How to Increase Productivity
I often get asked how do I stay productive and manage multiple commitments in a busy professional career and personal life?! Today, I’ll be discussing my Top 3 tips for increasing productivity.
Products I recommend:
There are a few paper planners that really made a difference in how I plan and reach my goals that I’d love to share with you.
- My personal planner using my signature Clarify Simplify Align framework – now available on Amazon!
- 5-Minute Gratitude Journal— these BEST way to reflect and bring intention and gratitude back into life. Feeling stress? Use this for just one week and you’ll feel happier and more fulfilled!
- PowerSheets — these are easy-to-follow goal sheets. They dig deep into prioritizing what matters most in your life.
- inkWell Press planner— fully customizable and amazing disc system to add and remove papers easily throughout the year
- Full Focus Planner — a 90-day goal system. Sleek and simple with extra tutorial videos from Michael Hyatt to launch you into a successful 90-day plan!
- Erin Condren — fun & colorful with 3-different ways to customize. Use the full planner or simple condensed notebooks & gratitude journals to fit your life.
I’ve also made a list of all of my favorite goal planning essentials for you.
1. Plan
Planning ahead is very important in managing multiple commitments. This includes short-term and long-term planning. You may need to plan the next 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days or 1 year. Coordinating all of these activities and goals is important for staying on track and staying productive.
My advice for planning ahead to increase productivity? Organize your short-term and long-term goals together in one location or one planner. I still love a physical paper planner and this is my favorite way to see my goals together in one location. I just LOVE crossing off tasks and writing little notes on a planner. Alternatively, you may opt for an electronic planner.
For a paper planner, I love looking at daily goals and seeing them in the context of my goals for the week. Then I can reference the month activities and deadlines and finally see how these all fit in for the year.
Color coordinating your planning can also be helpful. You can use different colored pens, colored stickers or highlighters. This can help you stay on track with different categories of tasks- work-related, school-related, fitness-related or meal-related, etc.
Homework: Decide how you will plan: on paper or electronically. If on paper, scroll down for a special Giveaway to get started with your personalized planner!
2. Diary of your Day
Have you ever wondered how much of your day is spent on unnecessary tasks? My advice is to create a Diary of your Day and see where you are spending your time. Maybe there are things you can cut out that are unnecessary, unfulfilling, distracting or not aligned with your goals?
When I created my own Diary, I realized I wanted to commit more time to fitness and meal prep/cooking. I readjusted my schedule to reflect these goals and eliminated activities that were unnecessary – this included decreasing time spent on Instagram! I now limit the time I check and browse Instagram to 30-45 minutes a day. No aimless wondering through Instagram Stories! We all know how easy it is to spend 20 minutes watching IG stories that are not educational!
While I was in pharmacy school, I did this as well and was able to free up time for things that were important to me: talking to my family 30-60 minutes a day, keeping up with self-care with fitness classes and cooking at home. I also scheduled specific time to study on my own before getting together with my small study group to review and discuss concepts.
Other areas I refocused after my diary? I turned off notifications on my phone/computer (email/text notifications), took advantage of my commute with audio books & podcasts, and quit multi-tasking.
Homework: Create a Diary of Your Day for the next week. Document each and every activity and the time spent on it. Don’t alter your day-to-day life to make your diary “look better”. At the end of the week review this Diary and decide what is important to you and what to reduce or eliminate. Let’s increase your productivity!
3. Self-Care
Self-care and productivity?! How do they relate to one another?
Well, as you’ve probably heard before, taking breaks for rest, for family and for health/fitness is just as important as your required deadlines, study times and work. If we don’t keep a balanced personal/student/work life then things can quickly fall apart. Or stress levels can quickly rise.
If you are taking breaks, as I said in my post on 5 Tips for Staying Focused while Studying, separate your spaces. It is easy to eliminate breaks or take longer breaks if spaces are not separated. Plus, it’s great to change your surroundings and let your mind refresh.
Some research has shown that taking short breaks while working on long tasks can help maintain a constant level of performance while working without breaks can lead to a steady decline in performance.
Homework: Make a list of your favorite self-care activities and place them into your schedule created in Part 1 on Planning.
Grab your FREE templates today!
Jessica Louie, PharmD, APh, BCCCP is the CEO of Clarify, Simplify, Align and Host of The Burnout Doctor Podcast. Dr. Louie uses her signature Burnout Doctor Method to coach burned out pharmacists & professionals to simplify because work-life balance is a LIE. Align work into your life & break free from people pleasing, perfectionism and thrive in life on YOUR TERMS.