| By :
Brent McCoy
There are never enough hours in the day - having pulled a few all-nighters in my time I can definitely vouch for that. But what if you could get more done in less time? It sounds great in theory, and there are several ways you can actually achieve it. This could even leave you having more spare time to do the things you enjoy doing - which is actually a very nice thing to have! #1 - Schedule Ahead Of Time Whether it's your guitar practice or your daily writing activities, whatever you do will be a lot more productive if you figure out exactly what you want to achieve ahead of time. You can also go one step further and plan your whole day in advance. I prefer to do this at the very end of the day as it helps eliminate any excess energy, and also allows my mind to process the information while I'm asleep. #2 - Take Regular Notes Keep anything that might be useful in future. Write down ideas, bookmark websites, tear out magazine pages, take photos that are relevant to your daily activities and file them away in a safe place. Chances are you'll need a source of inspiration at some stage, and this can be a very good place to start. Blogging and other writing-related activities are especially an ongoing struggle with motivation and having a regular source of inspiration, especially when things aren't coming together so easily, is very important. Keeping one of your own can save a lot of time trying to get yourself motivated again. #3 - Put A Time Limit On Everything Only allow yourself a certain amount of time for specific activities. Set a stopwatch and drop whatever you're doing when time runs out. Get into the habit of finishing before time, and steadily you'll be able to achieve things much faster. #4 - Turn Off Distractions Distractions are perhaps the most common productivity-killer and are very important to eliminate if you want to stay on track of your daily goals. If things like phones, email and social media accounts take up too much of your time it's definitely recommended to turn them off. Make a habit of checking your email once - at most twice - a day, disconnect your phone from the wall or leave your mobile (cell phone) in your car. Social media is the hardest one to avoid, but with a bit of self-control you can set certain hours of the day in which to use it - once your main activities are finished. #5 - Stay On Target Make sure that the majority of time in any given day is spent on specific activities that help you achieve your overall goals. To do this, it obviously helps to check regularly what your overall goals are. In a blogging context, if I want more readers then I need to be focusing on producing content elsewhere rather than my own blog. If I wanted to improve my cardiovascular fitness I would go running, rather than try lifting weights. Focus your attention on where it's needed most, and when you've achieved your daily goals there you can move onto something else. A lot of the points above probably make staying productive sound like hard work, and meant to keep you from having fun. In fact, it's actually quite the opposite. You will give yourself more time to do the things that you enjoy, even by doing just one of the above methods to help free up more time. Don't think of "un-productivity" as a dirty habit you have to give up, but instead of increased productivity as a good habit that you should get into.
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