Why is productivity important? How to stop procrastinating and be efficient 24/7

Does this ever happen to you? You have a task that you know you have to complete by a certain day, yet you can’t seem to get it done. You keep pushing it and pushing it until the deadline comes. You frantically work to complete the task; you are stressed and feel that you wasted valuable time. 

Is this you?

You know you have to increase your productivity and get things done, but you are not sure how to start. Sometimes you start to get motivated, but you soon lose that motivation and momentum only to be left in the scenario we painted before. 

Here, we’ll share with you how to stop procrastinating, become more efficient and boost your productivity. You can start today!

What is productivity? 

Productivity is a way to measure efficiency. Essentially, it is how much of something you can do/produce in a certain amount of time. To increase your productivity, you want to do/produce more in the same amount of time as before. Highly productive people are not necessarily those working 24/7, but those who know how to utilize every minute of their workday best - work smarter, not harder. 

What is stopping you from being productive?

Multiple factors lead to lack of productivity, the main one being procrastination, i.e. postponing or delaying something you know you have to do. We are all familiar with procrastination, putting things at the bottom of your list and telling yourself, “I’ll get to it later.” But, do you get to it later?

Procrastination can look like this:

• You lack the motivation to complete (or start) a project, so you keep delaying it. You tell yourself you’ll do it later. 
• You are constantly distracted by your surroundings, and you find yourself killing time without achieving much. Or, you are doing too much at once that, in the end, you don’t get much of each task done.
• You are about to start a project, but you suddenly get the urge to re-organize your pantry, clean the garage, go through your closet before starting your project.

So, how do you stop procrastinating?

Boost your productivity

Quitting your procrastination habits is not as simple as turning off the switch. You have to create new productive habits. Here are some tips to get you started and become more productive:

• Work in 90-minute intervals ⏱. For those 90 minutes, you will only work on one individual task. It is hard for us to focus on something for more than 90 minutes. Beyond that period of time, we start getting distracted, and our productivity drops. After your work interval, take a short break to reset. 
• Avoid multitasking 🗃. Research shows that attempting to do multiple things at once actually results in time lost and low productivity. As mentioned in the previous point, focus on one task at a time. You’ll find yourself completing that task sooner than if you had done multiple at once. 
• Implement the “two-minute rule” 📌. The two-minute rule is simple: if there is a task present that you know you can complete in two minutes or less, do it right now. A great example is making your bed in the morning, it takes less than two minutes, and you will have started your day on a productive note. 
• Use a time tracker tool 🧭 to measure how much time you spend on certain tasks. Measure how much time you spend on social media, reading emails, etc. Once you have an average, you can limit the amount of time you spend on those tasks. Chances are you are spending more time than you should on them. 
• Make a to-do list 📗. Start your day by making a list of the tasks to be completed and then organize them based on priority. This shouldn’t take more than 2 minutes. You’ll have a visual reminder of the tasks you have to complete, and you’ll get a great sense of satisfaction once you tick them off your list. 

Remember, you cannot rely on motivation alone to get things done as it will not always be there. The most important element is to create productive habits.

Once you make those habits, you’ll find yourself being productive even when the motivation is not there. Motivation comes and goes; a strong habit is hard to break, so create productive ones. 

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