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Trying to get the maximum juice out of your days, hours and minutes? As a person who used to be frivolous with my time, my transition to a productive me has been, and continues to be, a tough and arduous one.
Here are four reasons to which I attribute more than 80% of productivity problems. Even though they may not be applicable in all circumstances, these end up sucking valuable time and leaving one with nothing to show for.
Recognizing them and their impact was the first step to helping me addressing the gaps between what I yearned to do and what I ended up actually doing.
Before you go “surely no one does this”, let me tell you that it is a very prevalent problem. Eating beyond what one needs results in lethargy and saps our focus. We cannot be alert and sharp on a stomach that is overloaded. Most of us would have experienced the impact of a hearty meal during a post-lunch meeting.
In an era where all types of cuisine is just a click away, we need to be mindful about two important eating related facts. One surely is that over-eating makes us sluggish, dull and jaded. And two, perhaps less important to us but more important socially, food is still a scarce resource and hence needs to be consumed judiciously.
However, starving or dieting is not the solution either. Being fed the right quantity is critical to ensure we are at our best and can be fully engaged in our chosen activity and give it our whole focus.
While there is growing understanding of food habits and its effect on our body and mind, it is still easy for us to surrender ourselves to inviting and tempting food and over doing it.
One way I fight this is by being inspired by sportsmen / sportswomen who have mastered their diet based on the demands of their particular sport. There is a fine balance between food intake and optimal performance and we need to find our zone for peak productivity.
As a recovery mechanism, the body needs rest and denying sufficient time for it will only impact our ability to stay focused and active the next day. But hitting the snooze button often and letting time drift by as we continue sleeping is not a good option.
Research suggests that anywhere between 7–8 hours of sleep is sufficient to rejuvenate the body and mind. Though we recognize this, yet we fall in this trap of either over sleeping or under sleeping.
While I used to end up cozying up more than 8 hours, I have many friends who end up skimping on the minimum duration as well. The result being that the following day’s activity suffers as the mind is not where it should be.
My approach over the years has been to build a rhythm to my life such that there is a clear schedule to my bed time. Of course there are days when this does not go as per plan, but I ensure that such instances are kept to a minimum. This has enabled me to cut short my unnecessary sleeping time by an hour and invest it in activities that matter to me.
This should be a no-brainer. No pun intended.
Surprisingly it is pretty common. thing to do. When faced with a problem, we sometimes continue thinking beyond what is really fruitful or useful and end up in a maze of confusions. This trap of over analysis or over worrying or over thinking ends up taking us away from the act of doing the work and being productive.
Though thinking through the problem is vital before starting out, it is easy to get into the spiral of over thinking and not moving an inch towards the goal. The eventual problem of over thinking is that we end up building improbable scenarios and trying to solve for them. This is one such pit we fall into and can’t fight ourselves way out of.
The best way to guard against this is for me has been to pause my thoughts and continue working on the task. There might be some genuine things that need to be thought about or figured out. But very often action brings about progress that get us much closer to the outcome than just our thinking.
There is a thin line between working hard and over working. If hard work is the basis for all success, over working is a trap that leads one to stress and failures. Very often we confuse one for the other.
The first thing that snaps under over work is the quality and once that happens the effort to recover grows manifold and we end up spending more time correcting it impacting our productivity significantly. Not to mention that we suffer creatively as well and end up with a below par outcome.
Knowing how much to push ourselves and when to take the foot off the gas is required to not turn enjoyable hard work into stressful overwork.
Some of these traps may seem rather easy to conquer. They are anything but easy. I have found that these regularly show up even though one seems to have overcome them and built enough willpower and resolve to not commit the same again. But they keep recurring.
But once we are able to recognize these and their impact, it should be easy to prevent ourselves going down the wrong direction.
Do leave your comments on your thoughts. Don’t over think it though ☺
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