Four Quick Tips to Improve Your Productivity
Hi team,
Welcome to our weekly newsletter!
As our company name suggests, we have a passion for productivity and providing the tools and insights to be able to improve our output over time. With this in mind, this week we wanted to look at four items that help us to maintain optimum productivity on a daily basis:
Dedicate Time to Reading
Reading has many benefits, such as improving our memory, focus, vocabulary and imagination, yet forming a reading habit can be challenging for some. One of the problems is that we don’t always allocate the time to read and when we lose this habit, it can be easy to find your reading has fallen off a cliff.
The best method we find is to allot a dedicated time to reading, pairing this habit with an activity you know that you will complete every day. For example, you could pair a mealtime, break-time or prior to getting in bed to pick up a book and read for a period of time. Start small and realistic, then build this over time, until you are at a point you are satisfied by. As much as possible, try to hold your book or e-reader upright, as this aids peripheral vision improvement, avoids unnecessary strain on your eyes and prevents slouching.
Try the Pomodoro Method
The Pomodoro Method is a popular productivity tool, which sets out an allotted time of 25 minutes for deep focused work, followed by a 5-minute break. Within the 25 minutes, you can work, read or complete a task and the key is to eliminate distraction, so that you can be fully engaged by the task at hand. We find that gamifying this process is extremely beneficial to keep the process engaging, so we keep a log of Pomodoros achieved per day, to see whether we can remain consistent.
As an extra tip, when you are inside of a Pomodoro block, try to keep a notebook, paper or something to write on, close at hand. As new thoughts come into your mind, that put you at risk of distraction, write them down, so that you can tackle them once you have completed your Pomodoro block.
Digital Detox
We live in the age of digital distraction and it is no secret that those who can master the benefits that comes with these opportunities will succeed above those who fall victim to mindless scrolling. It is all too easy to find your screen time clocking up, with very little in the way of output and very often this can leave us with a feeling of frustration.
When we acknowledge that we have fallen into a digital rut, we always begin by planning at least 30 minutes away from technology each week. This is the first step to getting back on top of our digital tools and owning them, rather than the other way around. We use this weekly ritual of placing technology completely out of reach, as a steppingstone for further improvement in the weeks that follow. As an extra exercise that we practice along these lines; try thinking about a key piece of work that needs to be completed in the future and consider ways that this can be attempted without any technology. If it can, then try to complete the task and see how you get on. If not, then keep considering a task which may be possible to complete without the technology. The reason behind trying this is to reduce the levels of distraction placed upon us when we work digitally, compared to good old pen and paper.
Wear Every Colour of Hat
The work by Dr Edward de Bono on The Thinking Hats, set out six colours of hat associated with approaching and overcoming a challenge. The hats and their meanings are set out as below:
- White Hat = Identifying information which is relevant to the challenge
- Yellow Hat = Identifying the positives of the challenge
- Black Hat = Identifying the difficulties of the challenge
- Red Hat = Identifying the emotions of the challenge
- Green Hat = Identifying new ways to approach the challenge
- Blue Hat = Identifying the agenda required to manage the handling of the challenge
When we come to approach a new challenge, by wearing every hat, we can ensure that we are covering the various angles to produce the optimum results for the next steps. The benefit of this process is that it is also training us to look at a variety of perspectives, so that we have all of the information available to make the best decisions. Since adopting this approach from de Bono, we have felt more confident in the decisions that we take, knowing that they have been well researched and supported.
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