Last week I wrote a guest post for Freelancers Union: My Client Didn’t Give Me a Deadline. Now What? I encourage you all to check it out!

We all have those times when you just feel like you’re plodding along. You have work to do, but it’s tough to just sit down and do it. The clock keeps ticking and you have no idea where the time is going!

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If you’re in this kind of situation, you need to know my simple trick for getting more work done.

Here’s the trick that you need:

Add more.

Seems counter intuitive, doesn’t it? It sounds like the complete opposite of what you should be doing! Shouldn’t you be delegating and reducing your workload if you’re having a tough time completing work?

Nope.

Not unless you’re experiencing burnout, of course (which you might very well be. That’s a topic for another day!).

If you’re in a rut, however, the key is to add more—not reduce.

When I wrapped up a couple major projects earlier this year, I felt exhausted and burned out. So I took an afternoon off here and a morning off there and a full day off later on, to get re-energized. But the problem was that that time off should have relieved my burnout. It didn’t feel as though it had, however.

I was slogging through my work, dragging my feet, even though I knew that I loved the work I was doing!

What I did to improve my productivity…

Instead of reducing my workload, I decided to add something. I decided to start going to midday classes at GoodLife Fitness regularly.

When I knew that I had a gym class in the middle of the day, it put a time limit on the amount of work that I could do. I couldn’t just say, “oh, I’ll work on XYZ later on,” because now I had things in my schedule.

And you know what? I started getting more work done, faster. I started getting more excited about my work again. And I started to provide better work to my clients.

How you can implement this little trick:

This trick of adding more works because it forces you to have more structure in your day, and it forces you to create more deadlines for yourself.

If you can get away with adding more in a way that’s different from what you are currently struggling with—for example, fitting in a workout when you’re having trouble focusing at the office—it will help you energize even more.

And I definitely recommend adding more in the middle of the day! It breaks up the day nicely to reduce any monotony you might be feeling. Knowing that I have a Body Attack, Body Pump, or Body Combat class around noon at GoodLife Fitness means that I’m more aware of where my time is going—and it gives me something fun and energizing to look forwards to when I need a break partway through my workday!

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What do you think of this strategy? Have you tried adding more? What is your best trick for improving productivity when you start dragging your feet? Share in the comments section below!

This post was written as part of the GoodLife Fitness Blog Ambassador Program, however all opinions expressed are my own.