How I Boost My Productivity
Each person tries to do as many as possible tasks during the day but certain things distract them easily. The main source of interruption for me are pages such as LinkedIn, YouTube, and Gmail but for many people, they are the sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, and so on. In this article, I will introduce you to 4 methods, which help me to be as productive as possible and to manage to do everything that I had a plan and even more.
- I have to have a plan
For me, the most important thing is to have a plan. I always plan all the activities for the next week, the week before. It means I plan all my tasks and responsibilities each Sunday for the whole next week. Of course, during the week some unpredictable activities and tasks happen, which I have to add to my plan, but it does not mean that I would not do a planned activity or postpone it to the next day. I won’t lie, it sometimes happens but rarely. On most days I try to do some extra activity in advance. I use a paper planner to plan my tasks. I know I am a bit old school, but I prefer to use a paper planner instead of using mobile or computer applications. I try to have my mobile phone out of my eyes as much as possible because it is an extreme time killer. As you can see in the picture 1, I have made a schedule for the next week. This week I am preparing for the AWS Developer exam and I also focus on improving my skills in technologies such as Terraform and Jenkins. Of course, as a DevOps engineer, I have my job and with this plan, I can successfully achieve each of my scheduled tasks.
- All unwanted pages must be block
As I work, I see many alerts which come as notification to my browser. Since, after the focus I have planned 5 minutes breaks, I try to minimize some factors, which could cause that after that 5 minutes I will not be ready and will not start working. That is why I do not start Spotify or do not read the news. Most of the time I am working on my computer, therefore, I installed a great application on my browser. The application name is BlockSite — Stay Focused & Control Your Time. The extension works as a blocker of pages that can distract you from the work. The principle of the application is quite simple. You can add the URL address of unwilling pages to the list. Of course, you can set the start time and finish time when the extension checks the unwilling pages when you try to visit it and the days when you want to block the pages and in these intervals the blocker blocks them. I set my scheduler from 8 AM to 4 PM for each day. If I visit the page, which I added to my block list, so the browser shows me the page which is shown in the picture 2. Even though I have seen the picture already 1000 times the grandma always makes me smile.
- I need to have time to focus and to rest
Even though many people said to me that I work like a robot my brain indeed needs time to focus and to rest. Even if I worked without any application for a long time, which could tell me when I should start and when should I rest, I tried a change. I installed the application Focus To-Do. The application is quite simple to use with a user-friendly UI. At first, I used the application on my mac but after a short time, I installed the application into my iPhone. I usually write down the assignments on which I will work in the application. I usually write it on Sunday together with my weekly plan. The following day when I get up, I just turn the application on, choose the first task and my first 25 minutes run away. After the limit of 25 minutes, I hear an alarm that signals my 5 minutes of rest. Since I do not use a premium account some features are limited but for my purpose, it is enough, and I’m used to it.
- Everything must be ready before the focus time
At this point, I saw a little problem at first, and so I often broke this rule. In the morning I have to prepare everything that I need before my focus time and what could force me to get up from my chair and do not accomplish my 25 minutes plan of focus. Therefore, I eat right after I get up, prepare a green tea, slice an apple, prepare my protein shake, clean water, and some chocolate so as not to leave my chair. Of course, only in my pause time. In many cases, after the first round of focus time is over, I get up from the chair, walk around the room and open the window to get some fresh air. When I hear the signal, which signifies the end of the break, I close the window, sit down and I am ready to start again.
I work this way for the first four hours of my day. I get up quite early around 6 AM and work this way up to 10 AM. Subsequently, I have one hour for dinner and for lying in my bed. After that hour it is 11 AM and I start my second 4 hours. My working time is finished at 3 PM and after that, I do my hobbies or another scheduled activity. My scheduler works perfectly fine and effectively, but I won’t lie the Sunday is really painful and physically demanding. After a whole week of work and different kinds of activities, it is really hard for me to get up and leave my bed. I have less work and I do not have many scheduled tasks based on my scheduler so in many cases I do most of them in the afternoon and this is how I work max for 4 hours.
