The 10 Best Tips for Productivity

Mom already knew it: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Mom was right! Above all, a good and healthy breakfast in the morning increases your productivity. About 20 percent of the calories that you partake of daily, are used by your brain. It thereby makes sense that nutrition has a great impact on our productivity.

Breakfast is particularly important. There is a very simple explanation: At night, our blood glucose level is significantly slowing down. This is the reason why you feel tired and listless. Productivity is not to be expected in this situation.

Many people simply have a coffee instead of having breakfast. Although the caffeine will leverage you temporarily, the long-term effect is even deadlier for your productivity. Your blood glucose level will very likely drop later. The consequences will be a lack of concentration and listlessness. To avoid this and to become more productive, take your time in the morning for at least 15 minutes to have breakfast. You mainly need energy in terms of carbohydrates. However, it depends on the right type of carbs. Try eating food with polysaccharides (whole grain, oat flakes, potatoes). They will provide you with energy for the longer term and your blood glucose level won’t fall rapidly in the course of the day.

If you want to increase your productivity, you will have to make a precise plan every day. Take ten minutes on the previous evening and prepare a to-do list. This method can easily be used in your personal and professional life at the same time. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What will my day be like?
• Which appointments are on the list both in private life and in the job?
• What will be special?
• What do I want to achieve during these 24 hours?

When you have answered these questions, you can start to plan your day. Consider how you can manage all appointments and goals without losing track of them.

This to-do list will help you to increase your productivity. This is less because of what you have written down but because you have written it down. Confusing? Not at all. Of course, you should adhere to your to-do list on the next day to be as productive as possible. However, writing the list has given you something far more valuable: a sense of time. You have confronted yourself with how you could effectively use the single hours of a day. This is a big and important step. While you have usually wasted your time on procrastination, you will now do the opposite.

The to-do list also appeals to your inner sense of responsibility – you will see your goals for the day in cold print. Your desire to keep to this plan will thereby automatically be greater. This will of course have a positive impact on your productivity.

Social media channels are fatal for your productivity. Five minutes of scrolling can easily add up to many hours per day. Facebook, Twitter, etc. are best friends with procrastination, as there is always something new to discover. In most cases, increasing productivity thereby means: social media needs to be shut down! But how does this work? The answer seems to be quite simple, however, virtual visits belong to our everyday life these days. To simply stop doing it isn’t always possible. There are a few ways though, to use social media channels to a lesser extent step by step.

To become more productive in your job, establish for yourself the following Rule: No Facebook, Twitter Or Instagram During Working Hours

Of course, this applies only to those who do not have to use social media channels for their work. If you stick to this rule, your productivity will soon reach a new level. Looking up your own feed again and again for five minutes on your smartphone or tablet? That is taboo as of now!

While the own sense of duty might be helpful regarding a social media ban in the job, the temptation at home is even growing. On the one hand, this is because you might have successfully followed the first rule and you would now really like to know what is new online. On the other hand, because the word leisure time gives your inner organism a kind of permission, so to say: do what you want! Of course, you shouldn’t completely give up social media in your leisure time. This would be utopic and unnecessary. To be productive in your private life as well though, the posts and tweets of your fellow people should not occupy your complete spare time. Try doing one hour without social media in your leisure time. This simple step will show you what you are able to achieve when Facebook etc. are not hindering.

At work, your e-mail inbox can become a hurdle. You have just started working on a new task at your desk and there it is: the notification of an incoming e-mail. Most of the times, you will interrupt your work and take a look at your inbox. This process is repeating again and again, so you will unintentionally achieve significantly less. You will again and again be distracted by new e-mails.

The biggest enemy of your own productivity is the huge amount of e-mails which are coming in every day. Handling the electronic mail takes a lot of time and stresses you, as you are hardly ever getting by. You have just answered five e-mails, but during that time three new messages have already arrived. But what helps? The Yesterbox! The concept is very simple, very effective and has been invented by Toni Hsieh, CEO at Zappos. You answer all e-mails that came in yesterday. Not more. You will only be allowed to read e-mails that came in today when you have worked off the first e-mails of yesterday. This simple method has the great advantage that it comes to an end every day. You will reach your goal to work off all e-mails, every day. At least, yesterday’s messages will be answered at some point. A simple though truly effective strategy.

This point is controversial, as there are two different views. There are people who appreciate the chaos at their workplace, because it supposedly inspires their creativity. On the other hand, there are people who regard a tidy desk as prerequisite for any kind of creativity and productivity. Try both ways.

Work on a neat, tidy desk on one day and on the other, do not set great store by putting everything where it belongs. Find out which environment is best for your work and which impedes your productivity. It is important that you create a pleasant working atmosphere. Your individual preferences decide what this atmosphere looks like.