How Personal Productivity Helps with Personal Finance

When people say “Time is money,” they’re speaking the truth. It might not seem like it, but improving productivity can help you with your personal finance. Being efficient with your time and knowing how to get things are invaluable traits that can help your bottom line.

Alternatively, there’s a direct correlation between financial problems and lowered productivity. A study by the Personal Finance Employee Education Foundations shows that financial problems lead to lowered productivity at work and an increased absenteeism.

Improving productivity is like training a muscle. It requires time and dedication, but the more work you put in, the easier it gets. Fortunately, there are some great exercises to heighten productivity.

Organize Your Life

Making to-do lists isn’t a bad habit, yet it’s less effective than we like to believe. The problem is that long lists mean lots of choices for what to do next. The more choices there are, the more negative emotions there are associated with the decision. This “paradox of choice” makes daunting to-do lists depressing and overwhelming.

There comes a satisfaction with crossing an item of a list. Because of that, we’re more likely to finish the quick tasks and put the time-consuming ones on the backburner.

Instead of using a to-do list, consider using calendars instead. A calendar makes it easy to set deadlines and doesn’t overwhelm with the paradox of choice. Lists have their uses but should be used in moderation.

Take Breaks When You Need It

Most brains work better with bursts of creativity followed by short moments of rest. Every individual has their own ideal ratio for works and breaks, but a good baseline is the Pomodoro technique. This time management technique has you work in 25 minute bursts with a maximum five minute break. After the break ends, it’s back to work for the next 25 minutes.

There are online tools and mobile apps that give you access to Pomodoro timer, so check them out and see how they work for you.

Stop Wasting Time Online

One of the biggest obstacles hindering our productivity is our own impulse. We can’t help ourselves when it comes to wasting time online. For most of us, what should be a quick five minute tasks gets dragged out to 30 minutes because of social media notifications, emails and the urge to check things that only slow down our productivity.

Almost a third of all employees reported wasting about an hour a day at work, mostly due to social media and browsing the Internet. After work hours, those problems can continue. People now spend 8 hours a day consuming media. Television is still the biggest time sink, but the Internet is projected to soon be the thing that takes up the most time.

What can be done? Just quitting isn’t easy, but there are some programs out there to help stop us from being tempted by our favorite websites. One of the more popular tools is the StayFocusd browser plugin. Once installed, you put in the sites you want to avoid and the maximum time limit you can spend browsing those sites. For example, you can set a daily limit on Facebook for 15 minutes a day.

Automate When Possible

There are a lot of mundane tasks out there that take up valuable time. That’s why it’s important to automate whatever you can. For starters, automating your bill payments is a smart way to save time. It also means you won’t have to worry about accidentally missing a payment. There are other ways to automate the boring tasks in life that can free up your time for more important tasks.