Everyone knows that getting through the work day can be tough. What’s even worse is when you can’t wrap your head around all the things you need to get done. You have one project deadline coming up, you have three meetings this week, two client dinners, and a partner or a child at home. Anxiety, stress, and procrastination slowly creep in and you find yourself trying to dig out of a hole that seems endless.
Whether your in your 20s, 30s, 40s, and so forth we all have responsibilities and life moments to get to. Whatever the case may be, being able to hack a productivity flow would be something beneficial for everyone. And because of all the crazy schedules and routines I’ve witnessed lately, it’s about time I share my best strategies for being a highly productive person.
To be fair, I am extremely type A and live my life by a pretty routine schedule. However, it has allowed me to be extremely efficient in my work, relationships, and family sphere. Work life balance…ehhh, that still may not be a thing, but this guideline will be your best tool in getting close to it.
*Start your Prep the Night Before
This is probably one of the best hacks there is for having a productive day! Honestly, the more you can do the night before, the less you’ll have to do day of, meaning you won’t be wasting as much time on pointless items. This is a great tool for minimizing headaches and focusing on what’s really important in your day.
The following is a list of things that can be done and should be done the night before:
1. Weather Check and Prep Your Clothes
If you have the time, you can also iron or steam your clothes so you can just throw them on the following morning.
2. Prep Your Food
This one can be tricky sometimes because certain foods really need to be prepped day of if we want to eat them fresh (like salad). However, there are a lot of options for prepared foods that hold very well. For example any vegetables, noodles or rice, and most meat options. You can also pack a fresh fruit or juice, which everyone should be doing if we want to add a little wellness in there.
Now, if you’re the person that gets take out for lunch each day then obviously you do not even have to worry about this tip :).
3. Take Your Vitamins
This is actually an important one that most people skip. But, if you are looking to have a productive day, you need to make sure your health is good, energy is high, and you sleep enough the night before. I take morning vitamins and night time vitamins to make sure I am getting just the right mix. Some amazing evening vitamins are zinc and magnesium. Zinc helps strengthen your overall immune system as well as skin and hair, and magnesium will help you sleep more soundly and prep your digestive system for the following day.
These three items shouldn’t take more than 20mins or so. Since you’re already in high energy focus mode coming off the energy of the day, get them done and keep it moving. It is much easier and will take up way less time doing it the night before rather than if you were waking up and trying to rush to get that all done the morning of.
Now let’s look at what the morning should look like.
*Establish a Morning Routine
Everyone should start their day with a morning routine. This is so important for starting your day off on the right foot, organizing your schedule and being productive for the upcoming hours, which is the whole point after all.
If you establish a consistent morning routine then that is one less thing you have to think about. This will allow you to focus your energy on something else, hopefully something more important. Basically, if and when something becomes a routine/habit, all those daily motions become second nature and you don’t have to waste decision making energy on it, hence already starting your day in a more productive manner.
The following are some items that should be in your morning routine:
1. Have a Consistent Wake Up Time
Wake up at the same time every morning (unless it’s the weekend). The great thing about this is that if you practice waking up at the same time, and you can use an alarm to do this, your body will get accustomed to it. Seriously!
I have practiced this for a long time. My alarm is usually set to 6:00am. But I have recently been setting it even earlier to 5:15 am (we’ll get into why in the next item). Everyday I practice this, it begins training my body to naturally get up at this time and it gets easier and easier.
If you don’t have a consistent wake up time then you’re going to feel your body fighting to wake up every morning and exhaustion will set in much quicker. We do not want to do this. This is not productive. Set a time, let your body get accustomed to it and you’ll find yourself waking up much more easily.
2. Wake Up Early
Make sure your wake up time is early enough to get all your ducks in a row before starting your work day. You know the old saying “the early bird gets the worm”, well that happens with this.
It doesn’t make sense to get up at 7:00am every morning if you have to leave the house by 7:30am. Even with all the prep done the night before, its still too short of a time period for your body to go through the waking up process. Therefore it puts your body in fight or flight mode from the very beginning of the day and will shoot your cortisol through the roof! (Cortisol is our stress hormone that can be easily affected and can lead to things like weight gain. Let’s not do that.)
I would recommend getting up at least an hour before you need to head out or begin working. And if you have kids, I would recommend getting up 2-2.5hours before. You have to account for how much time you need before getting your kids up, and enough time for them having their own morning meltdowns. It’s important you give yourself time and your body time to wake up slowly.
Personally, I started waking up even earlier, at 5:15am, so I can actually get some work done prior to going into the office. Not only that, but it allows me to roll around in bed for 15mins before actually getting up, take my time with my skincare, and drink my coffee and tonic all before really starting the day. That leads us into our next item.
3. Rehydrate with Morning Liquids
You should always have some kind of beverage in the morning. You’ve been sleeping for hopefully 6-8hours and need to replenish your body with liquids. Starting with an entire water bottle or large cup of hot water with lemon are both good options and will help get your digestive system moving.
4. Time to Get Dressed!
Get dressed and pack your bag! This is pretty self explanatory. This will probably be the quickest part of your morning because everything has already been laid out the night before and you know exactly what to put in your bag. This will literally only take a few minutes.
After that…. You’re ready to really start your work day!
*Organize Your Agenda
The first thing that I do once getting to work, and this can be for anyone who commutes to work or for anyone who works from home as well, is schedule/outline my days objectives. Basically it’s a to do list for the day.
Having a planner or agenda is a great way to organize this daily planning session. I have one that I leave at work unless working on some new projects at home. Every morning upon my arrival, I get comfortable and begin to outline my day in my planner.
It is also important to note that I make it a rule to get to work prior to anyone else. This is crucial for me. Because I am surrounded by people all day long and have an endless To Do’s list each morning, it’s important for me to have quiet time to organize my thoughts and plan for the day. I tend to arrive about 20-30 minutes before my staff.
You should break your day down by categories so you can easily know where to put your To Do’s, but to also see a structured organized visual of what needs to get done. I find by putting them in categories I can evaluate, which category is more important and tackle those items first. It also helps to work on a chunk at a time rather than doing a little of this, a little of that, jumping around and kind of working like a chicken with it’s head cut off.
The more structured the morning plan, the easier and smoother the function of the day will be, and the more productive you will be overall.
*Work Through Your List
The next part of your day will be the actual work you need to do. This is also somewhat self explanatory. However, the process overall should be made easier with your agenda in place. Tackle those categories in order of importance and timeliness with regards to deadlines etc. You never want to be the one that has to delay others because work isn’t done or not being able to finish a project because something else distracted you.
Use that agenda, tackle those areas, get your **ish done :).
*Confirm Your End Time
This is another really important part because it takes you putting appropriate boundaries in place so you can move onto the next part of your day. Boundaries are a huge tool that everyone can actually use to their advantage and are fantastic at signaling transition periods.
This one can vary as some people may need to do extra work at home. However, there should be an ending point and that ending point should be defined every day and should be consistent every day.
For example, if you work outside of the house and closing time is 5pm, make sure you leave everyday at 5pm. Same if it is 7pm or 8pm. But make sure you have a consistent exit time so that is one less thing you are thinking about.
Likewise if you do need to take some work home, there should still be an ending time each evening. Perhaps you leave at 5pm, but need to do a few emails still, be sure to officially sign off at 7pm each day.
Or if you work from home, you can follow a definitive closing time as well. Let’s say 6pm everyday the lap top goes away and you’re ready to start your evening routine.
The point is, by having a confirmed time for your end of day, it takes that decision making process off of your plate, therefore allowing you to focus your energy onto the next thing. But again, it should be consistent. Without having it consistent then you’re going to be guessing everyday what’s on your plate, what do you have to get done, what time will you leave today, what time will dinner be and so on and so on. It slowly spirals the rest of your afternoon/evening off course. We do not want to do that.
So, be sure to pick a time that works each day so you stay productive, stay on schedule, and get through your day with as little focus on the trivial stuff as possible.
*Start Your Evening Routine
The next thing to follow is your evening routine. And this is probably one of the funnest times of the day! You get to unwind, eat, relax, and prep a few items for the next day. Its relaxing yet productive! Let’s take a look.
1. Keep the Same Consistency
You are going to want to have a pretty consistent schedule for this too. Again, the more that becomes habit, the less you will have to think about it. And the more you can save your energy for other things. In this case, that would be unwinding.
I know it may seem a bit awkward to think that you need to focus on relaxing but this becomes a real thing when more and more responsibilities get added on to your plate. Self care falls to the wayside and you find yourself doing endless errands, becoming exhausted, and repeating it day in and day out.
However, if we have a schedule planned for the evening wind down, you’ll find it much easier to get the little things done quickly and still have time for yourself.
2. Dinner and Clean Up
During your evening routine, you should come home and just relax for about half hour if you can. Then make/order dinner (whichever is your preference, no judgement here), and clean the dishes and the kitchen. This may seem unnecessary each night however, getting into the habit of cleaning small messes will make it easier when doing a larger clean up over the weekend. Plus it helps you practice the habit of putting things away the first time. And to be honest, a clean space really does wonders for everyone.
3. Choose R&R Activities
Next, definitely watch some tv, take a bath, or read a good book. Something that allows yourself a little self care time. You need to be able to recharge your batteries for the next day.
4. Prep for the Following Day
Lastly, before you’re done for the night, take 20-30minutes to prep what you need for the next day. Meaning check the weather, lay out your clothes, and if you can, prep some food for tomorrow.
This will be the end of your night. It is now time to get some sleep, which is so crucial in overall physical and mental health. Try to always aim for 6-8hours. I usually get around 7 and that seems to work well for my body. Get your rest, and get ready for the following day.
*Summary
This should provide you with a pretty detailed outline on how to get productive and stay productive through out your day. You have all my best tried and true tips that I use on the daily. Remember, scheduling and consistency is key in developing a positive daily routine. It is also the best tool in focusing your energy on the areas that really need it. Free up brain space away from the little things and you’ll find you can get all the important things you need done.
If you’d like specific areas of the scheduling outlined or detailed a little further let us know in the comments below. Also let your fellow readers know if you have any good tips and tricks that can help them out as well.
And as always, If you have any questions, comments, or ideas please share them in the comments section below with your fellow parents! And definitely subscribe to the newsletter for updates and ongoing happenings at TylekTeaches.com. The subscription link is just on the right hand side of this post. See you there!
[…] **Side note, we’re not going to go too in depth in each section. For that you can find my post on … […]