Success has always been our goal in getting things done. Being able to have a productivity system always yields to achieving our goals, finishing tasks, and even getting one step ahead of our current projects. It has always been ideal for people, especially for millennials and generation Zs to focus on getting their stuff done in the most efficient way possible.
Having productivity systems is highly important for workers in getting their success realized. These systems may derive from the analysis of one’s own psychological behavior and thinking, established techniques such as the Pomodoro Technique to manage one’s time, and even from famous personalities whose ideas and ways of life made a great impact in each of our hearts.
As of now, you may be struggling to figure out what to do first thing in the morning and the rest of the day. This may be a result of actually having no set goals or just plainly being unaware of how to properly manage your blocks of time for another day at work. You need not be pressured and just remind yourself that you are going to get things done soon. Just make sure to have a clear mindset, feel the need to be productive, and continue reading this blog for more methods on how to establish your own personal productivity system.
Ways to getting things done: Establish your productivity system
Focus and consistency keep the system in place as these two make up what being productive really is. Human beings find it difficult to start on specific tasks and tend to feel like they have all day and night for these important tasks to get done. With this, having willpower alone is not enough to stay productive especially if urgent and important tasks give us the initial reaction of putting them away at the first sign of distress. Another enemy of productivity is too much procrastination.
With the aid of multiple research that focuses on our psychological behaviors you can get a glimpse of some methods on how to create a productivity system:
- Minimize distractions – To improve your productivity, it is important to minimize the distractions within your surroundings. Humans easily get distracted and according to studies, this can ultimately decrease one’s performance at work.
- Grow your attention span – This deals with the availability of technology that can help you get your daily tasks done but technology can also be the reason why you are getting easily distracted. It is best to take a technology break before checking your gadgets again.
- Write out your goals – Research shows that writing a list of goals on a piece of paper or in your project management tools or apps can boost your performance. In addition, writing about your successes and failures will allow you to visualize what aspect you should work more on.
- Meet with your workmates – This is very much related to work settings but according to studies, meeting with your team can improve productivity in the long run. The debriefing and evaluation of your group’s performance can be beneficial in your future work performance for enhanced efficiency and such.
- Don’t stay seated – Stand up! This is another work setting productivity study and it discusses the fact that by not sitting always nor just standing in one place, the blood flow to the brain and circulation to the body can improve which leads to more active and good brain performance.
Get things done: Get up and get started
Learning about the previous ways on how to improve your productivity based on analyzing your behavior or doing things to improve your brain activity is simple and works well if you want to get ahead of your old and not-so-productive lifestyle.
As we continue on with the different techniques in the productivity systems, it is best to first inculcate within your minds that these systems are practices, guidelines, or methods that generally help people to get things done efficiently and effectively. In addition, choosing the best and right productivity system that will suit you highly depends on your personality, work style, motivators, and everyday habits.
Different productivity systems
Getting Things Done by David Allen
- Hailing from the same book title, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity became a best-selling book by David Allen.
- By applying the principles of GTD to the ever-changing circumstances and ever-increasing demands in our work, we can learn to be productive.
- This system also starts with a brain dump and then moves on to sorting those tasks into the six Horizons of Focus namely calendar/actions, 1projects, 2areas of focus and accountability, 3goals and objectives, 4vision, and 5purpose and principle. Each of these horizons represents a perspective that can improve your focus and aid in finding the best method or system that can best work for you.
Jerry Seinfeld: Calendar System and Don’t Break the Chain
- Jerry Seinfeld is a comedian and one of the key persons you will see if you look up for more productivity systems that you can use.
- He popularized the drawing of red X on the calendar dates every time he made a joke. The calendar became his visual reminder of the consistency that he has been doing. This is an essential and simple system since it does not require you to create huge routines but it gives importance to the simple tasks that can eventually lead to the start of more structured productive habits in the long run that will help you reach your ultimate goals. It is also important to always remember what Seinfeld said:
After a few days, you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain. Don’t break the chain.
Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo
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- The Pomodoro Technique is considered a revolutionary time management system. This was developed in the late 1980s by Cirillo who was a student struggling to focus on his studies and assignments.
- Over 2 million people have already used this method to have a more productive and more focused life and work styles. This is an especially effective productivity system that can allow you to meet deadlines without much hassle. This method helps you to work with time instead of struggling with it particularly if you think that time is your enemy.
- These are the simple steps if you want to employ the Pomodoro Technique:
- Get a to-do list and a timer
- Set the timer to 25 minutes and simply focus on one task until the 25-minute timer rings
- When the Pomodoro rings, put a checkmark on your list
- Enjoy 5 minutes of break
- Every after 4 Pomodoros, reward yourself with a 15-30 minute break
The Medium Method
- The Medium Method discusses the combination of paper and digital tools for one’s own productivity and organization. This method allows the merge of digital note-taking and the traditional use of pen and paper when writing. With this technique, you can now start to take down notes and everything that might be of interest to you.
- Despite the evident advantages and disadvantages that the Medium Method shows, as regards the use of paper or digital in note-taking, what is more important to take note of is the applicability of this method in terms of one’s learning style may it be visual or tactile. Nevertheless, this method highlights the compatibility of the traditional way and the digital way of writing and ultimately in managing our list of goals for our desired productivity.
What productivity system is right for you?
Various productivity systems are available and have long been established in our world. Before you decide to try a specific system or method out, you should remember that no system is perfect. Trying out everything that says productivity system might also be a bad idea if you do not know what works best for you. It still depends on the type of person that you are or how you manage your time and tasks whenever you are at work. Choosing productivity should be crossed out on your list as you walk towards the path of success by continuing the burning spirit of wanting to be a productive worker.
In choosing the best productivity system that might work for you, you may ask questions like:
- Do you prefer visual types of systems? Tactile ones? Digital apps? Pen and paper?
- Are you fond of highly structured guidelines or loose ones?
- Which of the established methods fit most naturally in with the existing workflows of yours?
- Which system do you think can motivate and challenge you most?
- Which system do you think can bring out the best in you?
At the end of the day, it is only you who can find out what is the best productivity system that can help you get started in unleashing your desired productivity for optimum work performance.
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