Tips for Staying Productive

    When you're working on something, there's always times that you say you're working but aren't really. You could be distracted by something, or just zoned out. Let's be honest. In times like these, you hardly get any work done at all. Here are some tips to keep you productive, even in these hard times.

Structure Work Time

    One potential tip to help you work more is to designate what you'll do at every time of the day. If you create a schedule for yourself, it leads to you being able to cut yourself away from distractions. On the schedule, you should put down whatever you intend to do for that period. If you decide you should take a break, put that on the schedule too. The most important thing is to never disobey the schedule. If you do, then that defeats the whole purpose.

    An additional tip that you can utilize in your schedule is, in addition to what you will be doing for certain time periods, put what you seek to accomplish. That will help you stay on track with your goals.

Try New Things

    If you work monotonously, you'll probably end up getting bored at some point, and this will impact your working speed. You won't  be able to do as much if you're bored or unhappy while working. So do something new. Whether this is studying using a different method, or going about doing a different task altogether isn't as important, just make sure that you're always actively, intently learning.

Move Your Body

    Kind of as a sub-point to 'Try New Things', moving about can positively impact your productivity. Staying cooped up, learning or working, is basically doing the same thing for hours on end. Taking a break by walking about or doing light exercises refreshes you and your body.

Focus on Small Steps

    If your goal is to work for 4 hours without getting up, no breaks or nothing, don't do that on the first day. Start slow. 

    Also, you should partition your work-time into smaller chunks. Instead of worrying about how you're going to finish a 60-page report, just focus on getting the first page done today, and the second page done the next day. Working in small chunks helps incentivize you, as you have a goal to reach by the end of the day, or by the end of the hour, or whatever.

Just Start, Somehow

    And finally, just start. Most of your dilly-dallying and not-working happens before you start. While you're working, it's a lot harder to intentionally stop working and start goofing off than it is to goof off when you haven't started working in the first place. Just pushing yourself and starting to work will go a long way.