How to Plan a Super-Productive Day
Get a Good Night’s RestYou can’t expect to have a super-productive day unless you get plenty of sleep the night before. Unfortunately, many people fall short of getting the recommended seven-to-eight hours of shut-eye per night. According to some statistics, as many as 70 million Americans suffer from sleep and/or wakefulness disorders. If you have trouble falling or staying asleep at night, try removing all distractions from your bedroom (e.g. TV, lights, outside lights, etc.), and get on a schedule. It may take some time, but your body will eventually fall into a cycle in which it falls asleep and wakes up at the same time each day.
If you chronically snore loudly, feel excessively sleepy during non-sleep hours and wake with a sore throat and headache, you could have an un-diagnosed sleep disorder such as obstructive sleep apnea.
Rather than waiting until the morning to plan your day, begin planning the night before. Perhaps you can sit down with a pen and notepad, crafting up an itinerary of the day’s events. It doesn’t have to be perfect, rather it should serve as an outline of the tasks to which you need to attend.
Keep in mind that you can plan your day using a smartphone or tablet as well. There are dozens of note-taking apps designed specifically for this purpose, some of which are free while others are paid. If you find yourself without access to pen and paper, you can always download and use one of these apps to plan your day instead.
ColorNote is one of my personal favorite note-taking apps, although there are dozens of similar apps available for Android and Apple iOS as well. A frequently overlooked benefit of using these apps is the ability to speak the words rather than typing them. This can prove highly useful when you need to take note while your hands are occupied doing something else — such as on your commute home!
When faced with multiple tasks, many people feel overwhelmed and confused, which in turn hurts their productivity. If you want to have a super-productive day, it’s recommended that you identify the single most important task that needs to be completed, making it your priority. Once the day begins, you should focus your efforts on this task, turning a blind eye to the others for the time being. If you are able to complete the task in a timely manner, you may then proceed to work on some of the smaller tasks. Following this otherwise simple rule will go a long ways in boosting your productivity levels.
I think we’ve all been guilty of putting off an important task at some point or another. Maybe you’re too tired, or perhaps it’s just not a fun task. Regardless, though, you shouldn’t procrastinate when it comes to work. If you have a task that needs to be complete, there’s no better time than the present to finish it. The sooner it’s complete, the sooner you can shift your energy towards other tasks. The bottom line is that you shouldn’t allow procrastination to impact your productivity levels.
How do you plan a productive day? Let us know in the comments section below!
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