The Power of Planning: How to Plan Your Day for Maximum Productivity
Have you ever found yourself procrastinating instead of doing actual work? Do you think you can save more time and invest it towards your goals? Do you want to reach maximum levels of productivity and get things done?
Well, this article is for you!!
We’ll be showcasing some of the best planning tips and productivity techniques that you can apply to your life immediately and see results very very soon.
But first, let’s start with a question…
Are you an early bird or a night owl?
Early birds and night owls are 2 completely different types of people so they can’t be planning their day the same way.
An early bird is someone that wakes up early and sleeps early as opposed to night owls that wake up late and go to bed very late at night. This can also be combined with your productive hours. Each one of us has different productive hours during the day. Your productivity might be the best at night while mine is best early in the morning. You should take this factor into consideration as well.
Depending on the above, you could make a general schedule for your day. This schedule will contain the time you wake up/sleep, the time for breakfast/lunch/dinner, the time for work, the time for other activities, etc.
Make sure to plan your days based on your most productive hours and sleeping schedule.
Planning Tips for Peak Productivity
Now, let’s see some of the best planning tips out there that can get you to reach peak productivity and really make the most out of every day.
1. Take days into consideration
Instead of planning your entire week at once and getting overwhelmed, break it apart and plan each day on its own. This way you can feel better about your responsibilities as they look more achievable and you can also reach your goals a lot faster.- Monday – Start the week with low-demand tasks
- Tuesday&Wednesday – This is the time to do as most of your work as possible
- Thursday – Energy begins to decrease so go for the easy tasks
- Friday – Energy is at its lowest so focus on your progress and next steps
2. Plan ahead
If you’re planning your day first thing in the morning, you should stop! This lowers your energy supply and doesn’t help with your motivation. Instead, you should plan the day before it even begins. Make your plans the night before and prepare yourself mentally for the day that’s about to come. This way you won’t waste any time or energy the next morning and you’ll have a pretty clear plan for your day.
3. Utilize tools
Every tool that can make your life easier is welcomed and should be used. Whether we’re talking about an online tool that manages projects or a new-technology coffee machine, you should keep it if it’s helpful. They can save you a ton of time and release you of many burdens.
Tools like this also help by making your plan look more achievable. Trust us, with tool usage you’ll feel much more secure about yourself and happy with your results.
4. Separate work and home life
This goes for people that work from home and are finding it difficult to focus while working. Truth is, it can be challenging to focus on work while laying on your couch, having family around or the TV on in the background. Here’s how to make it easier…
Think like you’re going to an office. Have breakfast, take a shower, dress up, and instead of leaving the house go to your office and start completing tasks one after the other. Minimize distractions and try to really focus on your work.
It’s all about your mindset. So make sure to set it the right way!
5. Celebrate and accept
It seems like many people fail to celebrate their wins and accept their losses. It is something mandatory for your motivation and productivity.
After a celebration or after a period of acceptance, you have a very clear and renewed picture of your goals and ambitions. It’s like you’re coming back as a new person and this can have amazing results on your work.
Celebrating or accepting isn’t something stable so you can’t really have it on your schedule. When the time comes, however, you must give yourself time for it.
6. Don’t forget about you
It’s really easy to get caught up in all this work you must do and completely neglect your personal needs and habits. This is the most important of all the tips…
By prioritizing yourself and your needs, you’re getting one step closer to success. Therefore, follow your habits and rituals, exercise, eat well, and do what is necessary to maintain a healthy lifestyle, both physically and emotionally.
Now, we’d like to share 3 of the best productivity techniques out there. They are tested and they are working!
Productivity Techniques
The Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro technique is usually used to easier tackle complex projects and tasks. What it basically says is that you should break your workflow into smaller parts, spaced with breaks. You should be working for about 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. Once you do this 3-5 times, you can take a longer break.
The Eisenhower Matrix
This method helps you prioritize tasks based on their importance and urgency. By setting your priorities, you can save a ton of time and reach high levels of productivity. The method uses four quadrants to classify tasks:- Urgent and important
- Urgent but not important
- Important but not urgent
- Not urgent or important
Eat The Frog
Unlike the Eisenhower Matrix, this technique prioritizes tasks based on their difficulty. This method advises you to get the most difficult task of the day done in the morning and then proceed with the easier tasks. That way you can build up confidence and get one step closer to your goals.