Working for your big project or studying for your next exam can be pretty hard if you don’t have a constructive and thorough plan for achieving your work. You may be working too much and not achieving your desired goals, or it may be that you cannot focus on your task properly or your Facebook is just popping up with notifications from that group your DJ friend of yours asked to join but you never even bothered to check, every two seconds.

Whatever it is, here are some tips that have helped me (and will hopefully help you too) work more productively.

Choose your environment

I personally enjoy working in my balcony or in my own room with the windows open or even sometimes at cafés. I like some fresh air circulating around. Of course the working environment varies from one person to the other, but it is crucial to find an environment where you feel yourself comfortable at and can work properly (and without distractions) in. It may take some time to find your niche at first, but just keep experimenting. Go to the public library, work outside in the park, or close your door and just work in your room. Once you find an environment ( or several ones) that suit(s) you best, stick to it/them and try not to change it/them.

Also determining at what time of day you are best productive; wether you are a night-person or an early riser that can finish his work in the morning; will help you get things done better.

Disarm all barriers

Now that you have found your niche, you must get rid of all the obstacles standing in your way. Turn off your cell phone, or turn airplane mode on so that you don’t receive any calls or any annoying messages from friends you haven’t talked to in months, asking you to like their page on Facebook or checking this song or that video. At times, I leave my phone outside my working environment, completely out of range.

Your cell phone or your laptop is the greatest barrier. Once gotten rid of [temporarily, of course], your focus and your productivity will rocket sky high. Trust me, the hardest part has passed.

Work in focused bursts

The pomodoro technique is a very brilliant and efficient technique that has helped me a lot achieving quality results in a short time. Of course you can set your own pomodoro times to make it more flexible. I stick around with the primary 25 minutes-work and 5-minutes break. But you’re welcome to change it to whatever working/break period fits you. Try to adjust it, so that you can finish one task each pomodori.

Taking breaks

Take a walk, read a quick article in your newspaper, play two or three rounds of Angry birds on your phone or do anything that will make you rest your mind from the work you have just done. You could check your Facebook or call a friend during your breaks, however I do not advise you to do that, because once you open your Facebook again, you will be beleaguered with messages and notifications that will keep you distracted for more than your fixed break time.

Your to-do list

Try to set the goals you want to achieve during your day in the morning. That way you can keep track of what you have finished and what not at the end of the day. I recommend using the 1-3-5 to-do list. Set 1 big important task, three medium ones and 5 minuscule ones to finish during your day. It would be great if you could divide your goals to fit your pomodoris. e.g try to finish your big task in two pomodoris and your medium tasks in one pomodri each.

Rest of the day

The rest of the day is yours. Do whatever you want. After you have focused on your tasks, which you have finished qualitatively using the aforementioned techniques and tips, break free; call your friends, check that group, hang around with your friends and do whatever the fudge you want!

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