Productivity tips - how do you balance applications and revision?

[Jaysen]

Just came across this FT article: "How I became more productive in 2018".

I know many of you are trying to balance writing applications and studying and/or working.

How are you finding it? How are you staying productive/minimising distraction?

 

[Jaxkw]

I wake up at 7am. Without a doubt that has made the biggest difference to my productivity - I get two extra hours in before I'd normally have started any work..

TO wake up early I recommend getting the Sleep Cycle app on your phone. It sets off your alarm when you are in the lightest possible part of your sleep pattern which makes waking up so much easier.

Also - watch this:

 

[bronson]

I wake up at 7am. Without a doubt that has made the biggest difference to my productivity - I get two extra hours in before I'd normally have started any work..

TO wake up early I recommend getting the Sleep Cycle app on your phone. It sets off your alarm when you are in the lightest possible part of your sleep pattern which makes waking up so much easier.

Also - watch this:

I agree with the waking up early part. I even went through a period where I was getting up at 6 to go to the gym which did help wake me up and kept me feeling (mostly) energised throughout the day. I must say though this HAS to also be coupled with going to sleep at a decent time otherwise the whole thing is counterproductive.

I find setting alarms on my phone for very basic small things like eating, reading, sleeping etc. means you can just zone out into whatever task you're doing and not worry about the time. This also means you're very regimented and stick to a good routine if you do it consistently.

EDIT: also an ice cold pint of water (with cucumber and lemon if you’re feeling particularly extra) first thing in the morning will make you feel 100x better throughout the day than a coffee

 

[Abstruser]

I keep a diary to jot down deadlines and tasks. Breaking bigger tasks down into small, achievable daily goals was definitely key to increasing my productivity. That reduced the unnecessary stress of worrying about how much work I had to do over the span of, say, a month - I got peace of mind knowing I had planned out how to achieve certain goals and could tackle them on a day-by-day basis.

 

[PMF_II]

I used the time blocking method. For every item on my to-do list I block a specific time in my schedule to actually do it. Here is a good blog post from my favourite productivity author, Cal Newport. It mentions all of the techniques he uses.
http://calnewport.com/blog/2018/02/02/on-simple-productivity-systems-and-complex-plans/

 

[Jaysen]

I used the time blocking method. For every item on my to-do list I block a specific time in my schedule to actually do it. Here is a good blog post from my favourite productivity author, Cal Newport. It mentions all of the techniques he uses.
http://calnewport.com/blog/2018/02/02/on-simple-productivity-systems-and-complex-plans/

Also my favourite productivity author!

 

[Naomi]

I'll have to try these tips! I have to wake up at 5:30am for work so can't really wake up any earlier and work takes up my day until about 6pm. By the time I've had dinner etc, there isn't much of the evening left. Really struggling and demotivated about the app situation at the moment sadly!

 

[Abstruser]

I'll have to try these tips! I have to wake up at 5:30am for work so can't really wake up any earlier and work takes up my day until about 6pm. By the time I've had dinner etc, there isn't much of the evening left. Really struggling and demotivated about the app situation at the moment sadly!

I completely empathise, it’s a tough thing to juggle work and applications but you’ve got this!

What I used to do when I was working was to use weekday evenings for application research and planning - just reading through brochures, websites, and compiling notes in a Word document. I would then spend more time on weekends to actually write the applications. I managed 1 application every 1-2 weeks that way.

All the best!

 

[Jaxkw]

I agree with the waking up early part. I even went through a period where I was getting up at 6 to go to the gym which did help wake me up and kept me feeling (mostly) energised throughout the day. I must say though this HAS to also be coupled with going to sleep at a decent time otherwise the whole thing is counterproductive.

I find setting alarms on my phone for very basic small things like eating, reading, sleeping etc. means you can just zone out into whatever task you're doing and not worry about the time. This also means you're very regimented and stick to a good routine if you do it consistently.

EDIT: also an ice cold pint of water (with cucumber and lemon if you’re feeling particularly extra) first thing in the morning will make you feel 100x better throughout the day than a coffee

I've been trying your setting up alarms idea and I wanted to say thank you! It really does help me to snap out of what I'm doing and get back to focusing.

 

[Jaxkw]

I completely empathise, it’s a tough thing to juggle work and applications but you’ve got this!

What I used to do when I was working was to use weekday evenings for application research and planning - just reading through brochures, websites, and compiling notes in a Word document. I would then spend more time on weekends to actually write the applications. I managed 1 application every 1-2 weeks that way.

All the best!

I've also started this for writing applications. I work through the day but I have a lot of breaks, so I've started making notes on things i find and collating them for the weekend. It has made a big difference so thank you!

 

[Jaysen]

On a slightly different topic, I found this to be a great read: https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2018/12/13/productivity-guilt/. The article is titled: "What is productivity guilt? (And how to prevent it?)".

 

[jaivi]

Quite motivational..