The Zest Blog

1. Mindfulness: Mindfulness is living in the present and being aware of it. As humans, our minds are continually in a state of shift. We think about what we should have done in the past, we worry about what and how we can handle the future. Our minds are constantly flowing to and fro, so we often miss out on what is in front of us.
When you wake up in the morning, do you get stuff done or think about what you need to get done? Let's say you wake up at 8:45 am and realize you're already late for the day. What would be your next course of action? A mindful practice would be to not think at all about what has gone wrong but to begin right away. Start from where you are, focus on what is in front of you.

Mindfulness works in every facet of our career and every activity we do at work. Whether it's helping you get through a severe email, coping with a slow co-worker or tackling a technical problem that you just can't figure out, being in a mindful state helps you focus on the now of the moment.
When you are focused, the potential of your brain is at full capacity helping you solve problems and move from activity to activity much faster.
The digital age and mass inflow of information make it so easy for our brains to wander and we spend hours upon hours on one single task only to ask ourselves at the end: what am I even doing?

So what is the system: learn and practise being in the present, all the time. Think of your day like chapters in a book. Each activity that makes up your workday is a chapter. When you get distracted, you don't finish the chapter; hence your book is not complete. And if you jump one chapter and move to the next, your book is still incomplete. You want to publish your work before the close of the day, so double down your focus and take on chapter by chapter.
The goal is to be constantly aware of the present, what is before you, get it done and move to the next.

2. Realistic productivity: because of the relative nature of productivity, it is always hard to define when someone is being productive or not.
Productivity to some people lies in completing their short term tasks. Others see productivity in a more long term lifestyle form. But whatever we define productivity as, it is essential to be realistic about what we define as productivity.

I once put myself in a position where I was working three jobs and one side hustle. In a matter of three months, I lost both jobs making my side hustle my main job.
Reason?
Simple. I was unrealistic about what I defined as productivity, and this caused me to never meet up with deadlines, to feel like 24 hours just wasn't enough for me; to feel like a failure.
You may not currently be shuffling three or two jobs but even with one, what do you define as being productive? Do you set out every day with ten tasks on your plate? Do you wake up at 9 am and expect to complete your day's work before noon?
When we set unrealistic goals, timelines or activities for ourselves and define it as being "productive", we set ourselves up for failure.
Before we realize how unreal our productivity is, we've already lost so much valuable time, and we spend the rest of the day trying to catch up (which in most cases we fail at). The unfortunate thing is that we tell ourselves "today was a bad day, tomorrow, I'll be able to do this" and the cycle continues.

So how do we get realistically productive?
First is by analyzing ourselves, being self-conscious and self-aware of the things we can do and how long it takes to so them. From my experience, it is best to set up three tasks for yourself every day.
Depending on what your job is, see how you can define the three most important things for you to do every day and start with those items.
Secondly, focus on yourself. Sometimes, we get caught up in other people's definitions of productivity that we seem to forget that we are not those people.
Focus on what works for you.
Lastly, learn to take breaks. One significant factor to mastering time management is understanding when to start and when to stop. Do the right things at the right time. If you don't take a break to eat or rest your brain at the right time, it will come back to you at the wrong time.

3. Delegation: the last time-saving system, which I would recommend for everyone is learning to delegate tasks to others.
Delegation does not mean we are lazy or passive individuals. It means that we understand the value of what we do, enough to know when someone should pass on the baton.
Think about a typical "day in the life of YOUR NAME". Do you have to be the one to do every single thing you do? Think about if there are typical repetitive tasks that can be handled by another member of your team. All you need to do is show them the way and save yourself minutes or hours every other day.
Think about automation and if there is an app somewhere that can perform this routine task without you having to stress about it.
Delegation is a huge advantage, even in our personal lives. We do not regularly consider it due to the pride we feel in doing so much, without realizing that we are just selling off our time for something that isn't worth it.
Make it a common practise to delegate tasks and save up some time in your work life. You know the activities that you absolutely must handle yourself. Focus on those and get them done.

Now that you know the three valuable systems to build into your work life, you need to understand that these are long term activities etched into your lifestyle, so don't expect to get everything right in a matter of days.
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Until next time, thank you for reading.