5 tips for more productivity to reach your goals

Many of us work really hard but still don’t really reach their goals. Often we measure our work with time. The time we spent for something shows how much we did for it. But that’s not productive. Productivity is about what you do. Not about the time you need to do it.

„Now I’ve worked for it for 8 hours.“ – when we say something like that we think that we did much for our goal. But actually we didn’t.

Often it’s just fact that we had reached the same result in half the time.

When someone sets us just a crazy time limit and we think it’s not possible – we mostly still make it.

Or when we go back to our time in school. 90% of all the students started learning for an exam one day before they had the exam. I was one of those students as well. We all knew one week before, that we have an exam. We have had enough time. But we didn’t care and started learning 24 hours before we had to proof our can.

I remember back when I had a big Italian exam. I had to learn over 300 words. The exam was on Monday. And it was already Sunday 2 p.m. and I din’t learn just one word. And I was really tired. So  I started learning. But before I actually started I’ve set an alarm that rang 30 minutes later. Because then was time to stop learning and sleep for 30 minutes. So I learned for 30 minutes, slept for 30 minutes, learned for 30 minutes and so on. And guess what? On Monday I scored the best grade! That shows that’s not about the time we invest. But about the focus we have and the priority of what we do.

Don’t be busy. Be productive. 🙂

Plan tomorrow today

One of the most important steps with being productive is my plan for the day. Every evening before I go to bed I write down what I want to do tomorrow, I write down my goals. I make a plan. That’s amazing – cause in the morning I don’t need to think of what I should do. I already know it and I can just start.

Prioritize

At this point I failed often in my past. I knew what I had to do and which point is the most important one – but still I always did that things first that I liked to do more. Not what was more important. And this habit made me unable to enjoy the day. Because in the end of the day there was no time to relax and enjoy something that I’d like to do – Cause I had to do the important things that I didn’t do first.

Did you ever hear of „Eat that frog“?. It means you should do first what you like the least. And believe me: This is so true and your life will get much better just by doing this!

The Reward

The reward always comes AFTER you did what’s important. Rewards are motivating us and help us to reach our daily goals faster.

For the productivity: I have a little reward that awaits me after my work. It’s just a very little reward like chilling or going out for a walk or a little piece of chocolate. Things like that. And because I look forward to it while I do my daily work I do my work with more focus and it all goes much faster.

Look forward to your reward and your goals will be reaches nearly automatically. 🙂

Always write down your ideas

One very important thing is writing down your ideas. Earlier in my life I had to search for new ideas.

Today I always have ideas that I can start working on. Because always when I have a new idea – I write it down. So when I don’t have time to start working on it now, I can do it later because I won’t forget it.

When I’m not home, I write down my ideas on my smartphone. And when I’m back home then I write it to my „ideabook“ to keep them all at one place.

That’s my little secret why I never need to search for ideas. Because there are always some waiting to be worked on.

Take a break

Breaks aren’t productive, right? Of course they are! More than you think.

We have to take breaks to keep the focus.When I started being an entrepreneur I made the mistake that I didn’t take enough breaks. I always kept working and working and working. But there were always times when I NEEDED breaks. And that’s what shouldn’t happen. Plan your breaks. Every day. Because if you take breaks you collect new energy to concentrate better when you go on with your work. If you don’t take breaks, you get exhausted. And exhausted people aren’t as productive as people who take breaks regularly.

And it doesn’t mean that you need to lie around when you take a break. You could also read a book or do the laundry. Just something different than your work. Something relaxing.

Productivity is everything

Alway when I heard „productivity“ I thought it’s something really boring. Because it sounds really boring and cold.

But productivity is everything you make out of it. It can be creative, funny, interesting etc. Just make it suitable for your life and your day!

Enjoy it!

I hope my tips helped you to find your way to productivity. This is just how I do it 🙂

Share your secrets for more productivity below in the comments! 🙂

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