Are you working through “beach envy”?

Beat Summertime Blues! 5 Productivity Tips

After a long, cold winter, followed by a slow spring, summertime finally arrived! Here in the Pacific Northwest, when the sun shines so brightly, it’s hard to resist its sweet song and instead settle down to do desk-bound work. Worse – it seems that the rest of the world is vacationing at the beach.

Your mind starts to wander. You can’t pull yourself away from your social media feeds. Before you know it, the morning is gone and you haven’t done half of the work you set out to do.

Thus starts the vicious cycle. You feel frustrated and stressed as your work piles up. Worst of all, you may have to work late to catch up.

Stop!

Here are five hacks to help you keep your focus, stay motivated and productive — until it’s your turn to go on vacation at the beach.

Set your schedule for the next day before you leave your office each night.

Make a list of your top 3 “Must Dos.” It reduces overwhelm and helps you stay focused.
Then follow through the next morning. Completing your top tasks will increase your feelings of accomplishment and increase your motivation for the remainder of the day
Bonus – your productivity will improve.

Stop multi-tasking.
Contrary to popular belief, trying to accomplish more than one task at a time does not improve productivity. You end up distracted, and the quality of your work goes down. Focus on one task at a time, and then move on to the next.

Schedule breaks.

Leap up every 5 seconds and you’ll get nothing done. Wait too long for a break and your mind will wander. Control your breaks. Give yourself scheduled breaks instead of struggling to stay focused all day.
Set a timer. Choose some intervals and get as much work done as you can before the timer goes off. It’s a fun little mind trick. You’re motivated to race the clock and you’ll feel good knowing a break is on the horizon.
Bonus: more focus + greater productivity.

Limit Social Media — Treat It As a Treat.

Social media surfing is fun and it feels good. You don’t have to eliminate it from your day altogether — just work it into your schedule.
Use social media as a reward during one of your breaks.
After your surf, avoid temptation; set your phone to airplane mode.

Plan your own vacation day (after hours).
Having something to look forward to –- a long weekend or maybe a day to yourself — has the power to improve your mood (happiness) now and all the days leading up to it. Soon your social media photos and posts will be the envy of everyone else.

Looking for a few more productivity tips?

Check out

Do It Before Noon https://dorigan.com/career-advice/productivity-do-it-before-noon/

Interruptions vs. Your Productivity Groove https://dorigan.com/career-advice/work-place-interruptions-vs-productivity/

Now, before you spend the rest of the day reading productivity articles — get back to work! You’ll feel great about what you did when you look at your completed checklist at the end of the day, knowing you earned that awesome vacation you’ve planned. Who knows? With all your excellent new productivity hacks, you’ll leave with a raise (here’s how to increase your odds of success when you ask for one).

Are you working through “beach envy”? Beat Summertime Blues! 5 Productivity Tips

Connie Dorigan, Founder and Director of Recruiting, sees the food processing industry as the link between good living and good people. She’s the west coast’s most experienced and trusted food processing recruiter. She also provides Executive and Career Coaching and lots of free job search tools. Once you’ve connected with Connie, you’ll always be connected.

This is a general interest article and does not constitute specific or legal advice.

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