What are your favourite productivity hacks?
My favourite productivity hack is eliminating unnecessary tasks! I tend to use the Eisenhower Matrix, as it's pretty flexible for high-level planning vs. low-level planning but would love to know what everyone else finds works for them :)
For reference, Eisenhower matrix is this: https://www.theschoolofmomentum.com/post/eisenhower-matrix-the-simplest-productivity-hack
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The most underrated hack of them all!
Don’t look at your phone for the first hour of the day
Such an underrated hack!
This is interesting, thanks for sharing!
I try to keep my tasks small and get things done, one small task at a time.
Awesome! When you say you try to keep your tasks small, can you share an example? Are you breaking down big tasks to their smallest elements?
Right now I am working on a restructure of how I handle forms, a small task would be make it work just for a textbox, and work from there.
Make a post, tweet, ask a question or answer a questions would be other small tasks, there are always small task that can be done in a couple minutes, and the momentum never ends closing those small tasks
That's an awesome example. Thanks so much for sharing!
One of my favorite hacks is "Time blocking" -- The way time blocking works is either using a physical calendar or a digital one, you lay out the waking hours of your day and block out specific tasks, activities, and meetings for each block of time. The idea is to be intentional with every single block of time you have every day.
Learned this from one of our most highly recommend books (Indistractable) at Learn Stash https://learnstash.com/verified/indistractible/
p.s. Your site is awesome!
This is so great. Thanks so much for sharing! Were there any other stand-out tips/tricks you picked up from indistractible? (Trying to weigh up whether to read it or not!). Looks interesting.
Thanks! Yes, another really helpful tip from Indistractable was the concept of traction vs. distraction. Traction = Actions that move us toward what we really want -- Distraction = Actions that move us away from what we really want. The idea is to list all of the ways you want to gain traction daily (actions that move you toward what you want). Then, list all of the distractions you want to avoid daily (actions move you away from what you really want).
Really love that concept. Thanks so much for sharing!
This isn't a silver bullet by any means, but I have had a boost since I purchased a whiteboard and I have four columns: Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week. These are just high priority things I want done over each duration. Normally 2-3 things per column.
Simple, but I think the physical nature of this really helps, rather than it just living in your head.
Such a good idea! I've been using post-it notes arranged on the wall in my study to keep track of weekly tasks - I like the idea of arranging things by priority over weeks though!
Only this week and next week for me though.
I don't want to over plan. That's another productivity hack - "let it burn" - know when to not plan because planning takes its own time. Before you know it, you're planning when to plan. And then planning when to plan your planning. And so on...
Haha this is so true. Love the concept of "let it burn"!
just work on what i have to work...
Haha! What if you find yourself unproductive on your tasks?
Start your day from the night before.
Before going to sleep at nigh, make a list of the most important things that you need to get done the following day. This way you'll have have a clear goal in mind for the day. It helps reduce anxiety and makes you be productive from the moment you wake up.
I love this so much! Do you order your tasks before going to sleep? Or do you decide how to approach things the next day?
That's awesome!
It's mostly just writing down a brief outline for the next day. Things can change throughout the day and you'd want to work on a specific thing more than others, but just knowing what you need to get done helps you move in the right direction.
Really interesting. Thanks so much for sharing!