For every productive day we power through, there are dozens plagued with unnecessary meetings and hours lost to scrolling through timelines. VA Bootcamp鈥檚 Jason Dulay shares three tips for breaking the cycle and supercharging your productivity.
1. Plan out your days.
Most of our hours spiral into 鈥渂usywork鈥, or work that keeps you busy but has little actual value. This could be 鈥渞esearch鈥 that鈥檚 really just pointless web-surfing, or an innocent chat message that morphs into a two-hour feed scroll fest.
The solution to eliminating busywork? Planning.听
鈥淸It鈥檚] seemingly so simple, but planning makes the difference between pointless days and intentional days, where you work with purpose,鈥 said Dulay.
Before you start doing anything, take ten minutes to list down and organize your tasks. From this list, aim to accomplish at least one major task. And make sure to use a tool that suits you, whether it鈥檚 a classic bullet journal or one of the countless productivity apps on the market.
2. Maximize your ultimates and cooldowns.
If you鈥檙e a gamer, you might be familiar with 鈥渦ltimates鈥 and 鈥渃ooldowns鈥. The former is a skill or time period of max power, while the latter is a recovery period before the player can use their ultimate again.
We, too, have our ultimates and cooldowns for work– it鈥檚 just a matter of determining proper mechanics. Some people, for example, have sworn by the , which breaks down the workday into multiple 25-minute work and 5-minute rest periods.听
Do note, however, that different things can work for different people. Experiment with several time increments to see which ones you鈥檙e most comfortable with.听
鈥淔ind the right balance so that you can use your ultimate powers more often in the day,鈥 said Dulay.
3. Use your power-ups.
At some point during the day, you may start feeling the tell-tale signs of burnout. This is a good time to enjoy a 鈥減ower-up鈥, an item or activity that makes you feel happy and energized.
By rewarding yourself with power-ups, you can do a lot for your .听
The trick now is to identify what uniquely gives you a boost–whether it鈥檚 listening to music, a little exercise, or something as mundane as organizing your desk–so that you can truly feel recharged and ready to take on the rest of the day.
If you鈥檙e a gamer, you might be familiar with 鈥渦ltimates鈥 and 鈥渃ooldowns鈥. The former is a skill or time period of max power, while the latter is a recovery period before the player can use their ultimate again.
We, too, have our ultimates and cooldowns for work– it鈥檚 just a matter of determining proper mechanics. Some people, for example, have sworn by the , which breaks down the workday into multiple 25-minute work and 5-minute rest periods.听
Do note, however, that different things can work for different people. Experiment with several time increments to see which ones you鈥檙e most comfortable with.听
鈥淔ind the right balance so that you can use your ultimate powers more often in the day,鈥 said Dulay.
