How to be more productive...

So a bit of a different post from me today. I will start off by saying first that in no way, shape or form am I the most productive person out there. Of course, there are days when all I want to do is look at obscure corners of the internet (cue cute cat videos and baking videos) and have no interest in work but I find the days where I follow the steps down below I can be quite productive and tick off quite a few things on my to do list. 

Make time for yourself 
Although this may seem like a strange one, making time for yourself is extremely important, whether this is one minute of the days or a couple of hours, you should never forget to look after yourself. If you just carry on doing your to do list in all of your free time I find that you become a bit disenchanted with what you are doing, and hence, procrastinate. Set aside time each week to do something just for you, whether this is reading, baking, exercising or painting your nails. Do something to really treat yourself. 

Make lists
I am a big believer in making lists just before you go to bed. Having everything written down on a piece of paper empties your mind of all the things swirling around in your brain. I find that when you write them down it also helps you to sleep better as you are not trying to remember everything to do. Then when you wake up in the morning, you can complete all of the tasks on your list. I actually find it quite satisfying to tick them all off. I also tend to write lots of little things down on my to do list such as brush my teeth as it makes me more motivated to see things being ticked off, although I know I would already do them and don't need a list to remind myself. Ticking small things off gets the ball rolling for the bigger things on your list. 

Fringe Hours
I was listening to a podcast the other day (TLS #74 How to make the most of your fringe hours). This was a very insightful podcast basically about how to make use of your fringe hours. Fringe hours are basically hours being used up by mundane tasks, the example they give in the podcast in drying your hair. If you did something in this time that you need to do e.g. blog or something you enjoy e.g. read magazines you are putting your hours to a much better use, as you don't need to be fully in the moment to dry your hair. Also over a course of year this is a lot of hours building up to something you enjoy or need to do which would otherwise have gone to waste. I have found that my bus journeys to and from work are my fringe hours, I have now started blogging on the bus and even looking and commenting on other peoples. Both of which I would enjoy. 

I would highly recommend listening to this podcast if you have the time. 

What do you do to make yourself more productive?

See you tomorrow, 

Jess
x