 Walt Disney once asserted that the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. Everyone knows how fulfilling it is to get quality work done over a specified and even shorter time frame. So enough of the plenty talk about the importance of productivity, you've got to start. And luckily for you, we'll be using this video to share with you 13 ways to increase your productivity. 1. Use proactivity over reactivity. One of the principles of human nature asserts that our power as individuals lies in our freedom of choice, the choice of what to do and when to act. This principle is why Stephen Covey describes being proactive as the first habit to develop if you desire to be productive. Proactivity is the act of accepting the responsibility to make things happen and taking the initiative to do what you ought to do. Active individuals do not wait to be told to do the right thing before they take the step because they understand that taking necessary actions at the right time supersedes merely carrying out a task at a time. 2. Set a deadline for your activities. If you know how to implement them, deadlines are potent techniques for productivity. Research shows that deadlines can help reduce the likelihood that you will procrastinate both when they are self-imposed as well as when they are external. However, the issue many people face as regards sticking to deadlines is that they are often so motivated at the start of a course that they set for themselves on realistic deadlines. When you set deadlines, be sure to be sincerely realistic and put possible constraints into consideration. It is better to get things done before the end of your timeline than to burn yourself out and still not meet up with your deadline. 3. Exercise regularly. Brinstein University conducted a study on 200 employees at three organizations. The employees evaluated themselves on a day with exercise and a day without. The results showed that on working-out days, participants' scores were 21% higher for concentration on work, 22% higher for finishing their work on time, 25% higher for working without on-schedule breaks, and an incredible 41% for feeling motivated to work. Exercise helps to regulate blood flow to your brain. Exercise does not have to be very rigorous. A few minutes of morning indoor workouts or outdoor jogging is enough to spice up your day and boost your productivity. 4. Turn off notifications. Many times when an email pops on the screen, people assume that it is just an email. I will just check it. However, an action as small as tapping on that email notification has the potential to disrupt your plans for the entire day. It is quite difficult to resist the allure of a voicemail, text notification, or social media notification. Thus, it is reasonable to turn off notifications during work hours and instead schedule a time to check your emails, read text messages, go through your social media handles, and the likes. 5. Stop Switch Tasking. Start Split Tasking. Over the years, studies have shown that multitasking is almost a myth because only 2% of the population have the capacity to multitask truly. A lot of people who think they are multitaskers are actually task switches. Split tasking is a term in technology used to indicate breaking a mammoth job down into smaller tasks. Since it is quite challenging to be in a position of doing just one thing at a time in our world today, split tasking encourages individuals to break activities into smaller interrelated tasks that can be done simultaneously. Instead of switching between vast unrelated events, take up split tasking. 6. Change Your Environment. Amongst the many reasons why it is necessary to change your working environment in a recent study carried out by the Applied Cognitive Psychological Journal, which proved that a change in environment improves memory retention, a vital knowledge that many people lack is the fact that the surrounding where a person works from plays a critical role in his or her performance. When you notice a drop in your production, be sure to revamp or change your working environment. 7. Love What You Do. A lot of people believe that the key to productivity is to do what you love. People believe it is natural for those who are privileged to find the jobs they love. But what if you are not privileged to have your dream job early enough? Would you instead remain jobless? What if your boss delegates a task to you that you are not enthusiastic about? Would you instead quit your job? Or would you rather learn to find fulfillment in your current position? While it is great to do what you love, there are some situations where you have to develop love for what you do. Also, there are times when what you love becomes exhausting and less fun. In those times, it is the love you have developed for the task over time that will keep you going. 8. Learn to Say No to Meetings. According to Atalenzian, the average office worker spends over 31 hours each month in unproductive meetings. Meetings are one of the most prominent media through which you can waste your time. If you want to be productive, you must understand that you don't have to be in every meeting and you don't have to accept to do every job. You must learn to say no to irrelevant appointments. Before you book a physical session, ask yourself if you can achieve the same goals via emails or any other web platform. Even so, do not book at all if it won't profit you. 9. Find an Accountability Buddy. Former American religious leader and author, Thomas Manson, once asserted that when performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates. An accountability buddy is a person with whom you share your goals and your progress towards those goals. You do not need to share similar goals with your partner. All that is necessary is that they believe in your goals and are willing to help you achieve it, and vice versa. Bearing in mind that there is someone who is counting on you in a great way to be motivated, so get yourself a buddy. 10. Reward Yourself. Many people do not buy the idea of self-rewards after completing a worthy task. For them, productivity ought to be a part of life, just like taking a nap, and should not be specially rewarded. But then, the reward does not have to be complicated. It could be visiting a friend, taking a nap, or even going through your Facebook feeds that you've ignored while working. Celebrating your success with a little reward is a way of motivating yourself to do more. 11. Prioritize Activities The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once wrote, Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. Most times, we're ignorant of the consequences of not setting, as well as the benefits of setting priorities straight and acting accordingly. Focus in on less essential things waste time, while doing the things that matter more saves time. If you want to be productive, follow Stephen Covey's advice. Do First Things First. 12. Attend to Your Health The summary of Aesop's fable of the goose and the golden egg goes thus. A farmer found that his goose was laying golden eggs, rather than care for the goose more so that it could provide him golden eggs for a longer time. The farmer killed it, hoping to get all the eggs at once, but he found no egg. This story has many lessons, but the emphasis here is on the fact that like the farmer, people tend to kill their brains and bodies in the quest for productivity, but they soon become sick and unable to work at all. Pay attention to your health, eat well, take breaks, drink water, go for checkups regularly and watch how your productivity skyrockets. 13. Start Doing Something The other tips mentioned above will be worthless if you do not take action. For most people, the starting point is, in most cases, the most difficult thing. But if you want to achieve your set goals, you need to start. You must have heard of the saying, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. You don't have to get overwhelmed about the journey. It's okay not to have it all figured out, just start. Being more productive at what you do is in rocket science. It requires a strong will, consciousness, consistency and motivation. However, if you will stay focused and put the end in mind, you can achieve increased productivity.