7 Mental Habits to Boost Your Productivity in 2023!!!

Call them Actions, Behaviors, or Habits, all of them state only one thing: "Behaviors that are rewarded immediately are repeated, but behaviors that are punished are avoided". Our Good Mental Habits or Negative Mental Habits only offer results if repeated and looped into automation. 

LET ME BE PRODUCTIVE TODAY

7 Mental Habits to Boost Your Productivity in 2023!!!

Productivity Habits are the ones that make us creative every day, give us a purpose, and make us feel worthy. But they are only formed if repeated until they become automatic and eventually become sustainable too. Productivity Habits are nothing but phony motivation if they are not sustainable. And that's what we need, yes? Sustainable Productivity! 

But which are those Habits that give Sustainable Productivity? Also, they should reward immediately and have all the merits for them to be repeatable so that we don't give up on them.

Also Note that for a Habit to be repeatable, it should be obvious, attractive, easy, satisfying, and immediately rewarding. In this Blog, We will discuss such 7 Habits that if looped into automation can not only boost our Productivity but also opens the door to success. 

Here is the list of Mental Habits to stick to.

#1: Start Your Day Early

To be productive what we need first is "Time". Waking up early gives that privilege, a few extra hours in the morning offers a chance to organize the whole day. BK Shivani, a practitioner and a teacher of Rajyoga Meditation teaches us to wake up as early as 04:00 am in the morning. She adds, that these are the hours when we have the strongest AURA, the food to our productivity. 

WAKE UP NOW... IT'S THE TIME

But what do we get in return? 

No hustling but peaceful unfurling. In simpler terms, More time for almost everything. More time to exercise. More time to prepare ourselves mentally to give our 100%. More time to eat healthy. More time to schedule everything so last-hour regrets can be avoided, and even time to meditate! More time to complete your pending work and so to avoid Monday Blues. In fact, less traffic, more productivity! 

But how to implement it? 

By offering immediate rewards: Try anything such as, "Getting a cup of coffee as soon as you wake up, asking someone in the family to admire you, or giving yourself a smile of pride". This increases the possibility that this behavior will be sufficiently repeated and we will stick to this habit. 

Well, but how early should we wake up? 

After 04:00 am and as early as better!

👉Tips: 

• Set up the alarm at least 15 minutes prior to wake-up time. 
• Set the snooze button every minute than every five minutes.
• Schedule the weekly alarm than setting them daily. 
• Set an uplifting alarm tone that could match your mood.
• Don't miss the habit twice

#2: Reprogram your smartphone usage

The biggest enemy/ friend of productivity in the present time is one that we keep in our pockets all day long. Our Smartphones. Yes, these devices are the epitomes of distractions and thieves of our focus. But at the same time, they could prove excellent machines in setting order in our lives and multiplying our productivity.

OOPS! I AM NOTIFIED!

We are negatively habituated to holding our smartphones as if our empty hands were missing out on something, yet we take them, unlock them, and erratically shuffle from one application to another, with no motive whatsoever to help our productivity. 

Bottom-line here is: "Hold them only when want to use them productively. A call, prompted by a reminder, or taking a picture". 

Not every other time our phone chimed must force us to defocus ourselves. Chiming is its duty but how to respond to it is our wisdom. Research says it cost up to 40% productivity loss and 23 minutes to realign our mind with work if we respond (Only even mentally, not seeing it physically though) to notifications while working. 

Ok, but how to reprogram the usage?

• Set the phone on schedule summary (Go through once in the morning and once in the evening) and turn off all instant notifications. 
• Do anything but put the phone out of your direct sight (At home, do not have it until you step out. In transit, have a Bluetooth connection and keep the phone in an office bag than in the pockets. In the Office, keep it in your drawer. Again at home, keep it at a distance). 
• Use brilliant features offered by Smartphones like DND (Do not disturb mode), Focus mode, Work mode, reminders, preferences, shortcuts, app timers, bedtime mode, and a lot more to boost productivity. 

And how to make it rewarding/ Satisfying?

Track your habit and Generate a daily report of your smartphone usage and share it with someone who backs you up or motivates you.

👉Tips: 

• Cram your phone with productivity applications and cut down on social media, or simply delete them. Prioritize only specific people to respond back immediately. 
• Don't miss the habit twice 

#3: Deploy the Pareto Principle

This is also called the 80/20 rule (Pick 20% of the most important of your work and cut down on 80% of unnecessary). This reduces the errors of multi-tasking, which is scientifically unadvisable and unproductive. 

The 80/20 rule says 20% effort and 80% result, but we reverse it often by trying to complete 80% of tasks and get only 20% results.

IT'S THE RULE OF 80/20 

Keep in mind: "One task at a Time" 

Fine, but how to use Pareto principle?

Every night keep a diary in sight to note down the To-Do-List for tomorrow. Mention as many tasks on hand as you need to accomplish tomorrow. Now every next morning,  pick one, of the most important tasks and apply the 80/20 rule, and the tasks which still remained, add them again in the next day's To-Do-List, and so on and so on.

This habit offers a head start and makes it easier to perform the most important tasks. 

Possibly, we might end up with a plethora of tasks, but the ones we indeed needed to accomplish would have been done already!

How to make it rewarding?

Check on your anxiety level by looking into your diary every night and see if work is done or not? If a smile comes up, it's your reward. Or, you can have a little chocolate or a cookie as your reward.    

👉Tips: 

• Say no to another task unless the present one is fully accomplished 
• Keep a pocket-sized diary so we don't forget it while we go out
• Don't use notes on smartphones but keep a physical diary

#4: Say "NO" to Procrastination

Procrastination, I would say is more devious than the over-usage of smartphones. It habituates us so brilliantly that we never know how much productivity we are wasting just by delaying important things. 

DO IT NOW, WILL YOU?

We all procrastinate, don't we? But we don't procrastinate on things that reward us immediately. Did we procrastinate watching TV? No. Did we procrastinate scrolling social media? No. Did we procrastinate dining out? No.

We only procrastinate on things that give us delayed satisfaction/gratification, and for which the human brain is programmed so. We delay things because they are not gratifying! 

So how to make a habit of doing things instantly? 

Well, this is tricky, but without rewarding ourselves instantly/ or penalizing ourselves in case we don't follow the habit, it is hard to say NO to procrastination.

So, next time when you procrastinate on important things, do follow these tips.

👉Tips: 

• Use reverse psychology: No matter what you feel, do the thing anyhow you are procrastinating and inform your accountability partner of your success. 
• Reward immediately to yourself as soon as you complete a task - Decide that you will watch a movie if you don't procrastinate, or set anything that satisfies you (Food, 15 minutes of social media, or chatting with a friend). In short, give yourself a prize. 
• Penalize yourself if you still procrastinated- Donate some of your hard-earned money, or keep a fast, or ask your loved one not to talk to you for a week! You can set any measure that could scare you for not doing work that is important.
• don't miss the habit twice

Like Habit #1, this too, adds visible hours to our productivity.

One beautiful quote on procrastination by Dale Carnegie is “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”  

#5: Be an immaculate freak

From you opening your eyes in the morning to you closing them at night, everything in front and around must be orderly put, systematically arranged, and neatly designed. No matter where you are, how much busy you are, or what you are doing, the vibrations of your surrounding is your responsibility.

AH! SUCH A CLEAN PLACE TO WORK

The habit of keeping everything organized gives you a sense of control, prevents your time from finding things, pushes your workability, and makes you feel good and fresh.

The best part of arranging things and keeping them neat and tidy is when you return to the same environment, it brings a smile to your face and offers more productivity.

In short, nobody likes to sit in the garbage and be productive!

How to be an immaculate freak?

• Cultivate a habit to make your bed first thing in the morning
• Declutter your room at night or workplace when you leave
• Do the perioding sorting of the things (Put things where actually they belong). There is a place for everything! Yes?
• There is no shame in using a mop if required, but do it voluntarily at home at least

“Out of sight, out of Mind”- What this tries to convey is, to keep only those things on your desk that you will tend to prioritize, everything else is garbage for that time.

#6: Pause, Breath, Walk

Estimates say the maximum, undisturbed attention span for any office worker ranges from 45 minutes to 90 minutes, after that he/she requires a break. A constant engagement in work without pause drastically reduces productivity.

I NEED A BREAK

The best way to work on this is to use your smartphone reminder functions or wear a smartwatch that could prompt you to pause, drink water, and sends an idle alert.

Some spiritual influencers also advise to take a break every hour, do deep breathing exercises for 5 minutes, and have Auto-affirmation (Whispering to yourselves about your worth).

Implementation?

Set a reminder for every two hours, pause from work, drink half a glass of water, get off your chair, and walk a minimum of 250 steps.

This will refresh you like a new, and if possible do Auto-affirmation as well.

Or, using a more scientific approach, you can use the Pomodoro technique - Spending 25 minutes focusing on a task and then taking 5 minutes off. 

👉Tips: 

• Wear a smartwatch regularly which can send you regular prompt alerts. 
• Perform the habit for at least six days a week, even if you are at home.

#7: Manage Your Time Wisely

The only aspect that can tell how you manage your work is by knowing how you manage your time. If you have poor time management skills, you certainly going to end up with poor productivity.

SEE, I CAN MANAGE MY TIME!

Here, managing time applies not only when you are in the office, but a generalized insight plays a big role in shaping one's productivity.

But How?

Fix a time for everything- as if when you should do this? Be it using social media, working out, meditating, reading a book, chatting with friends, working from home, or even spending the weekend, fix the time for every other chore.  

Fix a time period for everything- Not just fixing a time but also how long are you going to use the pleasure too, is important. Devote less time for habits with instant gratification, while offering more time to Habits with delayed rewards. For example, Little time for watching TV, but more time for reading a book. 

Compensate for time loss- It is possible that emergencies could ruin your time management at a time, but restarting and compensating by doubling on good mental habits and cutting down on negative ones give a feeling of relief.

👉Tips: 

• Keep a time-tracker application on your smartwatch or smartphone
• Try not to have more than one-day time loss, but if it did, then compensation must be double.

👀The insights from Phraseitup 

As author Sean Covey suggests, “Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do.”. Correct, yes? So, do them repeatedly, and they shall translate into excellent rewards, though delayed but hugely satisfying.

And in the end, what do we hanker the most? Reward it is!   

But just going through the article won't improve productivity, push you to strong career development, and offer job satisfaction, what is further needed is commitment, devotion, and a strong will.

Remember, Implementation is Key.

Take home message is that Delayed rewards are always constructive while instant ones are the opposite. Choose wisely!

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