Blog Post #9: The Psychology Behind Productivity
Have you ever woken up one morning and thought, “I’m going to be so productive today!”, but then you still end up wasting time and letting the day go by? This is probably because you’re not providing yourself with a clear plan, which is the number one cause for wasting time according to Brian Tracy, an expert on time management, productivity, and goal setting. According to a HighGear article titled, “The Psychology of Productivity”, “[c]ertain personality traits like conscientiousness and planfulness…are theorized to be strong predictors of productivity”.
Furthermore, Brian Tracy, who is an expert on time management, productivity and goal setting with experience of over 30 years, curates his own 10 rules of productivity:
The “one-touch rule”
Write it down
Small goals
Plan ahead
Avoid over-commitment
Eliminate multi-tasking
Complete the hardest tasks first
Determine when you are most productive
Limit distractions
Set time limits
Personally, one of the most interesting rules from this list is the “one-touch rule”, which means that you should only handle a task once. Once you start it, you have to finish it from start to end, rather than coming back to it at a later time. Determining when you are most productive is also crucial, as different people are most productive at different times of day. Sometimes, staying up late at night and doing work all night long might not be the most efficient way for you to finish your tasks. Finally, setting time limits is really important, as this will allow you to increase your mental awareness of how much time you have to finish a certain task.
Planning out your time is probably the most effective way that you will boost your productivity. Timeboxing is a well-researched technique and used by successful individuals like Elon Musk and Bill Gates. This method sounds simple, but many fail to use it to its full potential, and give up before they actually try it. Timeboxing is a method where you block out certain amounts of time based on your values and your schedule each day. These blocks are dedicated to certain tasks with a specific start and end time. If you don’t plan out your day, someone else will plan it for you, and you will end up molding your day to fit others’ schedules. Notably, to-do lists are much less productive than timeboxing because they don’t allocate dedicated time to completing each task. Instead, they’re just a long list that might make you feel even more overwhelmed. Timeboxing combats perfectionism and reduces procrastination, as it forces you to get something started and finished within a certain time frame.
Parkinson's law is a great example of how we can boost productivity. This law states that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” For example, if you allocate 2 hours to do something, it will likely take that long. Or, if you dedicate a week to do something, it will likely take a week, even if in reality the task isn’t that difficult and doesn’t need to take that long. This is why timeboxing is so effective: Setting the right amount of time to complete tasks can dramatically increase how much you get done each day.
The next time you’re getting ready for bed, take a few minutes to think about the tasks you want to complete the next day, and create a schedule for yourself that includes start and end times so that you can become the most productive version of yourself!
