Productivity

Using Time Blocking To Stay Motivated

We are all guilty of suffering from a lack of motivation in our lives!

Am I right? Of course I am. This is just human nature and with all the distractions of modern living, it can be harder than ever to remain motivated and focused.

What happens when we push our brain to keep thinking, focusing and creating hour after hour? It shuts down. It goes on strike. It says “I’m outa here, buddy”.

This is especially true when we keep requiring it to focus on the same task for hours at a time.

Neuroscience now tells us that changing tasks regularly, taking consistent breaks and blocking out our time keeps our brain more engaged when it is working so that we actually get more done in less time.

So, let’s look at blocking time.

This is not a new concept. But it’s one we don’t use often enough to maintain our enthusiasm and focus, not to mention our mental and emotional health.

Blocking time is a way to schedule your work hours in a way that sets up a dedicated time to a particular task. And then, when that time is up, you switch to a new task.

But why you may ask, is this important to performance and productivity?

Keeps your brain from getting bored (aka, low motivation)
Mentally prepares you for the tasks ahead
Lowers stress because you see work getting done
Ensures no multitasking occurs
Improves self-confidence in your ability to succeed

So, how should you go about blocking your time? Usually, it’s recommended to work in 2–3-hour work chunks at a time, while allowing a short 5–10-minute break every 30-45 minutes.

Decide how you will block your time. There are many ways to do this, including various apps and email calendars. Google Calendar is a great way to get started because it’s easy to use and readily available.
Chose the date and time for your task. Remember to keep it to 2-3 hrs if possible
Decide where you will complete the task.
Include any details you need to remember before performing the task in the memo area. This will make it faster to get started when you get to that time block. No searching for the sticky note you wrote the directions on.
Set reminders so you know when it’s time to switch tasks. You can get a reminder via email, pop-up or app notifications.

If 2-3 hours seems a long time to focus on a particular task, then you can use smaller chunks.

The Pomodoro technique uses time chunks of only 25 minutes, each followed by a 5-minute break. After 4 of these chunks, you should take a 15-minute break.

If you a little more information about the Pomodoro technique, you can read this blog post

Using time blocks keeps your motivation high for all the reasons stated above, and also because it allows you to use several of your skill sets each day. It breaks up the monotony of doing the same task all day long.

When working on tasks, you should also schedule breaks you’re your routine.

Why, you ask? Well, let’s look at a scientific reason now…

3 Reasons Science Tells Us To Take Breaks

Too busy to take a break? That’s a common thought in our fast-paced world.

We are a society with consistently too many things on our collective plate.

But science tells us that we need to make taking regular breaks a priority to maintain inspiration and productivity.

Advances in neuroscience have proven that we need breaks as well as focused work time, as some cultures have known and practiced for millennia.

Why We Need To Take Breaks

There are a number of reasons why it is important to take scheduled breaks, and we will cover just 3 of them in this article.

It makes perfect sense to stop every now and again as if we don’t, we will get tired and lose focus.

This causes us to become frustrated and becomes a negative feedback loop, so it is important to take a break.

Let’s look at 3 big reasons to stop…

Make Connections And Retain Information

Our brain has two modes of operation. The focus mode, which is where we spend most of our day, concentrating on tasks and challenges as they arise.

The other mode is just as important, though often underappreciated – the diffuse mode. This is the state of daydreaming or letting our mind wander. You may have experienced the benefits of this mode when you are doing something mundane on autopilot.

For example, you may have an ah-ha moment about a solution to a problem that you’ve been trying to solve while you are driving someplace familiar or taking a shower. This diffuse mode is when most of our insights and out-of-the-box thinking happens.

Re-Evaluate Our Goals

When we stay focused on a task or problem constantly, we can easily become caught up in all the little details instead of questioning if we are completing the right tasks in the best order and way.

The devil may be in the details, but we need breaks to gain perspective on how our work is advancing and if there are more productive or effective ways to reach the same or even better results.

Stepping out of work mode for even just a few minutes is enough time to help us re-evaluate our goals and the way we are going about achieving them.

Keep Us Engaged And Motivated

Our brains weren’t meant to stay in focused mode all the time, even though we think they should sometimes.

Neuroscientists have found that taking short breaks on a regular basis is a more effective way to work, even though that might seem counterintuitive.

Breaks give our brains a rest from constant focus so that they can “regroup” if you will. When we take breaks throughout the day when working on tasks that take a lot of concentration or take a longer period of time to complete, we actually are more productive and motivated when we are working on the task than if we worked straight through.

As you probably already know, having a strong mindset is critical to any attempt to plan and stay focused, so click on the featured resource below to get a free report on how to develop a strong mindset. Download, it read and take action 😊

How To Be More Efficient

You hear all the time that you or your company needs to be more efficient. But do you know how to accomplish that?

And with more people working at home, efficiency and productivity are the name of the game at the moment.

There are many distractions around you, both in the workplace and especially at home so you really need to stay focused to remain efficient and get your tasks done.

Efficiency seems like a word that is thrown at as the end-all be-all answer to problems within an organization.

However, without a proper plan, the likely result will be confusion and chaos, and this could potentially have the opposite effect! So, you need to plan out how you and/or your employees can become more efficient

The following ‘efficiency hacks’ can help you when you are given the initiative to be more efficient.

Learning

Always be on the lookout for how to improve your job or your teams’ jobs.

This often requires learning new skills. The more you learn, the easier it will be to find alternative methods that work better.

As an entrepreneur, you should always be looking to increase your skills, especially your marketing skills.

Anyone who wants to be successful in life should be constantly learning.

Organization

If your office environment is cluttered and there is no sense of organization, it can impact the productivity of the entire group.

There are professionals who can assess your current situation and make recommendations on how to improve the environment.

This can include such aspects as desk clutter, filing, and even ergonomic issues and proper placement of fixtures or furniture.

Automation

When you find ways to automate, this frees up your staff to work on more important tasks.

Mundane tasks that eat away the time of your staff are the best candidates for automation. It is possible to go overboard with automation which can cause slowdowns when the automation processes fail.

There are many types of software that can automate tasks and this is useful to a business and invaluable to an entrepreneur (particularly a solopreneur)

Try to determine the best tasks to automate without overdoing it.

Delegate

If you are micromanaging the work of your team, you won’t have time to handle your own tasks.

Your team won’t respect the fact that you are doing tasks that they should be doing. You hired them for a reason. Let them get their jobs done. It’s okay for them to come to you when they get stuck.

But you should guide them rather than simply doing everything for them.

Outsource

With corporate cutbacks, delegating may not be easy to accomplish.

Companies are expecting their employees to do more with less. But managers still need to get their work done. In such cases, it may be worthwhile to consider outsourcing some of the tasks of your team.

The benefits of outsourcing are that it does not increase the company’s headcount. And as a solopreneur, you can outsource content and product creation and then you can concentrate on the marketing.

If you want to know more about outsourcing, you can download a really useful free report here.

Time Management

If you and your team are not managing your time efficiently, you are going to find it hard to move the company forward.

The team will constantly be missing deadlines and playing catch up. This makes the group look bad and causes undue stress on the team.

The likely result will be high turnover at times when team members are needed the most.

If you are working from home, especially if you are an entrepreneur, you can employ the Pomodoro technique. If you want to know about this, check out this post here.

Time Management And Efficiency Go Hand-In-Hand

If you want to know the best time management system available, the answer is, choose one. This may seem like a cop-out to you. But it’s like a gym membership. What is the most expensive gym membership available? The one you never use.

Time management systems are going to have similar traits from one to the next. Whether one is better than the other is largely dependent on who is trying to get you to use theirs. If you find a time management system, give it a shot and see if it is right for you.

The key is to find one. That is going to be one of the main components of increasing your efficiency. If you read about a particular system, implement it for a couple of months and see how it goes.

But and this is crucial, keep going. The worst time management system is not having one. You will be spinning your wheels if you go this route.

Time management is going to take discipline and habit, especially if you haven’t been doing it. You need to get started, and you continue using it. If you are one that believes habits form in 28 days, then use your system for 28 days.

Just make sure you have something in place that allows you to evaluate that system. Hopefully, you will be experiencing higher productivity during that period.

Don’t get discouraged if you stop using your system. Maybe it isn’t the right one for you. Find another one. Ask colleagues and friends for suggestions. Just make sure you “get back on the horse.”

Once your time management system is habitual and useful, there will be no stopping your progress.

When you discover a time management system that works for you, become an advocate. You can help others and, in the process, help yourself. If you and your team are operating more efficiently through the use of proper time management, your company becomes a bit more efficient as a result.

Who knows, your team may become the model for the company. Stranger things have happened.

One outcome that is highly likely is your team will get recognition. You will get your tasks done faster and will be able to take on more than you were able to before.

You and your team will prove to your management that you are capable of taking on bigger and better tasks. It’s all possible with the help of time management.

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Are You Overwhelmed And Lacking Focus?

If you’re a creative type, then you’ve likely encountered a situation where you have a ton of ideas and you keep thinking up new ones, only to eventually get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of them to the degree that you never put any of them into practice. A lack of focus can be a creativity killer!

This isn’t uncommon at all. Many people who let their creativity run unchecked can get overwhelmed when it’s time to sit down and focus. One of the solutions you can try is only allowing yourself a certain amount of time to just be wholly creative.

When your time’s up, you should break for a bit before looking over your ideas with focus and intent and select one of those ideas to actually develop and work on. You can go back to your other ideas later on, but for the time being, pick one and work with it to completion.

This allows you to actually make some progress and have something that’s tangible, instead of just having a collection of ideas. Ideas are certainly valuable, but if they’re never implemented and brought to fruition, they become worthless.

Even if the idea you choose doesn’t end up working out, at least you’re getting some practical application out of it, so that you’re not spending all your time just being creative.

The human mind often gets dazed and confused when being presented with too many options. It’s like when you can’t decide what you want at a restaurant, when you’re looking at a really long menu with so many choices.

You can easily evaluate and pick among ten or so items, but when you’re dealing with 30 or 40, you’ll start to quickly lose focus and not be able to make a good choice. It’s important that whatever idea you select to work on, it should be seen through to completion if possible.

If you just work on it a little bit and leave it unfinished, then it’s no better than never starting to begin with. The whole point of focusing on one of your ideas is to actually have something to show for it in the end.

If you have a half-completed project to show, then you really don’t have much at all. Don’t worry that doing this will stifle your creativity.

You’ll be able to get back to creativity as soon as you finish the project you’re working on. In fact, the break from brainstorming is like cleansing your palate – you may even come up with better ideas after a longer break filled with work.

The thing is that you need to stay focused on whatever it is you are trying to achieve and if you don’t, you’ll simply become frustrated.

Apart from overwhelm, having a poor attention will also affect the way you focus and how productive and creative you are so you definitely need to work on your attention span and that can be a major undertaking in todays modern world where everything is vying for your time and attention!

However, sometimes a poor attention span may actually become a benefit so is not always negative.

Intrigued? Let’s look a little deeper…

A Poor Attention Span Can Be A Benefit!

Like I said in the previous couple of paragraphs, if you have a short attention span, you’ve probably always considered it to be one of your drawbacks. It makes it difficult for you to focus and it makes working long shifts at work a real pain.

However, it does have its benefits, though they’re mostly going to help you in the long run, not in the short term. A short attention span can help you come up with greater creative ideas over time, allowing you to return to them when you have the time to dedicate to it.

Those who are more easily distracted have been shown to be more creative in a number of studies. The problem is, you’re likely not being paid to be creative all the time. You need to have time to be creative, but most of your time is likely spent doing physical work or work that’s bringing ideas to life instead of making new ideas.

In those times, a short attention span can be detrimental, because it disrupts your focus while you’re trying to actually create something that embodies the ideas you’ve come up with previously.

The workaround here is to have a system set up for quickly logging your ideas that pop into your mind so that you can return to them later, and spend time focusing on the task at hand in the present.

You could use something as simple as a little notepad with a pen. Anytime you’re working and get pulled off track by an idea, quickly jot it down and you can return to it later when you have time.

You’d be surprised at how much you continue to be distracted by ideas just because you don’t want to forget them. Once you know they’re written down and can be returned to later on, you can return to focusing on what you’re doing.

It’s beneficial to have all of these little ideas stored away, because at some point you might try to brainstorm something to work on, and you might not have anything coming to mind. Then, you can reference your notebook and use one of those little sparks of imagination to fuel a whole new project that you might’ve otherwise forgotten.

By keeping tabs on your overactive imagination like this, you retain all of those smaller sparks of creativity that can blossom into wonderful, big projects – while still working diligently to bring existing ideas to fruition.

Your subconscious mind is very powerful, and you are using this technique of jotting things down on the fly to tap into that subconscious and some of the ideas you note down could really inspire you so give it a go and see what appears!

Having any kind of focus requires a lot of self-discipline and even if you adopt the jotting technique above you will need to be disciplined to go back and do something with the ideas.

If you want to learn more about how to develop self-discipline, click on the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 😊

Are You More Efficient Working From Home?

Working at home gives people the flexibility to be at home, while still being able to collect a paycheck. But, does working at home automatically make you get more done?

Many people dream of being able to stumble out of bed and begin their workday. They argue that since they don’t have the commute, they can start right away and essentially work during the time others would be using to commute.

The argument is that it’s less stressful not to have that commute hanging over them.

Being able to spend more time with your family is another benefit people associate with working from home. You can be home when your kids come home from school. You’ll be able to go their afterschool activities such as sports games.

People who work at home learn that it has unintended challenges associated with it. For instance, while it’s nice to be around your family, are they letting you get your work done? Are you spending too much time with your family that is taking away from your responsibilities to your job?

You need to work with your family to set up boundaries. This means you should dedicate a space like an office that you use to work. When you are in the office, your family needs to understand that interruptions are off limits, unless it’s an emergency.

You will also need to handle interruptions by neighbors that may visit. While many of your neighbors will be commuting to work, there are more people working from home today.

This increases the chances that some of your neighbors are working from home as well. It’s tempting when you see them outside, to see what they are up to, etc. It’s okay to do this once in a while, but don’t let it interrupt your job.

Job burnout can happen just as easily when working from home as it does when you commute to the office. In fact, companies may expect more of you when you work at home and your time is going to be more scrutinized.

You may end up working more hours even when you factor in the lack of commuting. Your boss may be inclined to call you up after work hours and ask you to handle some tasks.

If they do this to all employees, then you may not be able to do much to change that. However, if they are singling you out because you work at home and they believe this gives them permission to call upon you, this may be something you need to handle.

So, as you can see, there are some disadvantages to working from home too. However, if you are working from home, it pays to stick to a routine and be organized and the following tips may help.

9 Tips To Help You Stay Organized

Being organized should be a way of life and second nature to you.

That way it’s a habit rather than a chore. Of course it takes time and effort to create the habit in the first place but once you’ve achieved it you want to stay that way.

These nine tips will help you to stay organized every day with very little effort or fuss.

Check In

Start your day by checking your schedule and your to do list.

It may be that you’ve thought of something you need to add.

Prioritize your to do list so that you tackle the important items first.

Plan

As well as your to do list you should plan your day.

Include calls, meetings, chores and goals. You can use pen and paper, a planner (a bullet journal is ideal) or a planning app.

Don’t forget to include scheduled breaks. Make sure to include time for friends and family.

The F.A.R. Rules

The F.A.R. Rules are essential for helping you to stay organized. They apply equally to your personal life as your business.

File it – if it’s important and needs to be kept (either in paper or electronic form) then file it immediately.

Act on it – if something needs to have action taken for example, paying a bill or making a call, then do it immediately. Then either file or recycle it.

Recycle it – whether it’s junk mail or papers and items you’ve finished with, recycle it immediately once it’s no longer needed.

These rules applies to emails as well as paperwork. By following them you can keep your inbox under control.

Digital Aids

At times technology can be a distraction but there are some items that can help you become and stay productive.

However, choose your devices and solutions with care so that you don’t create more of a problem for yourself.

You may decide that an app to monitor your health and fitness would be a good idea to keep you on track with your goals.

There are also menu planning apps, scheduling, time and project management, as well as household organization apps.

Track

To be successful with your organization skills you need to track and monitor your progress. What’s working and what’s not?

Be prepared to make changes and adjustments to how you do things.

Just because one method of organizing your closet doesn’t work for you it doesn’t mean that another won’t.

Trash It

Don’t keep things for the sake of it.

If it’s not useful or necessary, then throw it out. If you are keeping it then remember to put it away.

That way you keep your surroundings free from clutter and distractions.

Identify

Keep a track of what works for you and keep on doing it.

If something hasn’t been successful then identify what needs to be changed and do it that way the following day.

5 Minute Review

Just like you started your day, end your day with a five minute review.

Celebrate your accomplishments and cross off everything you’ve achieved from your to do list. Remove any inessential or unimportant tasks that are still remaining.

Whatever is left should be added to the next day’s list.

To Do List

Create your to do list for the following day. Include any important tasks that you didn’t complete that day and only important items that need to be done.

Try and limit your list to 10 items or less so that you don’t feel overwhelmed or end the day with a list of unaccomplished items.

Becoming and staying organized doesn’t happen overnight and it does require regular effort. However, you can stay on track by following these nine tips. You can be organized every day with a little planning, time and effort.

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5 Ways To Boost Your Concentration Skills

Do you lack focus and/or the ability to concentrate for extended periods of time? If you are like the vast majority of human beings, I’m sure that you answered, “Yes!”

A Microsoft study found that, on average, humans have an 8-second concentration span. And that number is probably shrinking as we speak because we’ve got used to everything being fleeting and prompt.

The modern world with the vast bank of knowledge via the Internet and 24-hour news stations, plus social media networks have made us a race of people that want everything NOW!

This lack of patience plays havoc with our ability to maintain concentration and focus on tasks for more than a very short period of time before our minds wander, and add FOMO (or the Fear Of Missing Out) into the mix and it’s a wonder that we can maintain any concentration at all!!

But no matter how much you try to shrug it off, there really is no substitute for paying attention. No matter what your environment is, your ability to get things done depends on your ability to pay attention.

Being able to concentrate can skyrocket your productivity which can be a real boon for your business (if you are a business owner) or can make you a really viable candidate for that promotion or bonus if you work for a company as it will make you stand out from your colleagues.

So, how do we even begin to develop our skills of concentration?

Well, the good news is that you can learn to focus more and focus better. All you need is to alter your mindset, take charge and apply these 5 simple tips to boost your attention span and become a master of concentration and productivity.

Prioritize Your Tasks

You’re at work; you have deadlines, meetings, projects, tasks – all things that need to get done within the span of a few hours. What to do? You make a list, of course.

Many successful people swear by their lists because it has everything on it, from the most important to the things that can wait until later.

Another great tip? Write your list the night before so you’re not bombarded with many things at the start of the day. This is like stretching before a workout – it doesn’t take a lot of time, but you can’t start without it.

Many of the world’s most successful people swear by making their to do lists the night before because they can hit the ground running first thing in the morning and they will already know what their number one priority for the day is going to be.

Why not try it for yourself and see what difference it can make to your day.

Take Scheduled Breaks

Francesco Cirillo, owner of the Cirillo Consulting firm in Berlin, devised an ingenious system that manages time by breaking it down into intervals.

For example, once you’ve started on a task, set the timer to, say, 30 minutes.

During that time, focus completely on that task. Once the timer rings, you take a 10-minute break to get some coffee or just walk around your desk for some quick exercise. Then, every 4 30-minute work intervals, you can take a longer break of 20-30 minutes.

The way this technique works is that you have to refrain from picking up your phone to check your email or social media every 5 minutes.

If you want to know more about this type of system of breaking tasks down, take a look at this post here which explains a technique known as the Pomodoro technique.

Research has proven that it takes us nearly 25 minutes to get back to our original task once we’ve been distracted, which means you’re spending the entire day just on trying to regain your focus but not really achieving it.

A smart way to avoid this when it comes to your phone is to put it on silent or stick it in a drawer to ward off temptation. An even better way to do this is to carve out half an hour at the start of the day, or in the afternoon, to get all that out of your system so that you’re not constantly thinking about it.

Declutter

While it may seem pretty straightforward to everyone that working in a calm, organized environment boosts concentration and, hence, productivity, it may not be as easy as it sounds.

Even if your choices are limited or can’t get away with changing too much of your workspace, you can do wonders with a few add-ons here and there.

But all you need are a few basic items:

a desk organizer to store away whatever you’re not working on at the moment
a plant or two because it’s been proven that being surrounded by nature peak concentration levels and extend your attention span
a good source of lighting
a calming piece of artwork or photo
soft background music or sounds of nature to put you in the mood to concentrate

Stay Healthy

Most people don’t make the connection between eating right and having strong concentration and memory skills.

Studies show that foods high in trans fats and processed sugars have a negative effect on your cognitive abilities.

Enjoying a balanced diet rich in minerals and vitamins, on the other hand, boosts energy levels and gives you the mental stamina you need to concentrate on the task at hand.

Water is also very important to prevent dehydration. Staying hydrated throughout the day prevents your mind from slowing down. Exercising regularly also boosts cognitive powers and mental stamina.

Play Games

There has been extensive research that shows just how much how solving crossword puzzles, problem-solving exercises and other types of mental games can improve cognitive abilities, reasoning, memory and attention spans.

It also boosts your skill and speed on tasks which have to do with memory and reasoning.

So, take a few minutes out of your day to challenge the grey matter to boost your ability to concentrate. And they can be fun too.

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