Do These 3 Things Every Day Increase Your Productivity
Life is busy, there’s no doubt about that. Typically we humans spend our time on three activities, sleep, work, and fun. Of the 24 hours per day on average we spend 8 of them sleeping, leaving 16 for work and fun. We spend most of our waking moments work, whether that be paid, unpaid, household duties, and more. According to a study conducted by OurWorldinData.org we Americans only spend an average 5 hours per day on fun.
There are many ways we can use those 5 hours. In years past I would spend them playing video games, watching TV, surfing the web, etc. There’s nothing wrong with those unwinding activities. Our minds need time to decompress. To relax. To unthink about the day so we can reduce our stress levels. Those activities also don’t add much to our lives. We immerse ourselves in a different world but it doesn’t give anything back.
Finding ways to unwind with a cognitive return will help increase your productivity. Business Insider published an article containing a list of self made millionaires habit’s. The lesson I learned from the article is to be intentional with your time. You only have so much of it, use it wisely otherwise it will disappear. Here are the three things you can do to start realizing returns during your leisure time.
Learn
Spend time learning something new. That doesn’t mean sitting down and reading a text book. It could mean practicing a song on the guitar. Reading a book. Listen to a podcast. Find educational resources online to explore topics that interest you (I have many more articles on my blog you can start with). Whatever it is, spend time learning something new. Your brain is like your cars engine. If you drive your car every day and keep up on the maintenance it will keep on running. But if you let it sit idle eventually the battery will die, the hoses will rot, and it will cease to work all together. Continuing to move is the key to maintaining your minds elasticity so you don’t go stagnant.
Experiment
Try something new. I learn best by doing. I can read 100 articles on proper hand plane technic but I won’t learn how to do it until I put my hands in motion and try. Experimentation also brings out our creative side. We are forced to problem solve. To think on our feet. Just the other day I was at the grocery store and I was planning on buying broccoli but out of the corner of my eye I spotted leeks. I haven’t cooked with leeks before, but in that moment I decided I would expand my horizon so I bought leeks instead. Find a topic or activity that interests you and just start doing.
Reflect
One of the most underrated activities is journaling. When I think of a journal I think of the stereotypical teenage girl sitting in their room secretly writing about their crush, writing their names and drawing a heart around it. My journaling is far from that. Instead, write about your week. It doesn’t have to be an every day activity, but consistency is key. Keep on sharing. When you take the time to sit down and really think about what happened you discover so much more about yourself. We make decisions constantly ranging from which color shirt will I wear to what am I going to say to my boss about this project that is behind schedule. Spending the time to think through what we did and why will teach you so much about yourself and help you improve as a human more than you know. And it I don’t mean you have to keep a journal. Find someone to talk to. Setup ground rules to ensure a trusting, judgement free environment and encourage each other to self reflect.
None of these activities have to take long. Take a micro break from work to jot down an idea to explore later or spend 10 minutes of your lunch break reading an article instead of scrolling through Instagram. Those moments spend improving yourself will pay off in spades.
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