How do you boost your productivity?

Looking for a golden bullet? Boosting productivity is one of the best ways for individuals to get ahead in their workplace, workplaces to get ahead in their industry, and industries to get ahead in their market. And productivity is free! Little wonder there is outsized online-acreage dedicated to motivational tricks, focus techniques, the psychology behind willpower and secrets to concentration. In this blog we’ve looked at some of the more commonly accepted wisdoms and most popular techniques for continual achievement, to help you perform to your best. 

Motivation vs discipline

‘Motivation’, once the buzzword of business success, has taken a tumble from grace over the last decade, with ‘discipline’ now the accepted technique for sustained productivity. Although the two are undeniably similar, waiting for motivation suggests a certain wallflower passivity, while discipline grasps the bull by the horns. No one waits for discipline to strike. Motivated individuals are on hold, awaiting a passion to yip them into an enthusiasm so fervant they are impelled to start storming their workload. Disciplined individuals carry themselves to their work and muscle their mind into enthusiasm. While disciplined people are at their desk cultivating focused habits, motivated people are still reading Pinterest quotes. 

Cutting distraction

Unfortunately, picking between motivation or discipline isn’t as easy as knowing which one’s flavour of the month – discipline is a willpower-hungry, mentally athletic pursuit that many find hard to foster. To be truly productive, our minds require long periods of focused attention – something that’s getting more and more scarce in our oversaturated online worlds. If you struggle to concentrate, putting your phone on Airplane mode and blocking social media is an effective first step. There’s also a ton of apps that can help with this – one popular one is ‘Forest: stay focused, be present’. Available as an app and Chrome plug-in, set a block of time you want to stay off your phone or web browser and the program grows a virtual tree in that time. Disturb the tree and the tree dies; complete the session and the tree becomes part of your forest. Fans say Forest reminds them of their resolve for distraction-free working periods, while in the long-term slowly cultivating a wholesome cyber-forest is both wholesome and satisfying. Use it for individual ‘power periods’ or as part of the pomodoro technique described below.

The pomodoro technique

Created in the 1980s, the pomodoro time management system is today one of the most popular productivity techniques around. The crux of the system involves ‘chunking’ time for dedicated focus. Participants choose a timeframe for work – say 25 minutes – and set a timer for that time, before dedicating themselves fully to their sole task for this time. Once the time elapses the participant takes a five-minute break, before starting the process again. After four such sessions a longer break is permitted. 

One major advantage of the pomodoro technique is that it works for all levels of focus. Beginners can adjust the timeframes to start with as short a sessions as are needed, and gradually train themselves to extend focus periods over time. ‘Mastery’ of the system is said to require repetitive use between seven and 20 days, but even non-experts should find it an effective technique to dip in and out of.

Meditation

Perhaps in an effort to ditch some of its more metaphysical connotations, meditation has been repackaged as mindfulness and is reaching a whole new audience. Which is great news – when it comes to combating the sieging distractive forces of our disruptivity-driven worlds, study after study lists meditation as one of the most effective ways to encourage focus, reduce stress and boost concentration. Meditation is the art of holding focus for protracted periods, and it stands to reason that this skill could be carried over into the workplace.

            There are countless YouTube meditation videos online, as well as many apps specifically designed for introducing beginners to mindfulness. Try the free introductions of Headspace or Calm to see if this ancient technique works for you.

Habit building

Sadly no ‘trick’ turns on productivity like a tap: the real secret behind all of these techniques, plus any others you care to find, comes from building repetition into habit. Habit is the reward for consistent discipline – one day you can stop pushing yourself to make that tough decision as habit kicks you into autopilot. 

            To build new habits, start small.Think about the smallest, lowest-possible new habit denominator. That’s your new goal. Next, think about how you can link it to an existing routine. Want to start checking the stock market every day? Link it to your morning espresso, and check those stocks while you’re waiting for your coffee to brew. With this process of association you have an inbuilt reminder that helps you to remember your routine, while mentally cueing yourself to begin your new habit.

'How to boost your productive?' is the third in a series of 12 articles from Dovetail and Slate exploring issues faced by the recruitment sector.