How to Make Your Day Productive

Whenever I refuse to plan, I feel like I am trying so hard to be productive without hitting the nail on the head; doing a bit of this and some of that but never arriving at a satisfying end. Failure to plan can lead to a waste of time as well; I could end up focusing on what is not necessary or doing what is necessary but without getting much accomplished within a particular timeframe.

However, the moment I am able to plan, I immediately know that I will be productive because I know what I am dealing with. I am sharing this because I am sure someone needs to enter into a cycle of continuous productivity. If your every day is productive, your week will be productive and you are inadvertently maximizing your life. The secret of productivity is in routine and the secret of routine is habit. Once we get used to a pattern, it begins to work for us and we consider it easier to do. I will like to share what works for me and the way it works for me. Beware, my view is not necessarily the way you have read about similar factors in a book, but based on my experience with myself and those around me.

1. Plan your day before the day: This is usually best done the night before. It’s too late to prepare on the battlefield and planning is equal to preparation in this context. Planning a week ahead and adjusting or reviewing as the day approaches accordingly is also a strategy that has proven effective.
2. Start your day with God: This will greatly influence the trajectory of your day. Get into God’s presence in Worship, pray in tongues to align with His will for the day. If you spend time in His presence in the morning, your immediate atmosphere will be tranquil and you will stay attuned through the day. Study the Bible, I usually need just a word or revelation to meditate on through the day, even if I got to read 10 Chapters; so while it’s great to read so many chapters and I love doing just that, don’t focus on how much you read but how well you have a word to meditate on. When you read non-Christian versions of being productive, you will find that what the world practices is meditation, in an attempt to connect with the inner self. This proves that everyone needs to connect inwards, deeper than the obvious but I submit that the meditation we really need is to connect with God who knows us better than we know ourselves, rather than to just connect with ourselves.
3. Exercise: There are some things in life that may be underrated just because they have been in our ears for a long time and we seem to be doing just fine without them. The role that exercise plays is not overrated. You need to find a regime and stick to it, then you will begin to appreciate it’s role. Exercise keeps us physically fit and you can tell so when you stick to it but beyond that, there’s also a level of mental alertness it brings that does not come by just waking up and getting into the day. Exercise helps with a person’s self-esteem and keeps one going with the idea of routines and habits. Research into the lives of successful people shows again and again that most of such people exercise daily.
4. Fix Important Activities into Your Best Time of The Day: I am a morning person and I am not about to ask you to fix your important activities into the morning time but into your most productive time. I know someone who works well at night and the moment he discovered that it’s not about trying to be a morning person, his productivity escalated for both day and night. It’s important we are not just copycats but find what works best for us and how best to apply it to our circumstances. If I need to write, read, deliver on something, I do them first. When it comes to cooking, washing, shopping, and such chores, I don’t need to think about how to put the clothes in a machine and as long as I have a list, shopping is a spree; so I leave them till a time in the day when I must have worked on the action plans that largely involve my mind.
5. Take a nap: I don’t nap, so this point here I discovered through accidental naps. Anytime I accidentally take a nap (say once in 6 months), I begin to admire all over, people who are able to just take a nap anytime they want. Why? It’s the most refreshing act ever, it’s probably more refreshing than sleep in my opinion. Besides, when you give the body all the rest it needs, you position it to perform better in the immediate and in the future. I am not talking about sleeping long hours during the day; a nap is a short sleep. I feel better for the remaining part of the day for taking just 10- 30 minutes nap.
6. Take a Break: When you feel tense and unproductive, it’s not time to feel bad. I usually just take a break. For people who like to work, it takes as much discipline to take a break as it does to get to work for those who do not like to work. I could watch something I like which is totally not work-related for 20 minutes or even 1 hour, take a short walk, find someone to talk with. Then, I return to work feeling less tense and able to continue. Have the discipline to distinguish between work and leisure and to know how leisure leads to more work and how abandoned work will not get your goals fulfilled; there’s a balance needed here.
7. Create a learning Opportunity: We need to learn new things, daily. There’s so much in the world to know about and it’s time to intentionally go after them, especially the things that catch our fancy, and general knowledge as well. It could be through books, training sessions, e-learning, educative videos, etc. What works for me are articles. I noticed that while I get to read books every now and then, I prefer to read articles that give information in just a few paragraphs and I can get to read many in a day. It’s my preferred style of acquiring knowledge. Find the one you like and do it consistently. Listening to audiobooks on your way to work, picking up a book at lunchtime, listening to ted talk and etc…be consistent with the method(s) you like.

Have you found this useful?  I will like to know what works for you as well, please feel free to share in the comment section.