Productivity Archives - The Art of Improvement

You’re Not Lazy – It’s Overstimulation

We live in a fast paced world – it’s go, go, go all the time. Get up early and go to the gym, go get coffee, go make a healthy breakfast, go to work, go call that family member, go to that class on the weekend, go to the dinner party…And if you can’t keep up with the quickness in which we all seem to now live our lives, you (or someone you know) may be viewing you as lazy. But could it really just be that you’re overstimulated? With so much to keep up with, how could you not be overstimulated?

When you hear or feel that you’re being lazy, it can sting. This isn’t a desirable trait and it can mean that you lack any drive, motivation or passion for the things in your life. But if that perceived trait is really just a symptom of overstimulation, it changes everything.

5 Common Behaviours That Kill Productivity

Most people want to be productive. We want to do our jobs well and produce quality work. Regardless of the type of work you do, you probably want it to be worth doing. And you want the end result to be a positive accomplishment.

But sometimes it can be hard to be productive. Things can stand in our way and make it difficult to complete, or sometimes even begin, the projects we had planned to do.

A Complete Guide to Becoming Highly Productive

Productivity guides are a hot commodity. If you’re a productive worker, you’ll likely get commended. After all, the more work you produce, the more valuable you are, right? While that may be true in a lot of ways, productivity isn’t just for business purposes. A productive person isn’t merely the employee of the month, they’re productive in every sense of the word. A productive friend shows up when needed. A productive partner listens and plans dates. A productive person looks out for themselves and ensures they’re not slacking when it comes to self-care.

Yes, a lack of productivity in a work environment is not a favourable position to be in. Looking further, if you’re not actively working to improve your life, whether that’s via self-betterment or relationships, it can lead to a lack of self-esteem and dwindling confidence. These traits help make productivity a formidable yet sustainable presence in your life, so their absence is potentially very damaging in any pursuit of a long-term goal.

How to Double Your Productivity

Much like our memory of it, time ebbs and flows; its pacing is irregular and distorted. To make the most out of a day, then, time management is a potent weapon in the fight against unproductivity. Unprioritised, a lack of time management leads to days wasted, incomplete work and damaged self-esteem.

It can feel difficult to manage your time for optimum productivity – errands, work, and travelling are things most people do frequently that eat into the day. However, it’s not all doom and gloom.

Developing an efficient method for managing time is the easiest way to hack your internal system and maximise productivity. That starts with the simple tips the rest of this article will outline.

The Productivity Mindset: How to Think Like a High Achiever

A productivity-based mindset is the high achiever’s bread and butter. When everything boils down to day-to-day life – the ‘grind’ – productivity is the beating heart of everything we do and produce. Every Miles Davis song, any groundbreaking new medicine and any shiny new skyscraper is the result of productive people coming together to work and achieve great things.

A low drive for productivity is a challenge pretty much everyone faces at some point in life. Letting it fester can drag the most ambitious person down to the depths of dissatisfaction. Typically, the more productive we are, the better about ourselves we feel. That sense of accomplishment is unrivalled and does wonders for our self-esteem levels, so when we’re unable to replicate it consistently, it can affect more than just work. Errands such as food shopping require productive energy to carry you from one task to the next. Without it, things can pile up and weigh you down.

5 Habits You Should Avoid to Become Highly Productive

Highly productive people have certain habits that other people don’t. What are they doing that sets them apart? How are they getting so much done, and achieving their goals? We all want to be successful, but what are we doing wrong?

Here are a few habits you really need to avoid, if you want to get on track with being highly productive.

7 Things Insanely-Productive People Do Differently

Productivity seems to be the holy grail of the working world. Imagine the perfect day – working from dusk to dawn, a productivity machine. Our bodies aren’t like that. Productivity levels ebb and flow, and it can sometimes feel like you can’t get anything done no matter how hard you try.

Thankfully, while it may seem elusive, a productive lifestyle isn’t all that difficult to achieve. It can make you feel like a working hero on a good day, but like every hero, there’s a villain. Here, that’s procrastination. You’ve likely been there before – falling down a YouTube-induced rabbit hole, completing the housework you’ve been putting off for days, replying to emails, or perhaps becoming fixated on your current book. Whatever it is, it kills productivity.

To be a productive person, you need simple, practical steps. You don’t need to completely overhaul your life, but simply telling yourself to be productive won’t be enough. In line with that, here are some things highly productive people do that will help you put procrastination behind you.

Parkinson’s Law: How to Manage Your Time More Effectively

Have you ever been given an assignment for an essay that’s due in a month, but waited until the last few days to write it? Or maybe you’ve had to give a work presentation at the end of the week, but put everything together an hour before you had to give it? Or maybe you’ve set a big goal for yourself to get completed in five years, but don’t seem to be making any progress?

If you’ve ever experienced this kind of procrastination, you’ve experienced Parkinson’s Law.

Parkinson’s Law is a theory developed by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in an essay published in The Economist in 1955. Cyril wrote his essay after spending a lot of time in the British Civil Service where he noticed tasks took up as much time as they were allotted.