PRODUCTIVITY ADVICE THAT ACTUALLY WORKS

You’ve read it everywhere. You know it. There is productivity advice on Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Veemo, and probably Venmo, and it’s almost crossed over to Aliexpress. Everyone and anyone wants to tell you how to be more productive because this is what brings clicks to them. But this is where they are also wrong.

Almost always, you see some sort of minimalistic aesthetic that goes along with the ‘feel’ of being productive. High and expensive tech is lying around, there is an aesthetic coffee cup, a green plant, low-fi music playing in the background, and perhaps a cat or two that is sleeping peacefully. 

We wish we could tell you what productivity looks like. Actually, and as you know yourself, it totally doesn’t. 

The harsh reality of being productive is dirty dinner plats peeking from within the wash basin, specks of dust doing gymnastics in front of your monitor and a mountain of dirty clothes threatening to wink over to one of either sides of your chair. 

Productivity isn’t pretty. What are Instagram posts about it? 

And this is where our piece of advice really comes in handy. 

You see, because productivity is much less about how things look like, and rather about how things work, we thought we should give you some direction as to how to really build your day in a coherent and productive way, rather than look at it on a tiny mobile screen and sigh away. 

Productivity advice in general isn’t about ‘one size fits all’. It entirely depends on your day, your workload, your profession, your daily life, your mindset and the person you are. You can’t teach someone who is demotivated to bring up their productivity, because they need to want it themselves first. Similar to any unhealthy addiction, we ourselves need to be the motivators hiding behind sorting out these clothes lying around on the chair and throwing them away for washing, doing these dishes from last night, and vacuuming away. 

There are just a handful of things nobody can do for you, and finding out how to be productive is one of them. 

This was a rather lengthy interlude to saying - in order for you to truly be productive, you need to finish doing things first. And this really is our advice for anyone out there who needs some help with it. 

Finish reading this article before you check out your phone notification. Wrap up the one email that’s been hanging in drafts for a while before you skip over to another meeting. Finish that Excel sheet before you jump onto your presentation or start working on your pitch deck.

There is no greater enemy to productivity than unfinished business. 

Once you start finishing certain projects, not only does your happiness level increase because you feel like you’ve finally completed something, but you also give the task enough time and attention, rather than rush it, and leave it unfinished.

Most of the time, what gives the illusion of you not being productive is simply the fact that you are not finishing everything you were supposed to finish on the day. 

If you focus on just a number of things, but you do them well, you will save time from back-and-forths with other people while trying to ‘fix’ whatever wasn’t working, or you missed in the first place. 

Deliver once, but make it memorable. Think twice. Complete your task before you jump onto another one. 

You will find that you have the time. You just didn’t have the mind space. 

Is there anything specific you are struggling with? Comment down below!