Productivity Tips: How to Be More Productive and Get Things Done

Start your day with a positive mindset or something pleasant. Positive thinking helps us be more confident, believe in our success, and achieve more every single day. I like to listen to uplifting music when I get ready, write in my gratitude journal, or exercise. If I feel like it, I can make pancakes for my husband and me in the morning: the smell of vanilla gives me a sense of joy and the process of baking works like a small meditation practice.

2. Plan Your Day the Night Before

At the end of every workday, I leave a note for myself on what to focus next day. There are two reasons for that. First, I take it out of my head and I put it on paper to not stress about it overnight and remember it the next day. The second thing, it helps me be more focused the next day since I already know what I have to work on. It’s like giving yourself a hand to be more productive and efficient.

3. Set Your Priorities

Every week, I select the three biggest priorities or projects for the week ahead. These are the tasks that will have the most impact on my work, business, or education, and even personal life if I complete them. To avoid switching between projects and get things done faster, every day I select one out of these three projects to focus on.

For example, one week I might need to create an eBook, organize a food photo shoot and contest, and test a recipe. Every day of the week, I will focus on one of these three things until I complete it. Studies show, that by switching between projects or multi-tasking constantly we can make more mistakes and lose up to 40% of our productivity. So, instead of jumping from one project to another I focus on one important item at a time. This strategy helps me finish work much faster and have control over my day.

4. Organize Your Workspace

One of the most distracting things for me is a cluttered desk. I can’t work properly until the place around me is organized and free from random objects. At the end of every workday, I clean my desk and every morning I bring some water or green tea on the table before I start working. Staying hydrated helps me perform better as well.

Sometimes I like going to the library with my laptop if I need to focus on something for a few hours and if I don’t want to stay home. To avoid noise distractions, I can bring my headphones or select a more quiet library floor.

5. Know Yourself

To be more productive, you have to know yourself better. What works for others might not work for you. For example, I’m more productive from 8 am until noon, so this is when I try to plan my most creative work. This never works for my husband who is the most productive at 3 and 4 pm when I usually start getting tired. You might like to work or study in the evening, so just make sure you plan your day around that most productive time.

If you like working at coffee shops more, work at coffee shops instead of home. For me, it doesn’t work every time: I easily get annoyed by a slow internet there or by noises from tables next to me, so I work in my home office more often.

6. Use Productivity Techniques and Tools

Today there are so many great productivity tools and apps to help you plan your day. Just pick what works for you.

For example, there is a Pomodoro technique where you set a timer for 25 min and during this time you are only focusing on one task working as hard as you can.

For me, this role of a timer plays my Fitbit watch. I like to focus on writing tasks for 50 minutes and then take breaks. So, every 50 minutes, Fitbit signals me the number of steps I took this hour and reminds me to get up and walk.

For business and work, I actively use Google Calendar to schedule meetings and work on new recipes. I also use Google Docs to store all my written copy for the blog and site. This way, I can access these files and information at any time from anywhere.

7. Eat the Right Food

Our performance and work results during the day depend on the food we eat. If you want your body and mind to function at their best, you need to choose your meals wisely.

If you eat a high-carb breakfast full of sugar, like pancakes or waffles with syrup, you will get a blood sugar spike for about an hour when you might be productive followed by a sugar crash when your energy and productivity will be at your lowest.

Try to eat foods that keep your blood sugar even, like eggs or yogurt for breakfast with some berries or vegetables. Some of the best productivity boosters are leafy greens, avocados, almonds, and blueberries.

If you need a boost of sustained energy, that will remain stable throughout the day, try matcha green tea latte in the morning instead of coffee. Matcha contains L-theanine, an amino acid which helps our body process caffeine differently. After a cup of coffee, we experience a spike of energy for about an hour followed by a crash, sometimes even with a headache. The energy you get from matcha remains stable for up to 6 hours a day and you can perform at your best during that time. L-theanine in matcha also helps you focus on your tasks better.

8. Take Breaks

This is one of the most important productivity tips that people disregard so often! If you take a break during the day, you’ll come back to your work with some fresh ideas and maybe even new perspectives. So, don’t forget to schedule the time to go for a walk, eat a healthy snack, talk to your co-workers, or exercise. Just don’t spend this time in front of the monitor.

These are my 8 favorite productivity tips. I really hope you can apply them to your life and faster achieve your dreams while staying healthy and happy.