The key to productivity – in both our professional and personal lives – is better time management. Sound obvious, right? But it’s not always that easy to put into practice. Being organised does take some initial time and effort but, once you have processes in place, you can enjoy a far more streamlined, efficient and stress-free life. So, where to start?

1. Prioritise

Your first step should be to identify all impending tasks and separate the urgent from the not so urgent. A great way to do this is with a time quadrant; a time management matrix popularised by Stephen Covey in his book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’.

Using a time quadrant, you can sort your to-do list into four separate categories: ‘urgent and important’, ‘not urgent but important’, ‘urgent but not important, and ‘not urgent and not important’. It sounds a little confusing at first, but let me give you a few examples:

• You want to try out that new restaurant and have a money-off voucher that expires in two days – this is urgent because of the timeframe, but it’s not really important.
• You need to make time for a phone call with a good friend who you haven’t spoken to in a while – this is not urgent, but clearly it’s important to maintain your friendship.
• You want to re-organise your CD collection into alphabetical order – okay, this is a good thing to do because it will save you time locating albums, but it’s certainly not urgent, and it’s not really that important. Save it for a rainy Sunday afternoon!

It works for bigger concepts too, such as ‘start on my best selling novel’ – it’s a long-held ambition, so it’s important, but it’s only urgent if you’ve got a commission from a publisher (I haven’t). You can view an example of a time quadrant here.

2. Sleep more!

A common mistake is thinking that staying up late and working into the wee hours will enable you to get much more done. This is a false economy because scrimping on sleep will only leave you less able to perform the following day. It’s far better to get a good night’s sleep, wake early enough to take a leisurely breakfast, enjoy a relaxed commute, and arrive at your desk calm, alert and ready for the day.

According to sleep scientists, even if we don’t get as many hours sleep as we’d like, we can still wake up feeling refreshed by paying attention to our natural sleep cycle and calculating the best time to go to sleep accordingly. Professor Richard Wiseman explains this little-known trick in his recently published book ‘Night School’.

Our sleep cycle consists of four stages of non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, followed by a stage of REM sleep (in which we dream), taking a total of 90 minutes. Each cycle is followed by a brief interlude when we are relatively wakeful, before a new cycle starts again. This means if you can set your alarm clock to go off at the end of a cycle you will awake more refreshed than if it disturbs you mid-cycle. In order to do this you need to count back in 90-minute blocks from the time you wish to wake up, thus giving you the ideal time to go to bed.

3. Reduce social media use

Okay, you’re probably not going to like this one, but (unless it’s part of your job role) you need to get off social media. A 2013 study by Kansas State University found on average people spend between 60% to 80% of their time at work watching cat videos (among other things). So called “Cyberloafing” — wasting time at work online — is one of the biggest killers of productivity.

I did an experiment recently where I completely fasted from Facebook for one week. Although I don’t spend much time posting on Facebook, I do spend a lot of time looking at it. For me, it’s the ultimate voyeurism; I can find out what everybody is up to without actually having to interact (so it’s pretty antisocial really). I usually check first thing in the morning, several times throughout the day, before dinner and last thing at night. It may only be a few minutes at a time, but it quickly adds up. It’s not only the time that it takes, it’s also a major distraction – I should be focusing on the article I’m writing, but instead I’m thinking about my friend’s unflattering new haircut.

During my Facebook-free week I was undoubtedly more focused and, surprisingly, happier because I wasn’t feeling the pressure to keep checking my computer/phone. It allowed me to be more present in the moment. That’s not to say I’ve decided to forego Facebook altogether. I am trying to limit it, but admittedly some days it does creep up again. I think I will do periodic week-long bans to remind myself the world will continue to spin if I don’t check social media. Try it yourself; you may be surprised by the feeling of liberation.

If you need a littler extra help to boost your own self-control (or lack thereof!) try these handy apps that help block distractions like social media while you’re working.

4. Harness technology

There’s no doubt about it, technology can be the enemy of productivity (just think about the hundreds of emails you get every week) but it can also be a good friend. There are hundreds of productivity applications to help you do everything from scheduling your (work-related!) social media posts, to blocking you from social media all together (as noted above).

Here are a few of my favourites:

• Eventbrite has to be top of the list for any event organiser. ‘Managing’ guest lists with excel sheets, using outdated technology or trying to work with multiple apps are productivity killers. Eventbrite’s seamless ticketing and registration system is essential to keeping you zen and achieving more by working smarter in 2015.
• Evernote is one of the most popular productivity apps. It’s an easy to use note-taking tool, which enables you to write to-do lists, collect thoughts and ideas and earmark useful resources, bringing them together in one digital workspace. The Webclipper facility lets you save anything you see online with a single click.
• Coach.me is a goal-setting and coaching app which enables you to choose goals and set up free or paid in-app mentoring. It then tracks your progress.
• RescueTime tracks your activity in applications and on web pages, and then alayises that data, resulting in a better understanding of how you’re actually spending your time.
• Productivity Owl is a Google Chrome extension, which gives you a virtual prod when you’re not being productive. An owl follows you to every website you visit and swoops across the page if it thinks you’re cyberloafing!

5) Productivity starts at home

If you really want to maximise your productivity, you need to be as organised at home as you are at work.

It might sound like overkill, but deciding what you’re going to wear the night before and planning out your week’s meals on the weekend can save you a lot of time and hassle when you’re time-poor.

I believe that organisation breeds success. Simple steps, such as putting your socks into pairs when you put them away or getting your paperwork in order can make you feel more in control and, subsequently, more motivated. Just clearing my desk at the end of a working week in preparation for Monday helps me start the week on the right foot. Sure, it’s covered in paperwork again by Friday, but if I didn’t do it, I’d be drowning in it!

In conclusion

Being productive enables you to get more done in less time – yay! Cutting out distractions and pointless time-wasting gives us more time to spend doing the things that make us feel good – like playing with the kids or settling down to read a book. So what are you waiting for? Start organising those socks today!

Have you got any tried and trusted productivity tips? Please share them with us in the comment section below.

Liked this post? Check out 14 Traits of Highly Effective Event Professionals!