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<\/div>2. Take advantage of natural breaks in your day.<\/h2>\n
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Taking more breaks will make you more productive.<\/p>\n
But what’s the best way to take breaks?<\/p>\n
Adding a new item to your mental to-do list, even if it’s something fun like “take a break,” still adds another thing you must consider.<\/p>\n
And anytime you need to make additional decisions, it will drain those cognitive resources that we’re so anxious to optimize.<\/p>\n
There are better ways to improve your focus and concentration<\/a>.<\/p>\n Take advantage of the breaks that naturally\u00a0present themselves. Like lunch.<\/p>\n Stop working through lunch!<\/p>\n You’ve got to eat. Lunch is an obvious stopping point in your day. So, take that time to recharge and socialize. Ditto for breakfast and dinner.<\/p>\n Do you have a dog? If you do, I’ll bet you prefer your dog to do his<\/em> business outside. If you work from home or bring your pooch to the office, schedule regular walks so you can both get some exercise, spend some time outdoors, and give your brain a rest.<\/p>\n Are you a work-from-home parent? Then stop and take a break when your kids get home from school, and your spouse gets home from work. It shows them that you care and also allows you to reconnect with the people that are important in your life.<\/p>\n Be creative in finding ways to incorporate meaningful break times into your day.<\/p>\n But make sure that your breaks work with<\/em> your schedule and not against it.<\/p>\n We are blessed to live in an age with a technology that allows us to work from nearly any location.<\/p>\n Laptops, tablets, smartphones, and even noise-canceling headphones are available.<\/p>\n Moving your office with you allows you to live while you work. Or, better yet, work while you live.<\/p>\n Amanda Abella, life coach and best-selling author of Make Money Your Honey<\/a>\u00a0argues<\/a>:<\/p>\n The ability to create location independence will greatly serve you on your path to creating work life integration. Being able to run an entire business from my laptop comes in handy when I want to take a random trip, need a change of scene or need to speak with clients on the other side of the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now, this tip can be a bit of a slippery slope. Taking your work on the go does NOT mean that you should always be actively working.<\/p>\n But it does give you the flexibility to live your life and still be productive.<\/p>\n Schedule that doctor’s appointment or haircut you’ve been putting off because you’re “too busy,” and then work from the coffee shop next door.<\/p>\n Meet your friends for lunch at their house and then piggyback on their wifi for your afternoon meeting.<\/p>\n The possibilities are endless when you think creatively about how to structure your time and location. You can stimulate both your social life and your productivity with simple scenery changes.<\/p>\n Setting healthy boundaries is essential to getting the most out of your life.<\/p>\n And, if your goal is to increase your productivity, one of the most valuable boundaries you can set is to minimize the negativity in your life.<\/em><\/p>\n Realistically, you can’t eliminate all negative things.<\/p>\n Life throws all sorts of challenges our way; all we can do is make the best of them.<\/p>\n But we can<\/em> make smart choices about the people we spend our time with.<\/p>\n And it’s in our best interest to eliminate the people who drag us down and distract us with unnecessary drama.<\/p>\n Allison Gabriel,\u00a0Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations\u00a0<\/span>at the University of Arizona,\u00a0 studies employee motivation. She shares<\/a> that humans have a “limited pool of cognitive resources.”<\/span><\/p>\n So, if we burn those resources focusing on hurt feelings, anger, resentment or frustration we will deplete our reserves much faster. And those are the same emotional and cognitive resources we use to be productive at work and engage with our friends and loved ones.<\/p>\n So, when choosing your colleagues, friends, and romantic partners, aim for people with high emotional intelligence<\/a> and low negativity.<\/p>\n The less time you spend dealing with drama, pain, and anger, the more time and cognitive resources you’ll have to accomplish your goals. And the happier your personal life will be.<\/p>\n Not to mention that when you’re surrounded by a support network<\/a> of positive people who lift you up, your emotional resilience is improved. And as a result, your cognitive resources will replenish that much faster.<\/p>\n Flow is a state of mind commonly linked with higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction.<\/p>\n Therese J. Borchard, author, and mental health advocate explains<\/a>:<\/p>\n Flow is the mental state of a person when he is completely immersed in one activity or event \u2014 a moment in which all of her energy is focused on one thing so that she is oblivious to the world around her.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n One of the hallmarks of flow is to be so deeply immersed in the task at hand that everything else just seems to fall away – which sounds like a pretty productive state of mind!<\/p>\n And, while you’re not aware of being happy in the moment of flow, people who experience it tend to derive great satisfaction and increased happiness after they’ve resurfaced.<\/p>\n But, there is no magic switch you can flip to activate a state of flow – it has to be found authentically. And, that’s where finding flow can get tricky.<\/p>\n Psychology professor\u00a0Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first identified the concept of flow<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to\u00a0Csikszentmihalyi’s research, you can attain a state of flow when the challenge of the task is a strong match for your skill level.<\/p>\n In other words, if the chore is too easy – no flow.<\/p>\n If the project is way too hard – no flow, either.<\/p>\n Instead, you have to find that Goldilocks space – a slightly more challenging task than your skill level.<\/p>\n So, seek opportunities that will allow you to tackle undertakings just outside your comfort zone.<\/p>\n And find other ways to solve problems far outside your comfort zone.<\/p>\n For example, entrepreneurs and small businesses often need help with branding and design. After all, good design is good business<\/a>.<\/p>\n Very few entrepreneurs and small business owners can create professional designs for their own companies. They’re typically too busy running their businesses and solving dozens of other problems.<\/p>\n Consider getting outside help with branding and design if you don’t have experts on your own team.<\/p>\n Over the past decade, crowdspring has helped tens of thousands of the world\u2019s best entrepreneurs, small businesses, agencies, and non-profits with everything from professional\u00a0logo design<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0product design<\/a>,\u00a0packaging design<\/a>, and even\u00a0naming businesses and products<\/a>. You can get a finished design in as little as one day. Custom design and naming projects on crowdspring start at $299 (including all fees) and there\u2019s a 100% money-back guarantee.<\/p>\n Outsourcing problems far outside your comfort zone to others on your team or to companies like crowdspring, will help you create flow and substantially improve your productivity at work.<\/p>\n When you outsource problems far outside your comfort zone and aim just beyond your current level of expertise at work, you’ll steadily grow your own skills and become more productive.<\/p>\n Importantly, those feel-good flow vibes will lift you up at work and home.<\/p>\n You can also find flow doing fun activities like exercising, painting, ballroom dancing or sewing. Any task that consumes your attention and challenges your mind.<\/p>\n Seek out new activities to find flow, and your life expands in unexpected and rewarding directions.<\/p>\n If you’re serious about optimizing your personal life and productivity at work, you will have to make it a priority.<\/p>\n3. Unchain from your desk.<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n4. Eliminate the negative.<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n5. Seek opportunities for “flow”.<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nBefore You Go<\/h2>\n
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