  Fosters Self-Discipline