As productive content ninjas, the Internet is our best friend. It is also our worst enemy. Well, not really but it is more convenient to blame it, haha! Well we cannot deny that as people who write, most of us spend hours on the Internet, and not completing our word count for the day. Productivity suffers and if you are like me, you’d be hyperventilating by the end of the day and stressing yourself about the word limit not being met.
Most people have their own hack which we’ve mostly come to through intensive trial and error. When I was a newbie freelancer, I would sit to work at 9 am and would be working till as late as 11 pm and sometimes even later. Not because I had a lot of work right from the beginning, but because I’d start researching on a topic and this would lead to that. Few hours later, I’d have watched baby videos, stalked my ex or some old friend I am no more in touch with, read about the weirdest of topics, checked out recipes I never intended to make … you get the drift. And when I’d started freelancing as a writer, I didn’t know anyone else who was already established doing this. So like most of us, I learnt my ropes slowly.
In this post, I am sharing a few hacks which work for me with the hope that if you are a newbie reading this, you might find the help you are looking for.
Use the Pomodoro Technique
Developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, most authors and writers swear by the Pomodoro Technique today. The idea is to divide work into short durations using a timer, and the timer in question was originally shaped liked a tomato which explains the word Pomodoro which is Italian for tomato. A simple kitchen timer does the task here where we set the timer to certain durations, say, 25-minutes, during which we work without any distraction and once the timer rings, we take a short break to tend to our distractions.
There is reward involved in the form of a short break after every short duration of work and psychologically that does the job intended.
Also Read: Five Reasons Why Blogging Is Beneficial For Your Business
Learn to Say NO
This is specially for the self-employed, the freelancers, the authors, and everybody who works from home, pandemic or not. Others have a problem understanding what your work hours are and how they cannot encroach into it.
A relative might call or visit just to chat, a friend might expect you to show up for mid-week lunch, or your family might expect you to sit for mid-meals when you actually need to be on a meeting or are on a deadline.
Say NO. A firm no. Your work is important, it involves money and requires high accountability from you. Explain how your work hours are to be treated as office hours and you are not to be disturbed. At times, even though we complain, we choose not to be firm with this NO because it gives us an excuse to wiggle out of work sometimes.
But when productivity takes a hit, who has to work overtime? Us, who else?
Implement the Two-Minute Rule for Quick Tasks
According to the two-minute rule, when we start something new it should take less than two minutes to do. Let me give you a live example – my husband and I have decided to read before bedtime every night from today. So for how long do we read tonight, it will be the first night of the experiment? One page. Of course, we can continue reading after the first page, but one page must be read. That is how there will be a solid chance that tomorrow again we shall read.
And that’s how the habit will begin…
Use Website Blockers for Distracting Content
Let’s not pretend for one second that the time we spend procrastinating our work, we are doing anything other than scrolling through the same 5-6 social media sites and sharing the same memes everywhere. Because that is exactly what we are doing. So to be productive, the obvious thing to do is use website blockers.
Also Read: Reasons Why You Need A Professional Beta Reader For Your Manuscript
Access social media sites only from your phone or tablet, but not from the device you use to work from, which is your laptop in most cases.
Listen to Productive Music (or Sounds)
Most freelancers work while instrumental music plays. My personal favourites are – the Harry Potter theme song, and sounds of rain. The audios are all easily available on the Internet and happen to be immensely calming.
Playing music while working can be dicey if the music is distracting which is why it is important to select productive music. Youtube has an elaborate segment of productive music. Take your pick from here. Such music not only helps focus, but also relaxes our senses and drives away distractions.
Productive music is my choice.