5 Brilliant Productivity Tips

Here are some brilliant tips on productivity that might help you utilise your time better :

The Speed Hour

Basically, a speed hour is just an hour of fast and focused work. The idea is to give yourself one dedicated hour to do whatever task you need done. And that one hour is all you will give yourself. If the task is something that can be accomplished within one hour then well and good. If not, at least you would have made one hour's worth of progress. 

Another way to use the speed hour is to use to knock of short tasks that can be finished quickly. So set aside one hour and start knocking off these tasks from your to-do list rapidly. It will clear up your to-do list and make you feel less overwhelmed about all the things you need to get done. Remember to work fast. Try not to stop. Just finish tasks as fast as you can.

Block Schedule

A block schedule means that you have to replace the one really long list & instead create several smaller to-do lists each day. And then you will work through each of these smaller lists at different "blocks" of time during the day. I can oversimplify this method by asking you to simply create a different to-do list for the morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night, and late night.

Creating a block schedule helps you to remain realistic about the amount of work you can really get done that day. Because, when you fill-up the blocks of time, that's all you can do in the day. Blocks can be categorized differently as well instead of time, for example, by location.

Timer 

One great tip is to use the timer function on your phone. Set a time for everything. If you need just a few more minutes with your delicious morning breakfast before you get going, set a 5-minute "rest" timer. 

If you have a very important task that needs to get done but you are not feeling up to it, set a 1-hour "work" timer. It is likely that once you start engaging in the task at hand, you will keep hitting the snooze button till the job is done. But if you really do not feel like working, you can set the 5-minute "rest" timer again.

Eat the frog first

Do the task you hate and dread the most first. That way you do not end up using other less important things on your to-do list to procrastinate on the disliked task. 

Split your to-do list into three parts - Home, Work/School, and Personal. List down the tasks you need to do in all these three categories. Then mark the top three most important tasks in each category and starting doing those first. Prioritize work and school.

Gamify & Incentivise 

In this tip, the idea is to gamify and essentially incentivize getting your tasks done. Make a list of your usual daily tasks. Judging by the level of difficulty of each task on the list, assign a numerical value to it. Greater the value, the more difficult the task. Once you have assigned values, separate the lower, medium, and higher-value tasks. Let the numbers you have assigned be points. 

When you cross of things from this list, make a note of the points you earned. At the end of the week, calculate your total score, and depending on the score you earned, you can grant yourself a little reward. But be careful while doing this, it has to be a fair game. You cannot give your 1000 points just for making your bed. Nor can you use the 100 points earned at the end of the week as an excuse to splurge and go broke.