10 Productivity Goals To Increase Personal Productivity

Personal productivity is the key to success in any area of life. In order to ensure productivity in both professional and personal life you need to make sure that you have the right mindset, well-established routines and goals. In this blog post, I would like to elaborate on 10 productivity goals that will help you enhance your performance. Whether you’re working in a busy office, studying for school, or just trying to get better at managing your daily tasks, you will benefit from these goals.

Goal 1: Prioritize Tasks

If you are struggling to choose what tasks are to be done first and what follows next, then you need to learn about prioritization. Prioritization allows you to focus on what is crucial and time-sensitive, ensuring that you are always working on what matters the most. Additional positive consequences of task prioritization are reduced stress levels, better quality of the work done, and in general proper resource allocation.

Strategies you can use to prioritize your tasks

• Use Eisenhower Matrix: The Eisenhower Matrix is a powerful tool that divides tasks into four categories: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither urgent nor important. This helps you quickly and efficiently focus only on what truly matters.
• Set daily top 3: Every day make sure that you have the top 3 tasks that you have to accomplish no matter what. When I set those 3 top priority tasks for myself, I consider it in a way, that if during the whole day I accomplish only those, I will be satisfied with that day. In other words, daily top 3 achieved = productive day.
• Break down large tasks: If you have to manage complicated tasks like writing a book, it’s hard to both prioritize and set deadlines. Make sure to divide complicated tasks into manageable smaller tasks that are time-bound and trackable.
• Review and adjust regularly: Sometimes a lot of things that are out of our control require our adaptability. In the corporate world, I very often experienced that while I was fully focused on managing one project that was already quite advanced, a new request to prepare a status update presentation for the executive board could come shifting my focus completely. As a result, I had to quickly adjust my priorities to manage both the status update and continue with the project. It was a good reminder that there are some situations that we cannot control, but we can always adjust ourselves to them.

Goal 2: Implement Time Management Techniques

Working more hours does not automatically lead to overall efficiency. You need to work smart, not hard. Here I list techniques that will help you to use your time efficiently taking the maximum from every minute you work:

• Pomodoro Technique: This method involves working for 25 minutes followed by a 5-minute break. After four cycles, take a longer break. This is a time management technique that I find very effective for me. It enables me to stay constantly focused on my tasks and not get exhausted.
• Time Blocking: Allocate specific blocks of time for different tasks or activities throughout your day. This helps minimize multitasking and ensures dedicated focus on one task at a time. You can combine it with the Pomodoro technique to make sure that you dedicate time to a certain task in your day and that you have a strategy to maximize the output in that timeframe.
• The 2-Minute Rule: If a task can be done in two minutes or less, do it immediately. I use this technique when a lot of (normally unplanned) things pop up. I do not allocate it for the future and keep my calendar empty from short (2-minute) tasks.

Read More: Why Time Organization Is Important In Today’s Fast-Paced World

Goal 3: Delegate When Possible

Many tasks that are not urgent but are important can be delegated. Highly productive people know that their time is limited and therefore ensure that important tasks that can be done by their team or other related people are delegated.

Goal 4: Dedicate Time For Personal Development

Our website’s motto is “Constant development is not a choice, but the only right way to live”. We believe that living this principle will allow you to ensure life fulfillment and the possibility of always remaining in the best possible condition both physically and mentally. Here is just a short list of the advantages you gain by continuously improving yourself:

• Adaptability to change: By continuously engaging in personal development, you enhance your adaptability, making it easier to navigate through different changes in life.
• Increased confidence: When you are deeply involved in a certain topic and have valuable knowledge about the subject, you are more confident to speak out, share your views, and lead people after you.
• Improved mental health: Learning new things can be incredibly fulfilling, offering a sense of achievement and purpose. Moreover, personal development activities often include strategies for stress management, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence, contributing to overall well-being.
• Better professional and personal relationships: By dedicating time to learning about emotional intelligence, and communication skills, you develop a skillset that is crucial for maintaining strong relationships in both personal and professional life. By understanding people, you can create a better environment around yourself.
• Increased career opportunities: Dedicating time to personal development can open doors to new career opportunities. By expanding your skillset and knowledge base, you become eligible for a wider range of roles and projects. Furthermore, your commitment to growth can be a highly attractive trait to current and potential employers, setting you apart from other candidates.

Goal 5: Develop A Routine For Repetitive Tasks

Some tasks that we do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis require us to perform the same sequence of activities. Once you develop a routine by creating a checklist and by automating tasks with apps like Zapier, Trello, or Todoist, you ensure that those tasks do not require additional time or effort.

Goal 6: Exercise

Probably one of the most underrated productivity goals in this list. Unfortunately, many people tend to think (in the past me as well) that exercising is just another time waster and it is better to concentrate and dedicate all time just to work. Let’s be honest. How long does a session in a gym or a home workout need to last to keep you fit? 1 hour? 45 mins? I do not assume that those 45 mins will hold you back if you dedicate it to exercising instead of working.

Exercising itself is a great way to increase productivity. When you work out you get energized. For a human, it is very important to shift between brain activity and physical activity. It helps you to relax and clear your mind. Think of it this way. When you exercise 45 mins you do not lose those 45 mins, but you make sure that your body is fit, you regain energy, and all the work that you perform afterward is of a much higher quality.

Goal 7: Break Personal Bad Habits

This is one of the productivity goals that are quite individual and request you to be brutally honest with yourself. All of us have habits that are not only wasting our time but at the same time are decreasing our energy levels and therefore overall productivity. Scrolling social media, constant useless phone calls, gossiping, and many many more similar habits are just draining energy and focus.

Be brutally honest. Write down those habits on a sheet of paper. Read and accept that those are the habits you need to quit from that moment onwards and just avoid coming back to them. If you catch yourself thinking about that habit or actually doing it, have an activity that you shall immediately do instead (preferably create “educational penalties” like reading another 5 pages of a selected book or “physical strength penalties” like doing push-ups).

Goal 8: Keep Your Workspace Clean

If your working environment is a mess (e.g. desk, office) it is the first sign of the mess in your head. All the things that are not directly linked to the activities that you do in that place are distractions. You should learn to keep your working environment only for the things that are directly related to your work and that are used to increase your productivity.

Goal 9: Make Sure To Get Enough Sleep Every Day

Getting quality sleep is one of the most crucial milestones for personal productivity. Studies confirm that people who regularly have issues with their sleeping routine tend to take more sick days and need more time to complete the same tasks.

Goal 10: Have a Morning Routine

Having a morning routine helps you to stay disciplined and structured from the very moment you are awake. By performing a sequence of productive actions every morning you make the basis for a productive day.

Read More: How To Start Your Week Smart: Guide to Strategic Preparations

Conclusion

Whether in a professional setting, studies, or just managing daily tasks, it is important to work smarter, not harder. By targeting the stated above productivity goals, you ensure the utilization of time management techniques, integration of healthy habits, and establishment of effective routines that will uplift your personal productivity.

And of course remember. Do not wait for the right time to target these productivity goals. You can get Constantly Better already now.