Four Ways to Get More Out of Your Day ( HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

🌼Four Ways to Get More Out of Your Day ( HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

So your future self can be proud.

“Productivity” is almost cliche nowadays. It seems everyone has a message for you to accept. While well-intentioned, some of the advice may be useless if it doesn’t help your immediate goals.

There are millions of great pieces of advice out there, so when I find some effective and practical tips, I stick with them as they serve my immediate purpose.

The four tips I mention in this article have been essential in my productivity over the last few months.

Read also: 4 signs your rich and don’t even know it ( I learnt a lot from this article)

I was going through a rough patch of creativity and stopped writing. Not because I didn’t want to but because I felt overwhelmed. I was under the illusion that I could do it all, be it all, and get it all done.

It was very humbling to realize I am not a machine and capable of burnout like anyone else.

My lack of creativity was due to my trying to do it all.

I had to take some time away and recenter my ambition. While I am still working on that, these steps were helpful to me:

1. Say no at least once a day.

2. Delete one item from your To-Do list every day.

3. Do one thing you’ve avoided every day.

4. Time blocking.

1. Say no at least once a day.

I burned out trying to help everyone with their issues. Helping others succeed is a core tenet of my life, but I realize that help is also guiding others to help themselves.

Often when I would get asked to help with a family member’s project, I felt obligated to say yes and even contribute to its success.

But I changed my tune and realized “No” is the secret superpower of our day.

How so?

Because saying “no” to things that don’t serve your aim helps protect your energy.

With a firm “No,” you are;

-Not obligated to continue.

-Don’t have to feel guilty anymore.

-Are upfront, so there are no mixed messages.

-Set up healthy boundaries that can dramatically improve your mental health.

The list goes on.

If you are a person with priorities, you will quickly realize that priorities drive productivity and your priorities require you to say no often.

Yesterday night I went to a stand-up comedy show with my wife and friends; after it was done, my friends wanted to hit up a club. I was tempted, but I firmly declined. It would have been nice, but I wouldn’t have finished my writing and reading. I wanted to get some late-night productivity in as that was the time everyone would be asleep.

I consciously decided to choose productivity and skill-building over chilling and drinking. My 20-year-old self would have thought I was nuts — but saying “No” gave me the power to choose what is best for me and my current goal.

If you are clear about what you want — saying NO will enhance it.

I can promise you I wasted years of my life saying yes to things I should have said no to. And I know you can relate.

So how do you say no?

Practice saying it daily. Eventually, your time will be respected as you become a person who is selective about what they will say yes to — and that is the ultimate boss move.

You learn to protect your time and energy when you force yourself to say no to at least one thing a day.

Also, you get comfortable declining things, which is an asset in this day of endless information.

Saying no is one of the most valuable skills you can develop, as you will gain a lot of opportunities knowing when to say no.

2. Delete one item from your “To-Do” list every day.

Only some things on your To-Do list should be there.

I used to have 20 things on my to-do list and thought I was being super effective. When I wasn’t getting much accomplished on that list, I realized the errors of my ways.

Not saying no and taking on other projects added more to my list. I falsely assumed everything had equal urgency.

When a task gets placed on your to-do list, it takes up a real spot on that paper and your mental bandwidth. Any extra item on a to-do list that remains unfulfilled can have a mental drain.

I used to feel ineffective when I didn’t finish everything on my list. I would have 20 things but accomplish 15 and feel like a failure. Not even thinking that I got a lot done.

That led to years of self-doubt about my own productivity when all that was needed was fewer items. Items that were more focused toward my goal.

So how do you eliminate items from your to-do list that all seem important?

Try the ABCD method.

I learned this lesson from author and motivational speaker Brian Tracy.

It is a technique where you categorize large data into groups. These groups are often marked A, B, C, and D — hence the name.

These general criteria rank activities:

A — Tasks that are perceived as being urgent and important,

B — Tasks that are important but not urgent,

C — Tasks that are unimportant but urgent,

D — Tasks that are unimportant and not urgent.

Each group is then rank-ordered by priority, so if you remove the least important item from your list daily, you can free yourself up to spend time on more important things.

If you can focus on your “A” tasks, you should be solid.

Decide what doesn’t need to be done or at least doesn’t need to be done by you.

Here is the exact video I watched to help me put it into play.

3. Do one thing you avoid every day.

The things you avoid are often the ones that most need to get done. I am sure you can relate.

It is easy to do the low-hanging fruit items as a way to get them done and feel accomplished quickly. But you could be busy all day and still get nothing done.

One surefire way to be effective as you want is to do the thing you fear to do — Daily.

I guarantee that thing you are afraid to do is the thing that needs to be done or get done.

When you commit to doing one thing you’ve avoided each day, you’ll be blown away by how much more productive you become.

I was in my recent creative slump because I wasn’t writing. In fact, I was avoiding it. I had every excuse, and even though they were valid, I still didn’t do what I was supposed to do. When I write, it usually leads me to create more, read more, and share more. It is like a fountain of creativity.

I realized when I started to write again, I regained confidence and continued my path of growth.

One added benefit of doing one thing you avoid every day is that it will kill off your procrastination which is a net positive result.

4. Time block

Even though this lesson is not new, it resonated with me while I took Ayodeji Awosika course on writing momentum.

Time-blocking is an easy time-management strategy that takes just a minute and leads to so much clarity in your day.

It eliminates procrastination from trying to decide “when” to start working. If you choose when to start working in real-time, procrastination is inevitable. For example, you might think that you’ll start working in 15 minutes — but those 15 minutes will turn into an hour without you realizing it — as many distractions will take root.

But if it’s already decided that you’ll start working at 12 o’clock the next day, the chances of procrastination are reduced drastically.

Also, when you lay out your day on a piece of paper and assign tasks to them, you’ll realize that you have a lot of time in a day. Do this every day, and it’ll get rid of the “lack of time” mindset forever.

I hope it works for you as it does for me. I always have a time block in the morning for reading and recently incorporated a few other time blocks for writing and exercise.

Read also: 11 strange questions that might change how you live ( Read this daily)

Quick recap

1. Say no at least once a day.

2. Delete one item from your To-Do list every day.

3. Do one thing you’ve avoided every day.

4. Time block

I hope these help you as much as they did me.

All the best.

CONTRIBUTED BY Teronie Donaldson

For more information and updates join our WhatsApp group HERE

Like our page on Facebook HERE

Join our Telegram group HERE