How to remain productive while putting long hours

Hi Anonymous,

that’s a great question. In the end, the key is to be able to increase your productivity, thus be able to deliver more in less time – as Cameron said long hours constantly are simply not sustainable otherwise. These are the tips that helped me more:

1. Create morning routines. One of the biggest shift in my life happened when I started to create routines to be implemented each morning to have the proper attitude, review my goals, and ultimately understand the purpose of that particular day before getting caught in social networks, emails, the traffic etc. You can create your own morning routines to feel energize. My suggestions would be
   1. Journaling
   2. Exercise
   3. Review your life goals (ideally with a visual support)
   4. Cold shower
2. Exercise. It may be few minutes of push ups of pull ups in the morning but can have a great effect in energizing you
3. Eat healthy. Cannot stress this enough – this can completely change your feeling in terms of energy, in particular towards the end of the day
4. Use Pomodoro Technique. It’s a productivity method where you commit to work without interruptions for 25 minutes and have then 5 minutes of break. After four repetitions you take 15-30 minutes break. Not applicable always but I found can really double/triple your daily productivity when used.
5. Organize weekly calendar I recommend that you avoid to keep a daily allocation, as a weekly calendar is better to define the ideal free slots for calls/chat/dinners with people you want to keep in contact with. This will allow you to avoid to over promise things and align with both your job and personal needs.

Best,

Francesco

Hi,

Here is my list:

1. I've always tried to set the norms that I'm doing a workout in the middle of the week. Plus I've always tried to finish early on Fridays
2. Sleeping as much as I could on Sat morning
3. Right food, even on the projects in the middle of nowhere with no restaurants
4. Sport Vitamins
5. Powernap (It really works)
6. No work on the weekends (you need to recharge the brains)
7. Stopped drinking coffee. It sounds counterintuitive but in reality, coffee consumes your energy when you get used to it
8. Limiting the number of flights (trying to get the projects locally)

One and most important: if you feel sad or angry - don't behave sad or angry. Other people should not suffer from your bad mood (lack of sleep)

Best

Dear A!

From my personal experience sport helps me pretty well, I also do some meditation to better concentrate on tasks. Balanced food intake is also the main key to stay productive during the day.

My main method is to prioritize goals and tasks based on their urgency and difficulty. Due to that, I tackle hard objectives early in the morning when I'm most alert and never push deadlines back.

Best,

André

Hey anonymous,

You can try to implement all the points others suggested... but at the end of the day, what really influences your lifestyle is the office and projects where you are at (​iif there's a tight deadline to fulfil, don't trust that you will always be able to push back on it), rather than any of those strategies.

Thus, depending on the country the right answer can simply be: be used to it... or leave! Harsh, but it's life.

Best

Bruno