Maximize Productivity, Eliminate Distracting Factors
Like I said in my post about procrastination I will be writing more about the productivity topic, as it is a topic that is quite dear to me, as well as an area of my life where I can improve immensely. Today I want to talk about one of the key reasons why many people find themselves doing other things instead of focusing on what they should be doing, and what you can do to avoid falling into this trap.
Distracting factors. Take a look at those two words and try to comprehend how much they can include. It’s a daunting task, no doubt about it. It is also a very relative term, because something that is considered to be a distraction by one person, can be perceived as inspiration and background-work by another.
The first thing you need to do if you want to get away from the distractions that will keep you from your actual work is to clearly define what you want to spend your time on once you sit down. When I sit down with my computer I have a bad tendency of not having a clear idea on what I want to work on. As a result of this I sit inbetween projects, doing a little work on one thing, then jump over to something completely different and totally unrelated. Although I still might be digging into my “to-do” list, it’s not good because everytime I switch between projects I have to spend some time re-adjusting, getting up to date on the latest on the project I switch to, and so forth.
So basically what you need to do is that when you decide that you want to do something, focus strictly on that task, and don’t immerse yourself in other things. Even though they might be things you want to get done, you’re really just procrastinating by putting off other things. So in short, prioritize and allocate the time you have to the different things you have to do, and then follow your plan. If you manage to get this kind of structure into your work hours, whether you are a full-time blogger or web developer, or something completely different, you will get amazing results.
Next up is something that relates even closer to the title of this post. Get away from the things that distract you! I’ll use myself as an example. I’m a hobby blogger and web developer, and I live in an appartment with two of my friends. I usually prefer the living room when using my computer, but unfortunately there are too many things there that distract me from what I ought to be doing when I work on the computer. The TV might be on, other people constantly trying to interact with me and catch my attention. Needless to say, this steals much more time than it should.
What I try to do is that I either withdraw to my room, where I can be in private and work on the things that I ought to, or better yet, go to my University campus and sit in one of the study halls. A study hall is an ideal place to get work done, because it is a productive environment where it’s expected that you work, and therefore you’ll find it much easier to concentrate on the things you ought to do.
The same principles can be applied to someone who works full time at home, or even at a regular job. You should seperate your work space from your leisure time, because that way you will associate your work space with work and productivity, and therefore automatically switch to a “work mode” when in your work space. If you often spend time just doing nothing in your work space, you won’t reap the benefits of this effect, and the chances of time being wasted are much higher.
There are also other things that can be distracting, especially on a computer. Constant emails coming in, or instant messaging windows popping up are classic examples of what distracts people from doing what they should be doing, and needs to be avoided at all costs if you wish to focus your mind on your work. Of course there is also the classic case of just surfing the web, looking for “inspiration”. Well here’s a shocking fact for you, this is not work, this is off-time, breaks, or whatever you want to do. Not to say that this isn’t important, because you shouldn’t be working if you aren’t actually able to do any work, and breaks certainly serve their purpose here. However don’t confuse this with actual work, because then you might soon find yourself doing this a little bit too often when you believe that you are infact working.
Hopefully some of this will help some people realize that they can improve their routines when it comes to work and handling a workload. It’s all taken straight out of my personal experience, and I know for a fact that there are many, many people out there who, just like me, struggles with these things. You need to be strong and focused, but at the end of the day it’ll be worth it when you see how much you’ve done. Just yesterday infact, I tried to apply some of these things to my own sitatuation, and I was positively surprised at how much I was able to do in a relatively short amount of time.