Most people, especially high achievers want to improve personal productivity and get more done in a day. I recently was not feeling as productive as I would like and decided to revise my daily planning. I also thought about the cause for my low productivity and here is my conclusion and plan to improve.
I’ve concluded that there are three things that affect personal productivity, especially for high-pace people. These are often referred to as type A personality types, driver, achievers, etc.
- personality type
- personal motivation
- focus
Personality type
People who are often referred to as type A personality types, driver, achievers, etc. tend to be high paced individuals. They incline to have more difficulty focusing on one thing at a time and thus engage in multitasking. This often means less focus on details, forgetting things because of too many things going on and high stress.
Lower paced individuals tend to have more patience to focus on the details and prefer to do one thing at a time.
High paced people may tend to flip from one time management system to another rather than learning to slow down and focus.
I am higher paced type and have suffered from these symptoms for years, so I am always interested to improve personal productivity.
Personal motivation to improve personal productivity
When one is motivated to accomplish things on the to do list there is less procrastination and more vigor for completing the tasks.
80% of the tasks performed in a day should be enjoyable otherwise you may avoid many of them. In other words, your highly important tasks related to projects and goals should be what you enjoy doing most of the time. If they are not, then you need to do some personal reflection regarding your job and the choices you’ve made. Perhaps you have not delegated or assigned tasks adequately.
Many people waste a lot of time indulging in distracting but seemingly enjoyable activities such as spending time on social networks, playing video games and chit chatting online. If problematic, these are signs of low motivation and personal satisfaction.
Focus to improve personal productivity
Physical and mental energy can affect focus as well as personal motivation. You need to make sure you’re getting enough rest, eating well and exercising regularly.
You also need a system or process in place to manage your tasks and time constraints.
Using a to-do List to improve personal productivity
Here is a good system you may want to consider o improve personal productivity. Keep an ongoing list of tasks related to projects and goals. I keep adding to my list using Google tasks, which is accessible in Gmail. I review this list every day and then choose 3 to 7 tasks that I want to accomplish on a given day. I write this down in OneNote in my Surface tablet. You can keep a notebook dedicated to your daily to do list if you prefer pen and paper.
Each day I review the list several times and cross out what I have accomplished. I find doing my list this way helps me feel like I’m accomplishing important tasks daily.
If some items keep getting written down over and over you may want to question their importance and delete them for your lists. IF they become important again you will remember to write them down.
Attitude
Keeping a positive attitude regarding your progress in becoming better organized and productive is important to stay on track. If you are not happy with your focus or progress, look at what’s working and what’s not. Come up with simple ways to improve and focus on one improvement at a time.
Rewards
It’s important to recognize progress and celebrate success. Find ways to reward yourself for staying focused and productive.