6 Steps To Dramatically Boost Your Productivity
And feel less stress…
Do you get angry or frustrated when your focus is interrupted while working?
The interruptions throughout the day can really affect how well we accomplish our daily work.
We all deal with daily interruptions. Whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur, the disruptions may look like this:
You’ve allocated time to do a specific task. You’ve sat down to work, with great focus. Estimating to get the job done by a particular time.
Then, it happens. You get interrupted. The interruption can be a tech device or otherwise. The phone rings. An app’s notification goes off. Someone enters your office, or so forth. Chances are, there are multiple apps constantly chiming and dinging.
You take care of the interruption, and now you try to get back where you left off. But your focus is gone. It’s going to take some time to get your attention back to work. And that means it may take you longer to accomplish your task.
What Is The Cost of These Interruptions?
Multitasking hurts how we learn and work.
According to a study: Modulation of Competing Memory Systems By Distraction, people use different areas of the brain for learning and storing information when they’re distracted.
The MRI scan from the study showed that our ability to learn and retrieve information changes when distracted. In this scenario, the scans showed we store information in an area of the brain called the Striatum.
Whereas, the MRI scans of people who WEREN’T distracted showed activity in an area of the brain called the Hippocampus. The Hippocampus portion of our brain helps us store and recall information more efficiently than the Striatum.
Work interruptions cause stress and anxiety – according to another study: The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress, people compensate for interruptions by working faster. But there is a price. We experience more stress, higher frustration, time pressure, and effort.
It takes us longer to reorient – another piece of data from the last-mentioned study suggests that it takes us about 20 minutes to return to the level of focus we had before we got interrupted.
It takes us longer to complete the task – this part is probably an obvious one. If we’re interrupted, it will take us longer to get the work done. And when we work faster to catch up with the time lost, we feel more stress.
The following steps will help boost your productivity and reduce your stress:
Many workplace environments are chaotic in nature, with a lot of interruptions.
The good news is, with some conscious work, we can drastically improve our behavior on how and when we decide to give our attention to these distractions.
1. Identify Your Daily Interruptions
Take some time to think of all the noise that keeps disturbing your creative work time.
Most likely, you’ll know right away what needs to be quieted.
Is it the dinging of your smart device? Is it the constant interruption of others?
Make a list.
2. Evaluate The Tech Noise
Technology related disruptions can create a lot of noise in our modern-day lives.
It’s a worthwhile task to take some time to strategically configure your smart device features.
The technology is there is help us, right? Don’t let the technology disturb your productivity and cause you to stress.
You’ll notice the quiet when you don’t hear every little ding on every app that’s installed on your smartphone.
3. Handling Non-Urgent Matters
Take a bit of time to disable the non-urgent notifications.
You can disable the sound of some app notifications, so you’re not interrupted from your focused work for every little app update.
I silent all non-urgent notifications on my phone. When my phone dings, I know it’s something that needs my immediate attention.
I then review all notifications at a later time when I can take my time to read and respond.
This process eliminates as much as 99% of the chaos for me.
And during work time, I’m entirely uninterrupted. I’ve been able to rely on my time estimation to complete my tasks.
This process can work for you too.
4. Guard Your Most Productive Time
The first 3 hours of the morning are the most productive time for my workday.
This might be the case for you too. Whatever your schedule, guarding your peak-productive hours will increase your productivity and also ease your brain.
5. Set A Timer
Set a timer for an uninterrupted task session.
David Ogilvy, the founder of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Agency, and also known as the “Father of Advertising,” would set a timer for 33:33 minutes.
He would work until the timer would go off. That’s when he would get up and take a break. He would use the 33:33 minutes of uninterrupted time for creative writing.
You can get a lot done in 30 uninterrupted minutes. We’re talking about focusing on one task, avoiding multitasking altogether.
6. Handling The Urgent Matters
To even further boost your productivity, let others know that calling should be reserved only for urgent matters.
For instance, instruct others to send you an email instead of calling you on the phone or walking into your office. This one strategy will save you a lot of time trying to get reoriented back to what you were doing.
When the phone rings, you’ll know this is something that needs your attention right away.
The majority of interruptions will be queued for your attention when you’re ready to take a break.
You Can Get More Done With Less Stress!
Imagine a workday where your interruptions are drastically minimized.
Imagine yourself feeling less stressed, and getting your work done without the chaos of switching between tasks.
Taking the time to evaluate your interruptions and designing a structure will make your day more productive and give your brain less stress.
Claim back a big chunk of your productive time throughout the day!