Have you ever felt overwhelmed or stressed? In today’s world, we are getting busier and busier. There are increasingly more demands on our time so how we use our time is absolutely vital. I recently outlined 15 Tips You Can Use Immediately to Increase Your Productivity but there is one factor above all that we must deal with before we can even look at increasing our productivity. That factor is dealing with overwhelm or dealing with stress.

How often have you felt feelings of overwhelm and stress wash over you? There is so much to do and you just don’t know where to get started. Your “to do” list seems to be increasing faster than you can get things done and you don’t know where to start making an indent. You try working harder, longer, faster – but trying to do things faster leads to silly mistakes which at best require rework and additional time (something you already don’t have) or at worst have massive consequences for you, your work and your company. It all just seems too much and you feel like throwing in the towel!! Does that sound familer? Is overwhelm a feeling you deal with constantly?

For me, feeling overwhelmed and stressed is something I used to face often and I had to get really honest with myeslf. Continually having feelings of overwhelm and stress was not great for my health, my happiness or my productivity. It almost seemed like the more work I had, the less productive I got which stressed me out and overwhelmed me even more. It seemed like a completely negative spiral, which is what I now call The Negative Spiral of Overwhelm and Stress.

So below are my top thirteen tips on how to get yourself out of The Negative Spiral of Overwhelm and Stress, start being productive and moving forwards once again.

Dealing with Overwhelm & Stress #1: Be Courageous: Recognise and Accept when you are feeling Overwhelmed. You need to be honest with yourself and admit that you’re overwhelmed and it feels like things are getting out of hand. For many men, this is tough to do because we feel we have to be in control, which is complete rubbish. It takes courage to be honest and it is only once we accept the truth that we can make a change. So acknowledge that you feel lke things are getting out of control.

Dealing with Overwhelm & Stress #2: Stop! Take A Break! When we’re overwhelmed, we have a tendency to keep working harder and harder, thinking that’s the only way to get out of the situation. That would be like if someone who has a problem sticking to budget kept spending to get their way out of trouble, or if an alcoholic kept drinking to sober up. Sounds dumb right!! Just as dumb as trying to work your way out of feeling overwhelmed.
Instead, take a break. If nothing else, get up and go grab a glass of water. Just moving your body will help you change your state, and that will change your mindset. For me, when I can, I’ll take a long break and go to the gym. The exercise and the moving of my body gets me back into a more positive state of mind. The greater benefit is that the break allow my subconscious to go to work for me and it’s amazing how I am able to find a solution the moment I return to my desk after a good workout.

Dealing with Overwhelm & Stress #3: Make A List. This is something many of us resist. I know I did – I figured I was intelligent and I could remember everything. Besides, writing things down was only going to take  me more time and I did not have any time to start off with. Can you imagine someone who was trying to cut down a tree with a saw but he never stopped to sharpen his saw because he said he was too busy? I’m sure you can see that if he just took a few minutes to stop and sharpen his saw, he’d be far more effective, productive and he’d get the job done in a lot less time. Consider, your writing of your list as your sharpening of the saw. In fact, Stephen Covey in his brilliant book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People talks about constantly sharpening the saw as the final habit, the habit that allowed the first 6 habits to be supported and allow them to flourish. So make a list of everything you have on your plate right now. Don’t try and order it, just write it down. Often, just being able to see everything you have to do, even if it goes over multiple pages can give you back a sense of control because now at least you know how big the elephant is that you are trying to tackle.

Dealing with Overwhelm & Stress #4: Now write down your timeframes and deadlines next to each one – when do you need to get each task done by?

Dealing with Overwhelm & Stress #5: Write down approximately how long you think it will take you to get each task done. This is often the hardest step for many of because we don’t know. So at times, you’ll need to just take a guess. What you’ll find is that over time, you will get a pretty good sense of how long something will take you.

Dealing with Overwhelm & Stress #6: Add 30%. Since you don’t know how long things will take you, and because of Murphy’s Law (If something can go wrong, it will), give yourself more time than you think you need.

Dealing with Overwhelm & Stress #7: Now put your list of tasks into order of priority. Don’t just use urgency as the key factor but also use importance. For example, going to the gym is not urgent, but it is probably critically important to your overall health and well being. Make sure your top (yet non-urgent) priorities for your week are scheduled and work your life around that. If you find that you are getting so busy that you don’t get to spend enough time with your kids, with your partner or on your health (ie: on the things you value most!), I guarantee this will only make your feelings of overwhelm even worse.

Dealing with Overwhelm & Stress #8: Eliminate: Congratulations – you are almost there! You now have some sense of order for what is facing you. Instead of stumbling through the tunnel blindfolded, you can now at least see how much work you have to get done. It still may not seem very pleasant but now you can start moving forwards again. However, look at your list and now see what can you eliminate. Are there meetings that are waste of time? Are there tasks you are doing that don’t get you anywhere. Remember that doing a task well that did not need to be done at all, is one of the greatest time wasters there is. So look at what you can eliminate from your schedule.

Dealing with Overwhelm & Stress #9: Outsource and Deligate – Are there tasks you can deligate to a team mate or outsource? Remember, you don’t need to do it all yourself. This is another tough one because people will often tell me that there is nobody else to do the work, or nobody else can do it as well as they can. If it’s the first part I understand. There are certain specialist tasks that only we can take care of. However, if you think nobody else can do it as well as you can, I’d advise you to check again. Is it your ego talking now? Remember, some people, as overwhelmed as they are are and as stressed as they are, actually get a perverse sense of enjoyment from this because it makes them feel significant. We all know people who seem to wear the fact that they are busy as if it was a badge of honour. “I’m so busy” can often be heard being bellowed by these people. Don’t be one of them. Understand that other people can do a job well, if you give them enough training. Sure, that may take more time in the short term, but the longer term benefits of having less on your plate will certainly be worth it. Also, look for opportunities to allow your team around you to step up and take on some of your responsibilities by giving them more challenging tasks. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Dealing with Overwhelm & Stress #10: Creatively Procrastinate - We’re all good at procrastination so let’s use it to our advantage. Look at your list and work out what you need to start now and what can you delay starting. Procrastinate on the low value tasks (even though they may seem easier and perhaps even more enjoyable). I’ve often procrastinated so long on these lower value tasks and focused on more important and higher value tasks for long enough that the low value tasks just dropped off my plate.

Dealing with Overwhelm & Stress #11: Set Expectations - If you know you can’t deliver something for 4 weeks, don’t agree to do it in 2, just to make the client or other staff member feel good. All that’s going to happen is that you’re going to be stressed and overwhelmed and the odds are you’ll let something slip. Either you’ll slip on your promised deadline or the quality of work will slip, both of which will be detrimental to the relationship with the person you promised the deadline to.

Dealing with Overwhelm & Stress #12: Renegotiate: For example, if it is your boss who is putting the pressure on you, take your existing work list and timeframes / deadlines to him. Remember, you did that in steps 5 and 6 and explain that for you to meet the deadline for her new task, something else will need to give. Be very polite and cordial about this but at the same be upfront. More often than not, your boss will be impressed that you are so organised.

Dealing with Overwhelm & Stress #13: Keep Fit and Healthy – Clarity of thought is a key ingredient when dealing with times of high workload and high pressure. A high level of health, fitness and energy will allow you to mentally operate at your optimum levels for longer, increasing your productivity and reducing your chances of entering The Negative Spiral of Overwhelm. An additional benefit is that exercise is a great stress buster and as I said in step 2, it can change your physical state which is sometimes all you need to snap out of your feelings of overwhelm and stress.

So now you know my top thirteen tips for dealing with overwhelm and stress. By knowing these steps, will you now never feel overwhelmed or stressed again? Of course not – the truth is that you will feel overwhelmed again at some point or another. However, by following these steps, not only will the number of times you feel stressed decrease, but whenever you do feel overwhelmed or stress, you will know exactly how to get yourself out of it in just a few minutes. Good luck and I’d love to hear how these 13 steps helped you overcome your stress and overwhelm.

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Have you ever felt lazy? You know you have things to do but you just can’t be bothered? These may even be important things that will help you achieve what it is you want in life, and yet slumping down on the couch in front of the tv or going back to bed seems so much more enticing. What do you do when you’re in these lazy “funks” as I call them?

Last night, before I went to bed, I made a list of my top priorities for the day and I was really looking forward to waking up and getting through a number of major tasks. Yet what happened this morning? I turned the alarm off and went back to bed for an hour – my excuse? I didn’t have any appointments today and I deserve the rest because I’ve been training so hard. Regardless of whether that was true or not, what happened after I woke up was even more interesting – I just felt completely lazy. It was almost as if I was more tired after several hours sleep than before I went to bed. This has happened to me countless times before and I’ve come to the conclusion that our feelings of laziness and boredom are two of our biggest barriers to increased productivity and ultimately achieving our goals. So what do you do when you get in this lazy funk? Below are ten tips, in no particular order for what has worked for me in the past.

How to Instantly Overcome Your Laziness

1. Move Your Body:

When I’m feeling lazy, generally I can’t be bothered to move or get off the couch. So make yourself move. What are some options?

• Get up and go for a walk. Sometimes, getting some fresh air and light exercise can be just the tonic to recharge yourself.
• Do some form of exercise, where you are. Sometimes some pushups or situps can be great to get the blood flowing again.
• Bounce. Jump up and down lightly on the balls of your feet and then start moving around like a boxer. This starts the heart pumping and gets me feeling like I can get going again.
• Do something that involves next to no mind power. This is often the easiest for me because when I’m really stuck in my lazy funk, I cannot be bothered going for a walk or doing some exercise. So I’ll go and tidy up my desk or file some papers. One of the best things for me (and I know this sounds strange) is ironing. Yes, I’ll go and iron a few shirts. Why? Because, again it get my body moving and after a few minutes, I find myself wondering why I’m spending my time ironing when I could be doing something far more productive. And then I can start being productive again. The side benefit of this is my shirts get ironed when I am at my most unproductive and it ends up being the best use of my time.

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2. Shower:

• Just like with the ironing above, I’m guesssing you’re at home when you’re in this lazy funk. And a shower can be just the tonic. A cold shower might be ideal but I’m quite happy having a hot shower. I always feel refreshed and then I’m able to get stuff done.
• Ok, if you can’t shower, sometimes just go and throw some water on your face. I can’t tell you how many times that’s helped me when I’m in the midst of doing something challenging. It takes 30 seconds but is an absolute pick me up.

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3. Read Something Inspirational: I have a number of autobiographies that I can pick up at any time. Generally, just a few minutes reading how it was someone’s commitment to their dreams that got them to where they are in life is enough to jolt me.

4. Review Your Goals: This can be done in multiple ways, depending on how you are feeling and your personality.

• Review your annual goals. This is where you see yourself at the end of the year and they should be inspiring to you. If not, then you may want to re-evaluate your goals.
• Review your daily or weekly goals. For me, this sometimes works better than my annual goals purely because the end of the year can sometimes seem so far away. However, a week is not so far and I know that if I don’t do what I had scheduled today, my entire week is going to be behind schedule, which will mean that I’m going to struggle to achieve what I want for the month. Again, that snaps me out of my lazy funk.

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5. Look at the Consequences of NOT doing what you said you would:

• In the past there have been several times when I’d prefer to do nothing, or something unproductive, rather than being positive and moving forwards. So now, I look at the consequences. In other words, what will happen if I don’t go to the gym today? That’ll mean that I’m behind on my work out schedule for the week. And if I keep doing this for a few weeks, I’m going to be well and truly behind and instead of having the physique that I want, I’m going to end up being fat! That’s all the trigger I need to grab my gym bag and head over to the gym. So sometimes, thinking of the negative consequence of not doing what you said you would do (and allowing yourself a little creative licence ) can be really beneficial.

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6. Pick up the phone and call someone:

Note I said “pick up the phone” not email someone. The very act of talking to someone gets us breathing differently and forces us to think differently. Now, you don’t need to call someone to tell them you’re feeling lazy and get them to kick your butt for it (although that can sometimes help). Instead just have a short conversation – it’s going to make you think and after a few minutes, you’ll find yourself feeling a lot better. I’m not advocating that you waste someone else’s time so be judicious with how you use this one, but it can be a great “state changer”. If you’re in the office, perhaps walk over to a colleague who you need to talk to about something and have the conversation then.

7. Take Some Deep Breaths:

One of my offices overlooks the water and another overlooks some great park land. So if I’m ever feeling in a bit of funk, I’ll go outside and take 10 deep breaths. This gets the oxygen flowing and I’ll always feel better after this one. Sometimes, even a little tingly from the extra oxygen. Now, there used to be a time when I worked right in the heart of the city where it was a concrete jungle – there was only traffic and buildings around me. During those times, I’d go for a short walk and take some deep breaths, in other words, I’d combine #1 and #7 and that would do the trick for me.

8. Go and do something fun:

Use the time when you’re feeling bored and lazy to inject some fun into your life. What that is for you I don’t know. However, lots of I.T. companies for example such as Google have installed video games and the like which staff can play for a short while. The excitment and adrenalin hit gets people out of their “lazy” funk and motivated to get productive again.

9. Listen to Music:

This is one of my personal favourites – I love music and listening to it on my ipod or via the computer speakers gets me bopping along to the music. Just one or two songs, which is less than 10 minutes total, is enough to snap me out of my laziness.
A side note: If you’re someone who loves to dance as well, and you’re able to, then have some fun and dance to the music. This combines #1 with #9 and can quickly get you out of your lazy state of mind. Just between you and me, this is something I’ll do quite often. Of course, I’m in my home office when I do this

10. Visualise and Dream:

Often, when I’m feeling lazy and in a funk, it’s because I’m focusing on how “difficult” things are, or how much work I have to do, or something else that is completely of no use to me whatsoever. So instead, I’ll sometimes just sit somewhere and dream. I’ll visualise my goals and dreams, what I want to achieve, who I’ll contribute to, what my family and friends will say when I have achieved my goals, what my body will look like when I am in perfect shape for the triathlon I committed to, how driving in my dream car would feel, or whatever the dream is. (I can feel the motivation and excitment rise from within me, just as I write these things down). So think about what it is that you want. Once you get clear on that, doing what you need to do today will seem quite easy because now you’re focusing on your dream and not the difficulty of the tasks.

So they are my top ten tips on how to get out of a lazy funk. Just out of interest, how did I get out of my lazy funk today? I used #3 (Read something inspirational), #2 (I had a shower),  #5 (I looked at the consequences of not doing what I needed to today) and #10 (I visualised what I’m heading towards this year). As you can probably tell, I was really in a funk so I had to use 4 of these tips in combination to get myself moving, but it did the trick and I’m on my way to  having an exceptionally productive day today.

Now, having reviewed what works, I also thought I’d provide a short list of things I have done in the past that don’t work.

Here are some things NOT to do to snap out out of a lazy funk:

1. Go and sleep for a short while:

If you’re feeling lazy, taking a short nap might seem like a great thing to do. What I’ve often found is that when I want to have a 20 minute nap, I end up sleeping for nearly 2 hours. Then, I generally need a pick me up of some nature to get me going. So sure this strategy might work eventually, but I’ve found it’ll end up wasting almost 3 hours. Now, I’m presuming you are getting enough sleep already and we just want to snap out of our lazy “funk”. So when that’s the case, resist the temptation to sleep. Instead, do the exact opposite. Move your body and you’ll find that very quickly, you’ll be re-energised and ready to go again .

2. Go get a sugar hit:

I know this is against popular opinion and might be controversial. However, think about what happens when you do have a sugar hit. You get a spike of energy which lasts a short time, and then your energy sinks back down. I know for me, after a short while, I feel like I have even less energy than before I had my sugar hit. So then what did I do in the past? I’d go and get more sugar. Ok, so I’d get through my day but the impact on my health, fitness and energy levels was terrible. Also I found that my ”mind power” (for lack of a better phrase) was far less. I could not concentrate as much, I was unable to think clearly and I could not think through problems as well. So, this is something I try not to do anymore. I now realise that I don’t need to put any external stimulants into my body to get me out of a funk, especially when there are so many better options available.

A side note: There are still times when I’ll relent and have something sugary. I know it’s not going to be good for me, yet I do it anyway. Thankfully, the number of times I succumb to weakness is now very few (it’s probably now about once in two weeks at the most) and I focus more on the alternatives.

3. Take a “break” in front of the television:

How often, after you have spent a while in front of the tv channel surfing, have you felt more tired than before you sat down to watch tv in the first place? I know that in the past when I’m was working or studying from home, I’d convince myself I needed a short break and plonk myself in front of the television for what was supposed to be about 20 minutes. You can guess what happened – 20 minutes quickly became 2 hours! So not a great use of time at all.

So there you have it: My top ten tips of how to get yourself out of a lazy funk and 3 temptations to say away from. What do you do to get yourself out of a lazy funk? And what have you tried that does not work?

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“How You Spend Your Time Defines Who You Are” Oprah Winfrey

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Today we are busier than ever before. While technology constantly gives us more tools that are supposed to streamline our lives, we just seem to have more and more to do, and less time to do it in. Feelings of stress and overwhelm are at their highest levels and people are sick of the word “time management” which just seems to imply different ways to try and cram even more into your already over-full day.

The Undergroundsucess.com philosophy is that every day should be a day you look forward to, one where you can appreciate the beauty of life while making progress towards your goals. I guarantee that if every day, you are making progress towards what’s most important to you in life, you will feel a greater sense of productivity, inner peace and fulfilment. If that sounds interesting to you, if you’re interested in being more productive, having more time, achieving more, enjoying more of life, being more relaxed and generally happier, then below are 15 tips you can implement immediately.

Allow me to offer a key distinction between productivity and just being busy. Being productive is using your time to achieve what’s important for you, while being busy just means to fill your time with as much as you possibly can. So please go ahead and read below my 15 tips on how you can increase your productivity and then more importantly, practise them!

Productivity Tip #1: Ask What Can you Stop Doing
I know that one of the promises of this post was to help you get more done. However, the first thing to understand is that there are only 24 hours in a day and we will always be able to fill up that time. So the only way to get more done is to create a vacuum of time. Many people think that time management is just getting more done and they continue to add more onto their plate and before soon they are sinking under the weight of everything they have to get done. So work out what you can stop doing or at least what can you outsource. Tim Ferris, in his brilliant book The 4-Hour work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, shows exactly how he does it. For me, one of the things I do is I pay to get my car washed. This frees up approximately 2 hours of my weekend. Now that’s 2 hours I can use elsewhere. What can you stop doing?

Productivity Tip #2: Batch low value tasks
If you have a few errands to run, or quick phone calls to make, do them in one hit. For example, rather than going to the grocery shop 3 times a week, make a list, just go once and buy in bulk if you need to. Answering emails is another example. Many of us are hooked to our emails and are constantly “on email”. I now aim to only answer emails twice a day. That way I’m not interrupted from doing more important tasks. Also, by batching your low value tasks you will find that you get more done in a shorter space of time

Productivity Tip #3: Get rid of distractions
This is a massive one in today’s era of modern technology: emails, instant messaging, status updates, sms etc. When you are in the middle of an important task and you get interrupted or distracted, it can take you up to 20 minutes to get back into the zone. If this happens 3 times in a day, that’s 1 hour of lost productivity. In a fortnight, that’s 10 hours or more than one whole day of lost productivity, just from being interrupted. Imagine what you could do if you had a whole extra day every fortnight. Now you know how.

Productivity Tip #4: Use Your Prime Time
The television networks know about prime time – that is the time when most people are watching and they will get their best return for their money. Hence, they put on their best shows during this time. What is your prime time? Your prime time is the time when you are at your most productive. Use this time to take on your most challenging and valuable tasks. For me, my prime times are either in the mornings or evenings. I try to keep my afternoons for lower value tasks while my mornings and evenings are set aside for tasks that require significant thinking.

Productivity Tip #5: Create Chunks of Time
Create chunks of uninterrupted, focused time where you can work solidly for between 45 to 90 minutes. Aim for this to be during your prime time and eliminate all distractions during this time. You will be amazed at how much more productive you are and how much relaxed you are at the same time.

Productivity Tip #6: Single minded focus
When you work, especially during your pre-designated chunks of time, don’t allow yourself to think about what is coming up later in the day, or what the kids are up to. Focus on your task at hand. If you’re like me, the moment you focus on one thing, your mind starts bringing up other things that you also need to get done. This used to stress me out before as I’d try to remember everything I needed to do, while trying to focus on my current task. That made it impossible to be productive and just stressed me out. So now, if ever a thought or a future task pops into my head, I just write it down on a notepad and then keep on working, until I’ve either completed the task or my pre-designated chunk of time has finished. This has made me so much more productive and allowed me to get a lot more done in less time.

Productivity Tip #7: Don’t Multi-task
That might sound weird in a world where we taught that multitasking is the key to increased productivity. This could not be more wrong. I know women can multitask better than men can, and while that may be true, it only applies to low value tasks. For example, answering the phone while filing papers. Anything that involves considerable think time requires single minded focus.

I know this might not sit right with you so try it for a week. Try focusing solely on one major task at a time and watch your productivity sky rocket.

Also, there was a report that came out which showed that multitasking actually reduces your intelligence, mainly I believe, because you stop doing the hard work of thinking. So don’t multi-task, at least not when you’re doing high value tasks. Do things with a single minded focus and I’d be surprised if you did not at increase your productivity by at least 30 to 50%.

Productivity Tip #8: Goals
Make sure you set goals for yourself both long term and short term goals. Unless you know where you are heading, it is so easy to get frustrated and overwhelmed with how much you have to do. I guarantee that your productivity in life is directly linked to how much time you spend working on your goals.

Productivity Tip #9: Prioritise
When you set daily goals for yourself, prioritise them. A key distinction to go from being busy to being more productive is to allocate your time to your highest value tasks. What is the most important task for the day, then the next important and then the next important after that. This way, you know you are always tackling the most important task on your list and if anything comes up during the day that takes your way from your plan, you have peace of mind knowing you have at least achieved your most important goal for the day.

Productivity Tip #10: Write everything down
It does not matter how well you try and order your day, unexpected and new tasks will be thrown at you. Whenever a new task comes up, write it down and compare it in importance to your already scheduled priorities for the day. This one tip has saved me a bucket load of stress and increased my productivity substantially because more often than not, an unexpected task that comes up is often of a lower value than what I already had planned for the day. So I can stick to my original plan. How many times have you had a plan for the day and the something happens and you get so busy and caught up, yet by the end of the day you wonder what have you achieved? This one little tip has almost completely stopped this happening for me, immediately increasing my productivity. Even if an emergency comes up that is urgent and you need to address the task immediately, you will at least have more peace of mind because you know you are putting your time to the best possible use that you can.

If you have read this far, then I’m hoping this is of real value to you. I want to really help you implement these tips so I’ve included a bonus video that reviews 7 of the best tips I have for productivity to help you further. Enjoy!

Productivity Tip #11: Set Your Super Six The Previous Day
Every night, before you go to bed, or perhaps at the end of the day before you leave the office, review your goals and set your top 6 priorities for the next day. After a long day, this is often the last thing you want to get done but it is a proven productivity booster. By setting your top priorities the previous night, you can start your day with immediate momentum. While everyone else tries to settle into their day, you can begin being productive immediately. This tip has given me an extra 30 minutes to an hour every day. Imagine what an extra hour in your day would do for your productivity.

The second benefit is that you will sleep better. One of the major reasons for people not sleeping so well these days is they have so much going on in their head which they are trying to remember. If you have everything written down, you can go to sleep with peace of mind knowing that you won’t forget anything. As a result you will wake up better rested which will allow you to work at your optimum, allowing you to keep your productivity and output at their highest levels.

The final benefit is that your subconscious will go to work for you on your most important tasks while you sleep. I don’t know exactly how this happens but I just know it does. The number of times I have written down a challenge that I know I need to take care of the next day, only to wake up with the solution obvious to me is unbelievable.

Productivity Tip #12: Schedule Your Priorities, Just Like Setting Meetings With Yourself
Goals are great, but you need to schedule time to achieve them. Unless it is scheduled, it isn’t real. For example, one of my goals is to go the gym twice a week. If I don’t schedule that into my calendar, it becomes so easy for me not to go because something more pressing comes up. Let me assure you that something more pressing will always comes up when you don’t have your time scheduled. So now, when I look at my calendar and I see a 2 hour slot programmed for the gym, it means that I can’t schedule another meeting at that time.

Also, by scheduling your priorities (rather than prioritising your schedule which is what most people do), you will work your life around your major priorities and your goals. In the past I used to try and work my priorities and my goals around my life and it never worked. It was little wonder I would quickly fall behind and fail to achieve my goals. This is one of the major reasons why people fail to achieve their new year’s resolutions. For example, if your resolution is to start running 3 times a week and you don’t schedule it, then your normal routine will take over and nothing will change for you. So if you want to maximise your productivity, make sure you schedule your priorities.

Productivity Tip #13: Stick to Your Commitment
There is no point scheduling your priorities and making commitments to yourself, if you won’t keep them. I know several people who will tell me that they planned on running three times this week but then “stuff came up” and they never even went for a walk. They then complain about how they are so busy but they fail to realise that the main reason they are not as productive and falling behind on what’s important to them is their own inability to keep their promise to themselves and follow through on their commitment. This used to be me until I realised that I had to take control of my own life and start changing my own routine. Stick to your commitments and you will be amazed at how much your productivity increases.

Productivity Tip #14: Review Your Progress / Milestones
If you were driving to a new place for the first time, you would monitor your progress to ensure you were on track (or at least your satellite navigation system would). Otherwise, how would you know that you were on track? You need to do the same thing with your life. If you are not regularly “checking in” to ensure you are on track, it is so easy to just get busy without actually being productive.

I set my yearly goals then I bring them back to 90 day goals, monthly milestones and then weekly milestones. Every week, I spend about an hour reviewing whether I am on track or not. It won’t matter how organised you are, life will throw an unexpected curve ball at you from time to time, so by checking in with your progress, you will know what adjustments you need to make to get back on track again. Also, you will start to feel good when you realise that you are making progress every week. Nothing is better for productivity than knowing that the hard work you are putting in is paying dividend, so review and monitor your progress regularly.

Productivity Tip #15: Manage your state
There are times when you will feel lazy and you just cannot be bothered. During these times, you will need to manage your physical state and snap out of your laziness. Feeling lazy is an absolute productivity killer. How to snap out laziness and what you can do when you just can’t be bothered doing anything is something I will dedicate to another blog post. However, if you are feeling lazy, try and go for a walk, get some fresh air and some water. Do something to change your state, even if it as silly as jumping up and down in the same spot ten times – it might feel ridiculous and you might not be able to do it if you’re in the office surround by dozens of people, but it can definitely work. Otherwise do some stretching and just get moving. You’ll be amazed at how, once you start moving, within minutes your feelings of laziness have disappeared and you can get back into being productive again. 

So there you have it. 15 tips you can use immediately to take your productivity to levels even you can’t imagine. I promise that if you take the time to implement these 15 tips which will allow you to increase your productivity, you will feel more relaxed and have far more peace of mind.

If you have any further tips or you don’t believe some of these won’t work, please leave me a comment below. I’d love to get your feedback.

To your increased productivity and getting more out of life
Niro Thambipillay

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