What does your day currently look like?  Perhaps you wake up with your morning cup of coffee, refer to the notes you took down from last night and immediately start working on, say, an edit. But how about productive habits?

3 hours later, you are finding you are losing focus and attention on your work and you reach out for the next coffee and sugary pick me up.

Then you realise you’ve been repeating this cycle day in day out and the amount of work you feel like you are putting in doesn’t actually show with the work you have been producing.

If this sounds like you, then continue reading.

Do any of the following scenarios sound familiar:

  • You have a deadline to reach, so need to ensure that you stay productive and efficient.
  • You want to scale your business, but you’re unsure if you can handle the inevitable increase in workload.
  • You don’t want to burn out and stay working at the level you are.

So here is a list of 10 different habits you should start implementing into your life as soon as possible;

1. Keep Drinking Your Coffee But Add In Some Ingredients Too

Coffee is great, it provides a range of health benefits such as increase in energy, increase in focus, protecting you from Type 2 diabetes and promotes a healthy heart.

However, there is more we can add to it to make coffee not just a tasty pick-me-up, but also help take our energy to an uber focused level.

Add in a supplement called L – Theanine. This will help you avoid any jitters and keep your focus under control so you can think straight and work harder.

Additionally, consider adding in some MCT oil. This will give extra energy, which, in turn, will help you avoid any energy crashes throughout the day.

Not sold on coffee and iTs Health benefits? Here’s a link to 13 awesome health benefits of drinking coffee.

2. Do A Full Body Movement

If you have been working in-front of a computer for a while, piecing together your latest video masterpiece.  You want to stay fresh and vibrant.

Every 1 hour you work, spend 5 minutes afterwards moving your entire body from head to toe.

This doesn’t mean doing an exercise session, but simply shaking your arms, legs, body about to help wake it up.

   

You could do handstands or jump up and down just to simply help get the blood flowing around your entire body.

And if you have a camera nearby, just make sure you don’t accidentally film yourself. That could be embarrassing if that footage found its way into the hands of a client!

3. Drink More Water

Water is the secret weapon neglected by so many creatives and business people.

Imagine your cells are like a bathtub. Now, imagine you’re a kid playing in that bathtub. When this bathtub is empty all of the toys will collect in the bottom of the bath and you can’t play with them.

When you fill up the bath, however, you can because the toys can spread out and float.

It’s the same with how your body works. When your cells have no water in them (dehydration) the different enzymes (toys) which are responsible for things, such as energy and focus, don’t have enough room to express.

Once you start drinking water, you immediately give them an opportunity to wake up and become fully functional.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=GKnEMwAqjcY

4. Take A Nap

Your brain is quite smart. But we don’t always use it to the best of its abilities.  Perhaps you are trying to put together a project and you are stuck on a creative problem.

It’s probably time to take a nap.

Napping actually increases the area of your brain which is responsible for creativity. Not only that, but it shuts off the area which is probably getting a bit tired from too much thinking.

On top of that, it also helps you get more energy and feel fresher.

We would suggest that you don’t nap for any longer than 20 minutes. As the best current science indicates, that’s the optimal time to help you reset.

5. Meditate

Meditation sounds like something which requires you to sit on top of a mountain dressed in an orange robe and ‘be’ (that would make for an epic photo, though, I’m sure).

However, meditation doesn’t have to be that complicated.

Simply taking 5 minutes away from everything in your life and just breathing deeply with your eyes closed is enough. Try and do it somewhere where there’s no external noises to distract you for optimial results.

A 5 minute meditation practice is enough to notice dramatic improvements in your health and wellness. As your health increases, you will naturally get more energy and be more productive.

Here’s yoga instructor Travis Eliot with something on meditation:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=V1ng_xR1LmE

6. Ensure You Eat A Variety Of Food

Food is the foundation of how our body responds and grows and it also plays into our productive habits.  Without food, we would not exist.

Ensure you’re eating a variety of foods that make up a balanced diet and this will ensure you get enough vitamins and minerals to cover all your basic requirements.

A simple guideline for what to eat would be:

  • Regular meal times each day.
  • Consume a variety of protein, fats and carbohydrates.
  • Vegetables and fruit daily.
  • Eat until you feel satisfied.

   

7. Delegate Work That You Hate

If you don’t like it, don’t do it. Simple as that. Might sounds easier said than done. But, as you grow, it does get easier to do.

To begin with, yes, you will have to do some of the boring repetitive jobs in your business. That includes your accounting and admin stuff!

However, as time progresses and your business starts to take off, you want to stop wasting time on things that drain you of energy. Things that can be delegated to other people or outsourced.

Check out our article on hiring people for your video production company to understand the steps you need to take so you avoid any potential problems when delegating and outsourcing.

8. Develop A Strong Morning Routine

Morning routines are incredibly powerful if you have a good one.

It’s very important to ensure that you wake up in the morning and start off the day in a positive mood.

A positive mood and a positive attitude will allow you to think straight, not become anxious and allow you to be productive, rather than erratic.

Morning routines should consist of a combination (some or all) of the following:

  • Meditation.
  • Visualisation.
  • Journal writing.
  • Planning your day in advance.
  • Exercise.
  • Healthy meal.
  • Water.
  • Shower.
  • Affirmations.

9. Download And Use Productivity Apps/programs

Chances are you waste a lot of time on social media, irrelevant websites and all sorts of other time sucks.

This takes away from your productivity and your focus on finishing your main objectives each day.

But, as always, the internet has its solutions to its own problems! Download any of the following apps to record and block out websites which are taking up too much of your time:

Here’s an article on 9 other business apps we use to help with our video production company, if you are interested.

10. Your Environment

This is essential. People and locations can be draining more energy from you than you realise.

Remember when you were in a working environment and you were in a state of flow?  Where you were getting lots of work finished and felt like you were on fire?

What was your environment like at the time?  I’m willing to bet that you didn’t have any negative or energy draining people or things around you.

Therefore what I’d suggest is that you audit your life and environment right now:

  • Are you hanging around people that are holding you back?
  • Perhaps they don’t believe in you and your vision?
  • Maybe they always see the cup as half empty?

Change your environment and the people you hang around with. You will change your productivity as a result.

Productive Habits — Conclusion

Energy and productivity are the foundation of results in your business.  You should focus on productive habits — take what works for you and leave the rest. Without being able to produce great work, work as a creative streamroller, travel to different locations, then everything will simply stay as a dream rather than a reality.

If you would like some more productivity hacks for improving your filmmaking, then check out this link to one of our other articles.

Be sure to change your lifestyle with some of the tips and tricks above to be able to start taking your business to the next level.

So where are your energy levels at? What are your tips for maintaining productivity and boosting your energy? Let us know if you have any comments and tips below.