Lesson 3: Productive people routine

A good routine directly affects your productivity, creativity, and happiness. Which in turn has a positive impact on your career trajectory. For reaching peak productivity, it is important to schedule your days and weeks for productive things to do for giving more structure to your day. This helps to focus better on the task at hand. Planning your day with productive things to do can increase the success rate of following the schedule from 34% to 91% according to a study in the British Journal of Health Psychology .

Here are a few tips that can help you make the most of your productive day:

1. Having a proper morning routine:

   Proper morning routines and a healthy morning motivation are highly advocated by high-achieving individuals. Getting up early and having a structured morning has lots of benefits. The most important one being that you are present and awake before the day demands. You could take the morning to plan and don’t have to jump right into the challenges of everyday life.

2. Schedule based on your peak productivity time:

   Your peak productivity time is when you are the most motivated, and focused. Working during this time helps you get into a “flow state and flow in some productive things to do“. When you are the most engaged, you have more energy and get more in less time.

3. Take productive breaks:

   We need to take regular breaks in order to operate efficiently. Don’t confuse these productive breaks with checking social media regularly. Instead, choose productive things to do in your break that relaxes your mind.

   Here are some ideas for efficiently utilizing your break:

   • Make some tea
   • Meditate
   • Read a blog post
   • Do a quick workout or some light stretching
   • Take a short walk.
4. Take power naps:

   Napping is a great way to take short breaks and refresh your mind.

   According to research, 10-20 minutes is an ideal time to take a nap. In that timespan, we wake up refreshed. Many people complain that they wake up tired even after naps, that is because they sleep for too long.

   Want to make your nap even better? Drink some coffee before your nap!

   Caffeine usually takes 25-30 minutes to kick in. This helps you wake up fresh, with a kick of caffeine.

5. Lunch breaks and proper diet:

   Good nutrition positively affects our performance and efficiency.

   Ever wonder why we start feeling lazy after consuming something high in sugar, for example, bread or soda? High sugar consumption leads to a sudden spike followed by a crash and this leads to low energy and low productivity.

   We function best with about 25 GM of glucose in our system—roughly the same amount in a banana ( Robin Nixon , 2009). The best way to keep full would be to intake regular small balanced meals with carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

Bonus:

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