A Quick Tip to Boost Productivity

You might find yourself getting up from your desk multiple times throughout the day to get more water if, like me, you drink a lot of water while working. I detest it when I’m in the middle of a productive flow and find myself getting more and more hydrated as I continually check my empty cup to see whether it has yet to miraculously refill itself.

While taking a deliberate pause is acceptable, thirst may nudge you to take a longer break than you should. Furthermore, if you work in a busy workplace, a quick walk to the water cooler might turn into a lengthy diversion if you get caught up in idle conversation, especially if it disrupts your previous state of flow.

If there is space, you may install a small refrigerator or your own water cooler in your workspace. Alternatively, you can acquire an extremely big cup or a 2-liter bottle to drink from. But I’ve found that stocking a file drawer with a case of tiny water bottles works just as well. My workstation has an arm’s length file drawer that can hold 24 half-liter bottles. When a bottle is empty, I put it back in the drawer and get a fresh one. In order to keep the bottles clean and free of mouth dirt, I normally pour the water from them into a cup or glass. I remove the entire drawer once each of the 24 are empty and refill them all at the water cooler. I go through 4 bottles of water every day, or around 2 liters, so a case lasts me a week.

If you don’t have access to a drawer, you can keep a supply of water bottles nearby on a table, shelf, or even tucked away in a corner. Of course, you may use this advice generally to stock whatever liquid you like.

Even if my net time savings are only approximately 20 minutes per week, that equates to 17 hours, or roughly one awake day, over the course of a year. Walking to and from the water cooler repeatedly is almost always a worse use of a day. In addition, I don’t have to worry about becoming thirsty and breaking my flow state.

Thoughts of Pavlina

 

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