Productivity hacks are all the rage these days, but most productivity enthusiasts forget about the most important lifehack of them all: how to deal with your daily life.
Productivity on its own is meaningless if you’re not able to use it to improve your daily life and make yourself happier, healthier, and more successful in all areas of your life.
Here are some helpful tips on how to better handle your daily life, so you can be more productive and have more time to spend doing what you love when you don’t have work commitments holding you back!
1. Do the hardest thing first,
The best productivity hack isn’t a new app or a different office setup — it’s doing your hardest task first thing in the morning. The reason: we all have tasks and responsibilities that are hard for us.
It might be checking email, writing code, calling our boss, or putting together an investor deck. Doing one of these difficult things first can clear away many of our daily barriers and get us rolling on other important tasks (like eating lunch).
So try it: Do your hardest task first thing in the morning and see if it doesn’t make everything else go more smoothly! This is one of my favorite hacks. By doing your hardest task first, you set yourself up for success.
It’s also a good idea to put it at an opportune time: If you wake up at 6 AM every day, do your hardest work right after breakfast and coffee.
If there’s one productivity hack that’s worth learning, it’s learning how to do your hardest thing first. In other words, every day, you should try and knock out your most difficult task first thing in the morning.
Why? Because not only does do so get it out of your system, so you can focus on other tasks for the rest of the day; but if you put off a task that’s already weighing on your mind, it becomes that much harder later on.
2. If you can’t decide, flip a coin
If you’re like most people, you make decisions in a very slow, rational way. Unfortunately, that’s a bad strategy because it gives your emotions time to take over and create self-sabotaging thoughts.
A great way to reduce stress is by flipping a coin or spinning an old-fashioned dial phone. Whenever you find yourself in doubt, ask yourself if there’s something — anything — you can do about it, then flip a coin and move on with your day. If you really can’t decide between two options, flip a coin!
Of course, some of those decisions are about big issues: career moves or relationships, for example. So what should we do in those cases? We have another solution for that as well…
The best way I’ve found to decide what task should come next is not by looking at my To-Do list. It’s by flipping a coin. Literally, if you can’t decide between two tasks, flip a coin and do whatever it lands on first.
Not only does it help take away any anxiety about making a choice (because hey, you don’t have to choose!
Sometimes, we can’t seem to make a decision no matter how hard we try. Try flipping a coin — if it lands on heads, you choose option A, if it lands on tails, you choose option B. It’s science!
3. Take breaks
When you try to do too much in a day, you’re more likely to make errors and get distracted. A good productivity hack is taking breaks throughout your day. Breaks not only provide a good mental break, but also allow your body and mind time to recharge.
So that you can work with 100% focus on whatever task lies ahead of you. Additionally, taking breaks gives you opportunities for creative thinking and problem-solving (e.g., planning how best to tackle that 3 p.m. project).
Breaking up your daily activities will help keep your mind fresh and open for peak productivity in any situation! Incorporating breaks into your daily routine is an excellent way to recharge and make sure you stay productive.
Taking a break allows you time to relax and reflect on what you’ve accomplished, which can help you stay motivated when it comes time to get back at it.
The best part? Taking a break is often easier than forcing yourself to focus on one task for hours on end! These eight effective productivity hacks will make sure that you take regular breaks in between tasks during your workday.
Breaks can help you stay fresh and focused throughout your day.
4. Write everything down
The first rule of productivity is to write everything down. That doesn’t mean you need to pen an extensive journal entry every morning, but getting your thoughts on paper will help keep them clear in your mind.
For example, carrying a notebook with you at all times or keeping a notepad by your bed can help you capture any thoughts that pop into your head before they disappear.
Keeping a schedule: A habit calendar, day planner, or anything else will make sure that tasks aren’t left unfinished at work or home and that appointments get remembered and attended to on time (like cleaning out drawers once a month!).
It helps when you have everything written down in front of you instead of relying on memory alone. It’s easy to keep track of your tasks and appointments if you’re writing them down. Just grab a notebook or notepad and make a list.
As soon as you add an item, cross it off, so you know exactly what needs attention. Jotting things down keeps them top-of-mind, which will help prevent important items from falling through the cracks! Making lists also leads to more organized days, too!
Not everything, but certain things — specifically, if they’re important. If a project is coming up, and you need to remember details about it, take notes as you go along.
If you need to make an appointment with someone at work or school, write it down, so you don’t forget. If it helps with your productivity and time management, write it down!
5. Keep a To-Do Today list
As we discussed in Chapter 1, successful people prioritize their time and manage their tasks. Most of us have good intentions when it comes to planning our days and weeks, but often those intentions fail before we’ve even gotten out of bed.
The secret is to make planning automatic by recording your goals in a place you can’t avoid looking at the first thing every morning.
Posting a To-Do Today list where you can see it every day will help keep your daily goals top of mind throughout your day so that you don’t stray too far from them as other priorities and distractions come up.
As simple as it sounds, a to-do list is a powerful productivity tool. It gets you in the habit of thinking about what you need to do and when, so that instead of wasting time wondering what you should be doing, or trying (and failing) to keep it all in your head, you actually make things happen.
To-do lists are especially helpful if your job involves juggling lots of projects at once — which pretty much means that they can help anyone who’s juggling lots of projects at once.
One of the easiest and most effective ways to start off your day right is by keeping a To-Do Today list, even if it’s in your head.
6. Prioritize by focusing on what will benefit you most
It’s tempting to try and do everything, but it’s much more effective — and way less overwhelming — to prioritize by focusing on what will benefit you most. Ask yourself if a project or task:
A) adds value and is of high-quality. B. adds value that’s greater than your resources (time/money/people) and C) is aligned with your goals. If it doesn’t meet all three criteria, ask yourself if something else could fill its place.
Then, act! Work smarter, not harder, by streamlining so that you only focus on things that really matter. This keeps you from burning out — which happens too easily when we pile on tasks that aren’t important.
Get rid of your distractions and only focus on what’s going to benefit you most. That may sound simple, but it’s actually very difficult for most people. If you’re trying to tackle a big project, eliminate anything that doesn’t help move that project forward.
If you’re trying to focus on what really matters in your workday, it can be helpful to look at each activity or task that crops up in terms of whether it will bring you closer to a long-term goal — or take you further away from one.
In other words, ask yourself: Will I want this for me (and my team) three months from now? If so, then do it; if not, put it aside and do something else. As simple as that!
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