Photo credit to Green Chameleon

Throughout my life, I have not exactly been known as the most productive person. I decided that I want to change that this year, so I did.

Here is what I learned this year that helped me regain my productivity.

Notifications are distractions

Photo credit to Nadine Shaabana
Illustrative picture of a phone notification light in the middle of the night.

Every app and website nowadays wants your attention. One way they can get your attention is by sending you notifications.

If you don't know yet, your brain LOVES getting notifications and it's addictive. It's your job to consciously filter out all the nonsense. Doing this on the go is difficult and your focus is already broken by the time you get done "ignoring" the notification.

Take charge of your focus by limiting what actually can disturb it.

Email

Quicker overview

I use an email checker because I have multiple email accounts to check and I can't be bothered to switch accounts all the time. Luckily all my email accounts live on google, so I can use "Checker Plus for Gmail™" for all of my emails on my computers.

This email checker is in "Do Not Disturb" mode indefinitely because notifications are almost always evil. If I have an email waiting for me in any of my accounts, I have a red icon I can click to see my emails, otherwise, it's a grey icon. When I click on the icon, it pops up a window to give me quick access to my email. This way I get to choose when I check my email and the task is less time consuming to do.

For better email organization, I use Inbox by Google which uses a bunch of fancy (which is all the detail you'll get in a short blog post) technology to make using email so much better. The only part that sucks about Inbox is that I can't use HubSpot with it and still have to use the old Gmail interface to use HubSpot.

Phone

The Inbox by Google app is lovely when it comes to notifications. It allows you to only get notifications for emails that are important, not for every single email. This lets you be on top of your email without having to put even more effort into it.

I'm a firm believer in the following statement:

Your phone is a tool, not your main source of entertainment.

So with this in mind, I keep as few apps on my phone as possible. Besides the essential apps for me, I only keep Instagram, YouTube and (Slide for ) Reddit on my phone, because I am a realistic idealist. I'm not insane.

If you have trouble with using your phone too much, you can install an app like AppDetox to restrict your phone use like you would a child. Trust me, you'll be surprised just how much you use your phone when you can't use it as much as you want.

Schedule yourself before you wreck yourself

Life

To-do list

Before I had a laptop, I used the Bullet Journal system for my life to-do list, but now I use Todoist, which I find works best for me since I love organization for my organization.

I have also tried Trello for my daily life organization, but I found it to be too cumbersome (still love you though, Trello).

Google Calendar

I don't know what I would do if I didn't have Google Calendar in my life. I keep my school timetable on it (with notifications at the end of lessons about where my next lesson is!), I have my AIESEC calendar automatically sync with it, and I can access it anywhere. I love this piece of technology so, so much.

If you keep your calendar up to date, you can rest easy that you haven't forgotten to go somewhere and can plan around events much faster. You can also link Todoist to Google Calendar, by the way!

Sleep

Photo credit to Vladislav Muslakov

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your parents and teachers were right. You can't function at the top of your abilities without good sleep.

Sleep is extremely important and you should absolutely be getting enough of good quality sleep regularly.

Try to keep a regular healthy sleep schedule and you'll find you have more energy, will be less tired throughout the day. I use Good Morning Alarm Clock to track my sleep times and my sleep quality. I find that if I wake up at a similar time every day, I have more energy at all times without needing coffee in the morning. (The last part saves me money too since I need to buy soy milk instead of regular milk because of my lactose intolerance :) )

Yes, this does mean that I wake up at 8 in the morning (the latest) even on weekends. I used to be half nocturnal a year ago.

Sleep is not an afterthought, sleep is part of your schedule. Remember that.

Take advantage of the panic monster

What is the panic monster I hear you ask?
The panic monster is what describes your brain going into panic mode to complete assignments at the last minute. Yep, someone actually managed to finally put it into words, here's the TED talk.

If you train your panic monster, you can get more done in less time. The way to train your panic monster is to give yourself a set time to complete a task and try to do the task within that specified time. To make this method more effective, you need to actually believe that the time you have set for yourself is the time you have to complete the task. By doing this, you get the panic monster to come out and work to actually meet your own deadline.

It's easy to procrastinate if you have the time to procrastinate. Take that time away and you can get work done.

Now that you've trained your panic monster, you will find yourself saying the following:

Holy shit! Doing the impossible just became possible.

Congratulations.

Relax

Photo credit to Haley Phelps

While you're striving for the best productivity, you still need to remember that you need to relax. Your body is not meant to work hard all the time and ignoring this fact will lead to consequences. You do not want those consequences, schedule yourself some time to relax.

Balance must be maintained.

Conclusion

Be less busy, be more productive.
I hope that by sharing my journey, I can help you reach new heights and achieve greater things.

Call to Action

Did you improve your productivity this year? If so, how did you improve?
Share your experience in the replies!