Besides having a healthy body and mind, productivity is dependent on countless other factors you're unaware of. Your productivity depends on uninterrupted attention and focus on the job.
Sometimes, different small and overlooked things can cause impediments in the way of your productivity. Here are some things you may have overlooked and apps that can help you resolve them.
1. Improper Lighting
Productivity decreases when you work in a dark environment. Improper lighting is not beneficial to your productivity, either. If the light is too bright or too harsh, you’ll surely have trouble focusing on your work.
Despite the best intentions, it's not always possible to have enough natural light at your workstation. If the light directly interferes with your monitor or eyes, try moving your desk to a different area.
If you're working from your home, you can install a smart light in your workspace and control its brightness using Amazon Echo. Make sure the smart bulbs and Echo are using the same Wi-Fi connection. It'll let you control the accurate brightness through voice commands.
Download: Amazon Alexa for Android | iPhone (Free)
2. Noise
Ambient noise is a productivity slayer for both working in an office or home. The office machines, talkative co-workers, nearby construction sites, noisy remote work locations, or even trains can spoil an ideal work environment.
Some of you may find these as trivial matters. Yet, for most people, these can disrupt work performance and efficiency. To fix this issue, you should opt for sound masking to cover the disturbing noise with some other sounds.
You can listen to some soothing music through the Spotify app. When you’ve got a deadline to meet, but your colleagues need to discuss an upcoming event, use this app to listen to some white noise. It’ll also let you listen to podcasts on various topics.
Download: Spotify for Windows | Android | iOS (Free)
3. Food
While discussing the reasons behind reduced productivity, people often ignore the food quality. As an employee, you eat snacks during office breaks to increase energy levels and continue being productive.
However, not all the food is good for your performance. Consuming too much fat makes you lazy, while the imbalance in blood sugar is harmful to your productivity. FatSecret calorie counter app can help you track down your total calorie intake.
It also displays the breakdown of nutrients in carbs, protein, and fat—for each meal and the entire food intake of the day. You can leverage its barcode scanner to track the ingredients of any packaged foods you buy. This app also functions as your nutrition database, weight chart, food diary, and exercise log.
Download: FatSecret for Windows | Android | iOS (Free)
4. Sleep
Insomnia or insufficient sleep can be a secret killer of productivity. People who sleep well can complete their designated tasks at a higher speed than those who don’t. If you’re sleep-deprived, you’ll have a hard time focusing on any tasks. It will also hamper your memory and decision-making ability.
If you are having trouble falling asleep on time or keep waking up during the nighttime, you may use Pzizz. This app helps you fall asleep fast and stay asleep so that when you wake up, you feel fresh and motivated.
The app offers sound sequences and dynamic dreamscapes customized for every segment of your sleep cycle. Thanks to its sound effects, music, and voice-over that quietens your mind, it is ideal for sleep and power nap systems.
Download: Pzizz for Android | iOS (Free)
5. Break
Remember the proverb, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”? The same thing happens to your productivity when you keep working for hours without any break. If you want to put up your best performance, you need to avoid fatigue and burnout with regular breaks.
It doesn’t mean going on a vacation or taking a day off at a regular interval. Install Workrave and let it remind you to take micro-breaks throughout the working hours. You can also utilize it to limit your screen time at home.
The tool offers you personalization settings where you can choose when to take a break and for how long. If you want to spend the break time fruitfully, apply its exercise suggestions during the breaks.
Download: Workwave for Windows | Linux (Free)
6. Mental Peace
Never undermine the power of a peaceful mind that can fuel your productivity. The stress in your professional and personal life can take a toll on your productivity and performance. Give yourself some rest and practice mindfulness for enhanced cognitive function.
Meditation apps help you in the process of guided meditation for boosted attention and focus. Smiling Mind is an app that assists you in practicing daily meditation and mindfulness exercises.
It offers sleep, focus, and relaxation meditation for different audiences such as adults, youths, students, office executives, etc. Some of the popular programs of this app focus on issues, such as stress, wellbeing, performance, attention, concentration, relationship, sports, mindful eating, etc.
Download: Smiling Mind for Android | iOS (Free)
7. Mundane Tasks
Sometimes, you need to do a series of small, mundane tasks. It also hampers your productivity without your knowledge. Also, frequently switching from one task to another does not let your concentration stabilize on a single task.
To avoid such unproductive situations, you can delegate the tasks among your teammates according to their availability and expertise. If you are a freelancer, you can categorize similar tasks and perform them together at a go. You can use the task management app Trello to plan, categorize, and organize your tasks.
Seamlessly sort and prioritize your tasks to align them categorically. Then, you can proceed to do one category at a time to complete the tasks quickly with undivided attention. You can also assign any tasks to your colleagues and add due dates. It'll ensure that the assignees know about the deadline.
Download: Trello for Windows | Mac | Android | iOS (Free)
8. Technical Downtime
One big drawback of modern technology is its unavoidable outage. Whether it is the disconnected internet or downtime from the app server, you are bound to suffer. These sudden interruptions also cut down your productivity. To reduce your dependency on the internet, you can switch to desktop-based apps.
You can also focus on crucial data backup on your local system. It'll allow you to access the data and work on them even when you are offline.
Moo.do is a task management app that works with equal efficiency even when you are offline. Check out the things you have to do next or mark a task completed—the app will automatically sync when the internet connection is back.
Download: Moo.do for Windows | Mac | Android | iOS (Free)
Give Your Productivity a New Pace
If you want to be on top of your game, you must concentrate on every little thing that can become an obstacle in your way of being productive. Use the above-mentioned apps to fix the often overlooked issues and easily get things done.