How I manage to boost my productivity by 400% in pandemic times
Successful people are simply those with successful habits — Brian Trancy
We all know that our working routines, as well as our productivity, suffered a significant change after we got into this pandemic stage.
Probably most people increased the spending time on Netflix, video games, social media, etc. I admit… I was one of them!
Fortunately, as a software engineer, our sector didn’t get affected much by the plague. Most of us just needed to switch our laptop’s location, and that was it, we were ready to start over again.
I knew I wanted more. I didn’t want to spend all my additional hours, saved from not needing to commute to the university, not being able to hang out with friends or take photos, with video games, tv shows, and social media. I wanted to replace them with productive time.
After a year, I can guarantee you that the results were astonishing. I just needed to master two simple skills:
- Time Management
- Habits
In this article, I will explain how I did it, and how you can do it too!
# Don’t let your habits and laxity get the better of you
All we do is based on habits. Habits like waking up at 7 AM, checking social media every hour, checking emails and answering them, and the other 235 tasks that are already embedded into our daily routines.
Most people can’t realize how addicted they are to the cellphone. It has been studied that if you ask someone how much time they spend on their phones, they will answer, on average, about 60% less than the real-time.
It’s frightening, but also common. Have you noticed for how long we do that?
The first step of change is to ask yourself this:
- Why do I want to change?
- What are the pros and cons?
First, you need to realize why you’re even considering doing it.
After clearing the blur behind these questions, you have everything you need to start changing.
# Don’t wait for the perfect time
Most people just don’t do things because it’s not the best time. They wait and wait… and they are still waiting.
The perfect time will never come! It’s you and only you who can create it.
Just remember:
- Start where you are!
- Use what you have!
- Do what you can!
In the end, something will be better than nothing.
# How to manage your time and goals
There are plenty of tools to help you with that problem. But they only work if you keep using them. Don’t expect that 2, 8, or 15 days, will be enough to master this skill, it takes time. Give time to time.
My best suggestion is the Notion platform, but you can easily use a simple calendar, a notepad, or a simple paper.
I use Notion because of its great, already made, templates. It can be described as a database with plenty of connections between contents like goals, ideas, book notes, and articles.
Start by defining your week ahead. Sunday is a perfect day for that. Just by thinking about it, you’ll start to outline your path, focused on your end goals.
This is my current week plan:
Start small, and in time, start adding more and more. The goal is to look back one day, and realize that this “more” is now not enough.
Before the quarantine, the only content I read was mainly web articles. I wanted more. I needed this quarantine to be about growth. As a software engineer, it’s a requirement!
My goals were the following:
- Exercise at home;
- Increase significantly my engineer expertise;
- Expand my network with people that shared the same tech ideologies;
- Start writing for Medium;
Why do so many people tend to start a diet and after a month, they get back to their fast food routines? Why do so many people start going to the gym, and after two months, are back to their couch routines? Have you ever wondered why?
The problem is not the gym nor the food, the problem is how people set their goals. They start big and then they get demotivated.
People need small achievements to keep going.
Why would you keep investing if you just see your money go away? Why would you keep on running if you can’t get out from where you started?
By defining small achievements, it will be a more enjoyable ride through the path you defined.
I didn’t start reading 50 pages a night, I didn’t work out for 3 hours, writing 10 articles a month. I started small, 10 pages a day, 15 minutes of exercise thrice a week, writing two articles a month. I kept doing that, and suddenly, the results started to arrive.
# How to keep on track
Whenever you decide to finish your week, have a look at the accomplished and the non-accomplished tasks. In case you had difficulties achieving some, try to understand why in the first place.
With those answers, adapt the week ahead based on them.
We are talking about a work in progress. You can’t create a plan that will work 100% of the time.
There will be weeks where you have university assessments, or your work meeting takes longer than you expected. Leave a place for flexibility, leave space for improvement.
Avoid spending 3 hours reading so you can say you read. I prefer to read for 30 minutes than 3 hours of pure content that after five minutes gets erased from my mind.
Sometimes, more equals less.
On average, a task takes about two months to get embedded into a person’s daily routine. Then you can call it a habit. Impressive right?
That’s the key, keep doing! If you find yourself going too fast, slow down a bit, change to a lower shift, but don’t stop.
# After a year following this pattern
A year has passed, a lot of rework was needed on the schedule I’ve shown, the tools changed, but the goals never changed.
The results:
- I exercise every single day between 30 minutes to an hour. No excuses!
- I read between 1 and 2 books a month, tech and cultural related. No excuses!
- I have been writing two articles a month, since the beginning. No excuses!
- I met awesome folks with the book clubs, and I created my own book club! No excuses!
Just a small side note, this is just the beginning! I am excited about the future!
Whenever you learn these skills, you can do anything you want, and most importantly, whenever you want!
# Conclusion
I know it feels too simple, probably because it is. Everyone can achieve what they want, they just need persistence and focus.
Remember, start small! Something is better than nothing.
Let me know in the comments what’s your process for achieving your goals!
