Want to know what helps Ram Shiriam, the incredibly successful angel investor and founding Google board members, stay motivated? Keeping a diary. File it in the “who knew?” category, along with working on Sunday, playing World of Warcraft and training for an ironman — all unique techniques a few of today’s most influential people claim in this Inc.com article have gotten them to the top. Here are a few more unexpected ways you can find the inspiration you need to boost productivity and stay creative the whole day long.
1) Turn On Your Light Blue
Yep, it turns out that blue light (that is, light with a frequency of 606 THz and a wavelength of 450 nm) is great for keeping those eyelids open. In fact, if you’ve ever had trouble falling asleep due to the nearby presence of a switched-on computer, tablet or smartphone screen, blue light may be a big part of why, as this is what they emit. While an official explanation is still a bit muddled, many researchers believe that blue light interferes with melatonin production, the hormone that tells your brain it’s time to call it a night. But what’s bad for bedtime is great for the office, so consider buying blue bulbs for your overhead.
2) Know When To Turn the Music Up — And Down
High tempo music can be motivating for some tasks, like rote data entry or filing. But when a project calls for deep conversation, it’s best to slow it down. The ideal is to pick a song that keeps your brain stimulated but doesn’t distract from the task at hand. So, it needs to fall just outside of your awareness.
3) Block Out Your Day
At any given moment in the workday, at least one worker in the office is bound to be multitasking. We do it because it makes us feel like we’re getting more done, but the research begs to differ. In truth, the human brain can really only concentrate on one, maybe two, tasks at a time and still do them well. You’ll do much better if you block out your day according to each task, even saving time for checking email (and not checking it at other times of the day).
These aren’t even the most of the box ideas about productivity out there. For some truly eye opening techniques, we highly recommend reading, How to be More Productive: 15 Lesser-Known Ways to Boost Your Productivity.
