Productivity

As a university student, being productive with your time is essential, but this can often be hard, especially after coming back from the holidays. Now everyone has a different time of the day when they feel most productive, and for me it is first thing in the morning. So for anyone out there, whether you are a morning person or a night owl, here are my top 5 tips to help you have a productive day.

Tip No. 1

Get enough sleep.

If you haven't had enough sleep the night before, how are you expected to be productive during the day? Adults aged 18-64 need an average of 7-9 hours of sleep a night, with the majority of them obviously trying to aim for that 8-hour sweet spot. However, if you are staying up all hours of the night and only getting say an average of 5-6 hours of sleep on the regular (which the National Sleep Foundation does not recommend in the slightest), how are you going to be functioning at your best? As much as we can all experience FOMO from time to time, was that one drink more or staying up that extra hour to finish an essay really worth it?

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Sleep is also incredibly important for the body to repair itself and for it to be allowed to unwind. According to the National Sleep Foundation, whilst you sleep 'tissue growth and repair occurs', 'energy is restored', your 'blood pressure drops' and hormones such as the 'growth hormone, essential for growth and development, including muscle development' are released. But these obviously can't happen if you don't get enough sleep, and if that happens you could automatically wake up feeling tired and irritable. Not the best start to a productive day.



Tip No. 2

Don't snooze!

Another key element relating to sleep, is to not snooze your alarm dozens of times before you can finally wake up. Trust me we've all been there, when we just want five more minutes in bed, and then that five minutes turns into an extra hour and then we're running late. If you really need several alarms on to wake up in the morning have them set close together but do not although yourself to snooze them. Even switch that function off when setting the alarm so that your not tempted. However, the best thing that you can do is to get up and get out of the room.

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I know people sat that you should make your bed as soon as you get out of it, and if that's easy as fixing the duvet go for it. But if you have one of those complicated bed set ups, with throw pillows and comforters and the like, that can be accomplished when your actually awake. The most important thing to do is to get up, and caffeinate and then you can become a functioning human being (speaking from experience, believe me).

Tip No. 2

Make sure you eat right.

This goes without saying but you cannot expect to be productive during your day if you try to do so on an empty stomach. You have no fuel. And so often you can become unmotivated and lethargic, meaning nothing gets done. On the other end of the spectrum, however, you can also shoot yourself in the foot, if you've eaten so much that you go into a food coma (especially if you've eaten a lot of carbs, although trust me I know that carbs are life!). Although, it might feel good at the time, doing this is not going to help anyone.

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/body/diet-nutrition/a9146610/food-coma-advice/

My recommendation is to start your day off with a healthy and filling breakfast. Every morning I have a bowl of porridge with almond milk, topped with granola and berries, a banana on the side, a glass of apple juice and a large cup of strong black coffee (I'm only human after all). This may seem a lot, but this breakfast means that I have enough good energy to make it through all of the tasks that I need to complete in the morning without getting hungry once.


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Tip No. 3

Make an achievable plan.

Having a plan in place is important because otherwise you'll just spend an hour faffing about and procrastinating when you could be being productive. One way of doing this is by making a to-do list. They are an easy way to get everything out of your brain and down onto paper, and then being able to figure out what needs to be done that day and what can wait till another.


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The one big issue that can occur with to-do lists is by giving yourself too much to do. I you have a list of 20 different things that you need to in one day you are going to feel overwhelmed, and likely disheartened when you don't complete the majority of the tasks. I listen to a great podcast called 'Mindful Productivity Podcast' by Sarah Steckler, a well-being and mindfulness professional. One of the things that she recommends is taking that list and picking just 3 things that you need to complete that day, for example, go food shopping, register for a class and completing a piece of work. This is a much more manageable amount of things to complete for your brain, and will mean that you won't become stressed from just looking at the list.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mindful-productivity-podcast/id1346097120?mt=2

The episode in question is '002: Outcomes vs. Process & Rethinking Daily Productivity'. But check out the whole playlist because Sarah has some great points.

Tip No. 5

Be kind to yourself.

This one is one of my favourite tips! The person who knows themselves and their body the best is you. So if you need to sleep an extra 30 minutes because you had a really late night, do it. If you need an extra cup of coffee in the morning to wake up, go for it. If you didn't quite manage to finish your essay off, that's okay. The important thing is not to beat yourself up. Simply take a break and start fresh in the morning.

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There are so many more things that you can talk about with productivity, but these tips really do help, and will hopefully aid some of you out there to get back into the swing of school and university.

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