10 Steps to Being More Productive

As Year 11 and 13 students near their final exams, revision and independent work starts to mean even more than they did in the previous year-and-a-bit of study. But there is a bit of a difference between the loose definition of just “studying”, and working productively. In its most basic form, productivity is output measured by input, but what does this actually mean?

What we want is maximum output for minimum input and not the other way around. A great way to phrase this is ‘working smarter, not harder’. Putting in as little as possible to get the most out - ‘profiting’ from your effort. The following are ten top tips to improve your productivity.

1. Stop Multitasking: 

Psychology has shown time and again that the concept of multitasking doesn’t actually exist. Unless the two tasks are very different from each other, such as listening to music while drawing or painting, then the same area of the brain will be employed, and therefore rather than ‘multitasking’ you will simply be switching your attention between tasks, which is inefficient. 

Even when the tasks are dissimilar, if one is complex, then having another task for your brain to deal with, even something as simple as listening to music, can overload the system. By focusing on just one task at a time, you will complete it to a higher standard and in less time. Completing tasks also gives you a sense of accomplishment, which can help to increase motivation.

2. Set Small Goals: 

Too often, students will define a goal as something like: “Pass my A-Levels with top grades and go to the university of my choice so I can get a good degree and then the job of my dreams”. It’s wonderful to have long-term goals such as this, but always focusing on the distant future can be hard if you can’t see the progress you are making. 

Setting small, specific goals can help you create momentum by breaking tasks into manageable, bite-sized milestones such as: “Complete and mark a Maths past paper in mock exam conditions by the end of the week”.

These milestones build as you progress towards your end goal, but help to keep you driven in the short term as you recognise that progress and prepare yourself on hwo to achieve the next small goal.

3. Take a Break: 

While this may seem counter-productive, it is actually very important. Humans have what is called a Basic Rest Activity Cycle (BRAC), an ultradian rhythm that runs continually throughout the day on an approximately 90-minute cycle. 

Scheduling yourself short breaks of 10-15 minutes every 90 minutes or so (more frequently for younger people) allows your mind to have a rest, which can help you to return with renewed motivation and potentially new ideas or understanding.

Use the break time to move around, don’t just sit at your desk. Get something to eat or a hot drink perhaps. It is also a good idea when revising, to switch subjects after your break to allow your mind to focus on different information and avoid subject fatigue derailing your motivation to study. If you need to keep to the same subject, try switching up topics or a new revision method to keep things interesting.

4. The Five-minute Rule: 

if procrastination is a big challenge for you, try the five-minute rule.

This technique states that you will promise yourself that you will spend just five minutes on an outstanding task, thereby eliminating many of the excuses that stop you from starting something. This is often the hardest part.

Often, once the five minutes is up, you will find that you have the motivation to continue, and may not even notice how much time has passed. This is thanks to the Zeigarnik Effect where the mental stress of an unfinished task keeps it in the forefront of our minds, making other tasks seem less appealing.

5. Time Blocking: 

Using time blocks and other time management strategies are established and well-known productivity hacks.

By creating time block frames in your workday schedule, e.g. a revision timetable, you make the conscious decision to dedicate a certain block of time to a particular task. Having a sense of direction and control over a situation can alleviate the stress of not knowing what to do next, and allows you to move seamlessly from one task to another.

Spending time at the beginning of the week to produce the timetable allows you to save time during the week as you will know exactly what you are meant to be doing. Don’t forget tip 3 - build in rest breaks throughout the day!

Making these timetables can be laborious and often prevent anythign from getting tsrated - so check out Sherpa’s advice on creating the ultimate revision timetable that you only need to set up once, then it takes less than 5 minutes to update and create a dynamic plan for the day. Currently just fro GCSE students, Sherpa even has it’s own online revision tool that’s set up for you - all you have to do is choose your subjects. Check it out here.

6. Limit Distractions: 

Becoming distracted is very normal, and focus doesn’t always come naturally. However, it is a skill that can be developed. Turn your notifications off, set your phone to aeroplane mode, set up a study focus if you have an iPhone, or use a productivity app like Freedom. Or even just switch your phone off completely! 

World-leading addiction expert Dr Anna Lembke, author of the book Dopamine Nation, states that we turn to our mobile phones for a quick hit, seeking attention, validation and distraction with each swipe, like and reel.

Dopamine doesn’t give us pleasure itself, despite being known as the ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitter, instead, it motivates us to do things we think will bring us pleasure. Lembke says that our obsession with instant gratification means that we are living in our limbic brain, the primitive midbrain that processes our emotions, rather than in our prefrontal cortex, the part that deals with future planning and problem-solving. 

Getting away from the constant ‘ping’ or the screen lighting up with a new message, allows you to focus on the task at hand. You can always ‘reward’ yourself with screen time after you are done - use it as a carrot to maintain focus rather than a distraction that steals your focus.

7. Do the Hardest Thing First: 

Author Mark Twain famously once said “If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.” It can be tempting to avoid difficult, unpleasant or time-consuming tasks and instead focus on the ‘easy wins’ that may seem more appealing to start with early in the day.

However, by taking on your most difficult projects first, you can increase motivation and focus for the rest of the day. If you have a subject that you find hard to revise, start with that. When you are done you will feel a sense of relief which then makes everything else you have to do feel so much easier.

If we do the reverse, we can kid ourselves we are making progress, when we are really ticking off lower priority tasks leaving the one that needs the most attention to be left until it’s too late to even start. Sound familiar?

8. Set Boundaries: 

To complete your tasks effectively and be productive, you must be able to complete them within a reasonable time frame. Setting boundaries can help stop you from becoming overwhelmed, distracted or downbeat about your progress.

Much like the concept of time blocking, this means that you give yourself a set amount of time to work on a given task. However, setting boundaries goes further to set an amount of work to be completed as well as the time in which to do it. Not only does this provide extra motivation through self-imposed mini deadlines but they provide feedback on how proficient you are in that task and if you are improving.

You are not going to be productive if you give yourself an hour block to work on a subject, and then spend the entire time very slowly doing a random task with no definition of what would be considered progress. Ensure that you are being productive by setting realistic goals to be completed within the time allowed. 

9. Identify When You Are Most Productive:

Everybody is an individual. Some people work best in the morning, while others hit their productive stride after lunch. Identifying when you are most productive and then organising your daily schedule to make the most of these peak times is an excellent way to increase productivity. You should never fully trust what works for someone else until you have felt it makes a difference for yourself.

You may have heard people talking about whether you are a Lark or an Owl. These refer to your chronotype; your biological clock, a genetically dictated internal rhythm which dictates many processes in your body, including alertness and sleepiness, appetite and mood. 

It is now thought that rather than just two there are four chronotypes, which are known as ‘Lion’, ‘Dolphin’, ‘Bear’ and ‘Wolf’. Lions tend to hit peak productivity around 9-10 am, Bears between 12 noon and 3pm, and Wolves between 3pm and 6pm. Dolphins have several peaks throughout the day, getting more productive with each successive one, and hitting the highest peak between 6pm and 8pm.

10. Get Enough Sleep: 

You cannot be productive during the day if you are not getting enough sleep at night. Adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep a night, and teenagers require slightly more. Related to the previous tip, when you sleep is also important. 

If you are someone who is productive in the morning, then you will need to make sure that you are going to bed earlier to get a full night's sleep. All that work and revision that you have been doing all day is not going to be worth anything if you are not getting enough sleep, because it is when we sleep that we learn, not when we are reading notes or answering exam questions. 

For text-book, fact-based learning, like that done by someone revising for their A Levels, research has shown that it is early night NREM sleep which provides the best memory consolidation. 

Getting to bed at a reasonable hour to ensure that you get the most early NREM sleep is therefore going to elicit the highest return for your effort during the day. Interestingly, sleep before learning is just as important, refreshing our ability to make new memories. 

Indeed, taking a short nap of 90 minutes (one sleep cycle) allows for a markedly improved capacity for post-nap learning. So prioritise your sleep, especially at night, in order to maintain optimum productivity during the day, and take a nap if you can to help you take on the afternoon with increased memory capacity.

In Conclusion

If you are able to work at your most productive in the run-up to the exams, you are far more likely to achieve those goals you have set for yourself. Being productive isn’t always easy, so if you can’t employ all of these tips, focus on the ones you can - and make sure that one of those is sleep!