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Five tips for more productivity

On sunday, we celebrated International Productivity Day. For this reason, we want to share our five favorite tricks for more productivity with you today. No matter if in everyday life, while learning or at work — with these tips you are well prepared and can avoid any attack of procrastination.

1. Find your best time of day
   Even if the school system makes it seem otherwise: Not everyone is made for an early start into the day. And not everyone can handle 9 to 5, either. Try to observe at what times of the day you are most motivated and — if possible — schedule your to-dos at those times.
2. Take regular breaks
   No one can concentrate for eight hours straight. In fact, (almost) no one can concentrate for more than two hours at a time — this varies depending on age.
   That makes it all the more important to regularly plan small breaks in order to remain productive for as long as possible. Sometimes it’s enough to get a coffee or some fresh fruit, stretch a little or walk around the apartment/office. Often, however, a small dose of fresh air and a short walk or a bit of sport will do you good.
   Insider tip: Try the Pomodoro technique — work for 25 minutes, take a 5 minute break, and so on. Here’s a video to try it out.
3. Set yourself realistic goals
   Even if you want to, you can’t tear down the world in one day. Always remember: you can do anything, but not everything.
   That’s why it’s especially important to only take on as much as you can definitely accomplish in one day. If it ends up being more, you’ll be happy about it — and if not, you won’t be so frustrated. Make sure to always plan a time buffer in case something comes up. Maybe it would also help you to classify your to-dos according to priority and to add a category for optional tasks?
4. Distribute your tasks reasonable
   It makes a lot of sense to organize your tasks. You can do that, as just mentioned, by priority. But maybe a different order makes sense for you — by duration, subject area, urgency, or location? There are no limits to your creativity. It’s just important that you decide, otherwise you’ll quickly overburden yourself with infinite multitasking.
5. Treat yourself with small rewards
   As Pavlov’s dog proved: conditioning works. So why not condition yourself to be more productive?
   Set yourself some small rewards that you will receive after certain tasks. Besides, you’ll really have earned it!

With these tricks, the way is paved for your kick-start to more productivity. And now: get your stuff done!