You might have come across many sources talking about productivity like YouTubers, influencers and there are a ton of books that teach you how to be productive in your day to day life. But what actually productivity is? Why do people keep talking about it? And moreover, do you understand the term productivity in the first place? Because it doesn’t matter how much content you intake about it, you don’t understand. It seems like you understood but you actually don’t, it sounds like a Greek.
But today keep all of those doubts and confusions about productivity aside, because you are going to learn about productivity and how to lead a productive life as a student.
Take away:
- What is productivity?
2. How to lead a productive life as a student?
- Prepare to-do list
- Prepare not to-do list
- Track your time
- Take regular breaks
- Set your self-deadlines
- Eat healthy
- Get plenty of sleep
3. Why do people keep talking about productivity?
4. Books that help you lead a productive life.
What is productivity?
How well a person is able to complete a task is productivity. This includes everything such as how effective you’ve done the work, how fast did you complete it and did you complete it in a correct speed. However, there are people who still think getting more things done is productivity, but it is not. Productivity is Quality over Quantity. It is not only about getting things done in a right way but also counts if you are able to complete all the important tasks of the day.
How to lead a productive life as a student?
- Prepare to-do list:
I totally understand, as a student you will have a lot things to do from your school or college assignments to your personal works, but understanding the important works is what going to make you a productive person. Preparing a to-do list early in the morning or a night before for that day can help you a lot in the process of getting those things done.
Making a to-do list:
So, we are not talking about every little action you do, instead we are talking about works that seem very important to you, works that matters you the most, works that should be done in that particular day. You will be better able to understand the tasks that are important to you only while you are making a to-do list, so this process will give you an insight about what to do first.
How to-do lists are connected to productivity?
Remember, productivity is not only about how well you do things but also includes whether you are able to complete every important task that should be done in that particular day or not.
Worlds richest and the most successful people such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Oprah they all make to-do lists a night before for the upcoming day in order to be productive.
- Prepare not to-do list:
You need not to wonder if this is your first time reading or listening Not To-Do list, because people will only care about the things they need. You spend a lot of time on unwanted things such as browsing internet, using social media, texting etc. once you enter into any of these unwanted things you will be hypnotized in way that you don’t even know what time it is.
Making a not to-do list:
So, to say no to these kind of actions you will create not to-do list. This includes all the actions that distract you the most from doing the important tasks of the day.
To-do lists and not to-do lists are like brothers. In to-do list, you will write all the important tasks of the day while in not to-do list, you will write the activities that distract you the most or disturb you mentally and physically.
- Track your time:
By the time you create your to-do and not to-do lists, you will know what to do and what not to do, then it is high time to look deep into how you spend your time in a day. You just need to know whether you are spending your time in a way it should be or wasting it on some unwanted stuff. After studying your time management habits, divide your 24 hours and give specific period of time for every task you wrote under to-do list and try to complete it with in the given time (also make sure to use not to-do list).
To win this option, you have to understand your tasks first. Click here to know how to do it.
- Take regular breaks:
Now, this is what most of you lag. If you get into work, you will never take a break till you complete most of the work and if you do not get into work, you will totally stay away from it. But for now let us look at when you get into work. People think you should continuously work without taking a break in order to stay focused, but how far do you think it is true? Please, stop making your own assumptions. Every study shows that when you continuously work on something without any break, your brain automatically starts to decrease its work efficiency. Take little breaks once in a while because your brain too need a little break.
Follow Pomodoro technique to get the most out of your day.
What is Pomodoro technique?
Take a little break for around 10-20 minutes for every 45 minutes of work you do. (You can always adjust with your own timings)
- Set self-deadlines:
This is so simple to do. You just have to make your own deadlines for every single task you get into. For instance: if you are writing an assignment, depending on the amount of your work you should set a deadline, if your assignment is long and lengthy then maybe you can set a deadline for an hour or one and half an hour. Setting a deadline is not important but accomplishing the task within the given time is what matters.
This little checklist here can help you cope up with procrastination and meet your self-deadlines.
- Eat healthy:
This might sound super basic but you could do nothing if you are unhealthy, none of the above steps can ever happen. You as a teenager or an adult, may show interests on enjoying various types of foods, but before you try something out make sure you are eating healthy. You can still eat junk and remember, everything has a limit. Just eating healthy cannot make you healthy, there are other small steps we often neglect and one cannot assume how badly they can affect us if we neglect them. What are those little steps?
- Drink more water
- Exercise regularly
- Follow your diet
- Bo open
They are simple yet, have a huge impact on our human body.
- Get plenty of sleep:
Getting good sleep plays a vital role in everyone’s life. You do not to stay awake to get your tasks done. If you follow the above steps perfectly, it is enough. You can complete all of your tasks within no time and you can still find time to enjoy yourself doing things you love the most.
Why do people keep talking about productivity?
Productivity definition may be same but it has a different view for different people. All influencers and You Tubers may be talking about productivity but the content they discuss or talk about will be different from another person talking the same. One can discuss about productivity only when they have experienced it. So, which is why people want to share their views about productivity steps that worked for them with rest of the world.
Books that can help you with productivity
- Do it today by Darius Foroux
- Hyper focus: How to work less to achieve more by Chris Bailey
- Ikigai by Garcia Hector
- Eat that frog by Brain Tracy
- Productivity hacks by Emily Price
