Discovering your better self, consistently…
How often have you managed to tick all the boxes in your daily to-do list? And how many times have you felt the need for more than 24 hours in a day?
How many times have you felt you should have started your work a little earlier, worked a little faster or rather smarter?
I have faced all of these challenges quite a lot and I know how it feels to hit the bed with dissatisfaction.
Managing your time effectively is extremely important when you have long days packed with hectic schedules and I have always found myself completing my work at the eleventh hour.
I started to spend my time reading blogs and articles on how I can overcome this stressful experience and I could clearly sense that at the heart of this effort lies motivation.
Motivation to work, motivation to perform better, motivation to stay focused and more importantly motivation to be consistent.
And how do you do that?
It is time you stop procrastinating.
It is time you take action.
It is time for you to better yourself,
And
It is time for you to see your version 2.0
The strategy that I have been following is the “Butterfly effect” strategy. It’s all about making smaller and conscious efforts, which at the beginning may seem insignificant, that will eventually cause significant improvements overall.
While there are no hard and fast rules that you should stick to, considering the following options may really help you achieve your objective!
These will definitely help solve your problems. May be not immediately but will, eventually.
Let’s delve deeper
· Prepare your to- do list a day earlier
Now this is going to help you start your day a lot easier considering you know well in advance what your day is going to look like. Knowing all of what you should be doing is half your battle won. You will be extremely organized and equally focused.
You might recall this phrase that you were taught in school — if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. While you may still have a few last minute entries to your to- do list, you will see that by incorporating this practice, you will learn the art of prioritizing. The last minute entries may not essentially bog you down.
· Setting smaller goals
A task can be broken down into smaller and specific tasks or goals. This will not only help you track your progress but will also help you stay motivated. Setting smaller goals will help you feel you’re in good control of your schedule and will in turn improve your productivity. A checkpoint analysis in short!
· Avoid Multitasking
At the core of productivity lies your focus and multitasking can kill that focus. A research study reveals that your productivity goes down by almost 40% when you switch tasks.
You will do tremendously well when you stick to one particular task at a time simply because you’re completely focused on completing the job in hand.
By now you would have prepared a short and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound) to — do list with only the most essential tasks to be completed. So it is important that you give your cent percent to each of your work items.
· Eliminating distractions
You have worked extremely hard to stay focused and consistent at work by following a systematic approach. However you need to ensure that “discipline” is also included in your approach.
Social Media is clearly an impediment in your journey. While the internet is still the best repository for data, you could be overwhelmed by the magnitude of data you are being fed with. This will hamper your concentration and your mind takes to social media for relief.
Spending time on social media is a great way to kill time, but remember you are in the midst of work schedule and have assignments to complete!
How do you plan to monitor your time spent on social media?
Setting an alert on your phone to track your screen time? Oh yes! It works. It worked for me and it can work for you, too!
There is an instant feeling of satisfaction when I read a message that says “your screen time was down by…% this week”
· Taking short breaks
Spending longer hours gazing at the computer screen is definitely not good for your eyes. Also you’ve been in a static posture for long. You must make it a habit to take short walks. It will help you feel a lot better. You may also do a brain dump to declutter your mind. Remember to drink lots of water. You need to stay hydrated. Your mind and body should be in sync for your overall well- being. If there is disconnect, you lose the balance!
· Review/ audit your work before submission
Ensuring quality of work is very crucial and one good way of doing it is by revisiting your work document to see if you can make improvements. While you take short breaks and get back, you can attempt to create the best version of your work. Your performance will stand out!
So, as you can see all the questions asked at the beginning of this blog post see an answer in the form of prioritizing and following effective ways to stay consistent and make our work, an engaging experience. The butterfly effect indeed works!
References:
For images:
https://www.pexels.com/search/motivation/
https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/butterfly-effect
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/to-do-list
https://www.istockphoto.com/illustrations/distracted
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/business-analyst-financial-data-analysis-gm523185476-91905045