Few people go through their day completely how they originally envisioned it.
It is surprisingly rare for you to leave the office or your workspace after completing all the tasks you initially wanted to do. Although intention and structure are essential to getting things done, the best-drafted plans can still go wrong.
To take full control of our productivity, we must first take charge of ourselves - our work environment, our focus and the way we work. It means recognizing the ways by which we limit our own performance and then making effective changes to counter it.
Productivity = deep work
Of all productivity models, deep work is possibly one of the simplest and most useful. Simply put, it recognizes that we are doing our best work in a state of deep, uninterrupted concentration. This focus must be maintained - you cannot keep a day alternating with meetings and tasks and then expect to deliver in-depth work.
Deep work is diametrically opposed to “superficial work”: the small, low-value tasks that keep us busy without requiring much cognitive effort - and don't really get us much further.
Email, chat messages, administration, meetings - these superficial tasks span our days far too often, encouraging the habit of regularly switching contexts, making focus and presence on one task impossible.
Whenever we think about how our actions affect our productivity, it is helpful to use the deep work model: assess whether we are creating the conditions for long-term deep work or whether we are promoting unproductive superficial work.
How to sabotage your productivity
We now mention 8 examples in which you lower your productivity and will not get around to doing “deep work”.
Opening yourself up to distraction
The (digital) workplace is full of distractions - from e-mail push notifications and chat messages to adjustments made by colleagues in a collaboration document.
Apart from that, your workplace itself can also work against you, with noise, colleagues and movement hindering your ability to concentrate. In addition to actually learning to manage notification settings for your apps and devices, it's important to first create the optimal work environment for in-depth work.
This can be as simple as finding accompanying music for more concentration, activating your phone and online status in "Do Not Disturb" to get into a flow state, right through to moving to a quieter room in the office or from home.
Unstructured work
In addition to being distracting, a cluttered workspace can even cause anxiety that affects our cognitive behavior and decision-making. But structure also extends to the mental environment, so mapping out breaks, deep work periods, and regular email replies can help you stay on track. Time blocking is a great approach here, as it protects and frees up space for specific tasks. It's about using your time purposefully, with a simple, actionable structure that you can follow.
Unconscious procrastination
Obviously, we are also very good at distracting ourselves; putting off a mountain of work to surf the web or watch social media. Ultimately, procrastination is a symptom of bigger problems - whether you're feeling completely overwhelmed, having to take a break or change tasks, or just really not doing your job. By addressing the root cause of your procrastination, you can overcome potentially very unpleasant long-term problems.
Underestimate the time you need for tasks
If you agree to projects you don't have time for or don't see the 'bigger picture', then you will be overwhelmed and your attention darting in all directions without really spending your time focusing on one thing in particular.
Be realistic about how long tasks and new requests will take you, and make sure you work this into a solid plan. A project management tool (we are fans of ClickUp!) or task tracking is indispensable for this, where you can indicate exactly how much time you will need for the different tasks, so that you can plan ahead better.
Too much to do
Drowning at work is bad for our mental health and also prevents us from functioning optimally. A huge backlog can put us under stress because we worry about the number of tasks that remain to be done, rather than concentrating fully on the task at hand.
The work we accomplish when we are concerned about all of our work is often full of mistakes and very uninspired - which in turn can greatly diminish our passion and pride for our work.
Not enough to do
Sounds contradictory, of course, but think about it. If you had a quiet moment at work, did you immediately focus on finishing your short to-do list? Or did you spend time on unproductive things because the urgency was lower?
According to Parkinson's Law, the work expands according to the time allotted to it - so make sure not to unnecessarily blow up simple tasks when you are calm.
Then get started with useful work - even if it's writing down a to-do list that you normally never get around to. Cleaning up and organizing your inbox, actually updating your Linkedin or doing the preliminary research into an article to be written or a task to be performed. In short, find great ways to stay productive when you're less busy.
Confuse busyness with work
Too many of us rush through our days without pausing for two minutes, believing that we get a lot done with it. We jump from a meeting to a phone call, stuff ourselves into 30 minutes of completing tasks, or responding to emails, before moving on to another scheduled commitment.
It is a hectic, reactive way of working that is usually unaware of the true value it produces. It is ad hoc work - without direction, often not rewarding and actually extinguishing fires from one place to another and unproductively.
Don't take breaks
Despite some odd taboos around a break - whether that's your full lunch break or actually spending your vacation time - no one is more than a little off.
Having to be on standby and “on” all the time is cognitively very intensive for our brains, so to maximize our mental processes, we have to build up time where they have nothing to do and have nothing to focus on at all.
Breaks don't have to be huge to make a difference - just 5 or 15 minutes, for example, by working with the Pomodoro technique, may be enough.
That rest and break you take should be of quality - so not filled with all kinds of passive digital interaction, checking your social media or getting rid of personal tasks. Really make sure that you do something different so that you and your brain relax a bit so that you will be a lot more productive and creative after the break!
Finally about your productivity
It takes time to manage your time properly and be really productive. Always remind yourself what to do for the rest of the day. Don't forget to relax if you have to. There is no pressure to get things done quickly. Be productive, but also be satisfied!
Sources include AdHomeStead (link), FastCompany (link), Memory (link), TheBossMagazine (link)
