My desk
When studying or working from home, do you have the temptation to:
Constantly check your phone?
Scroll through all your social media pages aimlessly?
Or drop everything as soon as you get a notification?
If you said yes to any of those scenarios, I can help you break these bad habits to become more productive and focused. As a self-proclaimed social media addict with a short attention span myself, shameful to admit, I’ve always desperately wanted to solve this problem. However, after trying so many different methods for years on end, I almost lost hope, because none of them really worked :(
However, recently a ‘Tiny Habits’ Workshop presented by @Anna Lee changed my life. I was amazed and thrilled to find out how productive I could be after applying these simple techniques! So I want to share it with you all today 😊. Ready?
This ‘Tiny Habits’ method was created by a behaviour scientist @BJ Fogg.
He believes simplicity is the key to form a new habit. As human beings, we are inherently lazy. So it is only when we really want to develop a new habit (which is very easy for us to do), we will have a higher chance to make it stick.
That’s where tiny habits come into the picture. To develop a new habit, it needs to be completed straight after one of your already existing habits (e.g. brushing your teeth). This allows your old habit to act as a trigger for your newly found habit.
Yet, that’s not enough. You need to add an immediate celebration after doing the new habit. Why? Because it reinforces the action and makes you feel good. Research shows only when we are feeling good, we will be more inclined to do things continuously. So how should you celebrate your success? It depends on your personality:
For extroverts: sing a few phrases of a song out loud, move your body, or shout: ‘Yay!’ to yourself.
For introverts: give yourself a smile or a thumbs-up.
Now let’s put this theory into practice. Here are my top four tiny habits to stay productive.
Eat a frog
Habit 1: after I brush my teeth, I’ll say: “my frog today is…”
I got this idea from the book ‘Eat That Frog’. I found this works much better for me than writing a long to-do list and being afraid of failing to achieve items on that list.
The ‘frog’ is your number one priority: the task you find the most difficult or the one you will easily procrastinate. Imagine: if you can eat a live frog as the first thing in your day, what other worse things can happen for the rest of that day.
For example, one day my frog was to create a very important event to send to my manager. After spending two hours creating an event in the morning, I felt a massive sense of achievement when I finally clicked ‘send’; that happy mood carried me over the rest of my whole day.
Eliminate distractions from your phone and computer
You might wonder:
How is it possible to eliminate all screens when using phones and computers are a necessity for online classes or work?
It is not possible to do this entirely, instead we must rid the distractions from these devices rather than the devices themselves.
Habit 2: After my breakfast, I switch my phone to aeroplane mode and put it away in another room. (You can set a time frame, such as 9am-12pm.)
I found this habit super useful.
Normally it takes me at least a whole weekend to write an article. By using this method, I finished my latest article in only a day! Without my phone, I found it much easier to stay focused on my research and writing. My world became much quieter too, I felt I finally got my power back. I was not controlled by my phone. I even felt like I didn’t want to own a phone anymore.
My phone on the top of my bookshelf (unreachable)
Habit 3: Once I turn on my computer, I log out of all my social media accounts and turn off all notifications.
A kind reminder: you might need to let your family and friends know your mobile free periods to avoid some unnecessary worries.
Pomodoro mode (tomato technique)
Habit 4: Once I open my internet browser, I set my tomato timer.
Work for a 25-minute block then have a 5-minute break. Because 25-minutes is the optimum focus time for most people, but yours might be different. Try out different times yourself to find out your optimum focus time.
This really helps me to complete the tasks which I don’t like to do or don’t know where to start. I then would set the timer and persuade myself:
Come on Qian, only 25 minutes. You can do this.
If you are a student, you can use this for your big assignments. Every day, just simply assign a tomato block for those assignments. Because to get started is usually the hardest step. Once you start, you may not even want to have a break 😊
REMEMBER: pick only one task for each tomato block and have a piece of paper beside you. This way, you can take notes if any other urgent tasks pop into your head.
(By the way, I have a gift for you at the end: my three favourite FREE tomato timers.)
How do you reward yourself during a 5-minute break?
I love nature and food. Therefore, to run in my small yet cosy backyard gives me great pleasure. Warm sunshine, fresh air and sweet plants, chirping birds, and green trees relax my body (especially eyes) and mind.
My walnut pesto dip with carrot sticks~ My lovely backyard~
However, everyone is unique. If you are a scent person, to light a candle might be more appealing to you.
Of course, your day is not all about getting things done. You need to have social time too. Leave some space for it, such as organising a group dinner or movie night over Zoom.
These are my top four habits. I hope you find them useful, and please let me know how it goes. I can’t wait to hear how your habits have changed since reading this. Maybe you can even write a congratulatory email to your future self. It’s fun to test our prediction skills, right? 😊
A perfect email example!
What's your favourite habit? Comment below!
My top 3 FREE tomato timer apps:
1. Pomodoro Tracker https://www.pomodoro-tracker.com/
Web-only, very straight forward and has the option for you to add your to-do list so you can have a record.
2. Forest https://www.forestapp.cc/
Web and App: A tree will be planted every time after you manage to focus on 25 minutes. What a cool visual reward. You can even hold a competition with your friends to see who grows most trees.
3. Tide https://tide.fm/en_US/
Web and App: has varied background white noise and meditation sessions.
Notes: for Forest and Tide both have a great function: block websites that you are tempted to visit during your focus time.