The Poui trees are blooming and for every university student that is an important reminder that they should be hard at work studying for their exams.

Maximising productivity and being as efficient as you can with your time is the key to conquering the exam season.

Our Today shares with you, 5 tips that if mastered will make you a more productive person.

Write down your plans

‘Those who fail to prepare are prepared to fail’, although a standard expression, is a valid principle. Plan for the week ahead before the week begins. Ideally, spend time seriously mapping out all the tasks for the coming week, and put time aside for the essentials first- time to eat, exercise and rest; maintenance is important for maintaining performance.

Be careful not to over-plan, after including the essentials first, prioritize your weekly tasks from most urgent to least urgent.

Figure out the working style that best suits you

People are different, and to achieve your best it’s helpful to plan around your current circumstances. If you’re a night owl, then it’s your responsibility to ensure that you are rested and prepared throughout the day to stay up late at night tackling all your tasks. If you can only stay focused and on task for short periods, break down the tasks further into individual segments.

Multitasking is the enemy

Doing multiple things at once and doing them well is only a job for robots. Many times we think we’re getting more done if we do as much as possible as we do it, but all multi-tasking does is shorten the journey to burnout, lower the overall work quality and it usually takes longer depending on the complexity of the tasks.

Use the Do Not Disturb feature on your phone and put it away

Mini and small distractions take up more time than people realise and too many of them can quickly snowball into a disaster for your daily goals. The usual culprit is the smart phone. A big part of being productive means being the person who gets their important tasks done. If you’re already prepared for the day from beforehand minimize the amount of access distractions have to you.

If social media is your vice, delete or disable all the social media apps during your peak task hours.

Be certain to let your loved ones know beforehand that you will be unreachable during certain times throughout the day to keep them from worrying.

Track your time spent on your daily tasks and work to improve them.

Tracking your time is a helpful way of gaining insight into your work patterns and makes it easier to optimize your workflow. Having a clear goal for how much time you’re going to spend on something, within reason can reduce anxiety. It also makes it easier for you to factor in time for your loved ones and a guilt free way.

Overall, tracking and limiting your time is a simple yet effective way to improve your efficiency and achieve better results in your work and personal life.

There you have it, Make a checklist, make sure they work for you, take one step at a time, remove all distractions and track how you spend your time.

Do you have any other tips that can help someone become more productive?

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