Home Academics Reignite your productivity with these 3 techniques

Reignite your productivity with these 3 techniques

Apr 10, 2024

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Read time: 12 min

Key points

Simply starting a project can make you more likely to complete it, even if you walk away before it’s finished.
When it comes to skill-building, single out specific elements you’re having trouble with for improvement.
Hold yourself accountable by taking note of what you’ve accomplished within a certain time frame.

Are you determined to quit procrastinating and be more productive? Even when you’re motivated, it can be tricky to stick with it—especially once your calendar fills up with deadlines.

“Procrastination is a very complicated psychological process, sometimes used as self-preservation because it can lead to a potential failure (e.g., a low grade). You can accept [the failure] because you finished it all in one night and didn’t give your 100 percent effort,” says Puneet S., a third-year undergraduate at the University of British Columbia in Kelowna, Canada. “However, this can be an exhausting cycle that’s best broken as soon as you recognize you’re doing it.”

Here are three evidence-based ways to beat procrastination and increase productivity. These techniques will have you getting things done more efficiently with fewer anxiety-ridden, late-night study sessions. Harness their power and set yourself up for a productive year from start to finish.

In the 1920s, psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik found that it’s human nature to strive to complete a task we’ve already started. That’s why cliffhangers in TV shows work so well: We come back because we want to know the conclusion.

Zeigarnik developed her theory based on her professor’s observation that servers at a busy restaurant were better at remembering a table’s order before their meal was complete, but that once the check had been paid, the server no longer remembered the details of the order. Zeigarnik tested her theory in the lab and found that the same was true in other contexts. She assigned random tasks to study participants and learned that when a person was interrupted from their task, they actually became more eager and more likely to complete it.

In other words, you might have an easier time getting that assignment done if you can convince yourself to just start it, even if you walk away before it’s finished. Students agree: In a CampusWell survey, more than 71 percent of respondents felt that just beginning a project made them more likely to come back and finish it.

Expert advice

Don’t push projects aside for too long, says productivity expert David Allen, author of the bestselling book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. “Your brain hangs on to things that are incomplete, taking up valuable ‘mental real estate’ that could be used for other and better things. Keep track of those things that are incomplete and review them regularly.”

Try this

Begin by setting aside just 45–60 minutes to get started on a project. Chances are you’ll feel better about jumping back in and finishing the job once you’ve made a dent in it.

“Just getting started is the hardest part for me,” says Shawna S., a graduate student at Portland State University in Oregon. “If I don’t start, I wander around thinking about starting. Once I actually get myself started, the anxiety of the project starts to go away.”

Deliberate practice is intentional practice that focuses on improving in a specific area or a single skill. Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson found that musicians who implemented deliberate practice became more successful than those who practiced without a strategy, according to a 1993 pioneer study in Psychological Review. Further research on deliberate practice in fields other than music found that the same can be true for university students.

So what can deliberate practice look like for you? Basically, you come up with a plan to work on the things you struggle with—whether that’s memorizing the periodic table or Spanish verb conjugations—and ideally get real-time feedback from a professor, classmate, or tutor to help you see how you’ve improved over time.

Expert advice

Focus is a key component of deliberate practice (you know, that whole deliberate part). Once you start losing it, it’s time for a break. Free yourself from the books every now and then to let your brain breathe.

“You absolutely need regular breaks from intense thinking to allow your brain to regroup and refresh itself,” says Allen. “Thinking engages a ‘cognitive muscle’ that can burn out if not given adequate rest. That means enough sleep and frequent breaks during the day to daydream, play, and think about nothing in particular.”

Still not convinced? Consider this—the makers of productivity app DeskTime analyzed their real-life data to find two “magic numbers”: The highest-performing employees were those who worked for intervals of 52 minutes straight, with 17-minute breaks in between. Previous studies have shown that human ultradian rhythms (your body’s natural intervals in a period of 24 hours) take 20-minute alertness dips, so the research matches up.

You might not be able to control your class schedule, but back at home base, set your alarm to notify you when it’s time to take a break, go for a walk, or do whatever lets your brain have some wiggle room.

Try this

How can you deliberately put deliberate practice into practice? (Whoa.) Try these key factors:

Set intentions.

Make an outline of what you’re going to get done. Focus on the hardest tasks first and schedule breaks every 45–50 minutes before moving on.

Strive for improvement—and know how to measure it.

Is your goal to get through a class presentation without reading your notes? Rehearse it at home until you can do it with one less flash card, then two. Keep going until you’re flash card free.

Make it reasonable and consider your skill level.

If you’re struggling with calculus, don’t try to “catch up” all at once by joining a study group for advanced factoring. Seek out extra help or tutoring based on your individual baseline.

Get feedback.

Feedback can be intimidating; we get it. But if you want that presentation to be golden, you should practice in front of someone you trust. Did your person notice that you weren’t making eye contact or were saying “um” too much? Keep practicing. If you’re OK with brutal honesty, try videoing the presentation and sending it out for critiques. Go on with your brave self.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Got it right once? Do it again a few more times so that it becomes second nature—whether it’s solving for X or speaking Italian like a pro.

Do you ever find yourself sitting down with your laptop, ready to amaze yourself with your focus, only to spend the next hour glued to your phone?

“When we do work in front of a computer, especially with our phone by our side, we interrupt ourselves on average every 40 seconds,” says productivity coach Chris Bailey, author of The Productivity Project and Hyperfocus. “This means we don’t even get a minute’s worth of work done before we become distracted. Try downloading a distractions-blocker app—such as Freedom or Cold Turkey—and leave your phone in the other room to do your most important work.”

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Distraction blockers can help keep you from getting, well, distracted, but sometimes you might need a bit more to keep you motivated. That’s where accountability can help. Research shows that when we hold ourselves accountable to something, we’re better at sticking to it. This means taking a good look at how you’re actually spending your time, and making adjustments to ensure that time is being used wisely.

Expert advice

“Productivity is about time management, and time management is all about self-management. To manage yourself, it’s also important to cut back on stress,” says Yvonne Surrey, an instructor at Hostos Community College’s Division of Continuing Education and Workforce Development department and a productivity coach in New York City. Here are her tricks for taking care of yourself:

Go to bed on time and get enough sleep
Eat healthfully and regularly (don’t skip meals)
Exercise regularly
Journal

And while you’re mastering your productivity and treating yourself like the royalty you are, do us all a favor and cut down on the caffeine, suggests Bailey. Swap it for plain water. Not glamorous, but effective if you find yourself with heart palpitations from 10 too many cups of coffee.

Try this

An accountability chart is an easy way to apply this productivity tip. Putting together an accountability chart takes only a few minutes and can help you spot time-management problems like a pro. With each work session, take note of the time frame and what you’ve accomplished. Be honest with yourself, even if that means realizing you’ve wasted 45 minutes taking BuzzFeed quizzes. (And be gentle with yourself—we like to know what kind of summer vegetable we are, too. Just maybe not while finishing a project.)

If you’re not satisfied with your productivity, plan the next chunk of time (say, two hours after class tomorrow) and write down exactly what you need to get done during that session.

“I use a planner to keep track of important dates and deadlines. Writing these down makes it easier for me to remember them, and it holds me accountable by seeing them every time I open my planner.”
—Dalleny R., student, Elgin Community College, Illinois

Here’s what an accountability chart might look like for writing an essay over the course of a day. (You can also split it up over several days, weeks, or months—and it’s always best to review an assignment with fresh eyes at least 24 hours after you finish writing it.)

Accountability Chart 11 a.m.–12 p.m.: Preliminary research and notes 12 p.m.–12:15 p.m.: Break 12:15–1:15 p.m.: Introduction page 1:15–3:30 p.m.: Eat lunch 3:30–4:30 p.m.: Rough outline, highlight points of research to include 4:30–4:45 p.m.: Creativity break 4:45–5:45 p.m.: Write main body of text