There are certain things that very productive people do every day, as well as things that productive people avoid doing every day. In our chaotically busy lives, we could all do with some life hacks and a productivity boost. Today I am sharing the ultimate productivity habits that are utilised daily by the most productive people in the world. Adopting these habits will allow you to become more productive and get more out of your days.
Table Of Contents
Follow routines
As a Mum of four, my life is held together with routines. From our morning routines for both school and non school days, to laundry routines, skin care routines and bedtime routines, finding a flow of what to do that works for your family makes life so much easier. Routine removes the time wasted wondering what you should be doing and means that you get through everything that needs to be done in a timely manner.
So if you find yourself in a flap every morning, try following my morning routine for a few days and see if it makes life easier. If your baby won’t sleep for more than an hour at a time, try my baby routine. If your toddler is getting grumpy, try my toddler routine. If the laundry is getting you down, try my laundry routine.
Use digital sharing calendars
If you do one game-changing thing today to boost your productivity, make it setting up digital sharing calendars for you and your family. Make these calendars central to your lives and put everything on them. Set up different calendars for different family members (my how to set up digital calendars post explains how) and make sure that every member of your household knows what is happening when and avoids making conflicting arrangements.
Check your diary
In order to be productive, make a point of checking your diary once a day. Check what is coming up that day, the next day and the rest of the week. This way you can be prepared for what is coming up rather than blindsided by dealing with unexpected events.
Check bank account
I make a point of logging into my internet banking app once a day. This only takes a minute or two and means that I know exactly what has left my account. This makes spotting unexpected transactions much easier as you are only having to check a day or two of entries to check. Checking daily makes you much more aware of your finances and what you are spending, and helps you to stay in control of your finances.
Write things down
If something comes to mind, be it an idea, something you need to do, or something you need to buy, quite simply write it down before it leaves your head. This could be in a specific notebook or app on your phone, whatever works for you.
Personally I like to use the Evernote app on my phone as I can access the information from my phone, iPad or computer and it’s all backed up on the cloud. I like the fact that my notes can be organised into folders and are all searchable so easy to find.
Put a load of laundry on
If you start every day with putting on a load of laundry, you will avoid having a massive build up of dirty clothes that demands a laundry marathon. Think about it, putting a load on means that the washing machine is working even if you are not, it’s a no brainer for staying on top of things.
Meal plan
I cannot tell you how much time I wasted wondering what to have for dinner before I discovered meal planning. Now I meal plan once a week, my shopping if more efficient and I no longer have a daily dinner panic.
All of my meal planning goes own the wall in my Organisation Station which lives in the corner of my kitchen.
For full details of exactly how to create your own organisation station, plus free printables, click the button below.
Clean as you go
As you are cooking, getting dressed in the mornings or doing whatever else you do as you go about your day, clean up as you go. If you pick up after yourself straight away, or load the dishwasher as you cook, you will find that you have a consistently toddler house that doesn’t require as many “let’s fix this disaster house” type of extreme cleans.
Use power hours
When it does come time to really clean your home, master the art of the power hour. This is where you set a timer and clean as much and as quickly as you can for 60 minutes. For tips for maximising your power hour, check out the blog post below.
Master microwave minutes
Microwave minutes are where you squeeze tasks into those few spare minutes that you find within your day. You could clean out the bathroom cupboard while you run a bath, wipe the kitchen surfaces while the kettle boils or sort one kitchen drawer crammed full of take away menus while you wait for the microwave to finish. Making use of these tiny blocks of time is key to staying productive.
Check email once a day
Check your email once a day and only once a day. Further more, avoid checking your email at all until you have done some of your most urgent and productive work for the day. As soon as you check your email, you are immediately on someone else’s schedule which can get in the way of you achieving what you had planned for the day.
Time block
Plan out what you will do when. We already talked about using a digital calendar to plan our your days when it comes to where you have to be and when, but productive people take it one step further.
Plan which tasks you will do in which block of time. Plan when you will meal prep, when you will clean, when you will do homework with your kids and even when you will spend time with family. If you have work to do, don’t just plan when you will work, plan which work you will do when to maximise your time.
Stop multi tasking
Remember when you were in school and you had a timetable? If you were in a maths lesson, all you did was maths. You weren’t trying to do French work in chemistry or thinking about geography in your biology class.
Then we grew up and we were told that multitasking is the holy grail of productivity.
Well I’m here to tell you this. It’s a lie.
Multitasking is actually one of the biggest productivity thieves that there is. If you are not all in on what you are doing, you will not do it as quickly or as efficiently and you could.
Use functions on your phone to help you productivity
So distractions destroy productivity, so avoid digital distractions by setting up “screen time” alerts and utilising “do not disturb” on your phone.
Screen Time Alerts
iPhones (and probably android phones) have the option to set “screen time” alerts for when you have spent a certain amount of time on particular apps on your device.
It’s so easy to waste endless amounts of time scrolling Instagram and before we even know it we have achieved nothing. Decide how much time that you realistically be spending on time sucking apps and once that time is reached, they will off, prompting you to get back on track with productivity.
Do Not Disturb
While you are doing tasks that require focus, avoid interruptions from phone calls and notifications that will interrupt your flow by switching on “Do Not Disturb” on your phone and computer.
Listen to podcasts
Having just said that we shouldn’t be multitasking, I’d like to add that there is an exception to this rule. If you have information that you need to digest, be it the news, some educational content or some form of self development, listening to podcasts while you carry out mundane and mindless tasks is a good way to squeeze this into your day. Download podcasts or audiobooks to listen to while on your commute, doing your makeup or even cleaning and you’ll be amazed at how much more or this educational or enriching content you can consume.
Have systems in place
Productive people don’t figure things out as they go along, they have systems in place. Rather than opening the mail and dumping it “wherever” have a system where you immediately place it ready for filing in a designated spot. Rather than haphazardly doing laundry then leaving it in unsorted baskets dumped around your home, develop a system and stick to it.
Stop procrastinating
So many of us are guilty of procrastinating tasks that we find daunting or overwhelming. Productive people complete tasks because they need to be done, rather than just ticking off the easiest or most satisfying tasks from their to do its.
Become instantly more productive by completing the tasks that you do not want to do earlier in the day and getting them over and done with. It will feel so good to have those tasks that have been hanging over your head out of the way and off your list.
Make achievable lists and stick to them
Having endless and unachievable to do lists will air your brain telling you “we’ll never get through all of this” and giving up before you have begun.
Decide what really needs to be done by splitting your to do lists into an Eisenhower Matrix as outlined below.
Know what needs to be done during each time block
Back to our time blocking! Whenever we enter into a new block, we need to know exactly what needs to be done. Before cleaning, know exactly what you plan to clean in order to avoid wandering aimlessly around the house. Before working, know exactly what you need to have achieved by the end of that block in. order to keep you focussed and avoid random tab clicking and other “busy work”.
Get enough sleep
Believe it or not, burning the candle at both ends in a desperate attempt to squeeze more into your day can often have the opposite impact on productivity. Staying up way too late and not getting enough sleep can mean that you are simply to tired to function properly.
Self-care is not selfish
So many busy people (Mums especially) find that they “don’t have the time” for basic exercise and self care. The problem is, neglecting to care for ourselves is another way that we can ruin our productivity.
How well would your car run if you didn’t fuel it properly? If you never serviced it and allowed it to deteriorate? Eventually, it would break down and you will too if you don’t schedule in some self-care.
This is a tough lesson for us all to learn (me included) but self care is an essential component if we are really to be as productive as possible.
Realise that you can do anything but you can’t do everything
Even with all of the productivity hacks and the best will in the world, we only have 24 hours in a day. We need to learn to celebrate our wins and give ourselves a pat on the back for what we have achieved and stop beating ourselves up for when we have not yet done.
Productivity is a skill that we must all master and can constantly approve upon. Some days we will be super organised, focussed and productive. Other days will not go so well. On days where things have nit gone well, all we can do is take a deep breath, get a good night’s sleep, then wake up with our productivity pants on in the morning.
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