Your Light-Version Guideline for Being Productive
People obsess about productivity to a level that some of them leave the whole concept behind and live in curious all over again. I believe that if you set an extreme target for yourself, you will eventually burn out. I challenged myself two weeks ago to publish a medium article every day for 90 days in a row. The challenge itself is extreme, but the secret for making it easier is the simple guideline that I will be sharing and how I could publish daily where others found excuses not to.
This is a simple guideline — five points — I developed for myself, and it proved efficient. Keep in mind that this is the simplest way to explain it — so this will be short and to the point.
1. Purpose
Find Your Purpose…
To become productive at what you do, you should have a purpose. Without a true purpose on why you are doing what you are doing, you will not have the motivation and discipline to continue.
Set a purpose. Follow what makes you happy, not what makes you money. The latter will come easy after you follow the former. The only reason I could write 14 articles in a row so far without skipping a day is purpose. I did not just start a challenge out of nowhere, I wanted to write, so I wrapped the writing experience with a challenge.
2. One
Set the One Thing…
For the next 1,2,3 hour blocks — depending on your time, set the one thing you want to achieve. Don’t complicate it; ask yourself the following: What is the one thing such that by doing it, everything else would be easy or unnecessary.
Just focus on the task at hand and don’t dare to switch tasks, alternate, or waste time — use an app like Forest to prevent you from procrastinating.
3. Time
Set the time…
Don’t allow your task to take a full day. Set a time for it, even if you don’t have other work to do. The method I use is the 6010 method. Where you set 60 minutes to work, then take a 10 minutes break. Redo the 6010 again — another cycle — until you reach your time block.
To avoid extending time, focus on the work and don’t switch to other tasks — even if it takes 10 minutes. If the matter is urgent, pause the timer and continue after the urgent matter is taken care of.
4. Focus
FOCUS! — the Rock
To be able to do your best, you need to focus on the task at hand. No more explanation is needed. The human brain can focus on one thing at a time to achieve the highest productivity level possible. Yes, you can drive and speak on the phone, but neither the tasks are done at the highest level possible.
In case you are unable to focus, reschedule the task — if possible. Nothing worst than working on something, and your mind is somewhere else. Suppose you feel that you are tired because you didn’t sleep well. It is your fault; turn off the laptop and go to sleep. Keep that in mind next time you want to go to sleep.
5. Progress
Track your moves... and improve
What gets measured gets managed. Do you want to perform at a high-class level? Then measure your progress and improve it. I track my progress weekly and note the outcomes and results. Then I find ways to improve. Examples for improvements are added/eliminating habits, letting go of something, spending less time on something, etc.
After evaluating your progress, now apply the fixes and monitor/track your progress again to see if the fixes were good enough or not. Tailor your habits to find your best performance.
That’s all for this post; I hope you enjoyed it.
If you did, it would be great to share it with your friends and family. Also, if you want me to write about a particular topic/method in productivity, I would be more than happy, reach me @alounpro on social media — click my name at the bottom.
Have a lovely day!
— Ahmad Aloun