We live in a world that does its best to distract you as often as possible. Keeping focused and engaged at work is becoming harder and harder - recent shifts to being fully remote are certainly not helping this particular issue! I’d like to share with you a few tips for being productive during the workday.

Set goals and have a plan

In order to be productive, you need to have clearly defined goals as well as a plan to achieve them. If you simply do whatever task feels the most urgent at the time, you will very likely not be making meaningful progress towards achieving larger objectives. You will also likely be dropping the ball on critical tasks without even knowing it.

Every Monday morning, I set up my ‘slate’ for the week. This consists of the top few milestones I need to achieve that week, based on the larger overall objectives of the company. For example, this week I have 3 milestones:

1. Publish version 1.0.0 of the admin component library
2. Build the API for new mobile app
3. Resolve critical bugs on course management screen

If I hit all 3 of those milestones, then this week can be considered a success. It’s likely that I will also have other tasks to do, but their priorities are evaluated according to how the milestones are going.

Each of the milestones is broken up into multiple tasks. Each morning is review the previous days tasks, set anything incomplete as my priority tasks, and then add new tasks to be completed that day.

Without the above rhythm in place, I’d be hopelessly ineffective. There’s little point in working hard if you are not sure what you are working towards, or if you are working on the right things or not.

Catch up on communications only at scheduled times

It’s easy to fall into the bad habit of checking your email inbox, or Slack/Teams channels constantly throughout the day. This habit is extremely detrimental to your productivity.

You probably need to check these tools at some point though - often your input is required or there is action which you need to take.

The best way I have found to deal with this is to schedule in time specifically to catch up on these communications. How much time and how often depends on your role and the cadence of your organisation’s communication. For me, three 20 minute slots a day works well. I do not look at any communications outside of these times.

If you are the kind of person who responds well to gamifying this type of thing, you could try use an app like Forest to help ensure you don’t give in to the urge to check communications.

Take high quality breaks more frequently

Studies have shown that it’s not productive nor is it healthy to work continuously for hours on end without solid breaks. It’s better to get into a state of deep focus for a while and then follow that up with a short rest. You will very likely find that over the course of a day, you are more productive overall by alternating between focus and rest than you are by just trying to slog through the whole day.

Not all breaks are created equal, however. Mindlessly scrolling through social media is not a great way of resetting focus, its likely going to make it even worse. Instead, go for a walk, or have a conversation with someone. Do some breathing exercises or a quick meditation session. The idea is to allow your brain to engage on a different level in a different context so that it has time to reset and recharge.

One strategy for adding more scheduled breaks to your workday is utilizing the Pomodoro technique. This time management system involves working in as focused state as possible for 25 minutes, before breaking concentration completely for 5 minutes. You repeat this process 3 or 4 times before taking a longer break.

 

I believe that as a professional, it is your responsibility to improve your own level of productivity and have systems in place to get done what needs to get done. This is becoming even more important with the shift to remote work. I hope you find these tips helpful as you work towards better productivity. Thanks for reading!