With everything you have to do within a given day, from menial tasks, to big projects, to errands and chores on top of finding time to relax, it may be difficult to actually feel productive. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when the workload starts piling up. We’ve all been there – on a day when the workload is especially tedious, and you begin thinking about the hours and hours it’ll take you to get everything done… So before you begin, you prepare yourself by scrolling through social media or working on a small, mindless task of little importance, or even watching one of those funny cat video on YouTube (yes, we all do it, don’t deny it!) But before you know it an hour has passed, or maybe even two, and you haven’t gotten any real work done. Luckily, this can easily change – and there are some simple steps you can follow to increase your levels of productivity:

1. Changing your pattern.

The work pattern described above obviously is not great. If you found yourself relating to it, or even realizing that you too have a pattern of unproductivity, in whatever way that may be, it might be time for a pattern change. So much of simply getting work done is the way in which you evaluate yourself doing it. If you tend to procrastinate or take too many breaks or put small projects in front of big ones so you won’t have to worry about them, take a step back. Reevaluate the way you can finish your work, and come up with a way to make it more efficient. It’ll get done faster, and be more rewarding, in the long run.

2. Living up to your expectations.

So you’ve reevaluated your work process, and you’ve made a work plan to get everything done in a quicker and better manner. That’s great! Now it’s time to put it into action – the first step to this is making sure your plan is reasonable. If you decide to take on an entire project in one day, when it usually takes you a couple weeks of doing work little-by-little, this may be too ambitious of a plan. The last thing you want to do is make yourself feel defeated by reaching too far out of reach. No one can do everything – and that’s perfectly okay! Make sure your plan is reasonable for you, and hold yourself accountable for doing it. Plans can always be rearranged and repaired, but starting small is the first step to increasing productivity – remember, every little achievement counts!