Psychological Tricks to Enhance Your Productivity

Do you want to get more work done in fewer hours? If yes, then this article is for you.

Increasing your productivity can make a big difference in your professional life. It will allow you to do more work with ease. As a result, you will get more from your efforts, thereby allowing you the time to concentrate on other important matters.

Given below are some psychological tricks that you can use to boost your productivity and achieve your goals more quickly.

Reward Yourself for Completing Important Tasks

Give yourself a reward for completing important tasks successfully. This programs your brain to think that you will reward it for the work completed on time.

When you make it a habit to reward yourself after the accomplishment of every important task, you encourage yourself to work more efficiently and effectively in expectation of the reward.

You can reward yourself in many ways. However, you need to ensure that the reward is personally important to you. Your reward could range from watching a movie to purchasing new clothes that you have always wanted for yourself.

Increase Your Social Time

Sometimes your creativity and productivity decrease when you work completely alone. Therefore, you may need to increase your social time during work hours, and find that the remainder of your time is more productive. Moreover, positive interactions boost job satisfaction, morale, and good feelings.

However, the downside of this is that if you are spending a lot of time with your colleagues or co-workers, your productivity may decrease. Therefore, it’s best to use sound judgment.

Do One Thing at a Time

Concentrating on one task at a time makes you more productive and efficient.

Multitasking appears like a good way to get more things done at once. However, according to research, your brain is not nearly as good at managing more than one task as you like to think it is. As a matter of fact, you will be surprised to know that multitasking can decrease your productivity by 40%.

It might appear like you are completing multiple tasks simultaneously. However, what you are doing is shifting your concentration and attention from one thing to the other very fast. It’s worth noting that shifting from one task to the next makes it hard to ignore distractions and can lead to mental blocks that can get in the way of your productivity and creativity.

On the other hand, by doing one thing at a time, you will actually increase your productivity.

Appreciate Your Mind

Your mind will work much more effectively and efficiently when it thinks that it will be appreciated. So, appreciate your mind once every day for one month and you may be surprised at how much clearer your thinking is. And your productivity will improve if your thinking is clearer.

Gaze at Nature

Simply looking at pictures of natural scenery for 40 seconds can boost your concentration and productivity. According to an Australian study, staring at a grassy or flowering rooftop helped subjects make fewer errors than subjects looking at a concrete building. The study also found that staring at a picture of nature can help increase performance.

Break Up Your Day

Whether it's reading a book, a run to a coffee shop, or a stroll around the block, taking mini-breaks that are not associated with your work can make a big difference in your work performance. You should know that your productivity reduces the longer you work without rest.

Move Around

It goes without saying that exercise is great for our mind, body, and overall health. Not only this, but exercise also helps you become more productive.

Workout releases chemicals like serotonin and endorphins in your brain that make you feel great. Additionally, it stimulates energy production for your brain and improves your mental output. So, you tend to feel more energetic after an exercise session.

And according to research, moderate-intensity exercise as well as low-intensity exercise result in the same level of advantages in concentration and alertness.

Therefore, whether you begin your day with a cardio workout or a yoga session, it would be equally useful in making you more productive for the remainder of your day.

Improve Your Office Environment

You might probably be not aware that your office environment has an effect on your creativity and productivity. According to research, work productivity reduces or enhances together with the office temperature. You tend to commit more errors at work when your workspace is too cold.

In the same way, choosing the right light is extremely important. Dim lights, harsh lights, and fluorescent lights are harmful to your eyes down the road. Therefore, try to work in a place that receives a lot of natural light. Ditch fluorescent lights and choose daylight bulbs for your workspace. These bulbs are designed to mimic the natural light of the sun.

You can also work from different places if you are stuck in a creative rut. Your brain gets more productive and creative when you change your surroundings. Research also shows that our brain performs well when there is a change in tasks and surroundings.

Plan Your Work in Advance

Planning your work in advance is essential if you want to achieve success in your professional life.

Having a plan makes you feel motivated to reach your objectives and goals. In one study, researchers asked two groups of pupils to submit their assignments one day after the Christmas festival. They asked the pupils in the first group to contemplate when during the Christmas vacations they intended to finish their project. However, the second group of pupils were not asked to plan their assignments. The study found that 70% of pupils from the first group submitted their assignment on time, and only 30% of pupils from the second group submitted their project on time.

Thus, having a plan makes sure that you do the most important tasks first.

Conclusion

It’s worth knowing that not all of these psychological tips will work for everyone because every individual is special, with special strengths and preferences. So, you will have to experiment to find out which strategies work great for you. And stick to strategies that help you boost your productivity.