I have always considered myself a fairly productive person and I have achieved quite a lot due to knowing when to hang up the distractions and focus, with a lot of help from God of course! I grew up in a very disciplined and productive household. My grandparents rose early to start their day and things around the house had to be done to an excellent standard. This rubbed off on me and I was a dedicated and disciplined student from as early as 5 years old and excelled both academically and in the arts.

I moved to London from the Caribbean at age 15 and despite multiple disruptions in the stability of life around me, was able to be disciplined and dedicated enough to achieve my goals including: achieving a grade 7 piano at 16, moving out by 19, passing the Bar aged 22, having my own music tutoring business at 23 whilst working as a paralegal and part-time hair stylist (all whilst studying, phew!). My hard work eventually paid off in a successful career as a family lawyer along with establishing many side interests.

Fast forward to 2020, since Covid, and I have noticed that my productivity in my work and life had been on a steady decline. I was no longer getting through the day without feeling tired and drained and simply exhausted after work. Let’s face it, Covid was not a normal occurrence, so to think that we would automatically just snap back into a normal way of living, was just plain unrealistic. In general, I found that I was either overworking or being unable to focus when the pressure was not on – this. was. not. healthy.

I had to take stock and attempted to find out what was zapping my energy and motivation. I realised that there were many issues at play including, feeling demotivitated in my job, bad habits from home working, being accessible to people 24-7 (intially due to COVID lockdowns) and more. Bad habits slowly crept in and my yearning for a more relaxed pace in life moved from a healthy recalibration to slow and unproductive way of living. I had to change my daily habits.

I must say I found that it is not easy to stop bad habits if you have not replaced them with something good and something new – also a habit takes me about 2 months to build before I am on a roll, so pace yourself!

DISCLAIMER – I am still working on embedding these habits in my own life but I am proud of the progress I have made to date.

I would like to share some of the ways that I have swapped bad habits for good ones and what has been helping me to stay focused and productive.

1. Is the big J.O.B zapping your energy?

For me one of the surprising truths was that I simply was not as passionate about the office job as I once was. I wanted to focus on my WORK (my overall purpose in life) which did include my job but was not solely the job, so my mind was not fully focused. I felt like a hamster on a wheel going around in circles each day – this was not helping my general drive and joie de vivre. I therefore took the plunge and decided to change jobs to something more challenging but more flexible and my productivity went up 200% in the area of work!

I know it is not easy for all of us to simply pack up and leave our jobs but there are ways we can make our work-life better:

• Have an interest in a specific subject at work? It might seem scary at first but delve right in and try to learn everything about it!
• Organise, organise, organise! once you know what you are dealing with, you can do it in half the time. Can you work part time so you can focus on a side business/ passion for a while?
• Really admire one of your colleagues approaches to work? Why not ask them how they do it and try to emulate some of the skills that allow them to really do well and enjoy work? Could you perhaps upskill yourself? This could not only do wonders for your productivity but for your CV and future prospects also!

 

2. Is the phone zapping your productivity?

It sounds cliched but it’s quite simple… I had to get off my phone!! Whilst the phone is a very useful tool for work and for keeping in touch with loved ones, how much do we actually need to be on it? I found that having people accessing me 24-7 was neither necessary nor was it helping my productivity. Getting off the phone actually helped me to be more focused and alert.

Research has shown that the “typical” internet user spends almost 2½ hours each day using social media platforms, equating to more than one-third of our total online time. Some researchers have even equated excessive social media consumption with depressive like traits

We have forgotten other ways to take breaks from our work which are less harmful … read a few chapters of a book, make a meal, pray, dance, move your body, have a real conversation or go for short coffee break with a friend near by (in real life)!

Do you want to change? It is simple, put your phone away for a couple of hours and see whether your productivity goes up. Keep doing this for a week and devote that time to a useful project. Your life might change, and you might even be happier as a result!

3. Are you spiritually tired?

Practising spiritual discipline helps me to maintain good focus and rhythm in my life. If I am feeling very drained, sometimes there is something on my spirit that I have simply not been praying about and once I get to it and give it to God – everything feels lighter again! Is your spiritual tank full? For me, taking time out each day to focus on the Lord and to meditate on scripture helps me to focus on what is really important in life and helps me to be centred and productive. Try getting up each morning to read some scripture and pray. Ask God to direct you and show you where you are not being productive and ways you could improve this – write it all down. This could be the single most important thing you do each day.

4. Are you taking responsibility for your life? 

Organise! Organise! Organise!

I get most things done quickly (once I start them).

However,

getting…

to…

them…

became the problem. I find that when I have no plans and just simply go with the flow, ambling through the day, not much gets done. This can be quite nice on vacation or for a day off, but not so much when you want to move forward in life!

Don’t feel like you have a plan? Start small – get a physical diary or to do list. There is nothing like writing down your plans and crossing them off as you achieve each task. Plan your day, then plan a week, then go from there. Plan a project or simple things such as household chores/ appointments and find joy in the mundane through gratitude. How do you want to run your household? Adding joy to my life such as treating myself once I have completed my tasks really works for me. I will put on something nice to go and get groceries or even get myself a cheeky Zara scent or a little low-calorie treat. It all helps!

5. Are you looking after yourself?

In part 2 of this blog,I’ll set out practical ways in which you can improve your productivity.

Blessings from Amoya x