3 Things I Did to Become More Productive

As you know, I am all about productivity and working on your goals – how else could you build your dream life?

I’ve been thinking about productivity and trying to figure out ways to become more productive for over a decade. It’s often quite hard to know why exactly you procrastinate or why you get so very little done even when you think you’re super productive.

In a way, I feel like this is one of those things that you never completely learn. But then again, you don’t necessarily need to become super productive. As long as you are productive and efficient enough, you get the important things done and have time for other things too. That’s what I aim at anyway.

All this being said, the past few weeks I’ve suddenly felt more energized than usual, and it has been much easier for me to focus on the task at hand than before.

This change comes down to three changes I made this summer. Perhaps these little tips can help you too!

1. No Music

Does this sound scary? Don’t worry, I have a good explanation. You see, I used to always listen to something when I was working. A playlist suggested by Youtube, old favorites on Spotify, or carefully chosen instrumental study music.

But then I decided to work in total silence. I was afraid it would make me feel sort of lonely, just typing away all by myself for hours, but it didn’t. I don’t feel like something is missing. Quite the opposite actually: it’s more pleasant to work when you’re not constantly reminded of the rest of the world. It’s a pleasure to just focus on your work.

Of course there are exceptions to this. If you are working on something really simple or mechanical, listening to some music (or a good podcast) won’t do any harm.

2. Not the whole task

This is a major change to my usual productivity routine. A few years back, I would add things like “write a blog post” to my to-do list, and let me tell you, it’s a rather daunting task to see on your list. It could easily take five hours with some research and proofreading included.

Sometimes I would break the big tasks into smaller ones, and list things like “write the intro” or “write two paragraphs”. It made the writing process a little more doable, although seeing multiple “write two paragraphs” listed didn’t forecast an easy day.

What I do now is break these big tasks into sessions. I might add “40 min. editing” or “15 min. writing” to my list and not worry about completing the whole task at once. It may sound like a small change, but it makes a big difference.

Anything that takes less than an hour doesn’t sound too daunting and because you know that you only have so much time for this particular task, you don’t want to waste your time. There’s really no need to procrastinate when you know that in 40 minutes, you will be “free”.

3. No coffee

I have never been a self-proclaimed coffee addict or someone who needs that cup of java to get up in the morning. But I did make it something of a habit to make a cup of coffee before I sat down to work.

Typically this would be just one cup a day, so it shouldn’t make much of a difference, right?

Turns out it does. The first day or two after I quit drinking coffee, I felt rather awful. I felt ridiculously tired and miserable in the afternoon, and couldn’t help but wonder if I should just drink half a cup or so.

But that phase passed and now I feel much better than before. My mind feels clearer, I constantly feel eager to focus on whatever I’m doing, and my energy levels are stable and normal.

I think one of the most important changes here is that I no longer feel like I need that extra shot of energy to do something difficult. I have the ability to do it all by myself. It’s not that hard after all.

Productivity doesn’t have to be tricky

Often the answers to big problems are quite simple. I think we all know that listening to something when we work doesn’t really help us focus, no matter how much more comfortable it makes us feel.

And we have all heard the downsides of drinking coffee. Probably as often as we have heard people claim that caffeine has no effect on them.

But sometimes it’s good to test if those seemingly small habits actually have a big effect on us.

I hope this post encourages you to rethink some of your usual habits, especially if you have a feeling that they might be holding you back in some way.

I’d love to know what you think about this article and if you have had the same experience with giving up some comforts that turned out to be no comfort at all.