Enhancing Productivity – Personal and Professional Paradigms

How Do I Increase My Personal and Professional Productivity?

Almost always, the meaning of productivity is misunderstood.

Productivity is not doing a lot of things in a given time frame.

Productivity is doing the important things with consistency within the given me frame. We need to categorize our ‘to-do’ list basis their importance and urgency. This is otherwise referred to as prioritizing.

Whatever work we do, be it in professional space or personal space is connected to our productivity. This applies even to sleep. A productive sleep results in a healthier and better physical and mental stamina for the subsequent day.

Whenever the term productivity is used, we see that it is almost always referring to the professional space. This is not always the case. Productivity in the personal paradigm is equally important. This is what makes you ready to add value to your professional space.

Considering a normal person: sleep for 8 hours, work (9 AM – 6 PM) for 7 hours, personal time for remaining 9 hours.

Looking at this holistically, the time including sleep is could be compartmentalized easily. Each of the work and personal times could be further worked upon to enhance the overall productivity of the day.

This is not as easy as it sounds. We are human and not machines to be pre-programmed to do work per specific timings. However, we could try compartmentalizing our day as much as possible, in order to get the feel of ‘time well spent, at the end of the day.

That is all that matters.

Keeping this in mind, further ahead, we will discuss a few ways to enhance productivity in professional and personal paradigms.

Suggestions/Tips to Increase Productivity in Professional Space

We spend almost 30% of our day at work.

Most of us have the habit of taking work back home. Do we know the reason behind this?

Why do we spill our work into our personal lives?

Why don’t we finish up our work-related tasks at work itself and leave them behind while returning home?

Why do we carry the baggage back home and thereby disrupt the personal space?

These are very important questions that we should be asking ourselves. There is no differentiation between work and personal times nowadays. These are almost always blurred. People usually consider this a fashion statement or a social statement. But, the brutal truth is, they do not realize that t is almost always a bane and not a boon.

Now, this issue could be handle and moderated by enhancing productivity during work hours. There are a lot of suggestions on the internet to go about his. However, not all are important.

The following are 12 concrete and condensed suggestions to do the same:

The Infamous ‘Eat the Frog’ Technique (by Mark Twain)

When you have a series of tasks lined up for the day, start with the most difficult one first up in the morning. Try not to procrastinate further. Experts believe that this habit goes a long way to enhance the overall productivity of the day.

Develop a habit of tracking the time spent

This habit would make you realize your pattern of spending time. This could help you weed out redundancy and wastage.

Try setting self-imposed deadlines

For each task in your list, try fixing a personal deadline. This could help in maintaining time and keeping track of our working speed trajectory.

Try out the ‘2 minute rule’

Whenever we feel a task could be done in less than 2 minutes or less, do it right away without putting it off further. Experts believe that this could save a lot of time and energy when you consider the day as a whole.

Be in an optimum temperature while at work

A comfortable temperature of 20 – 21 degrees C could promote better concentration and focus at work. Experts believe this could also boost their work speed and satisfaction.

Have the right facilities, tools and equipments

Be it a laptop, or a desk, or even a chair, make sure we have the equipment and relates facilities with us. This would help boost our productivity and our focus on tasks.

Try 90 minute work window with 2 mini-breaks

Experts and researchers from the Florida State University have found that top performers n their fields work no more than 90 minutes at a stretch. This usually includes 2-3 mini-breaks. They also believe that the focus level drops after this span of time, due to which productivity would also be affected.

Avoid long meetings as much as possible, promote standing meetings

Meetings, though considered important, almost always use up more time than required. Try promoting and follow g smaller meetings. If there needs to be a long meeting for a long agenda, it could be broken down into few smaller meetings. Experts believe this could help retain the focus of the participants better than a long meeting.

Experts also suggest following standing meetings. They believe this could help maintain high levels of concentration throughout the meeting.

Try to minimise interruptions

Distractions and interruptions would probably be the main issue affecting focus and concentration at work.

We need to try our best to keep away interru[tions. This may include a colleague popping up in your desk space for chat, an untimely invitation for a coffee chat, and so on. Clos dorrs or hang out a buys sign if necessary.

Another source of distraction is the notification on your mobile/laptop. Most of them might be social media and some might be emails. It is advisable to turn these off during office hours and set a specific time for checking them.

Try to be more proactive, and less reactive

More often than not, our workday is dictated to a great extent by the mails and phone calls we receive. Though we cannot help this, we can certainly make time to check these and work on them during that time frame. We need to try not to allow these run the office day for us.

Have something pleasant on our workplace

Finally, know that our surroundings play a huge role in our focus and concentration and ultimately our productivity. A great way to enhance productivity would be to maintain a neat and healthy desk space, preferably with some nice to look at like a plant or a photo of a role model and so on, whatever works for us and keeps us motivated.

Suggestions/Tips to Improve Productivity in Personal Space

Apart from sleep time and work, we spend around 40% of the day at home, in our personal space.

Famous philosophers believe that it is the time away from work that defines who we really are at the core. In simple words, this time is when we focus on our passion, hobbies, family, and the likes. 

Keeping this space healthy and productive could result in a sense of happiness and satisfaction for an individual. This, in turn, impacts our professional space and sleep time positively.

Though there are lots of suggestions on the internet for this too, the following are 9 concrete and condensed suggestions for the same: 

Try to allocate time to relax and rest

Resting and relaxing don’t mean sleeping. Just sitting in our favorite chair with a coffee mug in our hands is all that needs to be to relax and rest. For some, it could be reading a book and so on. It may vary with people’s interests. A common relaxation and resting process is a nap.

Break personal tasks into chunks

There could be a lot of tasks to do at home after work. Experts advise us to break them into smaller parts so that it becomes easier and relatively stress-free for us to finish them. 

Exercise

It is advisable to spend some time nurturing body, mind, and soul. The best way to do this is through exercise. For ease of understanding, Yoga could also fall under this category. Exercise could improve blood circulation in our body, thereby elevating energy and stamina levels.

Try to allocate a music time

Experts believe that music could help a great deal in calming our minds. It is advisable to allocate some time for your favorite music. You could also integrate this with point 1, where you relax and rest.

The great batsman Sachin Tendulkar says his music time had helped him immensely by calming his mind and soothing him.

Work on hobby, which could be a potential side hustle

Always have a hobby at hand, if not two. This could make you eager to come home after work. Moreover, your hobby could lead to a side hustle and a source of income in the future.

Reward yourself for the day

This is something that we must follow as a rule. Reward ourselves after the day’s work, both professional and personal, with something we love. This helps you maintain a positive mindset.

Sleep, the master healer

This space is the remaining 30% f the day. A good night’s sleep ensures a clear and healthy mind the next day. It could also provide higher levels of focus and concentration for our next day’s tasks.

Now that we understand the need and the ways to enhance productivity, the only thing left out is executing them. That part, I leave it to the readers.

Try these, and do let me know.