Anonymous woman working on laptop in room

Life Design at Work: Unconventional Productivity Hacks

Or, how to train your brain so that you can focus and not be so distracted… Oh look! Baby bald eagle!

  1. DND phone edition. Turn off your phone, put it on DND, place it upside down in your purse, backpack, drawer, or (even better) a room away. 
  2. DND email edition. If you work in a place that does the fast-paced email thing, it can feel impossible to concentrate with the constant bubbles popping up in the bottom right corner of your screen. Set a gentle “away” message if you have to (template below), commit to checking it at certain times, and then turn. it. off.
  3. Move every 50 minutes for at least 10 minutes.  If you find yourself reaching for you phone, email, or other modes of distraction, move more frequently. Go outside, play with your dog, chat with a colleague, but get up and move. Our bodies are wired for movement and (extra bonus) it can make you more productive. How many times have you had a brilliant idea while you weren’t sitting at your computer and needed to go write it down? Exactly. Get up, step away, move.
    • And every 2-3 hours, get up and move for at least 45 minutes. See reasons above.
  4. Dance. If you work from home, this is easy. Put on some jams that move you and move your body. Literally get the unstuck energy moving. If you’re at work, feel free to have dance parties. Or if that feels weird, wiggle. Like you’re playing the hokey pokey, shake your right foot, then left, then arms, and then wiggle those hips. Do it in the bathroom if you have to.
  5. Go. out.side. During at least one of those breaks (ideally more than that), go outside. Bring a raincoat if it’s rainy. Or hat or umbrella if it’s super sunny. Like our bodies require movement, we’re also wired for Nature, and reconnecting, even for just a few minutes, can have amazing, lasting impacts.

Template:
Thank you for your email. To increase my focus and therefore productivity, I will be checking emails at 10am and 4pm. If this is urgent, I can be reached by phone .
Thank you for your understanding.
-You, Badass Extraordinaire

Give these a go for a week and see how your memory, focus, and even happiness shifts. I’d love to know how this went for you; leave a comment below.