Productivity during work

During the day there are just SO many things that can keep me from being productive that I’ve created a few habits that helped me increase productivity. Today I thought I’d share these tips with you 🙂

Music

I <3 listening to music. However, I’ve noticed that when listening to ‘ordinary music’, my mind drifts when I listen to the lyrics or notice familiar tunes. Inadvertently I’d lose focus, either changing the song, the volume, humming along etc.

In comes instrumental music/piano music:

• http://musicforprogramming.net/ (awesomely cool website, will see if I can create Spotify playlists based on the playlist found on the site)
• Maximum Concentration playlist on Spotify

Productivity

• Shut down basic apps like
  • Outlook or other mailclient
  • Skype for Business or other business related IM client
  • Close miscellaneous browser tabs [Twitter,Facebook etc], keeping only the necessary tabs opened.
  • Minimize your ticketing system/app
• Block your calendar to inform others what you’re working on
• Set your Operating system and phone to quiet hours/Do Not Disturb

Depending on your work environment, you might want to find an Office for a day to distance yourself from your normal desk and/or work with headphones on [might not be the most social thing to do, but some people do not get the hint]

I’m personally looking in to something called ‘The Productivity Planner’, as I’ve read good things about it, but others swear by apps like Wunderlist or Microsoft’s To-Do (which might be the same in the future)

What about you?

I’d love to hear about your tips which help you improve your productivity!