I have a love-hate relationship with the words ‘productive’ and ‘productivity’.

I’m very proud with my career. I enjoy what I do. I take pride in achieving goals and facilitate my professional growth. Ticking off tasks for the day and wrapping up large projects makes me feel quite good, but I’ve experienced the suffocating conversation around productivity.

Mostly how to increase it. How to level up. Part of this has to do with the hustle culture of the past decade and the flourishing of the self-improvement movement (though thankfully there’s been a move away from the word), which promised to take you to new heights of accomplishment.

All this at the expense of our collective humanity. We can’t talk about productivity and numbers without turning ourselves into a human-factory hybrid. I consider this to be a crucial social science topic in today’s world. Of course, the development of machines forces us to keep getting better day by day. But is this really a good thing? It is so easy to get stuck in that never-ending journey to future success and stop actually noticing your progress.

I want to take a holistic approach to productivity, because wanting to make the most out of your day isn’t a bad impulse. Reducing your life to a series of tasks that need to be performed to a high standard is. Sadly, due to the pandemic…

It is more important than ever to be productive and not to waste your time

COVID-19 has reorganized our lives in ways that erase certain boundaries between our different social roles. The home is an office and a school and a gym and a restaurant to host loved ones. It’s easy to lose oneself. In fact, a study in the UK has shown a recognizable dip in productivity in the private sector.

For those left bereft of a steady routine in the office, working from home results in a decline in the overall effectiveness at their job. It’s not uncommon for employees to find themselves working on average longer hours and have trouble clocking out of work. How do you do that when your commute is a few steps and you can take your work to bed?

That’s why productivity is essential. It’s not so much to achieve more, but to keep work off from bleeding into every other aspect of your job. 

5 ways to be more productive and motivated

I have tested out the five strategies below and am here to report positive results. Of course, there’s no solution that guarantees 100% you’ll thrive and flourish every single time. The struggle is real and you have to be kind to yourself.

That being said…

Establish a routine

If you’re a newbie to remote work, the best thing you can do is recreate your work day as if you’re heading out to your workplace. Most employers will enforce specific starting times, but even so I have seen how floating hours can become over time.

Try to get enough sleep and wake up consistently at the same time each morning. I’d recommend having a definite work space, where you handle your job and associate with work. Do not work from bed and have a scheduled time for you to power off the laptop and disconnect for the day.

Prioritize 

Work smart. Look at only what you can achieve within reason. What needs to be done at work. A common mistake I’ve seen is trying to use the time you spend at home to get some big household project started for the time in between tasks. No…

Steer clear. This is a very tempting thought since you’ve gained more time by not commuting, but I do not recommend it at all. Think hard about what you want to get done throughout the day. What are those tasks you simply can’t put off anymore and start there.

Have a to do list

Without a to-do list I’m a goner. Time passes me by and I barely feel it. I get easily lulled into a false sense of security I’m on top of my life, when in reality I’m forgetting quite a few things. The beauty of a to-do list lies in its simplicity and purely utilitarian function.

A few caveats:

·       It’s natural to overestimate your mental and physical energy for the day, so you overload your list with tasks there’s no way you can accomplish without burning out. You might get it all done one day, but no one is built to crank out such output.

·       Do not give in the bullet journal craze. I know what the bujo lifestyle promises you, but it is not worth it to overcomplicate something as simple as a to-do list.

Use RSS feed reader

I’ve found an RSS feed reader to be an excellent way to increase productivity by reducing the time spent online. Advanced RSS readers have so much to offer their users and they themselves cross over into the category of productivity tools. They’re excellent for monitoring news and thanks to their filters and other functions can easily structure your reading.

Research becomes effortless with some RSS readers. Inoreader introduces users to what everyone else on the app reads. The discovery mode features the topmost read feeds across multiple topics and areas of interest. Another way you can check on your reading and save articles to read for later is through the Inoreader browser extension.

Fewer distractions

Remote work challenges even the most responsible employee. After all, you’re stuck at home – a space explicitly dedicated to relaxation. Distractions stalk at you from every corner. Freelancers know what I’m talking about. I have two pieces of advice here:

·       Try out the Pomodoro technique. I’m obsessed with it. You can do it with pen, paper and the timer on your phone or actually download one of the many apps available.

·       Block social media and other tempting digital haunts from your browser or phone. At least when you’re actively working on important tasks.

It is up to you!

What I’ve learned is that there’s no one formula for productivity at home. Through everything at the wall and see what sticks – I retch at having written this idiom, but truth can still resonate within a cliché. What matters is what works best for you.