8 Vital Productivity Skills That Everyone Needs to Master

how to incorporate productivity skills into your workflow

We all wish we had more time in the day.

  • But would more time actually make us more productive?

  • Or would more hours simply allow us to find more time to procrastinate?

  • If we’re totally honest, you'd probably just find more time for procrastination, right?

Not to worry, you’re not alone. Research has shown the average 8-hour worker is only productive on average for just 2 hours and 53 minutes a day. A fraction of the time most of us spend at work. 

With that in mind, it's likely not the amount of time in the day that's the problem, it's more likely we are all just really bad at using our time effectively.

So if you wish to boost your productivity and tackle your most important tasks of the day with ease, take a look through these 8 productivity tips.

8 Productivity Skills that Beat Procrastination, Improve Focus and Balance Your Mood

Whether it be for your own personal development, to strengthen management skills, or to simply boost your workplace productivity, here are 3 productivity tips to help your kill procrastination and reduce distraction.

Time Management Skills

 
time management skills will help you be more productive
 

Time management is an essential skill you'll need to master in order to boost personal productivity and organization.

Here are a few tips to help you to develop some serious time management skills:

1. Prioritization: To limit the temptation of putting off an important task, creating a to-do list can be a real help. This will help you discern between essential and non-essential tasks or between a time-heavy task to a task that won't take more than a few minutes. This will not only reduce stress, as you know exactly what must be achieved, but it will also keep you motivated, ticking urgent task after urgent task is usually super motivating.

2. Organization: Mess and disorganization is a real productivity killer. Disorganization makes things hard to find, kills workflow, complicates your decision-making process, and causes unnecessary distraction. To limit this, make sure to have everything organized and in a spot you can easily find. For instance, keep your work environment clean and tidy and remove any unnecessary apps or programs from your devices' home screens.

3. Remove distractions: Diversions that take your mind away from the task at hand and cloud your decision-making process should be removed from a work environment. Things like your phone or social media being in reach of where you are working only hurt your productivity level. To help prioritize an urgent task and keep your mind in the game, it's essential you remove these types of distractions out of your workspace and away from your field of view.

 
good stress management skills will help boost productivity
 

Perhaps something that is commonly overlooked with creating productive habits is stress levels. Stress can cloud your judgment and encroach into your personal life, making downtime harder to enjoy and ultimately reducing overall productivity.

To lessen this, here are a few stress management skills you could work on:

4. Limit multi-tasking: Nobody can truly multitask, our brains are just not capable of it. ¹ Really, what we are doing when we "multitask" is quickly switching our focus from one job to another. And, every time we do this, we are actually losing focus, slowing our effectiveness, and reducing our productivity level. So instead, limit how much you jump from one task to another, stay on track, and see a job through to its completion.

5. Keep active: Exercising and keeping active has repeatedly been shown to dramatically rdeduce your stress levels. ² But did you know that working out can also boost the brain's capacity to both remember more and learn faster? ³ So before you start your workday, why not get a touch of exercise in to really get your productivity and creativity juices flowing.

6. Take regular breaks: If your work involves long hours, particularly long hours doing repetitive tasks, it's essential you prioritize taking regular breaks. And although taking breaks seems counterproductive to getting things done, it's actually a great way to keep productivity and motivation sky-high while also reducing residual stress. In fact, research on 5.5 million office workers found the top 10 percent of the most productive workers took a short break at an average of around every 52 minutes. ⁴

Productive Habit Hacks

 
personal productive habit hacks to help you limit distraction and boost productivity
 

To top off this list of productivity tips, here are a few bonus hacks to boost your everyday personal productivity:

7. Make use of your most energetic periods: Some of us are early risers, some are night owls, and some, well, we go through the motions and roll outta bed when we damn well feel like it. And how we sleep and when we sleep has rollover effects on our working lives. With that in mind, a great way to boost productivity is to maximize the use of your mind when you feel your sharpest, that way you'll get more done with less effort.

8. Start using an organization app: Making use of a comprehensive organization app is not only a great way to boost your personal productivity but also team productivity. To achieve this, our Simplish app is a great option. The Simplish app allows for super-easy file sharing, team communication, and team collaboration. And not only that, but the app's calendar functionality also allows users to set daily reminders, schedule important appointments, and stay on top of urgent tasks that need your utmost attention.

Final Thoughts

If you'd like to be a more productive person, then you simply can't allow things like distraction, procrastination, and stress to hinder you anymore.

Instead, take note of any skills gap you may have, focus on your strengths, and start your path to success by simply developing some essential productivity skills just like the ones found in this post.

To make this process super easy, why not download our Simplish app to help you get more done than you ever thought possible. You can try a FREE trial of Simplish to get started today.

ProductivitySimplish Staffhow to, do less, winning at life, conscious productivity, simplish staff