the productivity project proven ways to become more awesome

If you're anything like me, you may find yourself ending the workday 10 or more tabs and windows open and a computer desktop filled with random documents and screenshots. It’s not just physical clutter that competes for our attention anymore. But research shows that physical clutter can be detrimental to both our mental health and productivity.Ī 2011 study by Princeton University found that a cluttered, disorganized environment impairs our ability to focus, restricts our capacity to process information, and ultimately keeps us from doing our best work. Stay organized is probably the oldest, most boring trick in the book. Clean up your physical and digital workspaces Here are 7+ simple, science-backed steps you can mix and match to create your own shutdown ritual and end your workday right: 1. When done right, having a routine to end your workday can help you to leave work at work, stop worrying about all of the things left to do, and set you up to start getting things done right away in the morning. 'This ritual should ensure that every incomplete task, goal or project has been reviewed and that for each you have confirmed that either 1) you have a plan you trust for its completion, or 2) it's captured in a place where it will be revisited at the right time.' In his bestselling book Deep Work: Rules for Focuses Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport describes the importance of ending each and every workday the same way: That’s when I discovered the almost magical power of a workday shutdown ritual. Start the next day feeling drained, anxious, and guilty about the previous day's lack of productivity.Īs you can imagine, I wasn't getting things done and I finished each workday feeling stressed and discouraged. Keep thinking about the important tasks I hadn't finished even after I had left work.

Continue working late - way past the point of optimal productivity - because I never felt like I got 'enough' done. End up spending way too much time on urgent, but ultimately unimportant tasks.įeel guilty about not making enough progress on my important projects. Get distracted by all of the new messages in my inbox. Sit down in front of my computer with a vague idea of what I wanted to get done.Ĭheck email.

My workdays used to go something like this:

The productivity project proven ways to become more awesome