A productive workday is a day where:
- Having is no distraction from social medias / youtube / web.
- Having a clear plan and goal of what to do in that day.
- Having only one or two things to do during the day.
- Having a reflection session at the end of day on what needed to be done the next day.
To me, what makes my day unproductive is:
- Having no clear goal on what to do that day. Being reactive, chatting with agents all the time without a clear goal. I completed some tasks but I felt no sense of progress.
- Having youtube on all the time. I tried to avoid listening to music but I couldn’t bear the boredom and had youtube on all the time.
- Doing too many things at the same time.
To gain my thinking muscle back and have a meaningful day, I need to be more aggressive than my usual self. I need to spend extra effort to compensate for the time I slacked off not thinking properly. However, I also need to be aware of my current state: fragmented and can’t concentrate for long. I can’t force myself to be in the state I am not yet ready for. I need to have some rules/guidelines to have a more structured day:
- Hide the phone during the day. Do not use the phone before 7pm.
- Listen to music during working, to cover for the need of listening to youtube.
- Keep a work note to track the progress throughout the day / week and month.
- Save the summarised notes in each meeting to confluence. Read the summarised notes. If they are relevant, have some notes of my own.
- Conclude the day in the work note