Want to be more productive? Virtually everyone is seeking to be more productive. Our responsibilities seem to be constantly increasing and our to-do lists are getting longer and longer. There is always more to do, but not enough hours to do them in. Luckily there are ways to be more productive and in this post, you’ll learn how to schedule your day to maximise productivity.
1. Plan your day in advance
Planning your day in advance will automatically help you to have a more productive day. When you plan your day in advance you are able to (where possible) organise the tasks you need to do in a way that makes the most sense. This may mean that you schedule your day to make the most of your energy, where you are or what you require from others. By planning your day in advance you’ll know exactly when you need to wake up. You’ll also know what activities you’ll be doing throughout the day so you can prepare for any additional resources you may need to complete the activities.
2. Schedule everything into your calendar
Hopefully, it is obvious that you need to schedule everything you’re your calendar. Hopefully, when you were planning your day got out your calendar and actually blocked out your tasks. However, I know that some people plan in a vaguer way (aka the to-do list). The do-list isn’t going to cut it If you want to maximise your productivity. You’ll need to block out your calendar with appointments that represent the amount of time you expect a task to take.
3. Include breaks in your schedule
In addition to blocking out the activities you are doing it is also important to block out breaks. You are a human and can’t work 24/7. You need to get a good night sleep and you need to take regular breaks in the day. You could follow the Pomodoro Technique, which is where you work for 25-minutes and then take a 5-minute break. However, 25 minutes might not be enough for you to finish a task. Some other people follow a 50-minute work schedule followed by a 10-minute break.
How often and for how long you take a break depends on your body and your working style, but just make sure you are taking regular breaks.
4. Make time for a morning routine
I’m a big believer in starting the day how you mean to go on. Well, you start the day strong it will put you in a good mental state for what is ahead. Think of it as the complete opposite of the saying ‘I got out of bed on the wrong side’. By having a morning routine you can maximise the chances of you getting out of bed on the right side.
Now if you are seriously dedicated to developing a morning routine a great book to read is The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. You can check out my mini-video series, which breaks down the 6-steps of The Miracle Morning routine here.
However, even if you aren’t ready to adopt a full-blown morning routine right now it can be something as simple as choosing one thing to do that makes you feel good and ensure that you do that as soon as you wake up.
5. Know when you work best
To realise maximise your productivity you need to know when you work best.
Everyone naturally has a time where they are the most productive. Maybe you’ve always known that you are an early bird or a night owl. If so, this task will be easier for you. However, if you are somewhere in-between, or not sure, then it requires you to do some work. Over the next few weeks, you should to plan your day in advance and put that into your calendar. Then you should make notes of when you struggled to complete a task on time, when you found it difficult to concentrate, when you found working super easy and when you could easily concentrate at the task at hand.
To really work out when you work best you’ll need to do this for a few weeks. It may be due to the variety of your work that sometimes working is easier or harder due to the task. However, after a number of weeks you’ll hopefully begin to see patterns emerge.
Once you know when you work best you should use this information to form how you plan your day. Schedule the tasks that require the most concentration and/or brainpower for when you are naturally the most productive. For the times where you are naturally less productive try to do no work, or if you still have to work focus on more menial tasks that require less brainpower.
6. Schedule your day to maximise batching
Batching is where you do the same task over and over again. This helps you to be more productive because it reduces content switching. Look over your schedule and check that you have put similar tasks together. An area that most people should batch is reading and responding to emails. If you aren’t careful emails will ruin your productivity. By setting aside specific times to read and write emails you can open your inbox, work your way through and then close again. This will mean you should then hopefully be able to focus on your other tasks without being distracted by ongoing email notifications.
7. Remember that food is fuel
To maximise your productivity it is key to not just look at the work you are doing but how you are treating your body. What you eat and drink plays a major role in how productivity you are. Make sure you schedule in the time to eat, but also if you need to make your meals also ensure you have set aside the time to make your meals too. So often people can be meticulous about planning their day to be as productive as possible, but then they haven’t thought about what they are eating. This results in them getting hungry and then being distracted by that. Don’t all of your hard work be undone.
There you have it! You now know how to schedule your day for maximum productivity.
I would love to know in the comments below what hours of the day you prefer to work.
