Being productive 24/7 is hard to do and doesn't come naturally to everyone. I know for a fact I'm not a productive person or ever will be if left alone without any lists or things telling me what needs to be done. However, productivity is vital if not critical to being successful in life or in business.
I've compiled a small list of things that help me get down to business and don't leave me turning on Netflix and waking up at 8 pm at night.
1. Time Blocking
Setting yourself up with time slots for certain types of tasks makes your life easier and places you in a performance mode to get done as much as you can before the time slot runs out. Placing yourself in this power and time restricted mode allows you to finish things much quicker than if you were going to it on and off throughout the day. Start yourself with 1-hour blocks or increase them to three hours if you need to break up your day into bigger sections. Example:
If I need to take care of customer inquiries, PR outreach, and Blogging done in one day I will a lot 1-3 hours for each task and give myself 30 minutes between my breaks to catch my breath and relax for a second before jumping back into it. I also generally like to work 6 hours of hard work with 2 hours of spaced outbreaks to keep me from getting bored or distracted easily.
2. The Absolute list
My absolute list is built to make sure I do three big tasks each day and make sure they are finished so they do not stack onto the next day. Having an absolute list allows you to focus and concentrate on 1-3 big things rather than 7 small things that you end up jumping between because you get frustrated. I'm not sure if you are like me but if I have more than 5 tasks loaded into my lists I get annoyed because the list feels like it will get too long.
3. Delegation
Perhaps you have a virtual assistant or a business partner you work with or even employees working for you, delegation is an obvious answer but it's rarely done right. In order to delegate properly, you really need to hone your #2 absolute list. Having your absolute list nailed down and being able to know what must be done by you or perhaps you are the only one who knows how to do the job properly. Once your list is done everything under that absolute 3 can be delegated to others or be assisted on by others as they are not the primary source of stress or concern.
4. Busy or Productive?
These are not at all the same thing and for those in here that do not work a 9-5 job you know the difference. Busy is occupying your time while doing things that are tedious and not important while being productive is crossing off your big tasks one step at a time until you have a free day or open schedule.