4 Habits That Will Dramatically Improve Your Productivity

The desire to procrastinate is a healthy brain craving, a natural need for novelty and curiosity. We must stop the negative self-talk we have towards us not working as a machine all the time. The leisure ‘do nothing’ time is extremely important for the brain's creative juices to start flowing.

Our feeling guilty and ashamed will only hinder our progress.

1. Observe the need to procrastinate, recognizing and being aware of your desire. This is called meta-recognition and is what all the Gurus keep talking about when they speak about awareness.
2. Label and accept your urge to waste your time, but without any negative judgement.
3. Validate your urge to procrastinate, increasing your self-esteem.
4. Approach procrastination as a friend, not as a threat.

The biggest obstacle, the main villain hampering our productivity is always in your hands, and rarely in your pockets. _It’s your smartphone. It needs to be powered off for some time. Your laptop, clamouring for attention, is not helping either. Remove all distractions and notifications so that you can get in the ‘flow’ mode.

Creating friction between us and the open black hole of the online distractions helps us focus on work.

To eliminate distraction, we need to find where we start doing it.

Often it’s when we are organizing and doing the prep work, the stuff required for us to start working. Getting yourself organized in a timed way (about 5 minutes) helps us deflect any possible entry point of distraction.

This is the holy grail of productivity when your mind is in high gear. As it is hard to summon at any time, we need to cultivate a routine, along with a system for keeping you consistent with your deep work. To get started on a deep work routine, you need to:

1. Decide on a consistent time for the deep work.
2. Start small, and gradually expand it.
3. Eliminate distractions during that time.
4. Track your progress and reward yourself on accomplishing your daily routine.

1. Bet your friend that you will complete something at a set deadline or will pay him something out of your pocket.
2. Go to a cafe with your laptop and no charger, and see yourself getting focused automatically.
3. While working from your home office, remove the TV from your work area.
4. Get your trusted family members to change your social media passwords, and only give them to you once your assignment is complete.