Personal Productivity: 8-in-1 Bundle to Master Productivity, Time Management, Organizing, Focusing, Goal Setting, Procrastination, Changing Habits & Motivation

Personal Productivity

8-in-1 Bundle to Master Productivity, Time Management, Organizing, Focusing, Goal Setting, Procrastination, Changing Habits & Motivation

Miles Toole

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© Copyright by Miles Toole. All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

Personal Productivity

Copyright

Table of Contents

Book 1: How to Be Productive

Book 2: How to Manage Time

Book 3: How to Be Organized

Book 4: How to Stay Focused

Book 5: How to Set Goals

Book 6: How to Stop Procrastinating

Book 7: How to Change Habits

Book 8: How to Stay Motivated

Book 1: How to Be Productive

7 Easy Steps to Master Productivity Apps, Productive Habits, Work Efficiency & Personal Productivity

Miles Toole

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Step One - Create a Strategy

Ask Why

Know Yourself

Commit to Change

Chapter 2: Step 2 - Establish and Maintain Productive Habits

Look at Your Current Habits

Foster Long-Lasting Habits

Ask Why

Chapter 3: Step 3 - Utilize Productivity Apps

Recommended Applications and Software

Improve What You Already Have

Chapter 4: Step 4 - Maintain a Clean Workspace

The Positive Effects of a Clean Workspace

Make Time to Clean

How to Make Cleaning a Habit

Be Comfortable

Work Ergonomically

Chapter 5: Step 5 - Keep Yourself Accountable

Go Public

Have A Personal Mission Statement

Work with a Partner

Delay Your Gratification

Break Down Your Goals

Know How to Reward Yourself

Chapter 6: Step 6 - Maintain Personal Productivity

Start Every Day Right

Separate Family Time

Take Meaningful Breaks

Practice Daily Gratitude

Seek Inspiration

Communicate

Chapter 7: Step 7 - Take Immediate Action

Don’t Wait

Give Yourself Permission

Work, Even When You Don’t Want To

Conclusion

Introduction

Welcome to How to Be Productive. Going through the following chapters is the first step in recognizing where you need to change to become more accomplished in your work.

Whether it be professionally or personally, we all have the desire to get more done. Teachers, students, entrepreneurs- everyone has tasks they want to accomplish and goals they want to reach.

We are all looking for a way to get more done in less time. But how do we know whose advice to take? Moguls share their methods, and gurus preach their programs, friends recommend their regimens. Unfortunately, the highly sought out secret to productivity is often full of misconceptions and tricks. This guide will show you that it doesn’t need to be so complicated. Getting more done doesn’t need to be convoluted or hard to understand. Making the most out of your time can be done with seven simple steps that are easy to follow and easy to adopt- as long as you have the desire to change.

This guide will aid you in all your trouble areas in a simple to follow manner. The following chapters will help you with recognizing where you are falling short in your attempts to be more productive. Once this is discovered, you will learn all the ways you can approach productivity in a healthy and holistic manner. The steps will cover habits that you should adopt, the applications that can aid you, the importance of the space that you occupy, and maintaining these habits outside of your work life to improve everything that you do.

These seven steps will provide you with the necessary information to embark on this journey with confidence. By the end of this guide, you will be equipped with the essential tools needed for productive living.

Starting to go through this guide already shows that you are willing to change your current lifestyle and grow. Congratulations on making the first step to more productive living!

Let us begin with making a personalized strategy...

Chapter 1: Step One - Create a Strategy

We all have our faults and vices. Regardless of what we are trying to do, there are certain things that always seem to hold us back. Some of us struggle with many, while others struggle with few. Regardless, it is a natural part of life that we all face. When attempting to tackle these vices (such as procrastination or poor time management), we can easily get overwhelmed. Figuring out why, how, and when to adjust our lifestyle choices can be a scary thing. This can make the simple act of starting a daunting task. But it doesn’t always need to be so. The first step to becoming more productive is creating a personalized strategy that will make this journey feel seamless.

Ask Why

In order to arrive at your strategy, identify why you’re not getting as much work done as you need to. For some, it may be because they’re not getting enough sleep. For others, they might be seated next to a chatty co-worker. Maybe it’s your phone that is distracting you, or you try to juggle too many tasks at a time. Before you make any major changes to the way you work, you need to understand why you are struggling in the first place. Simply put, you need to address the root cause of the issue, not the effect.

It may seem arbitrary or overly simple, but it is vital to know in which areas you need to change beforehand. If you want to be successful in this journey, you must fully understand where you are falling short and why.

For example, if you are constantly falling asleep at your desk, maybe it’s time to go to sleep earlier and get a better night’s sleep. If you do have a talkative coworker, try discussing this with them, or moving to another area. Each problem we face (whether we are aware of the problem or not) has a solution. First, identify the problem. Second, go to the root in order to fix it.

You can modify the following six steps to your specific needs. Use this information in a way that will help you on your journey.

Know Yourself

Analyze how you work at your best, and how you work at your worst. Look at your habits and pre-existing strategies and recognize who you are when you’re at work. Do you work best in isolation? Or in a group setting? Do you need frequent breaks, or do you accomplish more during long stretches of time? Some of us work better under pressure, while others fail under similar circumstances. We all thrive under different conditions. Understand that one method of productivity that works for one person may not necessarily work for you.

The following steps in this guide are meant to be tailored to your specific strengths and weaknesses. Make sure you understand how you operate. After this, it will be easy to strengthen the areas in which you are already strong and work on the areas in which you are not.

Commit to Change

The most important element of strategic planning is commitment. Your commitment to change is very important on the journey to productivity. You need to make sure that you are physically, emotionally, and mentally determined to work on and change your habits, regardless of how difficult it may get. It is one thing to say it, and another to do it.

We all know people who speed through to-do lists without any struggle or who reach deadlines without breaking a sweat. And we want to be just like them. Acknowledge that getting to that stage takes time and commitment. No one gets to that stage without sincere effort. Changing the way that we operate on a day to day basis is not an easy task. But in order to feel accomplished in our work, both personal and professional, we need to maintain the determination to change.

If this commitment is not fully formed, it won’t be long before you succumb to the lure of distractions and bad habits once again. The goal is to make these changes and stick to them. Ensure that this won’t become a cycle for you. If you keep doing the same things you’ve been doing, you’ll keep getting the same results.

Think of where you currently are and where you want to be. Whether it will take many changes to get there, or not, let this motivate you. Look at those who inspire you and use that as a push to commit to these steps. Think of all the ways your productivity, happiness, and wellbeing will improve if you stay on track and keep to your goals. Trust that everything will pay off in the long run.

Lastly, acknowledge that this will take time. Reaching the pinnacle of productivity cannot happen overnight. Self-improvement is an ongoing process and one that adapts and grows as you do.

Going through these steps is only half the battle. The other half is actually incorporating them into your daily life. It may not always be easy or enjoyable, but it will be worth it. Even if things aren’t notably changing in a couple of weeks, remember that worthwhile change takes time.

Once all of this is understood, you can start crafting your action plan and take in the following information strategically.

Now, let us discuss positive working habits and how to establish them.

Chapter 2: Step 2 - Establish and Maintain Productive Habits

Everyone has bad habits, and everyone has good habits. It is simply a part of being human. In fact, several studies show that habits account for nearly half of the actions we make on a daily basis. Your current habits are either empowering you to achieve and succeed, or they are deterring you and holding you back. The goal is to make sure that your bad habits are not hindering your work, and your good habits are helping it.

It is a common misconception that the only thing separating us from those who are wildly accomplished is just a matter of motivation and willpower. What many people don’t understand is that what is really separating us from them is motivation and willpower- in combination with good habits. Sheer willpower doesn’t aid us in getting more done at all. Studies often show that the highest performing people actually use smaller amounts of willpower each day. But if they are not any more motivated than us, how do they accomplish more? The answer lies in productive daily habits. All of which will help you to work smarter, not harder.

This chapter will outline how to identify the habits that need to change and how to stay on track.

Look at Your Current Habits

Habits, both good and bad, play a huge role in our lives. In our work and in our everyday tasks, habits can either make or break an entire day (or longer). Habits can influence even our most basic functions, such as what we think, what we say, and how we say it. That is exactly why changing these habits can be such a struggle for so many people. In order to see positive long-term effects on our productivity, job performance, and overall well-being, we need to take a closer look at our daily routines and practices.

We know ourselves best. Take a look at your average workday and pay attention to the habits you employ. Start off with your good habits. Maybe you are great at scheduling, or you always have a specific time when you return calls. Whatever your good habits maybe, think of the ways you can improve them. Whether it may be getting these tasks done smoother, or in less time, all habits can be improved.

Then take a look at your bad habits. If necessary, ask someone who you work with for their input. It can be hard to recognize and acknowledge our bad habits, but it is a vital step towards change. Look at your bad habits and really think about the negative effects they have on your work life. Whether it be procrastinating or forgetting to label folders, all bad habits can be improved upon, and eventually, forgotten.

Continue to take inventory of all your habits. Use this concrete information as the first step towards improvement. All it takes is time.

Foster Long-Lasting Habits

It is incredibly easy to learn a new habit, keep it up for a few days, then forget about it completely. The key is to make these habits stick around for the years to come. We can discover all the habits that successful people use to accomplish their goals. But unless we understand how to maintain these habits, they are ultimately useless. Developing a long-term habit takes a significant amount of hard work, but there are several ways to ensure that your new habit will stick in the long run.

Before adopting a new habit, make sure it is attainable. If the new habit you want to adopt is a difficult one (such as a drastic change from your current lifestyle) the less likely it is to stick. Instead, make sure that your habits are realistic and feasible. Don’t set yourself up for failure.

Look at your success rate in certain areas in the past; if you know you are not the best at preparing for meetings, as an example, don’t assign yourself an unattainable goal in that area. Go easy on yourself when first starting out. Beginning with micro habits will allow you to build on them day by day. Starting off slow may seem like it’s taking more time and not having much of an effect, but before you know it, these small changes will become second nature to you.

All you need to do for the first week is practice your new habit for five minutes. That’s all it takes to start off. The following week, double that time. Spend ten minutes implementing the habit each day. But, make sure you stay consistent. That is the goal. This repetitive act will help solidify that habit into your life. Depending on what you are trying to change, this can take anywhere between eight to eighty days to complete. But do not let that deter you. As previously mentioned, these worthwhile changes take time.

Next, track your success. Make sure to make a note of your successes, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. By noting that you were actually able to prepare for all those meetings like you hoped, you will be better able to measure your success rate on a larger scale (how you performed this week, this month, etc.) It is easy to stay motivated when we feel like we are reaching our goals one after the other.

As humans, we are constantly trying to better ourselves. It is entirely natural to mull over all our mistakes and losses. But when adopting new habits, it’s important to look at all the times things went right instead of all the times that things went wrong. When you look back, you’ll be able to see all the measurable ways you’ve improved over time and how to reach those same goals in the future.

Next, plan for setbacks and prepare for failures. Things will invariably go wrong, especially when trying something new or something particularly difficult. Oftentimes, there is no way to prevent these failures or setbacks. All we can do is prepare for them so that when they do occur, they don’t blindside us. If you accidentally forget your habit for a day or two, build in time the next day so you can have time to catch up. If you look at your calendar and see a busy day coming up that might interfere with your new habit, shift your schedule, so you have the time or resources to make sure you accomplish what you need to. The key is not to write everything in stone. Life and work are unpredictable. Make sure to go easy on yourself if things don’t always work out the way you wanted. Just ensure you have a backup plan, so stress doesn’t get the best of you.

Ask Why

As mentioned in Chapter 1, it is important to attack the root of the problem first. Understand why you have these bad habits in the first place and what they are a result of. Getting down to the root of the problem will help you realize that all our habits are tied to one another.

For example, if you have the bad habit of sleeping in, recognize that it is because you are going to sleep too late. You are going to sleep too late because you are staying up finishing work. And the reason you are still working late at night is that you give yourself too much of a workload during the day. The habit of you waking up late is directly related to the bad habit of underestimating the time it takes to accomplish your work. In order to change the bad habit of waking up late, you need to change the habits that are its cause. Keep asking yourself ‘why’ until you arrive at the root of your problem. Once you get there, you can immediately resolve the issue. 

Next, foster habits that reinforce each other. As we now know, our habits are not isolated; they are all connected. Sleeping early and waking up early is one obvious example of two habits directly linked to one another- whereas sending emails and waking up early is not so closely related. If you really want to work on a habit, identify the other habits that are tied to it in order to make a holistic change. Before you know it, these habits will strengthen one another and make the change feel seamless.

Every wildly productive person has positive habits that they swear by. But they need not be complicated or hard to adopt; oftentimes, they are habits that you can build off pre-existing ones you already have. Here are some habits that are important to establish, regardless of the work that you do:

Take breaks and reward yourself

Maintain a clean workspace, both at work and at home

Write a to do list, every day

Ask for help when needed

Make personal goals within your work

Hold yourself accountable

Avoid disruptions and interruptions

Many of these habits are covered in depth in the following chapters. Continue to learn the benefits of these habits, as well as the importance of keeping them. Our next chapter has to do with productivity apps and how they can aid you in streamlining the process.

Chapter 3: Step 3 - Utilize Productivity Apps

We rely on our phones now more than ever. Not only for our working lives but for daily enjoyment as well. Apps and software are unavoidable, regardless of the field that you work in. Living in a wildly technological world today, there are countless tools that can help us make the most of our smartphones and computers. Since these devices are readily available to us, we might as well take advantage of what they have to offer.

There are apps, features, websites, gadgets, and pieces of tech that all promise to increase our productivity. One google search or one friend’s recommendation can give you a plethora of tools that are touted to be the best. With so many options, it can be difficult to know what to choose for your day to day operations. Especially when first starting out, it can all seem overwhelming. This chapter will break down what you should use and why you should use them.

Recommended Applications and Software

It is hard to find an office today that doesn’t utilize at least one productivity or managing app. Whether working within a team or individually, there is something out there that will fit your specific needs. In today’s modern world, there are tools out there that can help us in ways never thought imaginable- so why not make use of them. Here is a list, from apps to features that will undoubtedly improve your productivity.

Any.do

When aiming to boost efficiency, making to-do lists is inevitable. Switching from an antiquated handwritten (or even mental) to-do list to one on your smartphone is a move you won’t regret. A scheduling app like Any.do is a great place to start.

It’s easy to forget daily tasks and chores when we have a lot on our plates, but this app will help you stay on track. There are features such as notes, sharing lists, assigning tasks to others, as well as the ability to sync between your phone, tablet, and desktop in order to keep everything up to date. You can even integrate your lists into your calendar for an easy to follow schedule.

If you’re someone who tends to work on the go, there is a voice-entry feature that allows you to add items to your list just by speaking directly into your phone’s microphone. If you are looking for an app that will keep all your information in one secure place, this scheduling app is for you- plus, it’s free!

Toggl

If you’re interested in an app that will track your time and help you better organize it, Toggl is what you need. Toggl is a time tracker that is typically used by freelancers who are curious to see where their billable hours go, but it can easily be used by students or independent workers who want to improve their productivity. It can be hard to manage our time efficiently when we don’t know where exactly we are losing time. Apps like Toggl help you track your time in a simple and convenient way.

This app works on your browser, but you can also install it on your computer or phone for easy input. Better yet, this app is free for up to five team members, so feel free to share it amongst those who you work with. It has a clean and easy to operate interface that is great for beginners or the tech-savvy alike.

Apple Shortcuts

If you are wary of downloading new apps, take the time to learn shortcuts. If you have an Apple product, Apple Shortcuts are a free to use feature full of customizable options. Learning how to better use the devices you already own (instead of buying or downloading new ones) is a great way to incorporate more tech into your life.

The shortcuts app allows you to create automations; essentially a series of events that will occur at specific set times. For example, you can program your phone to turn on silent every time you arrive at work (based on GPS). Or you can program your phone to open up your email at a certain time every day. Whether you are familiar with programming or not, these shortcuts will help streamline the everyday actions you make on your phone. It is free to use on any Apple product so this option is also cost friendly. If you are unsure how to use them at first, there are plenty of examples and instructional videos available online. Learning features such as Apple Shortcuts will save you time spent looking at your phone.

SaneBox

During hectic times at work, the influx of emails can easily get overwhelming. Not knowing who to respond to, or when, can cause your email app to become a source of great anxiety. To help combat that, look for an email managing software. If you are ready to take your email service a step further, try the app SaneBox.

An app like SaneBox will put all your unimportant emails and messages into various other folders that are not your inbox. The way this app works is by learning what the difference is between a ‘cold call’ email as opposed to one from an acquaintance. It does this by referencing your address book and contacts. The more you use this app, the more it learns, and the smarter it gets. Over time, it will fully understand who and what is important to you and what is not. Instead of spending time triaging your inbox, you can focus on more important tasks.

An essential function like emailing should never be a source of stress. Utilize the tools that are available to you and make sending and receiving emails as easy as it can be. If SaneBox isn’t for you, there are plenty of other options that are free to try out. It’s all about researching and finding what best suits your needs.

StayFocused

With all these apps aiming to help you stay organized and focused, we can still fall prey to distractions. Distractions are something that everyone faces, but there are tools out there that can help.

The browser extension StayFocused will help you do exactly that with the ability to block certain websites at certain times of the day. You can set these blocks for specific times and dates (for example, nine to five, or Monday through Friday) or after you’ve reached a certain limit (e.g., no more than 25 minutes of Twitter per day). It is incredibly simple to use and can help you stay focused on the task at hand. If you know that Facebook is your weakness, a site blocker will make a world of difference. If you’re desperate, you can always go around the block by using a different browser. But, the goal is not to defeat your vices but rather to build your self discipline so that one day you won’t need an extension at all.

Those are only five apps for certain functions, but there are plenty more out there. If a certain interface or layout is not to your taste- try another! Take advantage of the highly advanced world that we live in today and make use of the small computer in your pocket. It has never been easier to boost your productivity.

Improve What You Already Have

Downloading a large number of new applications can be overwhelming and costly if not done correctly. Before getting completely new apps, look at the apps you already use and learn how to make them better- everything can be improved.

Your email app is probably one that you use a lot, every day. Try to figure out ways that you can make this commonly used app easier, better, and more efficient. There are plenty of add-ons, additions, plug-ins, and shortcuts that you can incorporate onto your existing email account. Gmail shortcuts, for example, are incredibly easy to use and a huge time saver.

Pressing R while reading a message will allow you to immediately respond to it. Pressing A will let you reply all, while pressing F will let you forward the email. Pressing the = key will mark the selected message as unimportant, and pressing E will archive the selected message. These are just a few examples of the simple shortcuts that you can employ while using Gmail. There are so many ways to improve your email sending and receiving process, it is just a matter of doing the research and learning the operations. Saving a few keystrokes here, and there will ultimately make your work experience faster, smoother, and less complicated. It’s all about simplification.

Ask friends or coworkers what they use and try out their recommendations. Use the plethora of information online to learn the features of your mailing app thoroughly. Take the time to know your devices and apps well.

Most elements of your phone can be customized to your liking. You can even improve the seemingly simple. If you find that you tend to write emails, respond to messages, and take notes all on your smartphone, try to adopt swipe typing. Some phones have it pre-installed, but if not,