We are hearing from many that 2015 started with a bang and some were already feeling overwhelmed by the end of the first week. The way Christmas and New Year’s Day fell on a Friday a few weeks ago it allowed many of us to spend time with family. Some of us also had time to create detailed resolutions, goals, and plans for the New Year. When the years starts out so busy we feel like we have failed if we haven’t started moving towards the new goals.
There a few hacks you can implement to increase your productivity. Some involve technology, but some do not. Most are just creating a new habit. Create a new habit only creates 3 to 4 weeks of repetition to make it stick.
Plenty of Sleep
We all know we need plenty of sleep and the amount is different for each person. A couple of tricks for hitting your sleep hour marks are alarms. Try setting an alarm on your smartphone to remind you to go to bed or begin your nightly bedtime routine. Tom Brady is arguably one of the most successful NFL quarterbacks. According to a recent New York Times article he sets an alarm to go to bed at 9:00 PM every day.
A great trick to assist with waking up on time in the morning is to move your alarm clock out of reach. Force yourself to get up and walk across the room. A tech hack is the Clocky which is an alarm clock with wheels. It will roll off your nightstand and force you to search the room to find it.
Reach Out to a Friend
Make it a habit once a week to dig up an old friend on Facebook or your contact list and reach. An email is good but a phone call to catch up is even better.
Eat breakfast
You will feel better which makes you more productive. Studies also indicate that a good breakfast habit will enhance other weight loss activities.
Exercise
We know how hard it is to get to the gym. It seems like the exercise part is so much easier than the remembering to pack your gym clothes, find the time, etc. Pace in small amounts of exercise when you have a few moment such as walking around while you do daily tasks. Some ideas include walking 200 steps during a phone call, another 100 steps while waiting for lunch to heat up in the microwave, and 100 steps while you brush your teeth. That adds up to an extra mile per week which is 50 miles per year. The wearable activity monitors such as the original Fitbit or other alternatives from companies such as Jawbone are great to gauge your daily activity level.
Short Term Goal Setting
Make it a habit to complete three tasks per day towards a long-term goal. Before you leave the office the day before write down your three goals for the next day, review your calendar, and ready your to-do list. These steps can go a long way towards eliminating that feeling of “what did I get done today?”
Build Anticipation
We humans enjoy anticipation of an event. We generally look forward to holidays and breaks. A great habit is to plan out your upcoming weekend fun activities on Tuesday evening. Plan out vacations and long weekend breaks the same way. Strive to always have something to look forward to.
Turn Dreaded Time into Learning Time
We all have tasks we hate. Mowing the yard, exercise, or the daily commute. Make it a habit to have a good playlist of podcasts or audiobooks on your mobile device or iPod. Most applications will not sync on cell data connections so take a few minutes on Sunday afternoon to fill your device with new audiobooks and podcasts for the week. Doing this on a Wi-Fi connection will also keep you from taking a sizable bite out of your cell data plan. Most iOS devices now have a podcast catcher application built in. If you don’t have one there are great options such as Downcast. Audible is the most-well-known audiobook provider. There are other options out there as well.
This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There are some great books including David Allen’s “The Art of Getting Things Done.” It is a complete system for understanding productivity. David has released other related books and of course holds training across the country.