Twilight and other lux screen apps filter out blue light at night, so staring at your phone screen won't keep you awake Track your diet and exercise with an app like MyFitnessPal or LoseIt! Keep emails and social media open Another unsurprising finding from Bailey is that keeping social media and email tabs open while you're trying to work has a significant impact on your productivity. Because you're likely to be distracted by the immediate gratification that likes or messages can provide, social media can greatly diminish your productivity, according to Elsevier. Email is pretty much the same. According to the Harvard Business Review, “every time we return to our original task, we use valuable cognitive resources to reorient ourselves. And all of those transition costs add up. HBR cites a UC-Irvine study that found it takes us up to 20 minutes to get back into focus mode after something like the email grabs our attention.

When working on a single project, close all social media and email tabs, and turn off your cell phone and instant messaging hair masking service programs so they aren't disturbed or quiet. Advertising Continue reading below What productivity techniques actually work Many of the tasks Bailey has tried have helped me, but here are the top three that I've also found to have the most impact on my overall productivity levels. Complete three tasks per day This is a tenant of the productivity bible Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. As part of the system, Allen (and later, Bailey) recommends that you go to your to-do list in the morning (or the night before, when you leave your desk for the day) and identify the three “to do” tasks. for the day.

These are things that would negatively impact your job, your customer relationships, or your income if you didn't do them. Often, we give equal importance to all of our tasks; instead of choosing to focus only on the most important ones which are the ones that move us forward. Describing these three tasks and working only to accomplish them is what will make you most productive. You can use a to-do list app to identify them, or just use an old-fashioned pad of paper that you keep on your desk. Advertising Continue reading below As long as you complete your three tasks a day, Bailey and Allen promise you'll keep pushing forward and it'll all be done eventually.