I know the feeling very well. You have so much stuff you need to do and technically want to do. But somehow, you cannot seem to leave Facebook alone or you just have to answer that one e-mail.

Or maybe you just don’t get into the rhythm of getting things done.

Well, should you have arrived at that point right now, maybe I can help.

So, with no further ado. Here are my 3 tips to improve your productivity.

Make themed workdays

I’ve heard that making themed workdays can help with being productive on a podcast episode of Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn (No. 256 with Mike Vardy) and it totally confirmed what I have been doing, very unintentionally though.

A couple of months back I started assigning days to certain areas of my work and my projects. So, for example I usually am not very exhausted on Sunday evenings so I can’t really fall asleep early. That makes my Mondays a bit slow. Don’t get me wrong, I am very excited about starting a new week, but I’m just kind of slow. So, I have decided to assign Mondays to my non-thinking work. I usually do administrative stuff, design work, image uploads, finishing chores that don’t need a lot of brain work and instead more leg work.

If you assign each day to a theme, you already know where you are headed before the day arrives and you can choose any task in that specific area of your work.

You will not be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of tasks on your to-do list and instead know what to choose from specific areas or themes. It works very well for me. Maybe it works for you too.

Schedule distractions

I’m going to be honest with you. I myself haven’t tried that tip, because I don’t really have a lot of distractions aside from e-mail. Unfortunately, I currently do not have the luxury to not check my e-mails for a few hours as that would mean orders might get processed incorrectly or shipments will not move along. So, at the moment I have to have the distraction of checking my e-mails on a very regular basis.

But if you are prone to check your Instagram, go to Facebook, or use any other distraction to move away from the task at hand, you might want to try this.

Just define specific time slots during the day for these distractions. If you are working on something and suddenly hit a snag, instead of heading over to Facebook, you look at your watch and you might realize that Facebook time is just 20 minutes away. So, you push through another 20 minutes of work and then check Facebook.

Over time that teaches your brain to use more willpower.

Watch what you eat

About 10 to 15 years ago, when I finished my apprenticeship as an IT specialist, I quickly realized that when I eat certain foods during lunch or certain amounts, that I’m not very effective anymore in the afternoon.

Even during my apprenticeship, I would usually go to lunch very late in the day to only have an hour or two of work left afterwards. I didn’t realize it at the time, but mostly that was because of me being tired after lunch.

It is very important to watch what you’re eating to be productive. I usually can concentrate very well, when I eat fresh food in small quantities like fruits, vegetables, nuts, and all that kind of stuff.

I have started to wait with breakfast for about 1-2 hours after getting up and starting my day. That way I can manage to go quite a long time without having to eat something during the rest of the day and make it to dinner most of the time.

That might work for you too.

Just make sure to eat light and stay healthy in general.

Now don’t let me hold you up

If you assign specific themes to your weekdays, you won’t feel overwhelmed with your to-do list and will already know ahead of time what you are supposed to do the next day.

If you choose specific time slots for distractions, you are much more prone to stick with the work in front of you rather than wander off into the world of doing nothing important.

If you stay healthy and eat good food, you will be more productive in general.