Reality check: it’s January, it’s dark when you wake up (and commute home), and frankly the world feels like a pretty bleak place. This time of year, after the yuletide festivities have died down, is notoriously tricky to navigate, but work goes on right?
The good news is, it doesn’t have to feel all doom and gloom. There are plenty of productivity hacks that you can employ right now (or at any time of year, for that matter), that’ll get you back into your groove. There is someone to hear you, the Step Up Club.
It is launched in the first place, to help others manage their work lives smarter. And today, in our media-charged lives, it can be done with a bit of career-boosting advice when the days feel like their dragging.
With this in mind, Step Up Club partnered with Love Fresh Cherries, because, guess what: your brain is an organ that needs nourishing just like every other organ in your body. And that means what you put in (food/drink/too much coffee) will have a direct impact on your work and life output. As they know, they’ve tried to smash through one too many projects on jittery, caffeine highs.
Which is why the Club and Love Fresh Cherries are singing cherries’ praises. Put simply, by eating cherries as part of your daily diet with mean that your brain produces more of the mood-enhancing hormone serotonin. And when your brain is rich in serotonin, you will feel happier and more able to cope with all that winter – and work – has to throw at you. As a useful side offering, cherries are also jam-packed with melatonin, which is the hormone that promotes healthy sleep patterns. So it’s a win, win for cherries.
For the record, they have actually spent the first few weeks of the New Year putting cherries to the test, and you know what, they’re engaged in some of the projects, sleeping better and generally ready to attack the year ahead better than was expected. Obviously, cherries alone cannot create this state of well-being but, as part of your daily food ritual, they certainly beat a chocolate digestive or even one of those healthy, date-rich trendy snacks, at keeping you on an even keel.
So with their energy levels up, Fab UK thought it would be useful for its audience to share their 3 other productivity tips for getting you working smarter in 2019:
- Have a one-point To Do. There is just no point having hundreds of entries on your daily To Do List, because the simple fact is, you just won’t get them done. And completing tasks is necessary to keep us feeling successful and in turn, productive at work. That little dopamine hit you get when you put a tick next to a finished task, is what you’re after. And the best way to do this is tohave two concurrent To Do lists. One that contains a single vital entry, and the other, in the background that’s a reminder of everything else you need to do. With this structure in place, all you need to do is choose one task each morning from your background list, move it to your vital To Do, and feel the daily satisfaction at getting that job done and out. It’s simple and effective.
- Work in 25-minute cycles. Distraction is a massive productivity zapper. We’ve all been there; you’re working through a task, you think you’ll have a quick look on Instagram, or at the headlines, and suddenly, bam 30 minutes have disappeared and your work is stuck in the same place. If this is you, be structured in how you manage your work time. Many career experts believe that a 25-minute work cycle, followed by a 5 minute browsing break, puts you in the best and most achievable stead for getting the job done. If you want to eat cherries in your 5 minute break, all the better.
- Take a walk. Honestly, if you’re feeling disengaged in your work, or need a creativity hit, take a little walk outside. This is the easiest (and cheapest!) way to get back on track when it comes to productivity. The simple art of walking away from your desk, preferably without your phone, is under used in the workplace, because so many of us feel that if we aren’t tapping away at our laptops then we’re somehow not working hard enough. The truth is, we need variation in our days, to work effectively. So take a walk, or better, find a place to meditate or catch a quick gym session if you can, and feel the immediate productivity boost on your