Leon's Daily
Routine for
Maximum
Productivity
BEFORE WORK
1.
Plan for the upcoming work the night before
Think of this as the
planning stage, at this time you might find it useful to plot out your day in
blocks of time, with a specific activity planned for each. This is commonly
known as the time blocking method.
Using this method ensures that you don’t
end up multitasking which can have a negative impact on
your productivity.
2.
Wake up at a time that works for you (and stick to it every day)
It's often imagined that
the most productive people are those that can wake up at dawn, and continue
into the evening. But the 9-5 work day might not necessarily suit everyone.
I’m not suggesting that
people work less, but someone who works from 10-6 works for just as long as
someone who works 9-5, and that extra hour in bed may mean that they’re more
fresh and ready to work.
Often you might not have a
choice in what time you get up, after all, if you are expected at work at
09:00, you can’t be in bed at that time, but if you have any flexibility at
all, consider what works best for you.
3. Eat
a good breakfast
Once you have woken up, it
is very important to eat well. You need something that will give you a good
boost of energy, all the while keeping you full. A good idea is oatmeal with a
smoothie or a healthy fruit juice.
Check out 30
Healthy And Tasty Recipes For Breakfast That You Can Make The Night Before for more healthy breakfast choices that are
easy-to-make and will keep you energetic.
AT WORK
4.
Ensure a clean workspace which is distraction free
A few years ago a study at
Princeton University concluded that if in your field of vision, there are many
forms of visual stimuli, your brain will spread its focus and attention to each
piece. In another word, if your desk is cluttered, your ability to focus on the
task at hand.
Simply clearing your desk
of distractions therefore, can have a great impact on your focus, and with it,
your productivity.
5.
Don’t check emails first
Mornings are a great time
to do productive work that requires focus, creativity, and strategy. Clearing
out the inbox gives you a false sense of achievement, and wastes the
opportunity to engage your brain in more proactive tasks. Though you may have
read a lot of emails, you have nothing important done.
Unless your job revolves around
emails checking and replying only, never make checking emails your first thing
to do when you’re back to work. Instead, focus on your goals and do what really
matters.
6.
Tackle the worst thing first
Start your working day by
tackling the most difficult or most pressing task first, the task that will
most likely encourage you to procrastinate.
The benefit of this is
simple. Even if you accomplish little else that day, you can be happy with the
knowledge that you did something important. Also, by doing the most difficult
thing first, everything else will be easier.
7.
Take a quick nap or meditate
When setting up a routine,
it can be easy to forget the most important activity – resting. Humans simply
aren’t built for working all day, every day without a break. If you don’t
consider this in your routine, there is a danger that you will lose energy and
enthusiasm all together and burn out, thereby killing your productivity
altogether. This can be mitigated by making sure to making sure you get some
rest.
One way to do this is by
picking a reasonable time to stop working, another is to take a quick nap,
others recommend meditation. It all depends on your preference.
8. Say
no to unreasonable requests
This can be the hardest
things on this list, but it can be one of the most effective. Adding extra
tasks and jobs to your day can immediately throw your routine off balance, and
it will negatively impact you day’s productivity.
As such, declining and
saying no to extra tasks (that are unreasonably urgent or are unimportant) can
be the key to staying productive. After all, doing one thing really well is
more important than doing several things badly.
Sometimes you may be forced
to say yes and accept new tasks, but this won’t always be the case. Feel free
to say no some times.
9.
Finish up and off on time
By remaining focused on
specific tasks, you won’t feel overwhelmed and overworked as you’re totally in
control. And because you have things all planned out, you saved tons of energy
from making unnecessary decisions.
As you should have tackled
all the hardest things by now, the rest of the day should be far easier too.
A daily routine doesn't
need to be a complicated, clockwork plan. Far more important is sticking to it
and being consistent while being flexible enough to adjust when unexpected
things come up.
Besides this routine, I've
also got a daily routine for staying organized, a daily routine for health and
energy, and more! Combined together, these form the framework around my life
that help me to make sure that the most important things in my life are being
done each day, every day.
- Leon
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