Be ambitious when it comes to your career, but equally so in nurturing the important relationships in your life and practicing balance in all areas of our life. <div>Focusing all the hours in the day squarely on your career is a fast-track to burnout. Neglecting self-care can be a powerful driver in a lack of productivity and a diminished ability to focus</div>

Balance is central to productivity

True productivity is putting the right things on your to-do list, exclusively answering emails that matter, and only taking meetings that will propel you forwards. It’s less about “how” and more about “what”. When you’re focused on unimportant objectives, you feel painfully stuck. It’s like trudging along on a treadmill; sure, you’re running, but you’re not actually getting anywhere. On the contrary, when you’ve had a deeply productive day, you’ll know it.

Productivity is simplicity

Givers, those who are other-focused, paying more attention to what people need from them, dominate the top of the success ladder.<div>Productivity shouldn’t only be the pursuit of self-improvement, but also a mission to improve the lives and the work of people we encounter.</div>

Helping others

Purposeful work involves activities that are simultaneously engaging and impactful and leads to a complete immersion in work that feels incredibly rewarding.

Choosing purposeful work

Rather than wondering what we need to do next, hour-to-hour or minute-to-minute, planning ahead allows us to save time on indecision and helps us execute on everything we want to get done with greater precision.Approaching what we need to do with intention makes productivity feel like second nature.

Productivity takes planning

Minimize the things you dread and meetings you don't want to attend as much as possible: say “no”, delegate, and automate.<div>This leaves you to make room on your calendar for discussions that exhilarate you.When what you spend your time on is congruent with your interests and values, progress feels conveniently close.</div>

Prioritize the work that excites you

When our Editor pitched me on writing a piece narrowing down productivity advice essentials, I was excited. Inspired by a NYT piece doing the same with financial advice , it would be a chance to discover secrets from productivity experts on time management and focus.

Balance is central to productivity

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