How do you keep yourself productive & focused during working days?
Kazimieras Melaika
63 replies
From time to time we all need some productivity and focus tips, or techniques on how we can take control of procrastination. Staying highly motivated and fully hands-on in the work we do is crucial to reaching our set goals. Share your experience!
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Our project is called: Effecto. It’s an app for detailed habits, health, symptoms, and meds tracking. Pretty much for everything that is related to your physical or mental health and every daily factor that can affect you. You can track everything, even productivity, focus, procrastination, etc. and learn what improves or worsens it. Could be of value to many of us!
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Jen Fox@jennifersafox
Goal setting and prioritisation are my keys to success. Every morning I make a list of must haves and nice to haves for the day. I take care of the must haves first and everything else I get to that day is a bonus. I timebox my efforts so I do not fall into rabbit holes - getting lost in the work.
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@jennifersafox Whenever you're lost, you shouldn't be afraid to get some help from other teammates or just leave the task for some other time during that day
Meditation and Pomodoro technique is a great base to start.
And of course banal things like Sport, Healthy Food, Strict Bedtime Schedule, Refresh on Weekend etc
It helps me to keep focus and avoid burnout for last 5 years :)
@stas_voronov sleep routine, healthy food, physical activity is highly important!
1) Start discovering successful people in your field on social networks and follow them. On Twitter, you can find the most valuable people who share their thoughts and actions every day.
2) Start doing small, short-term things so you can see the result quickly. Don't focus on things or products that require a lot of time, effort, and money. You risk losing your motivation in the middle of the road.
@dima_botezatu Twitter or LinkedIn posts helps a lot to keep the motivation. However, long-term tasks are also usually very important
Things that I do are create a list and prioritize my task. This seems to be really effective. And great platform, can’t wait to see more 😄
@lysten_inc Thanks! We use clickup to manage all the tasks and prioritize them
AppLogger by PLG Works
I follow these steps to be productive and focused during working days
- writing down my tasks before starting the day and the completion of each task gives me motivation.
- keep a water bottle near my table.
- putting my phone on focused mode.
- taking a short break after completion of each task.
AppLogger by PLG Works
@daksh_bhardwaj I love the apple ios updates (the find focus in the day)! Very valuable feature. I think people underestimate the importance of hydration for their productivity and focus. Water is the driving force of all nature!
forYou Mobile App
Hi:) Great question, thanks!
I use Tecnica del pomodoro and Golden hour.
"Golden hour". Every morning I wake up 1-1.5 hours before work and prepare my brain for it. I read professional literature or listen to audiobooks on business topics. Thus, by the beginning of the working day, my brain is already tuned up for work.
"Tecnica del pomodoro". I divide the work day into segments, in my case it's an hour of work and 15 minutes of rest. I'm not looking at the work stage, but as soon as an hour passes, I either go out for a walk, do yoga/exercise, or simply get distracted by something meditative. It helps to clear my mind.
I also try not to set more than 2 main and important goals for the day. And a few smaller ones. I start doing the hardest ones first. It helps to tackle difficult tasks at the peak of brain activity.
@emil_ahayeu1 Thanks! Will try them out ; )
DhiWise
I keep my phone away, take breaks every couple of hours and go for a short walk so that there is some physical activity and off-screen time.
@rahul_patel12 Smartphones are highly distractive.. I need to learn to leave my phone elsewhere when working
DhiWise
@kmelaika This might be little weird. I don't charge my phone overnight and in the morning which are the best hours for focused work I keep it in charge in the other room.
So, I need to get my phone charged (which is important so that I can use it whole day) and that way I can keep my urge away to check phone every now and then and keep focus on my work.
I am working from home so it is convenient for me but if you are commuting to work than it can be tricky as you will need a phone which is charged.
There are a couple of things that work for me:
1) Short coffee breaks every now and then.
2) Timeboxing tasks and monotasking. I also find it very useful to mix up repetitive tasks with other things to refresh, such as a german class or a workout (I can only do this because I work flexible hours).
3) Building a timeline for the day, organization is my main drive!
@martina_hackbartt I prefer water breaks instead of coffee. It somehow doesn't work too good for me (drinking coffee), gets harder to focus
I know my focus/energy peaks and try to schedule key activities into these slots while resting during dips of energy. Also, time slotting and good sleep
@bulat_kaliev Sleeping routine is paramount for everyone!
productivity needs freedom and running a company needs routine and discipline.
finding the balance is hard.
that's why I hire people to be productive for me. hahaha
@andrewcanday Haha, but keeping others productive is a hard to task for you!
While researching my productivity problem, I almost fell into the information trap of the Internet again. I looked for different methods but did not even try them. It always seemed to me that I should first gain a lot of different experiences and techniques and then pick something up.
But I stopped in time, and I started reading primary sources. Specifically, a book about the brain: to understand how we work, what drives us, and why some people are mega-productive, and others are not.
And here are my conclusions:
1) Learn new things with a notebook and a pen!
2) Learn to prioritize
3) Down with multitasking.
4) While working, take breaks. And not just for lunch.
@evgeniyyakubovckiy love your tips, especially 2 and 3. I use a paper notebook and also highlight in books!
@evgeniyyakubovckiy Nice tips! I find 2 and 4 the most useful. While you can work non-stop, it's better to do it with intelligence. Deep work for 2 hours, followed by a break to get ready for the second cycle and so on. You need to plan and prioritize your work day!
@bulat_kaliev Glad it was helpful!
Hi!
Yes, you have a good and useful product:)
And as for productivity - it's important how you set yourself up. Thoughts can both ruin things and bring back productivity. I have a mountain of tasks right now - preparing for the release of our inqoob constructor. I'm clearly writing down what's a priority and ticking off what's already done - I'm motivated by those checkmarks that I'm getting everything done on time.
@katerina_kurshina Good luck on your upcoming release!
Beautiful.ai
With noise cancelling headphones and listening to brown noise, trust me it works!
@andrew_bagby Never tried this one, thanks!
AppstoreSpy
Coffee!!
@ksusha_golovchenko I somehow don't really like coffee and it doesn't help me. Instead, I drink much water
Red Bull, a hard out deadline each day, and a quiet room with zero distractions.
@rehan_choudhry1 Coffee or redbull, which one is better?
@rehan_choudhry1 I somehow feel good without Red Bull or coffee, haha. Don't need those things yet, but I'm pretty sure my time will come.
Pomodoro Timer!
@nicomuoio That helps me a lot every day!
Another idea is to use Yaware TimeTracker. The program motivates not to be distracted by extraneous resources.
@tetiana_nikolaieva Thanks, I'll give it a try!
taking mental and physical breaks in the day help me alot
@jimmy_spikes I think it's one of the most important things. Keeping your mind and body calm and giving some time off between tasks is crucial.
Building a detailed time frame for anything and trying to prioritize the important things first.
@avital_trifsik Planning and prioritizing are crucial in order to have a sufficient day!
Notion Habit Tracker
I downloaded a POMODORO Timer from the App Store and use it to enter Flow State of 30 mins