How to Be More Productive – Tips for Daily Life and Goal-Setting
Daily Habits for Increased Productivity
Three important steps for increasing productivity in your daily life and keeping you aligned with your goals!
How to Increase Energy Levels & Sustain Them Throughout the Day
We’ve all experienced it: that moment when we go from productive and intelligent to tired and sluggish.
Our energy levels will naturally ebb and flow. But there are choices you can make so that you’re spending more time energized and less time wishing you were taking a nap.
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Here are some ways you can sustain energy throughout the day:
Think about how you fuel
Ironically, many of the things we eat to stay awake can actually make us more tired.
It’s well known that a quick sugar fix can provide you with a boost of energy, but the crash that follows isn’t worth the risk if you’re trying to be more productive.
The same is unfortunately true for caffeine. While a cup of coffee can give you a mental and physical boost, it can also make you more tired once you’re body metabolizes all the caffeine. Of course, you can counter this effect by drinking more caffeine, but increasing your intake can throw off your sleep pattern, ultimately making you more tired. And that doesn’t even include the other inconvenient side effects, like anxiety and health risks.
Instead, try to choose healthy snacks that will fuel your body and give you sustained energy throughout the day. Sugar is necessary for the body to function properly. You should not unhealthily restrict sugar, but it is recommended to cut back on processed foods containing high amounts of added sugar.
Sleep
One of the most important ways to keep your energy levels up is to get enough sleep. Allowing your body enough time to rest and recover from the day before will help you to stay focused be less exhausted for the day ahead.
If you are struggling to fall asleep early enough for a good night’s rest, here are some tips:
- Limit screen time and lower screen brightness: Set a cut-off limit for turning your phone off or placing it screen-side down on your nightstand. Choose to read a book instead or spend time journaling.
- Give yourself grace for creating a new routine: You might need two weeks or even more time before your body is naturally used to sleeping at a certain time. In the meantime, don’t stress about the process or a few late nights in-between.
- Exercise and limit caffeine and sugar throughout the day: This tip is repeated just to emphasize how big of an impact it can have on your daily routine. Consuming too much caffeine or sugar in the daytime can lead to difficulty falling and staying sleeping as well as racing thoughts throughout the night. Exercising or incorporating intentional movements can help you burn some of that excess energy that would otherwise keep you awake. But the best choice is to simply control how much added sugar and caffeine you consume.
Exercise
The benefits of exercise for your body and overall well-being are widely known. But did you know that moving your body intentionally plays an important part in regulating your energy levels?
Exercising can give you a natural energy boost and help you focus better. This type of energy can help you keep going all day without a crash afterwards.
If you feel intimidated to incorporate exercise as a regular habit, it’s good to know that even something as accessible as yoga or daily stretching can produce noticeable improvements in energy levels and mental clarity.
How to Stay Organized and Be More Intentional
Mindfulness
When you are feeling overwhelmed, this can affect your stress levels and make you feel more tired. One way to combat this is to practice mindfulness.
Some ways to practice mindfulness include: journaling, devotional, meditation, etc.
These activities can help you process anything that is weighing on your mind and make you feel more grounded, giving you that sense of control you’re seeking to calm the stress.
Planning
Planning is a way to be more intentional. Intentional living put simply means that you are living life in a meaningful way.
With respect to being productive and planning, it means that you will not compromise on your principles, and you try to live in a way that honors those principles, hardly ever doing anything outside of them.
Once you are clear on your principles – these can often be defined through your core values) – you can begin to set meaningful goals and plan accordingly.
This is an important step towards living a more fulfilling life.
Set Intentional Goals
Life goals and values
As stated above, discovering and defining your personal values can help you map out a life that is more fulfilling and sustainable for you personally.
There are many resources that can guide you on this process. Some that I recommend are listed below:
Resources for Defining Core Values:
How to Map Out Your Core Values – Notes by Thalia
Deciding Values – Robert Glazer
Domain goals
Domain goals are the goals you set for the different areas of your life from career, to family and relationships, to health. They are clear goals that state the change you would like to see in one area, the steps needed to achieve it, and the timeline for when you want to see it completed.
To create effective domain goals, start at a higher level. High-level goals are a starting point and frame of reference for any other goals in your life, including domain goals. Your core values can help you create these high-level goals that correspond with the principles that you decide to live your life by.
Domain goal examples:
Well-being: You can set a goal to be more consistent with morning meditations. Challenge yourself to meditate after waking up in the morning for at least 5 minutes three times a week. Do this for three months and track how consistent you are.
Career: You can create a plan to expand your portfolio by taking on more projects, networking, and earning certifications or taking job-specific courses. Examples of specific steps for this goal could be: signing up for 3 networking events/conferences, setting aside 15 minutes a day for three days of the week to interact and self-promote on LinkedIn, and completing 1 job-related certification all in year’s time. Set up a checklist to track what you are able to achieve in the 365 days
Quarterly goals
Quarterly goals are goals and reviews that you set every three months (inspired by fiscal quarters). It is just an extra step to take when goal-setting that ensures you are on the right track toward your life goals.
For a deeper explanation of quarterly goals and how to set them, check out this resource:
How to Complete a Quarterly Life Review – Life Goals Mag
Tips to Increase Personal Productivity
Intentional living and mindfulness can play a big part in overall health and wellbeing and act as the starting point for your productivity journey. Try adding one of these habits to your routine today. Even a small start is progress towards improving your life.
