For over the past 52 weeks, I've invested in learning more about productivity patterns, and how I could possibly meet the goals I set for myself, get over my ADHD and do a decent job at work, without burning myself out in the process.
This article reflects my major findings - all of which I've tried and tested on myself.
1. Action is the greatest motivation#
10 minutes of actually working on a task that's important for you creates a motivation boost to complete the rest of it, far more than any planning ever will. This is how most habits begin to develop - we start at 1%, and the action becomes the motivation for further action. Thus, next time you procrastinate, just get started on one tiny bit of task, and it'll boost you to continue.
2. Conservative time blocking#
Timeblocking is a well recognized technique where you schedule time for a task, and in that duration, just work on that task, thereby eliminating the need for the mind to will itself into picking a task off the todo list.
However, if done wrongly, timeblocking can end up being as unproductive as all other todo lists and way more demoralizing. Timeblocking every minute of the day without considering your energy levels and other distractions can make the exercise futile. Thus, when you start, block time only for the most essential tasks that you dare not skip. Once you get into the habit, only then schedule your time more. This incremental approach will trick your brain into believing, that if it's on the calendar, it's sacred, and can NOT be missed, come what may.
3. Part-day planning#
Most productivity gurus talk about planning one day ahead. However, early on in our careers, we have very little control over our time at work, and thus, our day plans can get disrupted if we're pushed into an energy draining task that we hadn't expected. You have considerable more control over only the next 6 hours of the day, at any given point. Thus, divide your day into 3 halves, and only plan for the next 6 hours. At 8 AM, plan for your 8-1. At 1:30, plan for your 2-7 PM, and at 7:30 PM, plan for your 8 PM - 1 AM. You'll be able to gauge your energy levels and calendar blockers much better this way
4. Biological Prime Time#
As the name suggests, it refers to a few times of the day when you're at your highest energy. Schedule your most energy draining tasks around your BPT to increase your chances of getting them done.
How do you find out your BPT? For one/two weeks, keep track of how motivated and mentally fresh you feel at every hour of the day. After the duration, you'll see a recurring high at some common time slots. For me, it usually comes between 7 AM - 9 AM in the morning, 5 PM - 7 PM in the afternoon, and 9:30 - 10:30 PM at night.
At your lowest energy levels, either switch off entirely from doing anything, or if that's unavoidable(like, if it falls during work hours), do your least energy consuming, 'maintenance' tasks like checking mail, cleaning up your workspace etc, which require very little mental presence.
5. Objectivize#
A lot of what we do is based on subjective decisions and considerations - I'll consider this website complete, when I feel it's 'good enough', or this task will take 'some time', or I have a goal to 'get 6 pack abs eventually'.
These subjective connotations means that your mind has to work at 'interpreting' what they mean, before you actually do something about them - your mind has to define when you feel good enough for your website, or how much time is 'some time', or what you should do at this moment to 'get 6 pack abs eventually'
Instead, creating objective, measurable checklists for your tasks and milestones makes it infinitely easier for you to track them, and remove the barrier for your brain to expend energy every time into defining the criteria for completion. You can just kick into auto gear mode. In the above examples, 'I'll consider this website done, once the header has a gradient, I have done the three body sections and added 5 links in the footer', 'completing these 3 checkpoints in the task will take a total of 90 mins', 'I'll do 60 situps and 80 leg rotations every alternate day'.