7 Ways to Be More Productive
During Your Work

By Amelia White

After reading this article, you will also be able to fly a jet, craft jewelry out of platinum, and seduce any person over the age of 40. Frankly, there are no seven ways to be more productive at anything because it is all down to you. How can a piece of advice that suits a welder work just as well for a surgeon? The seven ideas listed in this article are thought exercises. They will help you uncover your personal reasons why you are not as productive as you wish you were. Go over each of the seven ideas listed below and ask yourself if maybe they apply to you, and ask yourself what you can do personally to make a change. In other words, use these ideas/thought exercises to come up with your own seven ways to be productive during “Your” work.

1. Don’t Get Into the Habit of Getting Comfortable Doing Nothing
   Procrastination is the opposite of productivity. The reason so many people have trouble working from home is because they are too comfortable when they are doing nothing. If you get into the habit of “feeling” comfortable both emotionally and physically while you are doing nothing, then it becomes harder to push (self-motivate) yourself to get anything productive doing. Are you procrastinating in order to slightly extend the amount of time you feel comfortable?
2. Forget Targets and Goals if Your Job Is a Long or Never-Ending One
   Unless you have a single goal that is achievable in a certain time frame, such as saving to buy a boat, then you should forget goals and targets. They should only be used during the planning process, and they should only be addressed as indications of progress. Forget what people say about having goals and targets when your job is a long one or a never ending one. If your job is to ladle water out of a sinking boat, then setting a target to clear the water in an hour is fruitless when the boat will be full again in an hour.
3. Surround Yourself With People Who Are as Equally Motivated as You
   Like attracts like, but it is not just about that. There is a massive amount of social pressure to act like the people around you. Being the only miserable or slow one in the room feels awkward, and it is the sort of thing a stroppy and immature teenager does. Include just one poisonously negative/unmotivated person in your group, and that person will slowly drag you all down.
4. Doom Predictions Are a Signal That You Are Looking for Excuses to Fail
   A doom prediction sounds something like, “I will never get this done in time.” However, if you are a full-time and professional worker, your doom predictions have probably become more insidious to the point where they sound like planning. Comments such as, “It will be just as difficult next month” are doom predictions, and they are an indication that you are looking for an excuse to fail today because failing today means you can feel rotten about it today and get that nasty feeling over and done with. Doom predictions are big indicators that you need to introspect right away and fix your productivity and motivation problems before you continue.
5. Outsource Your Work if You Have To
   You may work in an industry where productivity is not measured by action, but it is measured by a combination of progress and momentum. If you work in such an industry and your momentum has slipped and progress has slowed, then outsource some of your processes until you are back on track. Upon questioning from a blogger, an agent from nsw-writers.com said, “Outsourcing is not cheating, nor does it contribute to the dilution of your work. A conductor doesn't have to learn every instrument before he or she becomes professional, and a car is not built by just one person.” You can recognize your dreams, even if you do not achieve them alone.
6. Punishing Yourself When Your Productivity Fails You Is Counter-Productive
   Successful and thinking people have a tendency to blame themselves when their productivity drops, and that is healthy. What is not healthy is punishing yourself in some way for it. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, you need to downplay the times you are less-than-productive, otherwise you will create a neurosis that some call “Fear of failure.” Such a fear has many negative symptoms, such as self-sabotage, procrastination, frustration, and much more.
7. Forgive Yourself for Your Lack of Productivity
   This sounds like the most wishy-washy tip of them all, but it is not as “Spiritual” and “Self loving” as it sounds. A highly motivated person may have a tendency to feel terrible when he/she doesn't do what he/she knows his/her should. He/she may feel so rotten that he/she goes to bed after drinking, over eating, or seeking extra comfort because he/she feels rotten about failing to live up to his or her potential. You cannot let yourself sink into this trap.

   It sounds counter-intuitive because the people who are “okay” with not doing enough all day are typically lazy and unproductive people. However, “You Know You Are Highly Motivated,” so there is no risk of you suddenly becoming lazy just because you forgave yourself for not doing as much as you should. If you were lazy, would you feel so rotten after a day of work where you wasted 50% of your time.

   You need to forgive yourself for being unproductive today, and you need to forgive yourself because you are waaaaay off base. You are focusing on the wrong thing, you are feeling the wrong emotions, and you are putting pressure on yourself to do extra tomorrow, which leads to you feeling in debt with your own workload.

Come home, stop feeling rotten, and examine your day. Why were you unproductive today? If your answer is a label, such as you were “Lazy,” or “Tired” or “Upset,” then you need to keep introspecting. You also need to examine what changes you can make to avoid similar things happening tomorrow. Ask yourself how you can change your process, your work rules, or your working environment to stop the same thing happening again tomorrow.