It’s always a challenge for everyone to be productive. Whether we’re students or already working as professionals, we can only do only so much within a day to the point that we feel that 24 hours is not enough in a day. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

There’s a difference between working hard and working smart, and that difference makes or break how productive you are. If you find yourself in a rut or having a time trying to keep yourself productive, here are three ways to be super productive.

Organize yourself with a routine

If you want to work smart, you have to know where to begin and where to end. This boils down to organizing yourself. If you want to be more productive, you have to get into a routine for work or for studying. One way of keeping yourself to a routine is to make a checklist of things you need to do on a daily basis.

Think of these as recurring tasks, or staple tasks in your job. By keeping a checklist, you are able to organize your thoughts, your time, and your pacing all throughout the day.

Work with technology

Believe it or not, there are already applications and software that aid in making and keeping you productive. You have apps that make your computing easier. You have apps that make your record-keeping as streamlined as possible. You have apps for just about everything.

Do you need a time-keeping app that helps you monitor how much time you spend on a routine task? There’s an app for that.

Do you need an app that keeps all of your checklists in one spot? There’s an app for that as well.

There’s a fine line between working hard and working smart, and that fine line is technology.

Don’t multitask

We get it. We feel like we’re productive when we do a lot of things at the same time. But that’s not always the case. Just because you are doing a lot of things at once doesn’t guarantee that you’ll finish them all. You feel like you’re accomplishing more by doing more, but it’s the exact opposite. You risk ruining the quality of work delivered per each task or project if you multitask. You run the risk of overworking yourself. You run the risk of even overwhelming yourself even when there was no reason to be overwhelmed in the first place. It’s all about the mindset of starting and completing tasks.

Multitasking is often misconstrued as a sign of productivity, when it actually isn’t. You only end the day more tired than anything without feeling like you’ve accomplished something. If you want to be productive, you have to see one task through before moving on the next. This is the difference between working hard and working smart.