Boosting Productivity

3 Quick Tips

Ever since I (Josiah) went full time in the business and started working from home, it’s been a fight between how much Netflix do I watch vs. how much work do I do. Figuring out how to become productive is difficult especially for someone like me who is easily distracted by TV & Movies. On top of that, taking care of our dog Chance who wakes us up around 6AM makes me want to take a nap around 10AM. Sometimes I get caught up in a Facebook & Instagram Wormhole; Just scrolling aimlessly out of the desire to communicate with another human being. So needless to say, there are a dozen distractions at home that often sound more appealing than answering emails or designing photo albums. Because time is the most valuable asset I have and there is never enough in a day, I’ve learned 3 things that help me boost productivity and be proactive about getting the most work done during my workday.

1. Schedule Your Day

Every night when I get into bed, I open up my calendar on my iPhone and schedule my entire day. Not just the things I have to do for work, but things like “Take Chance For A Walk,” “Shower,” and then I get to “Emails & Workflow.” Everything has a designated amount of time. This allows me to remember what exactly I have to do, when I have to do it and keeps me feeling like I succeeded when I finish in that time frame. If I finish early then I just move on to the next thing or I relax until the next thing on my list starts. It also helps me know when to end my workday! This has been the number one most helpful thing I’ve done to become more productive.

2. Turn off Post Notifications

Turning off post notifications on my iPhone has been a huge, huge, huge timesaver. No longer do I get notifications when someone likes my photo on Instagram or tags me in a comment on Facebook. Because this doesn’t happen anymore, I don’t get sucked into a social media wormhole endlessly scrolling until I snap out of the hypnotic trance I’ve been stuck in for the last 20 minutes. You guys know what I mean, right? I mean I’d put money on it that you found this blog post while scrolling through Facebook! Anyway, turn those post notifications off and feel what it’s like to be free! Just go to Settings, select the app, hit notifications and turn off “allow notifications.”

3. Work in Short Bursts

Finally, the last thing the will help you in your journey to becoming more productive is working in short bursts. According to this Forbes article, they’ve found that people who work for for an hour straight and then take a 15-20 minute break are more productive than those who work straight through their 8 hour day. In that hour they are dedicated to their work. No checking Facebook/Instagram (even easier after applying tip #2!) and they get there work done while giving themselves what feels like a reward at the end of that hour by relaxing their brains for 15-20 minutes before jumping back into the next hour. I try my best to do this. Some days I feel like I am so motivated that I go past my hour of work and somedays I fall just short of that hour and take a 15-20 minute break before jumping back into things. Try working in those short bursts of 1 hour followed by a 15 minute break and see if you become more productive!