Your productivity starts before you go to work
For all the best leaders and professionals who are used to juggle priorities, people and tasks on daily basis, productivity is the name of the game.
These three simple principles are worth following in order to succeed and they are: health, engagement as well as productivity. Some are very easy tweaks to adopt in your everyday life, some others have taken a lot more of time to master, but all of them may help you focus better, accomplish more and become a stronger leader.
- Starting each day with a solid foundation.
All of the successful restaurant businesses knows that preparation means everything. All tables will have to be set, you will need to ensure that there is correct amount of food in the fridge and oven is preheated. On the other hand students know that the real work is in the preparation – the studying before taking a test. Whether you work in a kitchen, classroom or behind a desk, preparation is essential to your productivity and what’s coming later – a success.
Getting enough sleep is a crucial element in preparing your day. You should get anything between sever to nine hours of sleep per night. Good sleep is about more than mere productivity. If you do not get enough sleep you have a greater risk of being in a workplace accident and you may experience worse symptoms of depression.
Getting adequate rest may require thinking of it as a job with its own rules, takes and routines. First, try to eliminate stress – the quality of your sleep plays tremendous role, but worrying about getting good night’s sleep will only be frustrating and counterproductive. Second, follow a regular ritual before bed, for instance: take a shower or bath, brush your teeth, floss and stretch. Third, develop a consistent sleep schedule: go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
A smart post sleep routine is just as important, it is nice to have a walking or jogging session before breakfast, this 15-30 minute of a daily “exercise” or even commitment will be enough to promote good energy levels throughout the day for many of us. Your body also needs fuel, as well as breakfast is the fuel that will carry you through the morning. Remember that breakfast is the most important meal of a day, it supposed to provide you enough nutritions and energy to be used in the most productive part of a day.
Solid daily foundation can definitely help you to become sharper when it is time to show up for a board meeting or be on a interview with candidate you want to attract to your organisation. If you’d sleep pattern isn’t up to scratch, you simply won’t be efficient enough on your important tasks.
- Super power your energy output.
Once the pre-work habit is accomplished allowing you to arrive at your office, wherever it is in the building or in the next room, there will be still more prep for you to handle. This usually does not take most of us that long. You can get your cup of coffee or tea and make sure you have an access to drinking water before you head to your desk.
Multitasking may be reserved for all most experienced people but there is nothing stopping you to try and tackle two goals at once. Depends on work to hand, you can choose to have a light meeting with your team while working on something less critical, you may as well chose to listen into your audiobooks if that is your thing, as long as your job will not suffer from it.
It is important to mention that getting a moderate amount of exercise will generate circulation to your brain which will then allow you to be more focused and mentally productive. If you take care of your body and provide it’s needs, looking after it properly, you will definitely get most out of it. At the end of the day, this is your greatest asset. Just make sure you do not overdo it. Moderation is the key to keeping it running for a lifetime.
Absolutely do not be surprised if you see an immediate change in your attitude towards yours people, the amount of energy you bring to meetings and how much more engaged you are. Engaged leaders make for more engaged employees are good for your bottom line.
- Start accepting who you actually are.
There is a famous quote by Oscar Wilde “Be yourself. Everybody else is taken”. The most unproductive thing you can do as a leader is beat yourself up for failing or not accepting who you are. There are hundreds of productivity experts who will tell you how you should live your life. But if you are not in a place to learn or adopt to change, even the best advise will fail on you.
It will take anything between 2 weeks to years to properly tackle and install habits, you need to accept who you are, what are your faults as well as strong points. Often people are putting their skills on CV, great idea will be to make a CV addressed to yourself, and then you could review it once in couple of months to see what sort of improvements you have accomplished and what else must still be conquered.
Take emails, some people to increase their productivity look at their emails twice a day, it could be a good method if your job does not require you to work on them immediately. If you cannot do this, you can at least challenge yourself to finish a day with zero emails and every time you review your emails in the morning or mid day, making sure you get into the inbox zero too.
How are you increasing your productivity levels? Do you have your own patterns to become better at your work without sacrificing too much? Please do let me know in the comments section below.
All the best,
Lucas
