15 Sustainable Habits for Increasing Your Productivity

Being less busy and finding ways of increasing your productivity long term sometimes feels like a ‘nice to have’ rather than essential doesn’t it? Putting as much as we can into each day it can sometimes feel like there’s barely time to eat!

Perhaps during the Pandemic you’ve been able to form new habits that help you to focus? Or have you struggled to find a routine that suits you?

Let’s face it, juggling childcare, pet care, work and life in the confines of your home can be the ultimate test for your increasing your productivity!

Learn How to Work at Your Most Productive

But, knowing how to create an environment that enables you to work at your most productive is essential to your health and wellbeing.

As a Firstbeat Lifestyle Assessment provider, I recently watched a webinar presented by Firstbeat and Jason Howlett of Focuswrx that focused on ‘Investing Energy and Attention on What Matters Most’. 

I often explore with clients what’s the right time (for them) to focus on important work? And, where and how do they do their best work?  It’s also a key part of discovering how they can prevent or recover from burnout.

The webinar was also a timely reminder that cognitive functions in particular are ‘energy hungry’. So whether you’re a writer working on an article, or like me coaching 1-2-1 with a client, intensive work takes a fair amount of energy and focus.

Forming, creating and embedding new habits and behaviours successfully won’t happen overnight. For most people it’s a process of a few weeks and more likely a few months.

Create Sustainable Habits

Here’s my list of 15 sustainable habits for increasing your productivity. And in doing so, have the energy to focus on what matters most to you:

1. Find the right space. Where do you work best? Do you need people around you, do you prefer to have a quiet space in which to do ‘focused work’ i.e. writing an article?
2. Get the timing right. Are you super focused in the morning, or do you come ‘alive’ later in the day? Working at your ‘best’ time of day always makes work feel a lot easier!
3. Create a routine and stick to it. Many successful people that I know schedule everything including blocking out free time in their diary on a regular basis.
4. Don’t Multitask. Not always possible, but focusing on one task and doing it well is far more productive than 5 tasks done half-heartedly.
5. Minimise distractions. For example turn e-mail off when you need to focus on other work.
6. Have a plan. It doesn’t have to be complicated but having a view of what the day, week, month and longer term looks like can help with productivity.
7. Buy a notebook for writing down ideas and thoughts. Old school but it also helps you to digitally disconnect for a while.
8. Put regular time aside for deep work.
9. Pace yourself. Manage your physical and emotional energy with regular ‘micro breaks’ and longer breaks.
10. Eat for nourishment and energy. Biscuits aren’t always the answer!
11. Move. Walk, run, dance or whatever you enjoy regularly to release accumulated tension.
12. Have a good support team around you. Doing everything yourself isn’t a good recipe for productivity and focus.
13. Learn to say no more often.
14. Celebrate success and learn from your mistakes. That includes celebrating even the small ‘micro’ successes and not beating yourself up over ‘failures’.
15. Be happy in what you do. This might sound like a simple concept. After all why wouldn’t you want to be happy? Being unhappy impacts health and wellbeing. The solution isn’t always about changing your role. Sometimes it’s about finding a different way of working rather than finding different work.

Talk to me about Transformational Coaching

If you would like to talk to me about coaching to help to make positive changes to your lifestyle, or find out more about Firstbeat Lifestyle Assessment get in touch and let’s have a chat.

Stay safe and well.

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