Staying productive

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today.

Nolan Bushnell

We all wish to be the best version of ourselves, to charge into any work as a western cowboy and sweep all deadlines off our desks. But there is a reason they call hard work hard work. Unless we train our brains, we are naturally inclined to leave any tasking job to live a good life. Here are my takes on tackling the way we approach any task in mind.

Keep Track of Your Goals.

Anything you do is most likely related to what you want to be. You have to study because you want to be a top-notch doctor. You have to practice the violin because you have a show. You have to write a short story because you want to win a prize. When you can define your goals, and recognize what is most important, doing the job feels less daunting.

Determine Your Most Productive Hour

Figure out what time of the day you are most charged. This makes you feel more productive. If you try to do intense work when you feel sleepy, you would most likely end up making very little progress. Also, plan your day. Not necessarily to the hour, but enough to estimate how much time you spend working, and when you can take breaks.

Prioritize

You might have several goals, but day to day, the order of which is most important tends to change. This depends on the activities you are involved with and if perhaps, you have deadlines. It helps to organize the progress in which you would tackle jobs. Doing the hardest job first helps to get most of the work out of the way, and the others seem relatively easier while doing the easiest job first helps to gradually ease you into your tasks.

Don’t Be a Perfectionist

Don’t be the person that plans every task up to the last detail, making multiple schedules because it doesn’t appear perfect enough or fit in all your work. Just focus on how long it would take to get the job done and do so.

Sometimes, when the day is over, you might feel you have accomplished little despite seeming busy. But as long as you are assured anything you do involves your goals, with no compromises to please others, the stress would be worth it.