It's easy to look for productivity tips when you're on a holiday and in a great mental space, not so easy to maintain those productivity tips when you're thrown back into your busy reality and find it easy to slip into bad habits.
Traditional tips like waking up early, keeping an effective to-do list, or prioritising your tasks are great, but tey require consistency and a change in lifestyle sometimes to be truly effective.
So, if you're looking for ways to be more productive and you find yourself thinking "Traditional approaches to productivity don't work for me." this is the blog post for you.
Over the past few weeks I've been trialling 6 amazing holistic productivity techniques that are easy to incorporate into a busy corporate lifestyle. Here are my key takeaways:
1. Prioritising Your Self-Care
It’s easy to get caught up in the thinking that our solutions to time management are in the hands of the latest productivity guru, but they’re usually alwready within us; we just need to unlock it.
In the same way that companies are quickly realising that happy employees are motivated to work harder, a happy individual is more likely to be more productive in their personal life too.
So how can you prioritise your self-care in the most effective way?
Put it in your calendar: If you're anything like me, setting aside time for yourself can often feel like you're not being productive. I've realised that I can "trick" my mind into thinking my me time is just as productive as any other time by actually putting in my calendar. Trust me, it works wonders.
We've all heard the phrase "You can't pour from an empty cup." so let's action it so that we can stay productive.
2. Getting Consistent Quality Sleep
Every few months there's a new wave of people talking about the benefits of being early risers and the millionaire morning routine were you wake up at 5 a.m. every day. Now I'm not here to knock those who use it, I actually think waking up early works wonders.
But if you look deeper into why waking up early works well, you'll often realise it's because those who wake up at 5 a.m. are also sleeping between 9 and 10 p.m.; they're getting consistend quality 7-8 hours of sleep every night.
Are you?
3. Taking Up Meditation/Yoga
So far these tips are useful to anyone who's concerned about their creativity generally.
But what about if you're a creative and your productivity is directly linked to your ability to think creatively?
Researchers R. Talbot, C. Cooper and S. Barrow, looked at the relationship between stress and creativity in the 1990s and found strong negative correlations between the two. The higher the stress level, the lower the creativity.
So what's one great way to reduce stress?
Taking more control over your mind via the practice of meditation and yoga.
If you're not sure where to start, the headspace app has some amazing daily prompts or try these simple steps below:
- Find a quiet, comfortable place.
- Close your eyes.
- Breathe naturally and focus on the rhythm of your breath. (I find counting my breathing helps here). It’s ok if your mind wanders, just refocus on your breathing whenever it does.
4. Cutting Down Your Sugar Intake & Staying Hydrated
Research suggests that if you’re eating too much added sugar every day, it may affect how you think, which can slow your productivity. If you'd like to switch up your diet a little to cut down your sugar and increase your superfoods, try these (you can click on each name to purchase if you wish):
- Ashwagandha : A herb known for helping with recovery and boosting hormone balance and brain function.
- Beetroot: Known for increasing blood flow and boosting physical stamina.
- Rhodiola : A herb that can help battle physical and mental fatigue.
Please do check and be careful of any allergens though!
Also goes without saying that if you're keeping your bodily properly fuelled with food it should also be properly fuelled with water. The human body is made up of about 80% water so you should ideally be drinking 2 - 3 litres of water a day. If you're struggling with this habit, try setting timers to remind you.
5. Moving More Throughout The Day
On a basic level, exercise increases blood flow to the brain and makes it easier to focus. It also helps increase energy which is often all you need when you're in a productive slump.
Research suggests that working out in the morning is the best for optimum productivity, but in all honesty any movement at any time works wonders. I personally don't work out in the morning and I haven't suffered yet :)
Hopefully you've found this useful, and as ever, there's always more on my Instagram: @Successwstephuk.
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