In this unit, you will acquire 6 aspects of sustaining a productive lifestyle.

Now that you’ve developed a better understanding and application of productive performance, it is time to learn about maintaining it. But before, reflect upon this indispensable advice for an effective life change: “Everything starts with motivation but endures with habit.”

So here are 6 effective habits to keep your productivity levels at their peak:

1- Maximize Utility from Available Resources: This is what all businessmen do for maximum revenue. Whether you’re a morning person or a night owl, complete the work that requires most focus when you are most energetic. However, when you start to feel sluggish during the day, switch to easier tasks or more engaging ones such as making calls or meeting with clients.

2- Take Regular Short Breaks: If your work requires long seated hours, take a break every now and then because your body and brain can become numb and demanding of a new stimulation to reboot their energy. Stand up and stretch, have a small walk, sit in the sun or breathe fresh air. Otherwise, you’ll soon reach a burnout and motivating yourself then would consume much more time and energy.

3- Keep Your Hobby Going: This is a longer version of “break,” but you equally need it for many reasons. Hobbies are a good stress relief from work. They channel your thinking in another direction, benefiting your quality of work with what is called “lateral thinking,” an ingenious creative approach to solve problems. So take your time doing what you love.

4- Follow the 2-Minute Rule: Never heard of it before? It’s easy and has 2 applications. First, whenever you have a small task that takes 2 minutes or less, do it immediately and don’t procrastinate. Second, whenever you feel completely demotivated to finish something, work on it fully focused just for 2 minutes. After that, you will find that your mind has tuned into the work. For more, review David Allen’s bestselling book ‘Getting Things Done.’

5- Use Organization Tools: There are many, and you just need to search online for the one that meets your needs. For example, Evernote is an application that allows you to take notes, organize information and write down any idea that crosses your mind, with everything synced on different devices. Bullet Journal is a to-do list and a journal at the same time. Google docs helps you take notes, share files and edit them on different devices. Google Calendar contributes to your experience of a scheduled day with non-overlapping duties, and the list goes on.

6- Lead a Healthy Lifestyle: To keep the productive mode ON, maintaining a healthy physical and emotional life is top priority. Adopt a balanced diet, exercise, get enough sleep, laugh, listen to others, and surround yourself with happy people. Have some time for yourself, reflect, let go and commit to other positive rituals. Last but not least, build a certain routine into your life to save time asking yourself “What is the next step?”

It is only normal that you wake up every day with different levels of motivation, but only the mind of a winner plans to sustain a productive lifestyle on the long term. Get started today, try each of these tactics, one at a time and watch your potentials exponentially grow and mature.