How to Increase Your Productivity When You Are Online
That moment when you have been on your phone or laptop scrolling for more than half an hour and you still haven't completed what you actually turned on your device to do is really a great feeling! You were only going to check your social media notifications right? And not actually scroll your feed for 30 minutes? I know the feeling, so today, I have some simple ways you can increase your productivity when you are online.
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Updated for 2024
Your devices, whether that be your laptop, your phone, or even your smartwatch, are supposed to make your life easier. They make your life harder though when you get sucked into using them for very long periods of time, and you don't have time to do what you really want to do.
These tips are going to be mostly for your phone, but they can also apply to your laptop, your tablet, iPad, or smartwatch.
Without further ado, let's get straight into the tips so you don't waste time on your tech!
Simple Ways to Increase Your Productivity Online
1. Have an Organized Device
Okay. I know this first one is very broad, but let me explain. If your phone or laptop files aren't organized it is going to take a long time to find what you need. When was the last time you organized your emails or actually got to inbox zero?
If you make it a regular habit to organize the files on your phone or laptop, then it won't build up into a huge task you have to complete.
For example, you might go through the photos on your phone every month, and delete the ones you don't need or want. After that, you might stick them into folders in your gallery for easier access to the ones you need to be able to find quickly.
You could also set aside time each week to go through your emails and the files on your laptop. Whenever you download something you can also change the name of the file and stick it in the correct folder right away, instead of trying to remember what it was called when you need it a few weeks later. That is a time saver right there!
And if you are guilty of having no folders on your laptop, then make sure you take some time to go through all of your files and make folders to divide them into categories. Trust me! It is better to do it now, than in a year, when you have three times the amount of files to go through.
2. Don't Have Your To-Do List on Your Phone
I know how easy and convenient it is to have everything on your phone, but because your phone has everything on it, it also has fun distractions like social media and online games as well as organizational tools.
When you go on your phone to look at your to-do list, you might also see that someone just texted you a meme and if you go and respond to the meme, then you might forget about your to-do list because you can just complete it tomorrow. Let's face it. Procrastination is real, but you can read How to Stop Procrastinating + Be More Productive to give you some tips to fight it.
So instead of having your to-do list on your phone, consider using a bullet journal or a planner so you don't get distracted when you look at your to-do list. But what about when you don't have your bullet journal or planner with you and you think of a task you need to complete?
Make a note on your phone with a notification/reminder and then when you are around your planner or bullet journal, you can add it to your real to-do list.
3. Turn Off Unnecessary Notifications
Be honest with yourself. Do you really need to have notifications on for TikTok and Instagram?
Now you might try to tell yourself that someone might need to tell you something important and they can only reach you through TikTok or Instagram in an emergency situation because the text messaging app on their phone isn't working, but this is probably never going to happen. If you are telling this to yourself, then you are lying to yourself.
Turn off the notifications for all, yes all, unnecessary apps, even if you can only persuade yourself to do this during school or work hours. And if you can't do that, then consider leaving your phone somewhere where you can't reach it while you work or do homework.
If you want to increase your productivity, even more, you might take the step and just delete all the social media apps from your phone. *gasp*
But if you aren't ready to do that, then make sure that your social media apps are not on your phone's home screen. Stick all of your social media and fun apps into a folder that you only look at after everything else is done.
4. Limit the Amount of Tabs You Have Open on Your Device
Yes, multi-tasking. You might think that multi-tasking is going to help you be more productive, but when you are trying to do two things at once, you cannot remain focused on the task at hand because you are switching between tasks!
Now if your task requires you to have multiple tabs open, then, of course, don't open and close tabs just so you can have only one tab open at a time. That would be a time-waster!
When you are on your laptop, you really don't need to have your emails open the entire time. Check your emails once, and then close it, unless you are waiting for a specific email that you need to take action on immediately. Otherwise, it is just a distraction.
Did you really need to know that Target just sent you a promotional email?
I think not.
Don't have a tab open on your laptop just because you want to be able to see when you have a new notification because that is setting yourself up for multi-tasking, which you want to avoid.
5. Set Time Limits + Alarms
So maybe you are doing educational things online, but you still don't want to spend a lot of time on your technology because we all have other things we need to do.
The solution is to set an alarm on your phone or start a stopwatch, so you can actively see how much time you have spent on your device.
When the timer goes off, get off your device. It's simple in theory, but harder to do in real life. This way though, you will do the most important things on your device first, because you know that when the timer goes off, you need to get off and go do something else.
6. Know What You Are Going to Do
Make a list if you have to but know why you are unlocking your phone. Are you bored? Are you avoiding socializing?
Plus, you don't want to unlock your phone to do a task, and then after you do it, forget what else you came online to do so you open up social media to look at, while you try to remember what else to do.
Skip that whole scenario by simply knowing what you want to do online.
Simple Ways to Increase Your Productivity Online
It's time for a quick wrap-up of what is in this post. You can jot these down in your planner but try not to just make another note on your phone that is going to add to your digital clutter. :)
- Have an Organized Device - Go through and organize your devices on a schedule whether that be weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. The more you do it, the easier it will be.
- Don't Have Your To-Do List on Your Phone
- Turn Off Unnecessary Notifications - All of them!
- Limit the Number of Tabs You Have Open on Your Device
- Set Time Limits + Alarms
- Know What You Are Doing
If you liked this post, you might also enjoy these posts about productivity.
- Tips for Creating a Productive Morning Routine
- How to Stop Procrastinating + Be More Productive
- Things That Are Ruining Your Productivity + How to Fix Them
- How to Be Insanely Productive During Quarantine
How are you going to increase your productivity online? By turning your device off right now? Good idea! ;)
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