How to Increase Your Productivity, Achieve More and Commit Less Time.
Growing up I was always told “work hard and your dreams will come true”, you may have been told the same thing.
This conventional wisdom that’s been passed down by the generations is great but there’s a problem with it…
IT DOESN’T WORK.
Throughout this post, I’m going to tell you why throwing more time and energy at your goals is one of the least effective methods of achieving them. But, don’t worry, I’m also going to tell you a better way of working that allows you to achieve your goals while committing less time.
More Time ≠ Higher Productivity
Let’s say, someone has told you that the end result of the goal you desire is on the other side of this 10ft high, 300ft wide wall. What’s your instant reaction?
Was it, I need to get through this wall?
Don’t worry, if it was because I would’ve said the same thing. And, this is the problem.
As humans we are programmed by our evolution to find the quickest route to our goal and because of the mantra: “work harder and your dreams will be yours”, we jump in and get to work.
So, in the case of our wall, if there was a sledgehammer nearby, I’d be chipping away at it by now.
However, the person only told us the height and width of the wall, never said how deep it is. It could be one brick deep or 50 bricks deep.
What we’ve done is let our prehistoric ape brains take over and go for the direct solution. Instead of thinking about the problem and coming up with a smarter solution.
But, let’s assume we did go with the hammer. How long could you continuously swing a sledgehammer at a wall before running out of energy? A few hours? Maybe a day?
Running out of energy and being unable to continue is us burning out. And, we all have a point where we can’t work anymore; where our brains are fried and we can’t bear it.
How many projects have you let die because you lost motivation? Because you got tired and it took too much energy to carry on. Because the mantra “work harder and your dreams will come true” failed you.
It’s time we fixed that. It’s time to change our mantra; if we want to achieve goals and be productive, we need to stop working longer hours and start working smarter ones.
Quality Organised Time > Lengthy Unorganised Time
Instead of working longer hours to achieve our goals. We need to only commit a few organised, well-planned, and productive ones tackling the problems that need our attention most.
Currently, I have 2 projects on the go to support my writing. I need to keep producing weekly content and I need to make a website (I really need to hurry up on this one). But, as much as I want to be, I can’t be in two places at the same time.
So, instead of trying to write an article, watch a tutorial, publish a post on medium and code a webpage at the same time which is going to result completing nothing, I need to pick one task and commit to it whole-heartedly until it’s complete.
We’re like fire-fighters fighting fires. They don’t spray water over all the individual fires hoping they’ll all disappear because not only is this an incredible waste of water it won’t extinguish any of them.
Instead they fight each fire one by one; tackling them all individually until they’re all gone which on the surface may seem less efficient but in reality, it is the vastly better option.
You only extinguish a fire by committing more energy to extinguish it than the fire has to burn. (I know this is an oversimplification of how real fire-fighting works but it serves our purpose).
This is the first half of how to maximise our productivity and achieve more in less time. But to really achieve our goals and be more productive, we don’t only need to prioritise our work, but we need to also work in an organised and methodical way, and that’s the second half.
If you work an 8 hour day, how many of those hours would you be truly productive and fully immersed in your work for? Maybe 3 or 4? As humans, we struggle to focus on a task for extended periods of time with minimal to no breaks which is why there is a case for a shorter 6 hour work day but that’s a story for another time.
But, until we get a shorter workday, we need a way to maximise our productivity with the time we have and that’s why we need to work in shorter, more intense periods with frequent breaks to avoid burn-out and fatigue. Also, by taking frequent breaks, we stay refreshed, enabling us to focus on our work for an overall longer period of time.
My 3 Step Method for Higher Productivity and Achieving More.
To make it easier, I’ve put together a 3-step list that will allow you to be more productive and achieve more while using less time than if you just swung away at that wall.
Planning
First, we need to plan all the tasks that need to be completed that day and place them into an order of priority. Then, decide on the tasks that need our attention the most, if you have something that needed to be completed yesterday that takes priority and we work towards the most recent.
Personally, I use Google Tasks to organise all my tasks into date order and place them into my calendar but it’s up to you how you do this.
Accountability
After planning, we need to hold ourselves accountable, I’ve created a small spreadsheet to do this for me but you can use a pen and paper if you wish, once you know what tasks you need to complete, write them down and put them somewhere visible like your laptop screen.
The aim here is to make ourselves feel guilty that we haven’t completed those tasks, therefore creating a layer of accountability.
The Pomodoro Technique
I’ve written a full article on the Pomodoro Technique here; which I recommend you read if you want a deeper understanding of it but essentially it’s a timer for 25-minutes that we only focus on one task for. No interpretations allowed. And, then at the end of the timer, we have a small 5-minute break to recuperate before we start the timer again.
Using this technique provides us with a small pocket of organised time that we can get fully immersed in our work without any distractions.
Bonus: Accountability 2.0
Finally, at the end of the working day, count up how many you tasks you achieved and make a note of it, do this every day going forward so you can see and track how productive you’re being. Also, it makes you feel good.
And, if you’re feeling ultra-productive and organised, you can even decide on your list for the next day.
Wrapping Up
If you’re only going to take one piece of advice from this article, make it this:
“Quantity doesn’t mean quality, working hard will never beat working smart.”
I’ve tried working harder by getting up early and putting in extra hours by forcing myself to work through problems, but it has always ended up with me burning out and in some cases led to the downfall of my projects.
Don’t let this be you, don’t let your project fail because you have burned-out.
Instead, work smarter, use the Pomodoro Technique, plan & prioritise your work and hold yourself accountable for what you have achieved and what you haven’t.
Using the 3 steps I’ve shared with you today, I saw my productivity increase, my goals achieved quicker while also committing less time and being happier for it.
I’d love to hear how you could change your workflow to be more productive in the comments below?
