Productivity Archives - Sagar Amlani : Official Site "The Productivity Explorer"

Mantra 9-6-3

sagar.amlani — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 05:56:14 +0000

Wise people claim that the best way to accomplish what we want in life, be it

Getting physically fit and in good shape
Building successful company
Enjoying time with loved ones
Spending more time with friends and doing what we love
Going on Holidays

It’s all linked to writing / identifying focused goals which are specific and achievable.

We all know about SMART, which is

S – Smart

M – Measurable

A – Achievable

R – Realistic

T – Time Bound

But the question here is, we all know goals are important, goals are necessary to be successful, and goals are the reason for our motivation.

– How often do you set goals?

– How often do you revisit your list?

– When do you review your progress?

Goal setting is not dull; it’s exciting if done with proper guidance.

There are several benefits and advantages to having a set of goals to work towards.

– Setting goals helps trigger new behaviours and Habits.

– It helps guide your focus and helps you sustain that momentum in life.

– Goals also help align your focus and promote a sense of self-mastery.

Remember what Peter Drucker says, “You cannot improve what you cannot measure.”

Well, you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and you can only improve upon something you properly manage.

Setting goals can help you do all of that and more.

Edward Locke and Gary Latham (1990) are leaders in goal-setting theory. According to their research, goals not only affect behaviour and job performance but also help mobilize energy, leading to a higher effort overall. Higher action leads to an increase in persistent effort.

Accomplishing the goal can lead to satisfaction and further motivation or frustration and lower motivation if the goal still needs to be completed.

According to the University of Scranton, 92 percent of people who set New Year’s goals never achieve them. That leaves 8 percent of us in a very elite category of goal-achievers. What do they do differently that 92 percent of us are missing out on?

Well, they use the Mantra 9-6-3.

Let us understand the rule of three before I explain the Mantra 9-6-3.

The Rule of Three is a productivity system that helps you achieve your goals and get things done.

Instead of trying to achieve everything and getting into a rat race, building a productive mindset is essential.

The productivity mindset makes the best use of available resources — time, energy, emotions, money & effort. It is not trying to do everything and be everything or even doing something in the quickest way possible. It is making the most of what you have while enjoying the process.

The Rule of Three focuses only on your 3 most important goals.

By wiring your brain to engage in fewer tasks, you increase your focus and better productivity.

Whenever you feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks on your backlog, you can also use the method of a brain dump.

J.D. Meier introduced the Rule of Three in “Getting Results the Agile Way,”.

So, how do you get things done with the Rule of Three?

J.D. Meier has explained the formula beautifully.

He suggested:

Pen down three outcomes for today
Three things for the week
Three tasks for the month
Three focused goals for the year

What is Mantra 9-6-3

The Mantra 9-6-3 is a methodology which combines Goal setting using SMART and the rule of three.

For the past 13 years, I have used the Mantra 9-6-3 every year for myself and in the last two years as I coached over 33 clients to define and achieve their focused goals for the respective years.

It’s a 9-month journey where I work with my clients to help them achieve their 3 Major Goals for the year.

In this digital world, you can create a memo on your mobile device or use one of the many productivity apps available in your play store to create the 3 Major goals for the year.

From my experience working with several individuals, I have always insisted on writing them down.

– It makes you remember them better

– Brings commitment

– Engages your brain

– Limits distractions

If you wish to do it yourself: Download your 9-6-3 Mantra

In case you wish to work with me to achieve your focused goals: write to me at

sagar@sagaramlani.com.

With an AIM to focus and provide personal attention, I work with exclusive clients throughout the year.

Always remember: If you don’t achieve any of your focused goals for some reason, don’t worry and forgive yourself.

Don’t be too harsh on yourself. Maybe it was just a bad day, or you needed to be more realistic.

We all have those days. Mantra 9-6-3 is a long-term process.

Mantra 9-6-3 will help you stay focused and empower you to get in the right direction. It will help you learn to prioritize, focus, and achieve.

Rather than working on an overstuffed list of things, why not just focus on the three topmost, value-adding ones?

Spending time doing multiple things without desired results isn’t a good measure of productivity.

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Power of NO

sagar.amlani — Sun, 21 Aug 2022 13:45:45 +0000

The Power of "No"

On Thursday Afternoon, I received a call from a long-awaited client, asking me to plan a meeting on Saturday at 11 am. It was the client my team had been chasing for a long time for a discussion, but due to his travel schedule unable to fix a date. We were planning to meet him and discuss our proposal for his team and factory to establish Autonomous work culture and improve productivity.

The conversation goes like this

Client: “Hey Sagar, how are you? I appreciate your patience; due to my hectic travel schedule, I could not give you the time for discussion. I am back in India and will be happy to meet you Saturday at 11 am at my office.”

On other days, these words would make me happier, but they made me bit my lip that day. I was catching for this client for two months, waiting for this day. But at this time, I had planned a much-needed family trip to the South, and I had to board the flight the day after tomorrow, Saturday, at 10.30 am. I was in a fix while my client was waiting for my answer.

I quickly ran through all the possibilities in my mind and politely but firmly answered him.

Me: “I appreciate your appointment, but I’ve already committed to my family for a vacation, and I have a flight to catch the day after tomorrow at 10.30 am. If it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle, please reschedule this meeting for tomorrow, which is Friday instead of Saturday.

The older me might’ve cancelled the trip or delayed my travel plan and let the family carry on, but the newer me dealt with this situation differently.

The Integrated Life needs you to align the elements to achieve a sense of fulfilment; one of them is your focused goals.

I was ready to face the consequences. Would you believe what happened?

The client answered, ‘I appreciate your honesty and prior commitment to your family. I understand keeping up the promises as well. Let me check my schedule tomorrow and get back to you. He called back after an hour and rescheduled it a day earlier. I was elated.

Do you also face such situations?

What’d you do if you were in my place?

Would you also deal with this problem in the same way?

I was not the same earlier. For the past few years, I have experienced these elements to live The Integrated Life, which has helped me to understand my priorities. That allows me to take ownership of my decisions or choices and live a life without any regrets or guilt.

During my earlier days when I was working in a corporate and later in a manufacturing firm, by nature, I was so submissive that I used to say Yes to everything that came my way.

Why? Even I reflect sometimes

We often deliver answers in this automatic response as our brains are wired in that way or muscle memory.

Some examples stating the above point are:

A student agrees to give notes to his friend, who doesn’t return them until the exam day. It hinders his study for that test and affects his score.

A corporate employee dug deep into work and said yes to his boss for delivering a project at a close deadline but couldn’t complete it. He ruins his impression and paves the way for questioning his further work commitments.

A housewife says yes to in-laws even when she runs out of time for her schedule. She completes the work but gets late for further proceedings. In the process, she makes way for resentment from family members, compromising health and resulting in a dual loss at both ends.

What did they gain by saying yes when they should’ve said No?

Loss of more important things like health, reputation or losing the otherwise favoured result, and trust from the people they said Yes.

They tried to be nice to them by not upsetting them by saying – Yes, but it turned the other way round. These situations prove the fact that we are people pleasers.

My younger son is just five years old, and when asked by an elder if he would like to go with him to a movie, he refused with a cute face and said I wish to play with my friends right now. It was so simple, yet it taught me how important it is to say NO.

You wouldn’t think much before saying a No when you were a child. Children do things according to their moods. But as they grow up, they learn the consequences of saying No. They may hamper their responses since they find out – it is not a good practice to disobey parents as they might be punished or displease them.

From that time onwards, you develop a mindset of prioritising others over yourself and an inability to say No.

You feel saying Yes is more manageable than no at any given time. It is way more accessible as we humans get manipulated in so many ways by our surroundings.

What are the factors that make us say yes?

You tend to agree to people or circumstances in given conditions:

Wish to remain in good books: You are a people pleaser and prefer self-neglect rather than displeasing others.
Confidence in handling multiple things: You are confident you can juggle numerous things at a time, and you do not mind being overburdened or taking additional stress in showing your ability to handle multiple subjects.

Avoiding a guilt trip: You feel bad over refusing someone a favour and try to avoid that guilt trip at the cost of your happiness.

Weighing people’s priorities over self: You are a very considerate and understanding person toward others and cannot refuse anyone.

Giving in to persuasive people: You tend to give in to people who are more influential and convince you into something they desire.

Saying a temporary yes to get out of it later: You evade conflicts and agree at that moment, thinking to dodge off later.

Feel it’d disrespect the person: You grade that person too much and think denial would be disrespectful.

Worry about missing better opportunities: You tend to imply that refusing something to do at present would shut down your path for better opportunities in the future.

Saying yes is more straightforward but does unpredictable harm to your productivity levels. It disturbs the elements of your life, giving you the feeling of regret.

It takes courage, practice, patience and perseverance to cultivate the art of saying No. The importance of saying No is precisely what renowned leaders try to explain in their quotes.

Warren Buffet says – Successful people say no more than they say yes.

Whereas Paulo Coelho says – When you say Yes to others, make sure you are not saying no to yourself.

Both stress your well-being and advancement in your paths by learning the art of saying No and opening doors to your future progress.

I was once stuck between choosing my speaking engagement offer on the same date clashing with my son’s stage show in the school I promised him to attend long ago.

It was a tough decision, and it took a lot of effort to talk to the client, offer them an alternative date, and recommend a fellow speaker just in case they cannot reschedule.

To my surprise, they chose the recommended fellow speaker and signed me up for the next event in advance for the subsequent convection at their organisation. I attended my son’s stage show as promised, keeping my professional commitment and client happy.

Isn’t our family a priority? We live We Earn to give them comfort to make their lives better.

What’d you’ve done if you were in my place? Wouldn’t you, too, make efforts to create an Integrated Life, rescheduling things or refusing work at a prior commitment already made with family?

I’m sure you, too, would reap the benefits a simple no can bring about.

Saying NO in the right way is an exciting thing:

It can reduce stress: You tend to be more stress-free when you say no to unwanted or excess things or people. You are not easily overwhelmed by people or situations, whether professional, social or personal. It paves the way for your mental well-being.

It can define boundaries: When you say- No, you decide on your deliverables. People become aware of what they can accept of you, and gradually with such a defined set of boundaries, people will stop asking you beyond that.

It reduces bitterness: When you say yes to people you wanted to say no to, you end up hating that person. You are more resentful towards that person in further meetings as you forcibly had to agree then. Saying no reduces this bitterness when you never have to face this situation.

You become less remorseful: You never regret anything when you say No because you are left with choices of things you want to do. You are never resentful toward anything when you learn the art of saying No.

You hold the reigns of your life: You can easily focus on the essential things when you say no to unimportant things. That way, you learn to prioritise what’s vital for you and what’s not. You tend to balance out something you feel is essential. Some include acquiring new skills for your career, spending time with family or self-care for healthy well-being.

When there are so many benefits to saying no, why should you fall into the trap of saying yes?

Why not learn the tactics to say no and smoothen life instead of complicating it?

At this point, you are bound to worry about the outcome if you say no, especially if you are new to a place.

You’d be concerned about making a wrong impression with your no. I understand your distress, and in the video below, I’ve shared an example of a situation between a newly hired employee and his boss.

With the help of this video, you’ll get an idea of how to say no subtly and turn the ball in your court.

Sagar Amlani in conversation with Shantanu at ICFAI

Saying no doesn’t mean you show arrogance or attitude and make it sound not polite.

Your behaviour should not indicate that you are taking pride in saying NO, but you won’t be able to do it then. Saying NO should not become your habit to avoid taking responsibility. It’s a costly attitude that you should use only when there is a genuine need to focus on your goals and priorities in life.

You needn’t be sorry as you are not doing something wrong, choosing yourself over others. But it should be subtle, reasonable, logical, and polite but firm NO.

In the book The Key, I have given some actionable tips for learning the art of saying NO.

The Results are phenomenal, as they will help you develop a Productive Mindset to lead an Integrated Life full of a sense of fulfilment, happiness and gratitude.

Do share your experiences with me at sagar@sagaramlani.com

This listicle shows how saying No makes you more productive.

By saying no, you are-

More confident in your deliverables, and people respect you: When you say no to other things, you focus wholeheartedly on what you are working on and deliver it with optimum results. The results are always fantastic, and you gain respect for your work in the long run. When you commit to something you wish to, you have results more than expected as you become more productive.

More light-headed: You stop taking things personally. This you acquire over time as you constantly remind yourself of the priorities you set and their importance. Gradually, people’s opinions of you won’t stir you as their thoughts or sayings won’t move you. You know your priorities and self-worth and have a vision of your life. When you value yourself, you believe in your abilities and your productivity increases. Every other thing becomes futile in front of these priorities for you.

Conclusion:

By saying Yes, you fall into the trap of self-destruction, hindering your mindset and impacting your abilities. By cultivating a habit of Saying No, you focus on the crucial things that require your time and attention, and you scale in every aspect. Make sure your No doesn’t sound rude but is logical and direct.

The sure-shot way to develop a Productive mindset is learning the art of saying No. This art leads you on a path to an integrated life.

To learn in-depth about the productivity mindset and the subtle art of saying No, refer to the book The Key.

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Smart

sagar.amlani — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 12:32:17 +0000

SMART Goals

The post Smart appeared first on Sagar Amlani : Official Site "The Productivity Explorer".

Fire Up your Productivity

sagar.amlani — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 14:48:51 +0000

Fire up your productivity with a Minimalist Lifestyle
Have a think about how much you own that you don’t really use or you aren’t really familiar with. Does it cause a slight amount of stress to bubble up? Imagine the alternative: being fully aware of exactly what you own and being able to run through your mind and do a complete ‘stock take’. Feels better doesn’t it? And actually, that feeling goes a long way to making you more energetic, less stressed and even less productivity.

You might not realize it but right now, there is a good chance that your clutter and disorganization is making you less productive! Of course, this comes down to creating a great home office space that you can work well in. But it also comes down to a lot of much simpler things. Having a nicer home for instance can actually make you more likely to shave, more likely to iron your clothes and more likely to generally stay on top of things.

Conversely, having to dig through drawers whenever you need to find something or having to dig through papers to answer that important post will only make you less effective in every area of your life. It’s time to look at how becoming more minimal can help you to create a much more productive work flow.

The Ultimate Home Office

When it comes to productivity at home, most of us will think of a home office space where we are likely to keep a computer, our important documents and probably any utensils and other items of that nature. This might be where you do your main job if you have the luxury of working from home, or it may just be where you do things like paper work. Perhaps you enjoy working on personal projects here.

But if you’re like most people, then your office is going to be covered in documents and papers and look like a bomb has hit it. Then there will be the wires running across the room. One way to fix all this is by getting a better filing system for your documents. This can start with a filing cabinet and if you aren’t able to get one of those for lack of space, consider a brief case with a file system (they do exist!). Of course some documents are likely to be required at any given time and you can’t just file everything away! The solution to this issue, is to use paper trays.

A good way to organize these is by thinking in terms of how the human memory works – with a ‘working’, ‘short term’ and ‘long term’ system. Your working system is the top tray and it’s where you put everything you’re working on right at this moment. You sort through this every day and you either throw things out or put them on the lower draw, which is ‘short term memory’. Then, at the end of each week on a Friday, you will sort through the short term tray and put long term items into the filing cabinet, while throwing everything else away.

This works well because it acknowledges the fact that some things will need to be immediately accessible but it also forces you to do your sorting in small chunks rather than let a mountain of paper build up on your desk. Better yet though is simply to reduce the amount of paper you work with in general. Having a notebook to keep handwritten notes in is a good start and from there, you should also look into switching to digital bills and statements wherever possible.

This will make it much easier to stay organized, as well as getting a scanner with OCR (optical character recognition). This will let you scan letters and other hardcopy documents and turn them into searchable Word documents and PDFs. From there, simply shred and throw away! With these things in hand, you’ll be able to massively reduce the amount of paperwork in your office and around your house, which will make it much easier to keep your home tidy and to stay productive.

Cable management is also an important tip as we touched on earlier. This can also mean using wireless devices where possible, which will give you more ways that you can interact with your technology. You can even go as far as to use products like Amazon Echo, which will let you talk to your computer. Likewise, try to simplify other processes and things you find yourself doing regularly. Think in terms of efficiency by removing the number of steps needed to accomplish any given task.

This might mean ensuring that you have all the work surfaces you need nearby and easily accessible for example, or it might mean ensuring that the tools you need are easy to pull out of a drawer without digging first! The key is to remove clutter but with the end of making it easier for you to get work done. Otherwise, keeping your office productive will once again mean removing items from your surfaces and removing busy furniture and patterns.

There’s a particular type of clutter to remove from a home office too – and that is anything that could be considered a distraction. The aim is to make sure that you keep your office space and your personal life separate. Your office is not meant to be somewhere where you have fun, it is meant to be somewhere that you get work done. This is not a place for a second TV and nor is it a place for a bunch of books.

This isn’t to say that your room should be bland – in fact it is generally considered that rooms with a bit of color and interest will be more conducive to productivity and creativity in particular. The aim isn’t to make a stuffy corporate-looking room in your own house! But just make sure that you do keep your room free from things that are clearly distracting and that will make it harder for you not to procrastinate!

Keeping Your Tech Clean and Fast

Note that just as important here is to keep your technology running well. Just as a room can become an outward representation of your state of mind, the same is also often true of your computer. If your computer is covered in desktop icons and if it seems to be taking longer and longer to load, then there’s a good chance that you have been stressed and bogged down and this is once again an outward demonstration of that busy schedule.

Worse, it means you’ll be more likely to lose important files and it means you’ll feel more stressed every time you turn the computer on. Solve this issue by keeping your computer as minimal as your room. Make a habit of deleting unnecessary icons and files, keep your virus checker up-to-date and try not to install things you don’t need. The result will be that your computer boots faster and helps you to stay more productive!

To know more about simple techniques, connect with me https://www.linkedin.com/in/sagar-amlani/

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Kaizen

sagar.amlani — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 08:50:14 +0000

Kaizen Culture in the Workplace

Kaizen is a Japanese term meaning “change for the better” or “continuous improvement.” It is a Japanese business philosophy regarding the processes that continuously improve operations and involve all employees. Kaizen sees improvement in productivity as a gradual and systematic process.

Kaizen is about decreasing waste by eliminating overproduction, improving quality, being more efficient, having less idle time, and reducing unnecessary activities. All these translate to cost savings and can turn potential losses into profits.

Kaizen is a system that requires interaction and participation from all employees, from the front line employee to the company’s top management and even CEO. Everyone is encouraged to brainstorm and come up with suggestions for improvement regularly. It is a continuous activity carried out throughout the year.

Employees from all company levels work together proactively to achieve continuous, small and incremental improvements to the business processes. In this way, different levels of experience and skills can be brought together to create very powerful techniques for improving the company’s processes.

Kaizen is a process, which if performed correctly, humanizes the workplace, eliminates hard work while encouraging smart work, motivates people to conduct experiments based on their suggestions, learn to identify and reduce wastes in the business processes.

When Kaizen is implemented as an action plan through a series of Kaizen events, it teaches employees to think differently about their work. They are pushed to consider how their current work can be further improved in order to achieve greater success.

Implementing Kaizen in the workplace

There are three stages in the implementation of Kaizen in any organization.

Encourage participation

To ensure active participation from all employees, first awareness about Kaizen must be created. After the necessary awareness training sessions are provided, conduct and promote Kaizen events and provide rewards to employees on successful implementations of ideas which are the results of these events. In such events, direct involvement of management is also important.

Training and Education

Proper training is required for executives to learn the essence of Kaizen. The management level should thoroughly understand Kaizen in an organizational vision context, which must be followed vigorously to achieve the desired business results. They must also be taught how to be impartial towards everyone and encourage their employees to participate actively.

Quality level improvement

After training is completed, people should remain focused on making changes towards improvement. They should take measures to start making small and incremental changes towards achieving long term goals, like improving efficiency, processes and quality.

In organizations where Kaizen is being implemented, transparency between different organisation levels is crucial. Effective communication should take place between all the groups of employees. While employees brainstorm ideas, it is essential that management also gets involved in these sessions.

The manager also should ensure that their suggestions and ideas are being acted upon immediately and not delayed by a week or month. Employees should be kept informed about other activities going on in the team and how their ideas are being worked upon.

People should not feel that their ideas have gone to waste and are not being used. A positive mindset will help keep Kaizen alive in the organization. Thus, the consistent application of Kaizen creates huge long-term value by developing the culture needed for actual continuous improvement.

Kaizen aims to eliminate waste and redundancies by improving standardised programs and processes.

Continuous improvement in Kaizen can be broken down into six different steps, with each promoting productivity:

Standardize: Involve workers from all levels and departments to produce a process that can be repeated and organized.

Measure: Using data collected, decide if the process is efficient.

Compare: Compare the data against requirements; does it save time or accomplish the desired result?

Innovate: Look for new and better ways to achieve the same result and find more efficient routes or techniques.

Standardize: Create defined processes that can be repeated for new and more efficient activities.

Repeat: Go back to step one and go through the steps again!

The cycle may seem repetitive and exhaustive but is very effective when improving productivity within an organization.

Productivity in the workplace can also be significantly affected by employee morale. Although often overlooked, employee morale can increase when workers know their voice matters and their ideas and suggestions are taken seriously. Employees who are happier with their work environment are more likely to work more productively. It is proven that engaged and satisfied employees are more likely to stay working in an organization. Employees who complete their work productively and efficiently will take personal satisfaction in their work.

You can refer to the video for more details

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60 minutes more

sagar.amlani — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 05:14:12 +0000

There are only so many hours in the day, so making the most of your time is critical. When it comes to improving your productivity, there are two ways to go about it: you can either work longer and harder or work smarter.
To build a productive mindset, whether at work or home, while not rocket science, requires you to be more deliberate when managing your time.
Productivity is a critical component of your success. Whether you’re an employee, a business leader, manager, or mother, you should be continually seeking ways to increase your productivity.
If you can’t find a way to perform as efficiently and effectively as others, your long-term prospects could be in trouble. Here are five things that you can begin to do today to increase your productivity and get more done in less time.

Tip #1 – Limit Your To-Do List

One of the most counterintuitive but highly effective methods for increasing your productivity is limiting the number of items you put on your daily to-do list. One way that you can accomplish this is by choosing one to three of your most essential tasks. These are the substantial tasks that will be tough to achieve but ones that you need to get done during the day. These are the ones that will keep you working at the office long past quitting time or working after dinner if you aren’t able to get through them.
You want to start working on the most important tasks first thing in the morning, either while you are still at home or when you first get to work. If you put them off until later, you will inevitably get busy and run out of time to complete them. To increase your productivity, you want to get these tasks out of the way first.
You can fill the rest of your to-do list with minor tasks that you’d like to get done, as long as you’ve prioritized your most essential functions. If you can work on these before moving on to your minor tasks, you will probably feel a lot more productive during your day.
You can try to do something regarding your to-do list to help increase your productivity is by writing it out the night before. Rather than wasting your time in the morning, you can jump right into working on your most important tasks. Writing out your to-do list before you go to sleep will help you sleep better and be more prepared to start your day.

Tip #2 – Measure Your Results, Not Your Time

The concept behind working more ingenious rather than harder is that many of us are putting in more and more hours, only to find that we don’t get more accomplished. Working smarter involves finding methods of being productive in less time.
We can tackle this problem is to adjust the way we measure productivity. While this may sound like a trick to you, it’s not a way out of getting your work done. However, if you honestly measure what you get done rather than how long it took you to complete your tasks, you should start to notice a difference in how you work.
If you have substantial projects or tasks to complete, breaking them down into more manageable sections is an excellent place to start. When you have a set of smaller tasks making up a more massive project, you can check off what you accomplish each day, even if it takes you several days to complete the primary function.
Being able to check off smaller tasks while working on the larger ones can give you the momentum to keep going until the job is done.

Tip #3 – Create "Getting Ready to Work" Routines

When you don’t know what to work on, you tend to procrastinate and waste time at the start of your day. While you might have a different time during the day when your procrastination is at its worst, just the idea of getting started on tasks is a common hurdle for most people.
You can make it easier to get started by creating a routine that tells your body and brain that it’s time to begin to work. You can create a pattern as simple as grabbing a coffee on your way to work or just sitting down at your desk or workspace.
You could even have a playlist or album that gets you in the mood to work and listen to it as a part of your daily routine.
While it will be tempting to let go of your weekday routine when the weekend hits, maintaining a weekend routine that isn’t different from your weekday routine can significantly increase productivity at work.
The idea is that the more you let go of your habits on the weekends, the harder it will be for you to pick it up again during the week.

Tip #4 – Track What You're Wasting Time On

When you struggle with productivity, it can be incredibly tempting to start changing your routine or working on a new solution before you even uncover the real problem. The first step in becoming more productive is figuring out your usual time-wasters.
To start, track what you do every morning when getting ready for work. You might find that you are spending too much time deciding what to wear for the day, which you can do the night before.
Then you want to track how you spend your time throughout the day and look for patterns. When you follow how you spend your time, you might discover that you are getting caught up on Facebook too often.
Once you’ve determined what’s taking up your time or causing you to procrastinate, you can begin to make changes to those specific habits. If you like to check your favourite sites for news in the mornings, factor this into your routine by doing it as you drink your coffee.

Tip #5 – Build Habits to Help You Stop Working

Many people struggle most in stopping work rather than getting started. Often, it is just too easy to continue to work for another hour or jump back on your computer after dinner, which can lead you to keep working until well after it’s time to go to bed.
The worst thing about this habit is that it encourages you to put off your most important tasks in the morning because you know you’ll end up working long enough to accomplish them.
There are several ways to help yourself switch off at home and leave work behind. Hopefully, if you can start implementing these strategies, you’ll find that you’re pushed to do your most important tasks first thing in the morning rather than putting them off.
This will also hopefully help you become more productive overall. When it comes to increasing productivity, Ernest Hemingway once said, “The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next.
If you do that every day, you will never be stuck.” While this is standard advice for writers, everyone can apply it.
Another way to build habits to help you stop working is to set a firm cut-off time or even work on your laptop without your power cord. Both of these habits will limit the amount of time you have to work, motivating you to finish your most important tasks first.
You can also create a wind-down routine every day. Like with your “getting ready to work” routine, this can help you begin to turn off your brain and cut off your work mode.
This is extremely helpful for those who struggle to switch off at the end of the day. Your routine can be as simple as taking a short walk before you go to bed, journaling, or getting in the habit of planning the next day.
Being productive isn’t something that happens. It takes time, effort, and an understanding of those habits that might be holding you back. If you want to increase your productivity so that you can get more done in less time, then these five simple tips can help get you on your way. These tips can help bring both your body and mind in sync to have better focus when you need it.

It would be best if you continued to try as many strategies as you can until you find what works best for you to create the perfect system for increasing your productivity. And remember, every minute matters, so you need to make sure that you make each one count.

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