Staying on task, despite interruptions, is tough to do. Your productivity formula will allow you to handle those pesky interruptions as they arise, while staying on track with your target project. This will result in higher productivity and performance. Here are some self help tips to customize your productivity formula.
You must have a clear plan. Are you daily tasks leading you somewhere, or are they simply getting you by? Take some time to review your long term projects and goals. Your daily task lists should be the product of those bigger projects being broken down. If your daily tasks are not leading you toward your bigger picture, start over. Make every task count.
Prioritize. Once you have your short range and long range tasks lined up, prioritize what needs to be done during the day. We tend to think of everything as important, otherwise it wouldn’t be on the list, but some need to be done earlier and some can simply be deferred to the next day if necessary.
Schedule breaks to recharge. Walk around for a few minutes. Stretch. Play a quick game of spyder. Your body and your brain will feel better and work so much better that you will make up for the lost work time, even exceed it.
Do not work through lunch. It does not make you look more dedicated than everyone and your mind and body will produce less without nutrition. That should be a no brainer, but continually people neglect their bodies for an extra 30 or 60 minutes of work. This is a hard one to break because people expect it of you. Or maybe your boss does not appreciate the importance of fueling and recharging your body. Do it anyway. Everyone will be impressed when they start seeing the resulting increase in productivity.
Track progress and recognize your own achievements, no matter how small. You will be motivated to continue and achieve more success.
Deal with as many of the unexpected interruptions that you can, as they come. They usually just take a minute from what you are doing, but will turn into hours of daunting work if neglected.
Regardless of whom you are or what you are trying to accomplish, you have to do work to get there. That work is called productivity and with a positive attitude and your productivity formula, you will succeed.