How to Stay Productive with Unregulated Schedules

Alot is written about performance and productivity. However, the vast majority of councils are created taking into account the traditional working day: they are intended for office employees who sit at the table from 9:00 to 18:00 five days a week.

But the fact is that many of us do not work on a structured schedule — for example, freelance workers and remote freelance employees. And those sitting in traditional full-time jobs don ‘t always do the same amount of business at the same time every week.

So how to be someone whose work schedule is different from the usual one? Everything is simple: create your own schedule, which is suitable for them.

Why the daily schedule is necessary

The brain works best in an established mode

Many successful people are known to adhere to the same routine every day and perform the same rituals.

The ordered mode is like a track along which the mental forces of genius move at a good pace, it protects it from the tyranny of variable sentiments.

Mason Curry

“In skillful hands,” writes Mason Curry in his book “The Regime of Genius. The Routine of the Day of Great People, “is the regime of the day — a precisely calibrated mechanism that allows us to make the best use of our limited resources: first of all, the time we most lack, as well as willpower, self-discipline, optimism.”

Creating the right daily schedule will help you increase your productivity many times.

Day mode is more effective than a strong will

Many people believe that productive work is a consequence of strong will. “Just sit down and get on with it,” they say. Yes, willpower can help you become more productive, but it ‘s a limited resource. If you work exclusively at the expense of tension of will (and, apart from work, this resource is consumed many more where — for example, at study or in a gym), you cannot avoid burnout and decline of forces.

The routine of the day is a more sustainable and permanent motivator than a will because it does not require unnecessary effort from you. The will is needed to do something beyond your ordinary achievements. And with a well-established mode of operation, you just go on rolled up like oil without overvoltage. So you ‘ll save more energy for really challenging and creative work.

Day mode reduces the need for planning

When you perform a similar set of actions every day, you unload the brain, freeing it from the need to plan for further steps. Why come up with something if you already have a well-tuned algorithm? Here ‘s what you have as a result:

• You get less tired when making decisions, and, accordingly, you experience less stress.
• More easily enter the “flow” state when performance is increased by a factor of.

Unless your mind is forced to decide what to do next, it will be able to focus more effectively on what you ‘re doing now.

How to keep people with unregulated schedules productive

1. Create a schedule in the non-working part of life

Work is not the only part of your life to bring order to. Everything you do — from eating to training — can be subject to the regime. At a minimum, it is worth starting by creating daily morning and evening rituals that will set you up for the right way.

Janessa Lantz, the HubSpot editor, recommends performing the same ritual each time before starting work, such as taking a shower.

When you work at home on a regular basis, it ‘s worth working out a useful habit of taking a shower and dressing before sitting down at a computer. So it ‘s like you ‘re going to say to yourself, “The work day ‘s started!” And when you wear pyjamas in the evening, you signal to yourself: “The working day is over!”

Janessa Lantz

Create a stable mode of the day and it will be easier to fit new work tasks as they become available. Therefore, for example, writer Barbara Boyd recommends following the same schedule of the day regardless of the current workload.

I try to stick to a certain routine regardless of whether I have a lot of work or not. I always use time strictly reserved for work, and when there are no work tasks, I can devote it to home affairs or creativity. So in my schedule, certain times are always labeled “Worker” — whether I ‘m writing for a fee or stealing a kitchen.

Barbara Boyd

2. Ritualize your work

It is important for people with an unregulated schedule to create rituals around their work to separate it from their free time. Develop signals that tell your brain when it ‘s time to start working and when you need to interrupt.

• Create a work center. Work at the same place in your home and don ‘t do anything else there.
• Always listen to the same music (or background noise) while working.
• Set the time frame. Stop working when there ‘s a certain time of day.

I ‘m a freelance writer, and I have one thing I use to switch my brain into work mode: headphones. I can ‘t write anything if I don ‘t wear them, even though the music doesn ‘t play. And I rarely use them when I ‘m not working. So every time I plug up headphones, my brain realizes it ‘s time to write.

Kira Abbamonte

3. Adhere to your own schedule

You make sure compliance with the day mode helps you increase productivity only if it correlates with your own rhythms. That ‘s why studying the rituals and habits of famous personalities like Steve Jobs or Albert Einstein is interesting, but not particularly useful for practical application. What worked perfectly for them won ‘t necessarily be right for you.

Katarina Wolf, a biologist and Oxford University expert in chronobiology and sleep, tells that changing sleep patterns doesn‘t have a very positive effect on cognitive abilities.

People who adhere to their usual sleep rhythm feel better. They are more productive than those who try to overcome themselves.

Katarina Wolf

So if you‘re an owl, there‘s no point trying to get out of bed at four in the morning just because that‘s what Tim Cook does. If you have the opportunity, adjust the schedule to your own circadian rhythms.