5 tips to improve your personal productivity

If you are reading this then you are most likely looking for ways to improve your personal productivity. We have just been through the Covid-19 pandemic and naturally your personal productivity may have decreased. The most important thing is for you to pick your productivity back up again, and to help you get back on track, I have listed 5 tips to improve your personal productivity below.

5 tips to improve your personal productivity:

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1. Define what being productive is to you.

‍This is a crucial tip as the definition of productivity may differ from person to person. Being productive depends on your situation to an extent, for example productivity to a university student could mean something totally different to a mum and dad with 3 children. A university student may deem spending 3 hours a day studying towards an exam being productive. A mum and dad with 3 children may deem spending 2 hours a day of quality time together as being productive.

As we get older, our definition of productivity tends to change. For me when I had just left University, my definition of productivity was spending a few hours a day working on my employability. This included fixing up my CV, applying for jobs and doing free courses. Nowadays, productivity to me is scheduling my day in an efficient manner to be able to work on my businesses and spend quality time with my family.

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2. Make use of a physical notebook or diary.

‍In this technological age, we tend to get carried away with our phones and other gadgets. We generally have good intentions when we make use of iPhone apps such as Notes and Calendar - but the issue is that our attention is regularly diverted by other social media apps. How often have you tried to be productive and received a message from Instagram?

By making use of a physical notebook or diary, you can write down what needs to be done. Your notebook serves as a reminder of your goals for the day/week/month and with your notebook always in front of you, it is easy enough to pick it up, read what you have written and tick things off as you get them done. I bought myself an A5 notebook a few years ago and it feels great to write my goals down and tick them off – whether that is daily, weekly or monthly. I have tried making use of apps to improve my personal productivity but I found it is really easy to dismiss a notification, check other social media apps and forget about being productive. By writing into my notebook, I can concentrate on my productivity without being distracted by social media.

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By making use of a physical notebook or diary, you can write down what needs to be done. Your notebook serves as a reminder of your goals for the day/week/month and with your notebook always in front of you, it is easy enough to pick it up, read what you have written and tick things off as you get them done.

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3. Reduce your desire to multitask. ‍

Multitasking can more often than not be the downfall to increasing your personal productivity. Trying to juggle a few tasks at any point in time can bring un-needed stress and do more harm than good. It is important to try and focus on one of your goals at a time. By focusing on one goal at a time, you are able to devote your full attention to the goal and tick it off before moving onto the next goal. Adopting this method will make you feel accomplished, satisfied and your personal productivity will go through the roof.

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4. Be ready to make sacrifices. ‍

Wanting to improve your personal productivity usually means that you have to make certain sacrifices. The sacrifices you have to make will totally depend on your definition of productivity as explained in tip 1 above. If we take the two examples above, in order to improve personal productivity, a sacrifice to a university student may be having to skip a few nights out. For a mum and dad with 3 children, a sacrifice may be skipping after work socials to spend quality time together as a family.

One of my main life goals was to become a qualified accountant. I knew to tick this goal off, I had to be productive consistently for 3 or 4 years. Some sacrifices I made at that point were to stop playing football at a decent level and to reduce my social life. By no means am I suggesting stopping your hobbies or to put a stop to your social life, but for me, those were the two things taking up most of my time.

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5. Reward yourself.

‍To really improve your personal productivity, it is a must to reward yourself when you tick your goals off. Improving productivity can be a really tough feat mentally, physically and emotionally. Even more so as we have just come out of a pandemic. When you tick a goal off, make sure you reward yourself as that will boost your morale and you will be wanting to tick more goals off.

The human mind has a huge role to play to improve your personal productivity. Rewarding yourself after reaching a goal will cause your body to release dopamine which will make you feel accomplished, happy and proud of ticking your goals off.

I really hope these tips are of benefit to you if you have decided to improve your personal productivity. Productivity could mean different things to different people, depending on your situation in life. So, it is important to define your meaning of productivity, follow the tips above and most importantly reward yourself!

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