5 Productivity Hacks to Make You More Successful
There are many productivity hacks you can use to feel more energetic and squeeze more juice out of life.
Taking a walk, a short meditation session, or a mini-workout – there are many ways to feel refreshed during a stressful work day.
While many people distract themselves when they’re stressed, it’s not healthy and in fact, depletes their energy. Instead, try to use the following productivity hacks which will make you feel rejuvenated and increase your physical, emotional, and mental energies.
1. Exercise to Grow Your Energy
Many people who don’t exercise think that exercise is exhausting. Actually, exercise increases your energy as it charges up the powerhouse of each cell, a.k.a mitochondria, in your body. Exercise can lift your mood for upto 12 hours after your workout. Exercise not only keeps your vital organs healthy, it also keeps you mentally alert.
If you find it hard to make exercise a daily habit, find a workout partner who will keep you accountable. Exercise is clearly one of the best productivity hacks as it improves your emotions, mental alertness, and physical energy simultaneously.
2. Set Hard Boundaries and Keep Realistic Expectations
None of the productivity hacks will work if you don’t respect your own boundaries. So respect your time and set real boundaries to protect it. It’s not okay to delay a task by 30 minutes just because you’re enjoying the chat with your colleagues or taking a stroll outside.
You also need to be realistic about the results you expect to create from each time block. Make sure others around you also know about your expectations and the boundaries you set for yourself.
3. Say No to Almost Everything
Steve Jobs said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things”.
If you don’t learn to say no to things, your time will be spent the way others want it and not how you want it. It’s necessary to say no to all trivial things including random office hangouts or parties where you don’t know or like most of the people. This is one of the greatest productivity hacks you can use.
4. Cut off all Distractions
This may sound as a no-brainer. But many people keep checking their social media profiles or emails in between work. This is a recipe for failure since each distraction costs dearly. It takes about 23 minutes to get back to the task after being interrupted, plus upto 30 minutes to get back into the ‘zone’ or the ‘flow’ state.
So turn of the wifi, put your phone in the locker, lock the room, and cut away all distractions before you start working.
Take intentional breaks when you’re tired. Succumbing to distractions will only drain your energy and affect the quality of your work.
5. Manage Your Energy, Not Time
Most productivity hacks talk about time. But time is finite, but energy isn’t. We can cultivate it throughout the day to perform in the peak state. There are many ways to manage your energy, instead of managing your time.
For feeling high energy, take care of the fundamentals: sleep, exercise, and nutrition. These three nourish our physical body, so it’s absolutely essential to take care of them.
An important way to maintain high energy is to diffuse negative emotions with techniques such as deep breathing, expressing appreciation towards things or people, or telling yourself a different story. For more tips on how to increase your energy, read this detailed article on how to manage your energy, not your time.
I was hip to most of these ideas, but you had a few in there that I could do more of (like saying no more often). Thanks for helping prepare me for my day to slay!