6 Effective Ways To Jumpstart A New Productivity Habit

Productivity is essential to every finance professional. But being productive isn’t always easy when you’re pulled in many directions.

So no matter how dedicated you are to “getting stuff done,” it’s a job in itself to develop habits that help keep you productive.

Kicking Up Productivity

But there are ways, and the first step is admitting it’s time to be more productive.

Whether you’ve just hired fresh faces, taken over a monster project or seen a big surge in business, you probably are facing a mountain of work that needs to get done before it all comes barreling toward you like an avalanche.

Here are a few effective ways to establish a productivity habit, improve time management and kick your productivity into max drive. 

Try them – until they become second-nature to you.

1. Create Your Own ‘Message Traffic Control’

To get email, instant messages and other communication apps under control, tell a selected group of co-workers, friends, etc., whose messages aren’t as critical as others that you’re only available for messaging from, say, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (So what if it’s a little white lie? It serves your purpose.)

Make it an auto-response message. Soon enough, most people will adjust their expectations for your responses accordingly. And you’ll get into the habit of being able to tackle the most important issues in those.

2. Promise To Reward Yourself Afterward

To psych yourself into doing an unpleasant task, bribe yourself.

For example, let’s say you always dread the monthly meeting, but it’s your responsibility to set it up. Start bribing yourself with something pleasant you can do after the meeting; say, read something for pleasure, take a short walk, or use a 30-minute lunch break to shop online.

Do this for several months, and the prospect of calling those meetings will seem less painful when you consider the little break you’ll get afterward.

3. Start A Few Things At Once

To get past a “block” — writer’s, budget, productivity, etc. — don’t try to start anything. Try to start everything!

We know, the debate over whether single or multi-tasking is the way to be most productive rages on. But this isn’t about trying to get too many varied tasks done at one time. The trick is to start similar things at one time.

Say you’ve got to turn out performance reviews or budgets for a few departments. If the thought of grinding through one of them before you start another is too painful, start a few at the same time. That way, you’ve started!

Once you get into the habit, you’ll naturally finish some up faster.

4. Make It A Trade-Off

To meet concurrent deadlines, approach them like a quid pro quo: Arrange it so you have to meet someone else’s request at the same time you get your request met.

If you know you’re counting on something that someone else has to provide to you, it’ll be an automatic motivator to finish what you need to finish for them.

5. Take Time To Reflect

To motivate yourself for a long day — or week — ahead, stop!

The point of this exercise is that it enables you to make better decisions about how you’ll spend your day when your mind is clear, before constant temptations (social media, email, etc.) test your resolve.

David Allen, in his bestselling book “Getting Things Done”, says the most powerful habit effective leaders develop to help them stay focused is the weekly review, which he describes as follows:

“A weekly review refers to the practice of setting aside a specific time each week to pause, reflect and plan for the week ahead. The weekly review is a deliberate weekly practice of taking a step back so you can get some perspective on your tasks, projects, goals and vision. Leaders must establish a regular habit of slowing down, to pause and look around, to reflect on their progress and make adjustments where necessary.”

6. Work On Something For Just 15 Minutes

To shake the dust off something you’ve put off, lower your expectations.

This is a trick we can steal from people who dedicate themselves to regular physical exercise. They tell themselves they’re only going to walk/run/bike etc., for 15 minutes. But once they get momentum, they naturally keep going.

Freelance writer Thursday Bram uses a timer to kick-start projects that feel like pulling teeth to get started. “A simple egg timer and the philosophy that I can do anything for 15 minutes has saved me more than once,” Bram says. “I’ll set it for 15 minutes and focus on a particular task… By the time that timer goes off, I’m on enough of a roll to keep going.”

Another approach is the Pomodoro Technique: You set a timer for about 25 minutes and work hard toward one goal before the break.

Using even just one of these tricks to start a productivity habit can help you turn your work-heavy days and weeks around for the better.