Post written by Marlon Ribunal.
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[Author's Note: This is the Second Part of the Series "The 3 Fundamental Principles Of Productivity"]

Introduction

Part I – Rituals

Part II – Systems

Part III – Tools

Summary

Part I – Rituals

Our daily rituals directly affect our performance, and, therefore, our productivity. The pace on which we tackle our daily tasks is determined by the same rituals. “Ritual” can mean any of the following things, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

1. The established form for a ceremony; specifically : the order of words prescribed for a religious ceremony
2. a. ritual observance; specifically : a system of rites
b. a ceremonial act or action
c. an act or series of acts regularly repeated in a set precise manner

Although the word “ritual” is commonly associated with religious ceremonies, we can use the same word to describe any established actions that we do as part of our daily activities. Because they are so much injected to our behavior, these rituals can either make or break us in terms of our productivity.

1. Sleeping Habits

It’s 9:00 PM. Are you already in bed? Working on some papers your brought from work? Or, still surfing the internet? Obviously our sleeping habits have direct impact on our performance. Ideally, six hours of sleep is enough to get the body rested. If you can get 7.5 hours of sleep, that’s a lot better. The thing is, you must be well rested for the next day.

The key factor is that you should have a schedule that you can follow and work with. If you are still awake at 2AM doing nothing but surfing the internet and watching some nasty videos, then that must be corrected. If you are working on a legitimate job, then you must set some milestones that won’t drag you to the wee hours.

2. Breakfast Habits

Some people  use their breakfast hours to not only enjoy a hearty meal but also to catch up with current events. Reading the headlines of their favorite newspaper over breakfast is a habit for some. They cannot just get through the day without knowing what’s going on around them. If you are probably an early riser, you might have ample time to devote for this habit.

If you are like most knowledge workers, you cannot even bother to read the headlines because you have to catch up the train or beat the morning rush hours. The more time you have in the morning to prepare for the day ahead, the more relax you will be when you get to work.

3. Driving Habits (Commuting Habits)

Are you an  aggressive driver or defensive one? Aggressive driving is usually associated with “road rage”. The more aggressive you are driving, the more likely you get into stressful driving situations. You driving habits must always be in check. You don’t want your daily commute to become a source of stress.

I don’t know about you but I consider driving to work as a relaxing experience. Driving to me is an exercise of harmony – harmony with the road conditions, with traffic rules and with other drivers on the road. Listen to your favorite music and just try to void your mind of negative things. Whatever happens on the road, don’t let that affect the rest of your day. It always helps to have a winning attitude. Always take the winning action whatever the options are.

4. Office Morning Habits

What do you do when you first sit in the morning at the office or your cubicle? If you are like me, you’d grab the coffee cup and head to the lunch room to get some freshly brewed cup of joe. But if you are like most urban warriors, you grab your coffee from Starbucks on your way to work. Coffee for most is fuel to get them going. The caffeine that they put in their veins are like work of wonders.

Of course, you should avoid at all cost anything that can distract the flow. Again, if you are like most knowledge workers, the first thing that you do is review where you left off the previous workday and try to assess where you currently at. Determining exactly where you are will kind of determine your next action. Heading to your day knowing what’s in store for you will give you the ability to hit the ground running.

5. End-Of-Business Day Habits

If you want to start your day the next morning with one less task, you have to set your stopping point at a certain time. I suggest that you devote sufficient time to review what has transpired the whole day and make a note of what you’ve accomplished and what else you need to do next.

The first thing that you’d want to do in the morning, aside from that fresh coffee, is to get yourself ready to the next action. You can achieve that by setting your system in a way that daily reviews are done at the end of the day and not in the morning. One obvious benefit of that is that your review will be more accurate since everything is relatively fresh in your mind.

6. After-Office Hours Habits

Do you have a lifestyle that requires you to be somewhere else other than home after a day’s work. Do you have extra-curricular activities? Do these activities tend to contribute good values to you as human person? If you are like most knowledge workers, the home is the usual destination after a workday.

Whatever that destination may be, make sure that your activities beyond work will not exhaust out the remaining strength in your body. Spending some quality time with the family is the best option here. Enjoy the evening with your loved ones while exercising some form of relaxation.

How you handle you daily rituals can really set the tone of your productivity. A bad morning can easily turn the day awry. If you’re struggling to achieve a 6-7 hours of sleep, you might need to adjust certain things in your schedule so you can go to bed at a certain time. Remember the 80/20 Rule, the principle that states that 80% of your output is produced by 20% of your effort? The same principle can be used to analyze your struggles. 80% of those struggles is caused by the 20% of your activities. Which 20% is this? What’s keeping you from going to bed early – are these the paperworks from office that you have to process the next day? Or, something that is less important?

The question really is how efficient you are in balancing the important aspects of your life-work. Using the 80/20 rule, look for those things that cause you more troubles than benefits. Eliminate anything that don’t fit well in your system.

In the next post, we will discuss about productivity systems.