A clear mind is essential for an optimal workflow. With an ever-increasing demand for higher productivity output, you need an edge to outperform your competition.
How you manage your energy throughout the day is an aspect of productivity that is often overlooked.
We have a limited amount of energy to spend every day and we get to decide how we spend it. Most of our energy we needlessly waste. Therefore, I will be sharing three steps to manage your energy so you can increase your focus and productivity.
1. Clean Environment = Clear Mind
You might think cleaning up will leave you less time for actual work. The opposite is actually true.
Your environment reflects your state of mind and vice versa. Hence, a clean and organized workspace corresponds to clear thinking, which in turn means more effective execution of your tasks.
2. De-Clutter All Your Devices
Like your physical environment, your digital environment should also be clean and organized.
I disagree with many self-help gurus saying that you should delete all social media. I'd say, remove all social media apps instead, but keep your accounts (as these can be useful for keeping in touch with contacts or promoting your business).
Removing these apps stops you from taking quick peeks at your phone throughout the day. Checking your phone, even if it's a quick glance, is distracting and disrupts your focus.
Taking things one step further, I would also recommend that you remove your email apps. I found more peace of mind by checking my email via my computer browser at specific times during the day.
3. Step Away from Your Phone
Another thing I would advise is to hide away your phone when working. Even with the apps deleted and the phone on “Do not disturb”, there still is the temptation to check for messages.
Next time you are working put your phone in another room if possible. At the very least have it facing down and out of reach.
Again, this goes back to the idea that “just quickly” checking your phone will cause a distraction that will negatively affect your ability to focus for a long period afterward.
Action Steps
1. Throw away things you don't use or store them out of sight. You want as little stuff as possible laying around in your workspace.
Also, make sure your workspace is clean. Clean surfaces and vacuum the floor. You want your workspace to be in peak condition every day.
2. Remove all apps you haven't used on your phone and tablet in the last 6 months as well as social media apps and email apps. It's going to be hard, I know. But try it for a week. If you find that you can't live without your email or social media apps, you can always reinstall them.
Also, remove all software shortcuts on your desktop that you are not using frequently.
3. Make it a habit to put your phone in "Do not disturb" mode when working. Also, leave your phone in another room. If you can't do that, turn your phone face down and out of reach.
Summary
The above steps might seem trivial. However, you may be shocked to find out how big of a difference these steps can make in your ability to focus and increase your productivity output.
These steps are easy to implement and yield a high return on investment. Try it out today and see if you notice a difference in your performance.
Have you tried any of these steps yourself? Did you experience an increase in focus or productivity?
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