How to measure your productivity

In short, productivity is how efficiently you achieve desired outcomes within a specific timeframe.
For individuals, productivity can mean achieving personal goals, managing time efficiently, or having a better work-life balance. Productivity is not just doing more but doing what matters most.

Being productive gives you a very good feeling, a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction. Be honest, is there a better feeling than finishing a task in your to-do list before time?
So why not aim for more happiness and accomplish even more at the same time?

By tracking your productivity, you will be able to see how you spend your time and resources, and by this, you can identify areas for improvement. Without this tracking, it is difficult to know if you are on the right path or if you are wasting time and energy.
Your goal can be getting more money, finishing a marathon, or achieving a better work-life balance; the more productive you are, the faster you can achieve your goal. This is why you need to be able to track your productivity.

In short, productivity can be measured by dividing work output by your input (time, effort, ...). So, the formula looks like Productivity = Total Output / Total Input.
But, as with many things in life, the reality isn't that simple. What will we consider as input and output? It all depends on what metric we want to measure.

This metric measures how many tasks you have completed in a given timeframe.
Let's say you have completed eight tasks from the ten you have planned on your to-do list. This means your completion rate is 80%.

This metric is more abstract and measures the time spent on a task compared to the time you estimated it would take.
This one doesn't provide you with a number, but it gives you an indication of how efficiently you are working.
For example, if you spend 3 hours on a task that normally should take 1 hour, it means you are not efficient at all.

Productivity should align with your (long-term) goals, and tracking your progress toward these goals can help you stay motivated.
If your long-term goal is to write a book, the number of chapters written is a good indication of where you are.

Quality is as important as quantity in productivity. Measuring the quality of your work ensures that you are not just completing tasks but putting effort into them to finish them in a good way, too.

There are several (online) tools to measure and analyze your productivity. These can be categorized as:

Time tracking apps

such as Clockify and Toggl allow you to track how much time you spend on your tasks. They also provide detailed analytics to identify where you waste time.

To-do apps

like Todoist and Any.do help you organize tasks, set priorities, and track completion rates.

Productivity planners

can help you plan your day, week, or month. These tools (digital or physical) sometimes offer sections for goal setting, habit tracking, etc., making them a useful tool for an overall productivity measurement

Performance dashboards

are for people who love a more data-driven approach. Tools like Notion, Airtable, and Clickup can be customized to create dashboards that can track various metrics

For me, Notion is my favorite productivity app. Since I started using it, I noticed my productivity went up drastically. It provides me a space where I can organize my to-do list (I was such a person who wrote notes on different papers), a daily calendar with all the tasks I need to do, and I also use it to streamline different workflows for several processes.
But the most disturbing tool I ever used was Rise.com. This small tool registers everything you do on your laptop during the day. And I can assure you, it was very confronting for me to see how much time I spent on useless stuff.