To become a high-achiever in life, you also must learn how to be more productive.
Why?
In the previous post about productivity, we discussed that most people are only getting busier today – not more productive. And as a result, they achieve less and feel more tired too.
So what are some effective strategies to increase your productivity?
That’s exactly what you will learn in this article. Not only will you become more productive but you will learn to do so without feeling exhausted all the time.
To help you digest the tips and strategies, it’s split up into sections:
Sharpening Your Priorities
Productivity is about getting more done on the stuff that is important to you. And if you want to avoid the trap of only getting busier, it’s important to know your priorities.
That’s why the first tips will help you to prioritize what’s most important.
1. To-Do Lists
Most people already have a to-do list. The problem is that most people keep a to-do list in their heads, which doesn’t help you much.
Written to-do lists are a good starting point to be more productive.
By writing down your list, you no longer have to keep track of everything that you still have to do. This frees your mind up to focus on the more important stuff.
On a to-do list, outline everything that comes to mind about what you have to do today.
Think about work-related stuff, doing the laundry, picking up something from the supermarket, making a phone call, sending an email, drinking a glass of water in the morning…
You get the drill.
2. Eisenhower Matrix
The problem for most people is a lack of clear priorities. Having a written to-do list already helps a little. Yet, it’s still tempting to do the easy unimportant tasks first.
That way, you get stuff done and are busy.
It’s what most people do – and it’s not very effective. Instead of being busy doing unimported tasks, you must focus on the impactful stuff.
That’s where the Eisenhower Matrix comes in.
With this simple prioritization technique, you create a quadrant and list your tasks based on importance and urgency.
Then, focus most of your effort on important and urgent tasks. After that, focus on the important tasks. If you feel you need to do some urgent tasks, you can use a small percentage of your time to do some of those.
3. 80/20 Rule
Pareto’s law, also known as the 80/20 rule, says that 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort. This means you can complete 1 of every 5 items on your to-do list and achieve 80% of your results.
The 80/20 rule also explains why most people become busier without becoming more productive. Focusing on 80% of the work that only delivers 20% of the results is a productivity killer.
Pareto’s law isn’t only helpful for prioritizing tasks but also helps you to avoid perfectionism.
Ask yourself the question: what is 20% of the work you should do to get 80% of the results?
Of course, you don’t have to stick to only doing the 20%. But if you want to be more productive, it’s a good idea to define those percentages. That way, you’re more aware of when you’re most productive and when you’re kind of overdoing it.
4. The One Thing
In the book, The One Thing, Gary talks about the truth behind extraordinary results. And the truth is that if you focus on the most important thing at all times, you will get such results.
Sounds simple enough, right?
Yet, most people already fail at the very first step. And that’s to define what that one thing is for them.
A good way to do this is by setting aside time to think about your plan. What do you want to achieve? And what’s the best way to make it happen?
Prioritizing your tasks is the first step in successful preparation.
Preparing for Productivity
If you are unable to focus or be productive, you might lack preparation. It’s often said that preparation is at least 80% of success. And for good reasons.
So if you want to improve productivity, make sure you spend time preparing.
Related article: pick the best productivity planner for you.
5. Prepare in Advance
When you’re experiencing peak levels of energy, you want to use it for your most important tasks. You don’t want your best energy decluttering your desk and prioritizing your tasks.
Yet, though preparation takes time, it’s also important.
That’s why preparing the night as part of your evening routine is a simple yet effective way to increase productivity.
When you prepare the day before, you can immediately start working on the most important task the next day. That way, you avoid dabbling trying to figure out what to do first in the morning.
And by the time that most people finally start working, you’ve already ticked off an important task.
Though preparing sounds like such a simple productivity tip, it’s also a very effective one. Don’t underestimate the power of preparation.
6. Group Similar Tasks
To-do lists are often big and can feel nerve-wracking. Even without a to-do list, you may feel overwhelmed by the thoughts you have about everything that you have to do.
Grouping tasks helps you to tick off a lot of smaller tasks quickly.
What I like to do is to use the first part of my day on the highest priority. That way, I achieve something important which also makes me feel good. Afterward, I use my time to follow up on a bunch of smaller items, which makes me feel even better.
7. Chunk Tasks
When you have a big and complex task to do, you may experience overwhelm. And one of the best strategies against that is to break up that task down into bite-size chunks.
Think about it like climbing a mountain.
When you climb a mountain like Everest, it’s scary because it looks big and miles away. Even if you walk for hours, you don’t always seem to get closer.
Thinking about finishing that climb is kind of overwhelming. After all, it takes about two months to get to the top of Everest.
So why not celebrate the small successes along the way?
If you stop thinking about reaching the top straight away but focus on achieving the smaller milestones along the way, it feels more achievable.
It helps you to reduce overwhelm and increases motivation, which also helps you to be more productive.
8. Setting Up Your Environment
Your environment affects your productivity. How it affects you depends on you.
Some people focus better in isolation, whereas others work better in coffee shops for example. Also, some people might work better at home and others in an office.
And also think about how a creative environment might improve your productivity.
Another part of your environment is distractions. Are you getting interrupted much by other people? Or perhaps the place you work at is next to a construction zone.
How can you reduce distractions?
That’s a good question to ask yourself as part of your preparation. Maybe you want to hire another office space for a week or work from a coffee shop to change it up.
9. Cleaning Up
A messy and cluttered desk affects you in many ways, both direct and indirect. Cleaning up your workspace the night before helps you to kickstart the following day.
Do you wonder how this helps you to be more productive?
Then here is a great case for you to read so that you finally clean up your desk.
10. Turning Off Notifications
The number of notifications rose through the decades and accounts for a big part of most people’s distractions.
Though seemingly harmless, what really happens when you get a notification?
You become curious and want to see what it’s about, right?
Here’s the problem:
Though the notification itself might not distract you for longer than a second, it does interrupt your productivity for much longer than that.
Because on average, it takes you a little over 23 minutes to fully focus again.
If you want to become more productive, you better turn off your notifications.
Taking Focused Action
Productivity is about achieving more of what’s important. And so far, you have learned the value of prioritizing and preparation for productivity.
Now it’s time to take action and stay focused while doing so.
11. Do the Hardest Task First
Brian Tracy argues in his book Eat That Frog, that you should do your biggest, most important, and dreadful task first thing in the morning.
Why?
Well, did you ever have to do something scary later in the day? For example, giving a presentation, having a job interview, or meeting someone important?
How did you feel throughout your day?
If you’re like most people, you were nervous that day. Your mind was occupied with some worries and anxiety as you were thinking about how the day would play out.
Big tasks occupy your mind.
But if you eat that frog early in the morning, it frees up your mind for the rest of your day. This doesn’t only apply to presentations or job interviews, but also everyday stuff.
Get your biggest task out of your way as early as possible.
Not only does it help you to be more productive for the rest of your day, but it also makes you feel great to achieve something important.
It’s the small victory that helps you to stay motivated throughout the day.
12. Embrace Deep Work
Let’s stick to big ideas from good books for a moment. In Deep Work, Cal Newport argues that the best way to get stuff done is by having focus blocks in your day.
During a focus block, you spend all your time working on one task without distractions. A block typically takes anywhere between 45 minutes to two hours.
When you’re at work, try to find a place where you can focus. Try to schedule meetings outside your focus block. And let people know that you won’t be available for that time.
It takes some time to make this a habit. But if you do it consistently, these focus blocks pay off.
Deep work also works very well together with the Pomodoro technique.
13. Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro technique is one of my favorites. And the reason why is because of how simple and customizable it is to your situation.
To do the Pomodoro technique, set a 25-minute timer. In those 25 minutes, you work on a task without distractions. Not even a toilet break.
When the time is up, you take a 5-minute break. Then go through this cycle again. Once you do this 3 times, you take a longer break of about 30 minutes.
This simple strategy also trains your mind to focus better. After all, you only have short intervals to get stuff done.
Finally, don’t take the 25-minute approach as the holy grail. Experiment with the amount of time a little to see what works best for you. For example, Copywriter Eugene Schwartz used 33 minutes and 33 seconds as a work interval.
14. Using Music
Music is a very powerful way to be more productive. And though some types of music may distract you, everyone also has a range of music that improves focus.
Here are some well-studied types that boost concentration:
- Classical music
- Sounds of nature
- Cinematic music
- Video game music
- Any music between 50 and 80 beats per minute
Just like the Pomodoro technique, it’s critical to think about what works best for you.
A nice benefit of using headphones is that it also blocks out external noises that might otherwise distract you.
15. Avoid Multitasking
Some people seem to have an obsession with multitasking. They feel like a supercomputer when they juggle many things at once.
But did you know that computers don’t multitask?
Instead, computers can do tasks so fast so that it looks like they’re multitasking.
In that aspect, the human brain is like a computer. And just like computers, your brain isn’t designed to multitask.
What you really do is rapidly switching between tasks.
And unfortunately, computers can do this much faster than us. So if you want to be more productive, avoid multitasking.
16. Don’t Touch Your Mail
Isn’t that mail icon a tempting one to open? How often do you just want to check your mail real quick to check if you’re not missing something important?
And how often do you then end up following up on unimportant requests?
Here’s a tip: don’t open your mail.
Instead, block time to open your emails throughout the day. For example, open your email after you’ve finished a couple of Pomodoro cycles.
Manage Your Time
Time is the most valuable resource you have. Once you spend time, there’s no way to get more of it. And though you don’t know how much time you’ve got, you’re certain that at some point there is no more.
That’s why time management is a crucial skill.
17. Build Habits
Every decision you make throughout your day costs you energy. Should you go to the gym? What clothes should you wear today? What will you eat for dinner?
With habits, you no longer have to give much thought to questions like, do I want to go to the gym today? Therefore, good habits drastically reduce the number of decisions you have to make.
That way, you can spend that energy on more important decisions and tasks.
And if you want to be more productive, it’s also helpful to build productive habits. So try the strategies in this article to see what works best for you.
Then, build the habit so it becomes an integrated part of your life.
18. Develop Systems
Where habits focus on your behavior, systems focus on the tasks you do.
What are the repetitive things you do every day?
And how can you standardize or automate this process?
For example, can you make use of email templates at work? Or if you are a freelancer or entrepreneur, is there a way that you can standardize your product and offer?
The system you can create highly depends on what you do every day. But it’s worth your time and effort to look for repetitive patterns that you could optimize.
19. Delegate Tasks
Remember how we said that time is the most important resource you’ve got?
If you want to achieve peak performance, you’ll have to learn how to delegate tasks. Especially those tasks that are outside your expertise. This then gives you more time to spend on those things that you’re best at.
Let’s say that you’re self-employed. Unless you are a finance consultant, chances are that bookkeeping isn’t your strong suit.
So why spend frustrating hours trying to sort that out?
Why not hire an expert at that thing, so you can stay focused on your craft?
When you get help from an expert, you save money too. Because instead of spending countless frustrating hours trying to figure it out, you can spend those hours on what you’re best at.
20. Ask for Help
Do you sometimes dabble or procrastinate because you’re unsure how to move forward?
Why not ask someone who has been there before you?
Mentors are often a great way to accelerate your learning curve. They can help you overcome the challenges faster because they’ve already been there themselves.
Now mentors are everywhere and come in many different ways.
You can ask colleagues in your job. If you’re a business owner, you can reach out to fellow business owners on the internet. And there are countless other ways to find those who can help you further.
People are often very generous when they can provide help.
21. Say No
Like mentioned before, we live in a world where everyone is busy all the time. And chances are that you have got quite some stuff on your plate too.
On top of that, you may get many requests from others to pick up extra stuff.
And haven’t we all said yes to such requests once, regretting it later?
Sometimes you just want to be nice but end up with too much work. As a result, you may not be able to follow up on those additional requests you got.
Though it’s hard to say no, it’s sometimes the best thing to say for everyone.
Manage Your Energy
Just as important as managing your time is managing your energy. There’s nothing worse for your productivity than hammering on a task when you feel exhausted.
Your energy determines your output. Thus, if you lack sleep or neglect self-care, you soon find yourself struggling to become more productive.
22. Take Breaks
In the morning, you might get away with 90 minutes of uninterrupted work. But after that duration, most people need a break to reset themselves.
As the day progresses you lose energy and you’ll need more breaks.
Generally, working in intervals of about 45 minutes helps you to be more productive throughout the day.
Of course, you might want to play around to see what works best for you. But on average, most people benefit from taking more breaks.
23. Get Enough Sleep
You may have the feeling that you should sleep less to get more done. After all, some of the most famous entrepreneurs are known to only sleep 4 hours a night.
Out of the window with that crappy belief.
Sleep is critical for your productivity. Not to mention it’s important for a good quality of life in general.
Fortunately, many people are catching on to the importance of sleep.
More studies show that entrepreneurs who sleep more make better decisions and spot more opportunities.
In other words, sleep well if you want to be more productive.
24. Exercise Regularly
There are many benefits of regular exercise. And if you’re not exercising already, you’re missing out on a great way to improve the overall quality of your life.
Regular exercise improves muscle strength and endurance. Both of which increase your energy levels. In addition, exercise helps you sleep better, which we already discussed is key for productivity.
A good exercise routine combines exercises from each of the important areas:
- Strength training
- Endurance
- Mobility
25. Go for a Walk
Walking surprisingly is a great way to keep up your energy and productivity levels.
It also makes for a nice little break in most people’s routines. And like we mentioned earlier, most people benefit from having more breaks.
A walk also forces you to get outside the house and get some fresh air. This is especially good if you sit behind a desk all day.
From mood enhancement to becoming more productive, a brisk walk gets you all of those benefits.
26. Relax
Sometimes, the most productive thing to do is doing nothing at all.
People who never take breaks might end up having to take a very long one at some point. And often that’s not the kind of break you want.
Some people find it difficult to relax, thinking they could also be more productive if they did something else.
But understand that relaxation sometimes is the smartest strategy to be more productive in the long run. You also need to take time off, celebrate your successes, and refill your tank.
27. Care for Yourself
It’s so straightforward that most people forget to do it: care for yourself.
Self-care makes you feel good. And people who feel good are also more productive.
Here’s a quick list to remind yourself of the important elements of self-care:
- Eat healthy – whole and unprocessed – foods
- Do something you enjoy every day
- Enjoy time with friends and family
- Take care of your hygiene
- Exercise regularly
- Sleep well
- And relax
Improving Personal Productivity
Every tip you have read so far helps you to be more productive. But the problem with those tips is that not all of them work just as well for everyone.
The real key to becoming more productive is to find what works best for you.
And then make it your own.
So go out there and try the different strategies to see what sticks. Then optimize the stuff that works for you to make it work even better.
28. Identify Personal Patterns
- Are you a night owl or do you prefer to wake up early?
- Are you a morning person or are you more productive later in the day?
- Do you have other people to care for?
- What is your daily schedule like?
All those questions determine how to be your most productive self.
If you want to become more productive, it’s important to understand yourself and know your patterns. That way, you can tailor the strategies to work best for you.
29. Reflect and Learn
The best way to find the right productivity strategies for you is to try them out.
Simple, right?
Here’s what’s a bit more difficult: give each strategy a real shot.
Don’t judge yourself if it doesn’t seem to work straight away. Allow yourself some time to adjust to the change and ease into it.
If it still doesn’t seem to work after a while, don’t immediately throw it out the window. Instead, try to understand why it doesn’t work for you.
Learn from those strategies that don’t work and adopt the ones that do work. If you can do this with a non-judgmental attitude, you will become a productivity machine.
30. Keep Track of Your Time
Tracking your time is a good method to help you reflect and learn.
If you track how much time you spend on each activity, you also understand where you can improve.
For example, are you consistently getting more done when you work in 30-minute increments versus 60-minutes increments?
“What gets measured, gets managed. – Peter Drucker
Keeping track of your time gives you the insights you need to be more productive.
31. Accountability Partner
You don’t always have to rely on self-accountability.
Instead, you can use the influential power of your social circle to become more productive.
An accountability partner is someone who helps you to keep showing up.
And in return, you help them show up too.
This could be someone from work, school, or a friend. But it can also be a stranger who’s on a similar path to you. For example, if you’re both starting up a side hustle.
A great way to keep each other accountable is working in the same environment. Or having a catchup call every week to tell each other what progress you made.
32. Know Your Why
What makes Elon Musk so different from most other people?
Besides being an absolute genius and a real entrepreneur, he also works his ass off and gets way more done than almost anyone else.
How does he pull that off?
The reason is simple: Elon Musk is on a mission – and a very big one.
Money isn’t his motivation for doing what he does – civilizing another planet is. It’s the size of his mission that makes Elon more productive than anyone else.
Though you don’t have to become like Musk, think about why you do the things you do. What is something that you would wake up early for?
In other words: what is your mission?
33. Set Empowering Goals
When you lack empowering goals it’s difficult to be more productive. Just like having a big mission, smaller goals help you to keep moving forward.
Setting goals help you in a couple of ways:
- Provides a clear direction
- Helps you to focus
- Improves decision-making
- Sets a clear expectation
So what are you waiting for?
Let’s set some goals and become productive.
Final Words on How to Be More Productive
Improving your productivity takes time and requires trial and error. It’s a skill that you can learn and grow in.
It’s also a skill that’s highly personal. The way to be more productive for you may be different from someone else.
Keep in mind that not every day will be a productive day.
It’s natural to fall off the wagon sometimes. There will be days that you procrastinate. There will be days that you feel great, yet are unable to do your most productive work.
It’s all part of life.
What’s important is that you keep trying.
Take time to relax when you need to. Learn from your mistakes along the way. And use this to continuously learn until you become a master of your productivity.
If you want more productivity tips, sign up below to get more exclusive content!