5 ways to improve productivity; Achieve more, in less time.

by Ella Stafford

With the academic school year well under way, inevitably we are feeling drowned in the piles of work and to do lists, towering up on our desks - only growing and seemingly not shrinking. However, if you feel like you don’t have enough hours in a day to get everything done, more than likely you do, so it may be time to check in with your time management skills.

Successful people usually are organised, and prioritise, as well as balancing the hard work with a time to relax on a well needed break, so, here are five tips to create that productive balance in your life, whether that's at college, work, or just in your day to day chores.

1) Write out a to do list.

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Yes, it’s that simple. Although it feels as though writing your challenges for the day will make your problem appear even scarier, it’ll allow you to visually map out every single job and piece of work. Not only will it encourage you to complete each point, it will make you feel more productive also! You will cross the last job of that list feeling accomplished and as if you've achieved so much more compared to when you wrote it out.

2) Cut the multi-tasking.

Although it sounds as if I’m raining on your parade, if you think you can multi-task, you may want to think again. Research has shown that multi-taskers actually end up wasting more time on having to redo the task they did a half hearted job on, that if they were to focus on just one. It's the classic quality over quantity after all. Start one, Complete one. Next. It's that easy.

3) Reward yourself.

Working away at that long, tedious essay is draining and completely dull. So why shouldn’t you reward yourself after? It’ll motivate yourself to work towards something (other than that lovely feeling of completion :) ) You can keep track of your small and big wins, so whenever you struggle with your progression, you can just see how far you’ve come.

4) Put the phone down

Living in our generation it’s engraved in us to be using technology almost 24/7 but it’s impossible to focus when those snapchat notifications are pinging through every minute. Picking up to reply to someone is simply just extending the time until you've finished. So just turn off your phone and have zero distractions. It will be worth it.

5) Get the most dreaded tasks done first.

Whichever job you’re dreading the most, is probably what you should get done first thing in the morning. You also have more energy to tackle them and your day will only get easier!