By Jose Uli. on 22/03/2017
Let’s face it, focusing our attention on a single task without distractions gets more difficult everytime. Unfortunately, without attention there’s no productivity. I’ve created a list of the tactics that have helped us to boost our productivity in our studio. Pay close attention.
1. Plan your goals in advance.
Have you experienced getting overwhelmed during working hours due to the huge amount of tasks still to be completed and you’re longer certain which one should go first? Planning ahead is extremely helpful as the decision making takes many mental resources and energy.
During working hours we should avoid thinking each and every time a task is accomplished what should be next, it seems obvious but is not easy without a proper plan. We’ve created a planner that may be helpful to you when planning your month, weeks and day, you can get it here for free
2. Quantify your workload.
Apart from planning I would recommend to monitor your day to day. If you work within the creative or development digital world, surely you’ve had doubts when it comes to estimate the time it takes you to accomplish a given task? If you monitor each task you’ll be much more accurate when creating quotes for your clients. I use Toggl for monitoring my work and it’s free!
3. Get intense and highly productive work cicles with the Pomodoro technique.
When we’re unable to keep a proper level of attention for a long period of time and we don’t get breaks, our productivity gets worse, leading to lower creativity. If it rings a bell, then I can strongly recommend you following the Pomodoro technique.
How this technique works to maximize productivity is to focus during 25 minutes in your task, after which, there is a short 5 minutes break. This is counted as 1 pomodoro completed. After 4 pomodoros are complete the break can be a longer one, I usually do 15 minutes. I’ve noticed that some work issues not resolved during the 25 minutes of the pomodoro time, they’re easily resolved during the 5 minute break.
4. Pareto principle or 80-20 rule applied to your work schedule.
Sure you have read about this principle before, right? The 80-20 rule can be applied to many fields, but when it comes to productivity, this principle states that 80% of results can be achieve with 20% of your work! Ok, let’s do the math, if you work 8 hours a day from Pareto’s point of view, you can achieve 80% gain with only one and a half hours of work, cool right? With that said, we should plan our days according to that time of the day when we can make the most of ourselfs, thus be 100% productive with zero distractions.
5. Mens sana in corpore sano. Train and become more productive.
The mind is less prone to distractions when you exercise, it improves memory and problem solving. My advice is that you try to set up an exercise routine every day, even if it’s only 30 minutes. Think about something that will keep you encouraged, such us walking, lifting weights, hatha yoga, pilates, dancing, there are plenty of things, just choose yours and stick to it!
6. Zero distractions with social media, chats or emails.
Social media and chats are highly addictive, if you use them regularly you may have some sort of addiction to them up to some degree. During working hours you shouldn’t let yourself be disturbed by Linkedin, Facebook, Whatsapp or any of the kind. An advice: silence your mobile. It’s better if we don’t allow a bip to disturb us. Likewise, if we constantly receive emails in our inbox, best practices are to allow a time of the day to bear with them.
Gmail does a great job with the email filters, leaving promo emails and other non-priority emails on secundary inboxes. The good news are that you can also use Gmail platform as your professional and corporate email but using all the benefits of Gmail technology.
7. Free your mental space by blocking images on your nav.
Our focus is limited, it’s a shame but it’s how it is, therefore, any stimulus eats up our attention. When I don’t want to be disturbed but still need to surf the internet I do block the images on the websites. It’s obvious, images distract a lot more than text, as they convey a message that quickly needs to be deciphered by our brain. Every nav has its own methods for blocking images. If you need help, just drop a line and I’ll guide you 😉
8. Read using your senses for boosting memory and focus.
If you need to read long articles, best thing is to have it in paper, either buy the actual book or print it (double sided for optimizing paper). The second best choice is to have an e-book. If you don’t have one, try to enable the reading mode in Safari or Firefox, so that you avoid further distractions. The richest reading is achieved when we use our senses such as touch or smell, the more senses, the more the contents will stick to your brain and our attention will keep focused.
This is the end of my list. Have you got any other tactic or technique? Just drop a line in the comments below, would be great to find out!
