A wise philosopher once said, “Reading 100 self-help books won’t help you as much as a self-discipline will”, and there was no flaw in his statement.
Most times, we know what result we look forward to achieving.
Other times, we know what exactly to do, to achieve these results.
Either you are doing research, getting to work early, finishing your courses, and many other steps that bring us closer to our goals.
But one problem we face is staying productive.
With a broad spread of knowledge from the internet to every social media forum, the problem in achieving goals is no longer in the knowledge we have, it is now in the “doing”.
In this article, we will be sharing 5 practical ways to be productive:
1. Define what a productive day is for you; you cannot have what you do not know.
You should first question yourself. What is a productive day for you? We often mistake a busy day with a productive day, and this affects our day. A productive day might not be very hectic for you, but it is a directed day. It can be you reading a book, watching a movie, hitting your goals, or even sleeping. A productive day is always purpose driven.
2. Have a to-do list;
As the holy book said, write the vision on a plain surface, so that he who sees it, can run with it. You shouldn’t only write down your long-term goals in life-like getting married or making billions of naira. You should also write down your daily task. Writing this down gives you a mental picture of what to run within the next 24 hours. Also, this helps you, because, if you can achieve the goals you write down every day, your mind is automatically shaped to know that the goal of making billions of naira in the next year is achievable.
3. Identify your obstacles;
You have to know, before starting with achieving your goals for the day, that obstacles may come. So instead of waiting around for the possible obstacles, it is better to find possible solutions. This helps you avoid frustration halfway through your goals. For an instance, do you want to watch a video online? The obstacle might be a low battery during the day. Identifying this will help you charge your phone, get a power bank nearby, or avoid draining your battery before time.
4. Cut off distractions;
This might be one of the most helpful tools in having a productive day. If you know what to do, and you do not do it. It is either, you were distracted, or faced obstacles. And since you already made plans to avoid obstacles, then distractions are the only hurdle. The first way to end a thing is, to be honest about the presence of that thing. You should first admit your distractions and cut them off. If it is a gadget, then put it in a different space when facing your task. This will help you stay focused.
5. Reward yourself;
little kids will do things faster when there is a reward attached to them. We, as adults are motivated by rewards too. You should create a system where you reward yourself after hitting your task. It could be rewarding yourself with your distractions.
In this system, there should be a time focus. For an instance; stay focused for two hours on achieving your goals, and reward yourself by binge-watching a series. how is that? You will love it!
Did you gain value from this post? You should leave a comment now. Cheers to crushing your goals.
