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Four Easy Ways to Increase Your Productivity

Stephani Davis
2 min read

As another year draws to an end, many of us are busy writing goals for the coming the year, reflecting on our accomplishments of the current year, and coming up with an action plan for how we can be more productive.  Following is a list of four seemingly simple, yet highly effective ideas that you can implement into your daily routine to help you have your most productive year yet.

Restrict Your Time on Social Media– While social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter present fantastic opportunities to grow your business, they can also become a huge distraction if you aren’t careful.  I’ve recently started setting aside 15 minute blocks of time 4 times each day, and restricting my social media/internet activities to those time periods only.  It’s amazing how much networking you can squeeze in when you limit yourself to only 15 minutes at a time!

Eat Frogs– Well, not literally. I actually hijacked that phrase from Brian Tracy’s Book “Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time” (aff.). The gist of the book is to concentrate single-mindedly on your most important task of the day (the “frog”), and to finish it completely before moving on to other less important tasks (like updating your Facebook status).  If you eat your frog first thing and get it over with- the rest of the day will seem like a cinch!

Don’t Check Email First Thing in the Morning– I recently started implementing this tactic, and it has made a dramatic difference in my productivity. Instead of heading for my inbox first thing in the morning and getting sucked into the rabbit hole that it can sometimes lead me down, I make sure I get started on my most important task first. Once I’ve completed that task (or at least made a decent amount of headway), then I’ll go ahead and check my emails.

Start Your Day The Night Before- Planning out a concise, prioritized to-do list before you catch your Z’s is a great way to get a head start the following morning.  I keep a notebook and pen beside my bed, and have made it a habit to spend the last few minutes of every night constructing a game plan for the following day.  Waking up knowing exactly how you plan to tackle the day is a very empowering feeling and gives you a little burst of momentum right out of the gate!

I hope these tips will be helpful to those of you who are looking to increase your productivity in the coming year.  I know they have done wonders for me.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.