Lacking productivity is an awful feeling. Not only does it affect your work, but it affects your whole mood, too. Often, lack of productivity can happen through no fault of your own, and it might be affected directly by your environment or the way your work is arranged.
By understanding the signs of a lack of productivity and working to overcome them, you can get your motivation back.
Signs You Lack Productivity
- You can’t concentrate
- You’re easily distracted
- Your work quality is poor
- You feel stressed
- You feel bored
- You miss deadlines or struggle to reach them
Six Productivity Hacks
1. Reward Yourself
Give yourself a reason to finish tasks one by one, even if it’s a small reason. This could be “As soon as I’ve finished this piece of work, I’ll have a snack” or “Once I’ve finished this, I can take a breather for five minutes.” These small incentives will help you to focus, break up your tasks, and know what you’re aiming for.
2. Take Regular Breaks
You can’t hope to stay focused and productive if you’re working non-stop. Your mind needs time to recharge. Taking regular breaks is crucial for your mind and body health, and breaks should be spent away from your working area and used to engage in something non-work related, like playing online games with the best online casinos Canada, catching up with social media, or even just mindfully eating a snack.
3. Make a To-Do List
It’s easier to be productive with a checklist. This will help you to understand your workload and prioritize it better. Lack of motivation can often come from feeling overwhelmed, so making lists will help you to better break down your work. Not to mention that it’s satisfying to be able to check off your items once you have completed them!
4. Set Your Own Goals
Motivation can be increased when you’re working towards something. By setting your own goals, you can improve your work ethic. Your goals could be to complete tasks to a high standard in order to have a great track record for a promotion or to have a great reference for a new job you want to apply for.
5. Understand When You’re Most Productive
You might not be able to always control your working hours, but you can understand how to best use them to your full potential. Work out the time of the day you feel most productive – whether it’s first thing in the morning or immediately after lunch – so that you can then assign the most difficult or laborious tasks to this time.
If you’re doing the easiest tasks when you’re most productive, you might run into a brick wall with difficult ones when you have lost a little of your motivation.
6. Enjoy What You Do
Lack of productivity can mainly come from being bored with or disinterested in the job itself. If you don’t like your job, no productivity hack is going to work substantially. Instead, think about finding work you actually enjoy. With a job you love, you’re not going to have to work extra hard to want to do the work, as it will come more naturally to you and be more rewarding.