7 Habits to Raise Your Productivity

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Are you struggling to complete your daily tasks? Are the days getting shorter as the volume of work increases? You are not alone. Research studies have shown that more than seventy percent of business owners are struggling to complete their daily tasks. Lack of productivity is one of the factors that lead to an excess of tasks and lack of time.

Regardless of where you are, the habits that you’ve formed will dictate your performance in the long run. Good habits will help you achieve your goals while bad habits will derail you. To boost your productivity, you need to focus on forming good habits as you get rid of the bad ones. Here are seven habits that will help you lead a productive and successful life.

1. Schedule time

If you are not the type of person who plans out everything, scheduling your entire day can seem daunting. And that’s okay. You don’t have to figure out what you’ll be doing every minute of your day. You need to take baby steps. Start by writing down all the activities and tasks that need to get done during the day. Next, organize them in order of priority. The most important tasks should always come on top of the less important ones. Doing this reduces the chances of you getting caught up in less important tasks and missing those that boost the growth of your business.

2. Wake up early

The only time of the day that you’ll have to yourself are mornings. You need to wake up as early as you can every day. When you wake up, don’t start checking your messages, emails, or reading the news. Instead, focus on activities that will boost your productivity such as exercising, meditating, reading a self-improvement book, or your journal. Successful people spend a huge portion of their mornings focusing on themselves and their growth.

3. Set clear achievable goals

Where do you see yourself or your enterprise in five years? What will increase your income? Or improve the quality of your products? You need to define what success means to you. And then set clear goals. Your goals need to be specific and achievable. Setting a broad goal such as “I want to increase revenue or sales” will make it harder for you to achieve your goals.

You should also be realistic when setting goals. Setting too lofty goals can lead to overwhelm and discouragement. Setting specific and achievable goals such as “I will increase my revenues by 15 percent by attending two networking events in the next three months”. Always ensure that you are capable of achieving the goal. And remember to set deadlines.

4. Read

To achieve your goals quickly and easily, you need to know. Most of the successful people in the world spend close to three hours every day reading to solve problems and improve their skills. There are a lot of books that you can read to boost your productivity and accelerate the growth of your business. You can also watch videos and listen to audiobooks to get new insights on your subject of interest. Forming the habit of reading one book each month will pay off in spades. Think of a book as an instructional manual that saves you a lot of time and energy. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel when others already did it for you.

5. Help your colleagues

People often think of productivity as locking themselves in their offices and working for hours without interruptions. While doing this can help you move forward, it’s not a long-term solution. You can boost your productivity and the performance of your organization by helping others. When you support and help your colleagues in the workplace, they’ll easily do their jobs. And this will make yours easier too. As a leader, always prioritize communicating with your employees every day. Availing yourself and offering help whenever you can will pay off in the long run.

6. Eat nutritious foods and get enough sleep

As you focus on boosting your productivity and performance, it’s easy to sacrifice sleep, exercise, and proper nutrition. However, getting seven to eight hours of sleep every night, exercising, and eating right have proven to improve mental health, function, and capability. Sacrificing your sleep and consuming junk throughout the day weakens your immunity, and increases the chances of chronic diseases such as diabetes. Plus, you cannot be productive when you are feeling tired. Taking the time to look after yourself will boost your productivity and performance in the workplace.

7. Avoid procrastination

Procrastination is one of the biggest killers of productivity. If you tend to procrastinate, research studies have shown that you are not alone. However, it’s entirely up to you to stop procrastinating. One of the best ways to get ahead of this insidious habit is to do things immediately. If you have to call someone or work on a specific task, do it immediately. Another great way to overcome procrastination is by setting clear goals and organizing them in order of priority.

Conclusion

Forming and maintaining good habits is not easy. You need discipline, time, and lots of patience when you travel down this path. Take baby steps and make changes gradually. Applying the seven habits that we’ve discussed here will make it easier for you to complete your tasks on time and achieve both your short-term and long-term goals. Now is the best time to start your journey to success.