Research suggests that in an eight-hour day, the average worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes. (Link to study)

That means that the average person is only productive for 44% of their time they work.

Basically, you are wasting 56% of your time at work.

Imagine what you could do if you were twice as productive as you are now.

How much more would you get done? How much further would you rise? How much would your life change?

Read also: Re- engineer yourself to thrive not survive

The following tips can help you raise your productivity levels to well above the average.

Listen to your body.

You need enough sleep and you need enough healthy foods, water and fun throughout your day to stay at your best.

You need a balanced day.

Without sleep you will feel miserable and be unfocused, without the right foods you will lethargic or on edge, and without enough joy you will feel hopeless or like things are pointless.

Listen to your body!

When you feel like you are missing something, feel a headache coming on, or feel like you did not get enough sleep then it is your body telling you that you are already too late to handle it and it is now punishing you for missing out.

To solve this, and have your body fight alongside you not against you, get enough sleep, drink enough and have some scheduled fun time!

7–8 hours of sleep.
3 Liters of Water.
2 hours of fun time.
This should be the least you do in these categories on a daily basis.

Start early in the day.

I’ve once heard that the first 30 minutes of your day will determine the rest of it, and no matter how often I tried to go against it, it remained true.

If you wake up to a cell phone game, your entire day will be concerned with how to get more gaming time in.

If you wake up and exercise, your entire day will be coming from a confident standpoint as you already worked out hard. Etc.

So, if you want to work effectively then before you do ANYTHING else you should pull yourself up, get to a chair, and work for 30 minutes.

I know you are tired early in the morning, probably need to use the bathroom and want to grab a coffee first, and I am not saying you cannot do all of these, but if you just wait 30 minutes before you do your day will go a lot better.

Learn more about yourself every day.

Different people have different affinities for working in different ways.

We are all different and have different “talents” and abilities. Do not try to conform to what everyone else is doing, but instead work on it the way that works best for you.

Here are some criteria to watch out for:

Are you a time worker or an amount worker? Does it stress you more thinking about how much you have to work or how long you have to work? If you are always looking at the time, and you set yourself a certain length to work, maybe try instead to focus on how much you should get done that day and that you will not quit however long it takes. And vice versa.

Do you do better in the morning and in the evening? Most people, even though they do not like to hear it, work better in the morning. Whatever you believe you are, try out both just to make sure. Work one day for 2 hours in the morning, the next for 2 hours in the evening and be honest with yourself on which works better.

Can you concentrate more with long or short breaks? Do you work concentrated for 4 hours, taking a 2 hour break and then hitting it for another 4? Or are you the person that does best without a break at all because you will fall into distractions? Or are you the kind that needs 5 minutes every 15 minutes to get enough done?

Again, try them all and then see which works best. Do not believe which works best for you know it. Otherwise you will only pick the one you like the best.

Read also: 5 signs you have it takes to accomplish your dreams

Schedule your work time as best as you can.

No matter how much you said you would do, and how good your intentions are, if you do not know how you spend your time you will not be able to get better at it.

How many Sundays do you have left until your project is due or until your next review? If you cannot even answer this example question then it is likely that you are not scheduling your time effectively and therefore not using it to its fullest potential.

Yes, it is a lot of work to put up and follow a schedule, but if you want to be effective you need to really know how you are using your time. That means tracking it, calculating it and scheduling it.

Grab yourself a schedule and at least organize the week ahead, putting in enough time for fun activities as well but also enough to finish everything you set out to do.

Even if you still have 5 months left until the project, start now and plan at least twice as much time to work for it as you think it would take.

Most people misjudge how long things take and how much effort is required, but if you can find out exactly how much you need by keeping track of your progress, then you will have a much more relaxed time working for it.

CONTRIBUTED BY Lukas Schwekendiek

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