The key to having a productive day?

Happiness. Sounds a little hippy-dippy, but it's important to keep yourself positive.

Once you get depressed, feel anxious, or let RL intrude on your day - your productivity will instantly decline.

There's a lot of things you have no control over, but here's what I do in general when I start feeling like I'm losing my productivity.

I reset.

Go take a walk. Get some air. Turn off your phone. Listen to some music. Get out of your head and give yourself some space.

Don't start doing chores, or watch videos. Those things won't help, and end up just losing valuable time.

Remember we all have pressures, and that we're all stressed. It's part of life.

Think about your wins. No matter how small, and take a breath.

The people who succeed are the people that can focus during stressful, or rough times.

If your head isn't in the right space - nothing will come together for you.

Best of luck to you and anyone else who happens to read this.

A productive day for me starts in the morning. If I do a couple of small wins:

get up at the first alarm
don't scroll social media for more than 10 minutes
make my bed
start working before 9am

It's a blueprint for having a productive day.

The key to having a productive day is to start your day with a plan. Plan out what you want to accomplish and make a list of the tasks you need to complete in order to achieve your goal.

It's also important to take breaks throughout the day, especially if you've been working on a challenging task. A five-minute break can help refresh your mind and make it easier to continue working on the task at hand. And finally, try not to work all hours of the day – it's important to have some time for yourself so you can relax and rejuvenate for another productive day tomorrow.

Personally, what I do first to make sure my day ends with complete fulfillment is an early morning rise from bed.

Well, I usually am extremely productive when I have a plan, but that plan is not like a to-do list or a set of goals. It's more of a description. I 'describe' the day that is coming, like a story, for example:

[regarding one particular day, I talk to myself like this] I wake up at 7:00, I do my stuff and have breakfast. Then, I read the news to get the updates. I start to work: I call that collegue and send the emails. I follow my bodyweight strength training program and refine my skills. And so on...

In my mind, I start to picture myself doing those things. I picture every little detail of the future that is coming. It's so exciting because I only picture things that make me feel good! By doing this I understand - in that moment - what is going to upset me if I dive into something like an automata, without understanding if that's the right thing to do.

I love it because I picture the story of my life! I picture it the way I want it! I am so productive because I know that what I'm going to do is exactly what I want!

A couple rules I try to remember:

1. Starting is the hardest part. Once you've started, you're halfway there
2. Fewer items on the to-do list means more of the to-do list gets done
3. Don't overschedule - I put 1-2 big blocks of intention time on my cal and otherwise give myself the freedom to handle other tasks that inevitably pop up

Doing each of these every day leads to compounding results pretty quickly

A cup of chai/coffee?

I spend 30m planning my day. I make a checklist but I only put down things I really want to get done or that I don't want to forget to do. I try not to put everything down because I get anxious when I leave things unchecked. I also try to group things in 2h blocks because I realize that is about the size of my ability to focus without interruptions. I tally up the time for the things on my checklist make sure they fit within the 2h blocks I have for the day (the amount varies if I have meetings) and that's how I know it will be productive. If they don't I at least know I have an "impossible" day and I plan to have ice cream and chill later so I don't feel to bummed about not getting to it all :)

work hard

The rules that work for me are:

1. NO ZERO DAYS. Always do at least 1 significant thing, even if small, to advance your project. 0 days make it much more probable that the next will also be a 0 day, whereas a non zero day encourages a similar follow-up.

2. Always have your tools available: you code editor, terminal, photoshop / illustrator whatever use should always be running. This makes having no zero days so much easier.

3. Interchange between design and implementation. Your implementation will change your design decisions and vice versa. Don't separate the two.

4. Work on multiple aspects of your project. If you're exhausted from writing code, switch to photoshop / posting on social media / else.

5. Be organized. Have a simple set of rules of where you store files, stick to your own naming convention, work with a version control tool if relevant.

6. Backup your project on the cloud and on a physical device that you cam carry. Losing work sucks, it's demoralizing as shit.

• Planning the week roughly and day by day what's on the list.
• Sleep enough, whatever it means for you (6,7,8,9H)
• Workout in the morning helps me to start the day right and don't have in mind I need to go to train later etc..
• Do not disturb mode to don't get interrupted while deep working on something.
• Limit sync meetings as much as possible and communicate async
• Remote and Flexible work

I think that are my main points which I think align also with other people here.

I'm really into this stuff I think like a lot of people working on their own businesses. I'm trying to build a tool for it I'm calling Forzeit, so in 6 months I'll say that's how :D

For now, I find a great trello setup where I've got rules in place on how to use it each day task by task, accountability with my team, then ticking boxes around gym, diet, time off.

A productive day should give a boost to your health, wealth, or relationship :

Consider the below items :

1. Wake up in the good mood
2. Workout/Meditate
3. Plan your day
4. Use social media for networking (30 mins)
5. Read stuff that adds value to your life (30 mins)
6. Spend time with your family
7. Do something you like doing

Doing things that you're enthusiastic about. That's it. If you actually create work that you enjoy, most of us will just end up being productive.

For me it is a mixture of two things : routine + realistic expectations.

Routine means getting yourself to a point where you are ready to be productive in whatever way possible. Once you get used to doing those things when it is time to work it feels "right."

For me realistic expectations means that I can only do 2 hours of max productive work in a row. What I find is that when I am in those two hours I get a LOT more done than I thought I could. However when it gets past 2 hours without a proper break and mental recap (via a walk usually) then I end up losing steam.

So realistically a great day is gonna comprise at best of 4 hours of work unless I feel so motivated to work at night. Realistically it will be 2 hours of focused work but that would include the rest of time be about doing healthy activities towards the goal (eg. brainstorming, administrative stuff etc..)

Messing up the routine is a huge deal beaker. Get good at telling friends, family or even partners that your routine is important.

Most productive days are no meetings days.

Mine usually goes:

8am: wake up
8-9 am stretch, meditate, shower, make coffee or matcha, brain train with Lumosity app
9am-1pm: Deep work session 1 (writing or building)
1-2pm: Lunch
2-3pm: Chill, check email, browse the web for cool stuff
3-5pm: Gym, go for a walk, listen to podcasts
5pm: Dinner
6-10pm: Deep work session 2 (writing or building, maybe admin work)
11pm: Read
12am: Sleep

Not all days (like today lol) look like this, but the most productive days do

For me, the most important part about having a productive day is keeping away distractions. Especially nowadays its way to easy to get distracted. This means: Turning off my phone/notifications, only having work related tabs open on my pc.

For me, a productive day is about balance. Usually, when I'm in a rut, distracted, or tired I go for a walk with no music/podcasts. Helps me clear my mind, so I can focus on what is important.

Another thing I have been thinking about recently is trying to realize that a single day's productivity may not be evident at first as long as I am working towards a goal. There are good and bad days, but sometimes what feels like a bad day in the moment, may have important benefits down the line. So it does not do any good to feel bad about what feels like a bad productivity day.

Get rid of distractions!

1. A to-do-list for the day
2. Prioritize and get the most difficult or time-consuming job done first.