If you constantly feel you are short of time to get things done, you might want to look into how to improve your productivity. Having routine can drastically improve your outputs and set you free from constantly growing list of to-dos.

Have you felt that there are always works to do but you simply don’t have the time to finish them all? As times goes by, you are under the pressure of growing amount of works every day. Just like walking on a descending escalator, if you don’t walk fast enough, you will get get to the end, and it is exhausting.

Some people will suffer from burnout if the situation persists. According to WHO’s 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases, employee burnout has been officially recognised as an occupational phenomenon. The cases have been increasing all over the world.

In a survey report carried out by Gallup, 76% of employees experience burnout on the job at least sometimes, and 28% say they are burned out “very often” or “always” at work. The consequences of burn out is damaging to oneself physically and mentally, such as excessive stress fatigue, insomnia, sadness or anger.

Routine Equals Productivity

To reduce stress, we can either reduce workload, or be more productive. One method I have experimented in the past weeks and also learned from others, is to have a routine. A routine is more than get up, go to work, come home and sleep. A routine is about how to handle your work, such as when you check your emails, when to check your phones, and how long you spend on each task. The goal is to use routine to help you spend less time on nonproductive things and use the time on productive things. Few biggest ‘time eaters’ are emails, mobile phones, and social media. A study posted on <New York Post> has shown that, Americans check their phones once every 12 minutes, 80 times a day. An average person spends over four hours a day on their device. When you are reading this, you can make an audit, write down how many times you check your phone and how many hours you spend on it for non productive things, such as social media, or unnecessarily checking emails and messages. The result will shock you. Bad routines equals low productivity, good routines equals productive. Here are three simple tips for you to increase your productivity:

1. Set your private phone to mute during your working (productive) hours. If you have a missed call, call them back later. 99.9% of the calls or not life or death urgent. Set a hard time limit for you to check your phone during the day. For example, 4pm-4:30pm return missed calls, reply messages, 6pm-6:40pm to check personal emails, 8pm-8:30pm to check social media, 8:30pm – 9pm browse news and so on. Make a routine and stick to it.

2. Check your work emails maximal three times a day. Study has shown that average personal checks email 15 times a day and this adds stress. The more often you check your emails, the less productive you are. Frequently checking emails interrupts our work on certain task, our brain needs some time to enter the full working mode, and each time when you interrupt it, you need to restart again and this phase is not productive. You will be amazed how much you can do within 2 hours without interruption. Try the Pomodoro Technique and see how much you can achieve in ‘4 tomato time’, without checking your phone or emails.

3. Make a to-do list for the day with time frames. This is a personal experience. I used to make a to-do list for the day, I managed to cross out many of them. But I don’t finish many tasks, only several. Once I tried to put a time frame to it, I was performing much more productive because there was time pressure. For me, I know that I am more productive with some pressure. This method helps me to understand how much time different types of tasks require, and when are my productive hours. During my low productive hours, e.g 4–5 pm, I move slower, my brain is a bit exhausted from the whole day’s work, then I go to the gym. After workout and dinner, I can work a bit more to finish the day. Having a to-do list with time frames helps me to finish more tasks in a day than without timeframes. And It also helps me to understand my personal rhythms and allocate the time more effectively. You definitely should try that.

Just with those three changes in my routine, I have produced more results than before. As a consequence, I have more free time.

Discipline Equals Freedom

This section title is inspired by the book <Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual> written by Jocko Willink, who was a Navy SEAL for 20 years and rose through the ranks to become the commander of Task Unit Bruiser — the most decorated Special Operations Unit of the Iraq War. He used what he learned in Navy Seal and transferred the knowledge and tools through his book, to help people stay disciplined. If you are very disciplined and stay on the course, you will have much more freedom. By checking your phone at a certain time, check your emails less than three times a day, focused on the tasks within the given time frame, the rest is free time.

You will not carry the thoughts of unfinished work with you when you have dinner, when you spend time with your family, or when you are about to sleep because you are in control of your time.

How To Make A Change

A lot of us need the persuasion and constant inspiration from others who have done it, but the one and only change you need to make, is to take ACTION. Start from NOW, not tomorrow, but NOW, and see how this method helps you to be more productive and free.