Productivity Checklist

We live currently in the era of our optimum achievements in terms of technological discoveries and in terms of our social and health care in history. Yet, we are still struggling to be more productive and more effective. With all the tools that we created to manage our time and to keep us ahead of our game, we are still far from achieving our goals. Why is that? How can we make the most of our days? What are the tricks that we can implement so that we do more?  

Productivity has been and still be the thing that I struggled and I am still struggling with. It was always ups and downs during University and now while working. The only time that I can remember where I struggled the least about productivity was when I was in school. Before social media to be precise. Distractions were quite small at that time, and my day was pretty tailored, I had a very precise schedule for school, doing homework, and playing or watching TV with my family. Nowadays, we are bombarded by information, entertaining content, news, and social media. Our ability to design our days to manage our tasks has been drastically decreased since a decade ago.  

Now productivity is a trendy topic because everyone is looking for the magical recipe to stay focus and to beat the distractions. But also mastering your time, and how you handle your tasks is a very valuable skill for anyone who wants to do more in life and most importantly to make a change. 

In this blog post, I 've run through some of the most important productivity systems that I am using on a daily basis. 

     1. Eat the frog first 

We have a tendency to delay or procrastinate our important and biggest task until very late. And we realize that we are very behind when our due date is very close, and that's when we panic and we stress and we usually deliver mediocre work. So start the first task of the day with eating the frog, you will carry the day with satisfaction.

2. Important Vs Urgent 

List all your action items of the day. And then categorize the action items based on the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. Below is an example of how to use the Eisenhower Matrix.

3. Avoid Multitasking

We have all heard the myth saying that juggling multiple tasks and responsibilities might seem a great way to get it all done. Well, that's not true. Researches come to the conclusion that trying to do more that one thing at a time consumes a lot of your energy, it worsens your memory abilities, increases your stress and anxiety levels it leads to more mistakes and less productivity.

To avoid the negative impact of multitasking try to be limited a least to two tasks only. Focusing on one task can make you more creative and less likely to make mistakes.

4. Use the Pareto Principle 

The Pareto Principle means that 20% of the efforts lead to 80% of the results. We talked above about eating the frog which means doing your most important tasks first, these tasks represent 20% of your work or efforts and produce 80% of the results. For example, you could generate more revenue when you focus your energy and efforts on 5 potential clients instead of trying to manage all 30 clients and being completely overwhelmed therefore you will not satisfy all of them, and you will be losing your time, energy and money. 

5. The Pomodoro technique

I use this technique all the time since University, it is very simple to implement. You need to break a task into 25 minutes tasks called Pomodoros. Take a 5-minute break after each Pomodoro. When you finish 4 Pomodoros take a longer break between 15 to 20 minutes. 

• Identify your tasks for the day (most important ones) 
• Set your timer to 25 minutes
• Work for the duration of the timer
• Take a 5 minutes break 
• Every 4 Pomodoros take a longer break 

To use this technique effectively get rid of every distraction, put your phone on an airplane mode or silent, inform your colleagues that you need to focus on something. 

6. Create a rewarding System 

Celebrate your wins and accomplishments. It is very important to reward yourself after completing an important task. Your brain will link the positive reward with getting things done, in that way accomplishing tasks are gonna be linked to pleasure, and you will keep going forward to achieve more. It shouldn't be anything big. Drink a coffee with a friend, prepare a delicious meal, call a dear friend, walk around the block.

Creating a sustainable productivity system can be overwhelming at first. The key here is to try one of these techniques and see if it changed anything for you. Don't rush to implement them all at once, you will abandon it very soon.