Productivity hacks with your phone
Being stuck at home can really take a toll on your motivation. The lines between work and leisure can be blurred as the days go by. Pretty soon, you find yourself being unproductive. You procrastinate more often and your hours are all messed up.
If you’re looking to reset and regain your motivation, you’ve come to the right article. And the reason why we will be focusing on our phones in this article is because our phones are often the source of our procrastination habits. This article will give you tips on regaining control, so you don’t succumb to binge-gaming or Netflix-ing.
There’s a time for work and a time for play. With no one to account for at home, time structure can sometimes go off. When this happens you find yourself scrolling through social media during working hours. If this is you, identify your working hours. For example, from 9 to 12 then 1 to 5, you will not perform any leisurely tasks no matter how small it is.
This doesn’t mean that you will be working for hours without breaks. Allow yourself to take breaks after 45 minutes to an hour of work. But don’t turn to your phone to relax. Do something that will truly allow your brain to recharge. Make a hot drink or a snack.
You could easily set alarms on your phone to let you know when it’s time to work, take breaks or clamp the laptop shut.
Notifications can be distracting. You could be in the middle of work when you suddenly get a notification from Facebook, letting you know that your secondary school friend just got engaged. Inevitably, you’d want to find out who she ended up with. And one thing leads to another. Before you know it, it’s 6pm and you are way past your end-of-day deadline. No matter how insignificant, you should turn notifications off when you’re looking to be productive.
To do so, go to settings, followed by notifications. You’ll then be allowed to manage the apps that are allowed to notify you. Keep work related notifications on if you find them helpful. Otherwise you could easily access them on your computer, where it is less distracting.
Stay on top of your meetings by syncing your work calendar with your phone. If your default calendar doesn’t have a sync function, you can download the Google calendar that works brilliantly with almost all platforms including Microsoft Office. Just sign-in with your work email and check on the email to display upcoming events tied to that email.
While some may not recommend having a to-do list on your phone and to write it down instead, there are some advantages to having your to-do list on your phone. One of them is setting timed to-dos. Instead of just setting the time when you’re going to start on a task, set a time for the same task to be completed. This ensures that you are making good progress throughout your day.
While games and social media apps on your phone should be avoided when taking breaks, this doesn’t mean that you should avoid your phone at all costs. There are apps that can give your brain a boost in a short amount of time.
Try brain training apps such as Peak or relaxation apps like Calm to make the most of your off hours. You could also listen to business related podcasts to keep yourself buzzing with productivity.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a personal assistant to help you with tedious tasks? Well, you have one in the form of your phone assistant. Just call out for Siri or Google to help you set meetings, reply to messages, remind you of upcoming deadlines, give you a motivational quote or even to decipher what your boss means by “ROI”. You’ll be surprised at how much phone assistants can do these days.
Conclusion
As we are in unprecedented times, we should also be open to uncommon ways to help us adapt. Thankfully, our devices have evolved in ways to help us be more productive. That is if we use it correctly. If you’re still looking out for a better phone to supercharge your productivity, consider getting one for less at shop.compasia.com. Not only are our pre-owned phones more affordable, it’s also better for the planet. We’ve also introduced Rely Installments, allowing you to split up payments across 3 months, making our phones even more affordable.