Productivity Tips & Facts Curated by Overachievers from Trusted Sources

Working longer hours doesn’t necessarily increase productivity. It’s been proven to lower productivity, lead to errors and generate stress.

Many people try to find the perfect productivity system, hoping that it will help them better manage their work and mental health. However, there is no universal productivity system. For example, a remote worker may need a different approach to someone commuting to work.

Everyone should intentionally design a system based on their needs by using existing systems and adding personal touches.

• Identify those things that are causing you the most stress.
• Make a list of the top 3-5 items to work on in a day and decide which ones are truly worthy of time.
• Work when you are most useful to boost productivity.
• Being busy doesn’t mean you are getting much done.
• Don’t make it easy for others to say no.
• If you find it necessary, make time for it.
• Money is not the only measure of success.

• Write down your top goals, both long and short-term things.
• Focus on the top five goals and then deliberately ignore the rest. The remaining 20 items will end up distracting you from accomplishing the things you most want to do.

Fixing employee productivity in the industrial age, when most workers were handling machinery and it’s parts, was a tedious but doable process. The managers had to fix the people who were making mistakes or were inefficient through systematic management.

Today, in the age of software and intellectual property, when half of the workforce is made up of knowledge workers, the old practices are of no use.

It’s the constant nagging feeling that you should be doing more. And if you’re not doing everything, then you’re a lazy slacker who will never reach your goals. -- Scott H. Young

That’s simply not true. Even small efforts have a cumulative effect.

If we want to be free to focus, we must eliminate everything standing in our way. That doesn’t mean simply saying no to a lot of bad ideas; it also means turning down a ton of good ideas.

Everything outside your Desire Zone is a possible candidate for elimination.

The yes-no-yes strategy to give a “positive no”:

1. Yes. Say yes to yourself and protect what is important to you. 
2. No. The answer continues with a matter-of-fact no that is clear and sets boundaries. No wiggle room or ambiguity.
3. Yes. End the response by affirming the relationship again and by offering another solution.

Sometimes, we are unsure how to handle a lengthy task list.

The Eisenhower Matrix help you prioritise your tasks based on the following:

• Urgent and Important tasks. Do the task now.
• Important but not urgent tasks. Schedule when you must do it. 
• Urgent but not important tasks. Delegate these tasks.
• Neither urgent nor important. Delete these tasks.

They say always tackle the most difficult task first, and while that statement makes plenty of sense, it might at times hinder your productivity. Remember that time you spent an entire day on that one killer tutorial when you could have tackled three simpler ones? Yup, we’ve all been there. Beyond allocating your tasks to do, why not allocate the amount of time you have instead? This way, you can tackle more tasks in a reasonable time, without feeing burnt out.

There is nothing better than the good ol’ “minimise distractions, maximise productivity” rule. Put your phone on airplane mode and turn off your email notifications on your laptop when you’re studying. The constant buzzing of social media and news pulls us out of our concentration, making it harder to be efficient.

Or on your colleague's desk. Or at the very least, put it somewhere that is out of sight. This eliminates the urge to check text messages, Facebook, Twitter, and so on. This simple strategy eliminates the likelihood of slipping into half–work where you waste time dividing your attention among meaningless tasks.

• Social Media fragment our time and reduce our ability to concentrate, making it difficult to improve your ability to work deeply.

Do a test run: without deactivating, stay off consciously from your social media of choice for 30 days. After 30 days, evaluate:

1. Was it impossible for you to stay away or were you greatly inconvenienced?
2. Did anyone care?

If you want to eliminate the addictive pull of entertainment sites on your time and attention, give your brain a quality alternative.

Age and seniority highly correlate with personal productivity.

Habits of seniors include:

• Developing routines for low-value activities.
• Managing message flow
• Running effective meetings
• Delegating tasks

• Wake up early and eat a nutritious breakfast;
• Focus on your goals;
• Rise above and overcome adversity – even if it seems impossible;
• Follow your passion and channel your energy into success;
• Practice stillness. Oprah spends 20-minutes per day sitting in absolute stillness. It helps her to clear her mind and focus on her jobs and outstanding projects at hand;
• Lead a life for others – Oprah dedicates much of her time to helping others.
• Seize every opportunity that comes your way, no matter how big or how small.

Matching the type of work that needs to be done with where you do it is a huge productivity hack. Do you do your best number crunching at a structured desk or the kitchen table? Or maybe your best creative ideas come to you when you’re on a walk and can let your mind reset. Either way, knowing when and where you are at your best for all of your various tasks can be a real productivity boost and help with your work-life balance.

Trying to achieve multiple tasks at one time may feel like we’re accomplishing plenty when we’re busy, like trying to read your lecture notes while catching up with the news on TV. But what we’re actually doing is switch-tasking instead—going from one task to another in rapid succession. You often realise you have ended the day having accomplished and retained nothing at all.

Things our brains enjoy to do  for instance

• Creativity
• Enjoyment
• Relaxing
• Connecting

• Focus first on the tasks that earn you more money.
• Dump the electronic interruptions, or severely limit them so you can focus on selling.
• Ignore email in the morning, checking it will merely distract you from your goals.
• Make a prioritized list each evening for the next day.
• Getting up early each day will help you become productive and focus on everything you need to accomplish.

• Be involved in the daily management of your brand without micromanaging your team.
• Ask for help to shorten the learning curve when you start something new.
• If f you have an idea, you don’t have to be a pro at designing a product or marketing - you can hire people to help you with the essential details.
• You need a passion for what you do, to be genuinely productive.
• Hire the right people with the right expertise to help you.

When most people want to improve their productivity, they make small changes, like creating a daily schedule or waking up early. However, you can also increase your productivity by moving abroad.

Moving to a country with a less expensive cost of living can enable you to work less, thereby devoting your spare time to other projects.

The Second brain is basically a personal knowledge management system which can help unlock the next level of productivity. It is a digital note taking system that keeps a track of all that you read, listen and see. It can then be used to organise your ideas, thoughts which can then be converted into a creative output.

There are 10 basics principles of building a second brain. 

Some of us prefer to start our days bright and early, others prefer to burn the midnight oil. These times where your motivation is at its highest is called the “golden hours”. Find your “golden hours” and use it to get the most work done. This “golden hour” rule also applies to the workforce. While we may not get to choose what time we come in and leave office, we can make use of our most ideal surroundings to recalibrate our “golden hours”. It could be the calm of the morning before your coworkers arrive, or midday when everyone is in the thick of the momentum.

Saying “no” may sometimes make one appear selfish, but what you’re actually doing instead is saying “yes” to yourself. Helping others is great, but not when you end up causing more stress for yourself. If your plate is already full, learn to say “no” when your groupmate asks you to pull more than your allotted weight in a project. It’s better to do one job well, than to do multiple jobs badly.

Commutes may still be a little unpredictable as we move between remote and in-office work. But for most of us, there are still a few minutes in many days where we’re in that “in between” space of not at home but not quite settled into the days’ business. How can this time work for you? Is it a quick call to check in on a parent? Or 5 minutes of listening to a new podcast and some deep breathing? Even if this time is short, using it intentionally is a satisfying way to start and end the day.

Have you ever noticed how you feel groggy and sluggish in a hot room? Turning the temperature down or moving to a cooler place is an easy way to focus your mind and body. (Hat tip to Michael Hyatt for this one.)

The ultimate productivity hack is saying no.

Not doing something will always be faster than doing it. This statement reminds me of the old computer programming saying, “Remember that there is no code faster than no code.”

The same philosophy applies in other areas of life. For example, there is no meeting that goes faster than not having a meeting at all.

This is not to say you should never attend another meeting, but the truth is that we say yes to many things we don't actually want to do. There are many meetings held that don't need to be held.

• The New Law of Productivity: High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)
• The Principle of Least Resistance: Our tendency toward behaviors that are easiest in the moment.
• Schedule in advance when you’ll use the Internet, and then avoid it altogether outside these times. Do it both at home and work to further improve your concentration training.
• Practice productive meditation : This a period in which you’re occupied physically but not mentally—walking, jogging, driving, showering—and focus your attention on a single well-defined professional problem.

• Disable all incoming call/message notifications and badges
• Become hard to reach
• Quit social media
• Work in a quiet place
• Work at a quiet time
• Limit internet access

Here are top 3 eye opening statistics on time management and productivity

• 88% of working people procrastinate daily.
• Only 20% of people feel their work is under control daily.
• The average worker spends 51% of every workday on low to no-value tasks.

The basic productivity formula(productivity= output divided by input) worked well in the industrial age as the output and input were clearly defined and measurable.

Today’s leaders need innovative solutions to measure and improve productivity in a knowledge-based workplace, as the measurement of output and input is not what it was.

One of the simplest but most effective habits to increase your productivity is to identify your top 3 targets for the day. When you clearly identify your priorities, your entire day will be much more focused and purposeful.

So, before the workday begins, take one minute and ask yourself the following question:

Which 3 things, if achieved today, get me a big step closer to reaching my long-term goals?

Deep Work - Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value and improve your skill.

Shallow Work - Non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend not to create much new value in the world.

Most people into productivity (including myself) had never heard of the most important breakthrough in the history of productivity or the person behind it.

I wanted to understand why the 50x shift happened in the first place and how to replicate it with knowledge work instead of just manual work. After all, who doesn’t want a 50x productivity boost?

If you know you can’t do that scary thing right now, do not turn to social media or video games. 

Tell yourself it’s okay to avoid it — as long as you’re doing the #2 thing on your to-do list.

• Decide what to delegate.
• Select the best person.
• Communicate the workflow.
• Provide the necessary resources.
• Specify the delegation-level
• Give them room to operate.
• Check in and provide feedback as needed.

1. Cutting out distractions.
2. Make a single-tasking plan you’ll actually stick to.
3. Dealing with unavoidable distractions.
4. Getting back on track when you’ve fallen off the single-tasking band wagon.

• Keep a to-do list with focused, actionable items.
• Visualize your to-do’s one at a time, by writing them on sticky notes.
• Schedule your daily to-do’s.
• Create unrealistically short deadlines: it forces you to stay focused.
• Keep a timer on your tasks.
• Theme your days.

Highly productive professionals share the same clusters of habits:

• They plan their work based on their top priorities and then acted with a definite objective
• They develop effective techniques for managing a high volume of information and tasks
• They understand the needs of their colleagues, enabling short meetings, responsive communications, and clear directions.

If you take a moment to think about it, you’ll probably realize that you are better at doing certain tasks at certain times. What type of energy do you have in the morning? Afternoon? Evening? Determine what tasks each energy level and time of day are best suited for.

Our brains aren’t built for multitasking so stop doing it — it’s counterproductive and a productivity killer.

You can start increasing your productivity today simply by focusing on one task at a time and giving it your all before moving onto the next task.

The first hour is the most important part of your day. It impacts your mindset by setting the tone for the rest of the day. A routine designed around your goals will always trump one that is based on habits you haven't thought about.

• What is the first thing you do in the morning? Write it down. Be as detailed as possible: getting up, brushing your teeth... until you sit down at your desk.
• What could be improved?
• Do you have any bad habits you want to better manage?

It can be easy to get side-tracked and find yourself online. Many people plan on briefly checking social media or checking the answer to a question, but end up staying online for much longer than intended. 

Write down what you wanted to look at online, put it to the side, and then finish off the task you were doing before checking.

Many people stay busy because that's the norm for them, and they cannot imagine themselves sitting idly. To avoid the busyness trap:

• Focus on just doing three important things each day
• Have a one-hour electronic blackout period
• Recognize your “bias for action.”
• Say no to things that do not advance your goals.
• Have a morning routine where you take time to reflect on how you will organize the day.

When you spend hours at your desk every day, even the smallest features of your workspace – such as the position of your monitor or the height of your chair– can greatly affect your productivity and even your health.

With a few adjustments you can improve your working environment and keep your desk from killing you.

And while we’re on the subject of making lists, there is a whole plethora of productivity apps and project trackers in the market today to help us allocate our time better. Use them wisely. Where apps such as Evernote keep everything from shopping lists to lecture notes, others such as Asana are perfect for group work with their prompts on due dates, colour coded projects and lists of subtasks. Not to mention the highly underrated joy of checking numerous items off your task list.

• Take regular breaks throughout the day. Our brains simply did not evolve to focus on one thing for extended periods of time - the longer we work without the breaks, the more prone to distraction we become.
• Forgive yourself when your day doesn’t go as planned. Ruminating on the past one of the least productive things you can do.

Surprisingly, scheduling regular breaks can improve your productivity.

Studies show that if you’re working on a long task without taking a break then your performance will suffer.

A study by DeskTime found that the top 10% of productive workers worked an average of 52 minutes before taking a 17-minute break.

So, try taking short breaks and you should see an improvement in your concentration levels.

This method was popularised by Jerry Seinfeld, who would write a joke every day. This method is about marking an X in your calendar over each day that you achieved your goal.

This method works well to create new habits.

Time blocking helps to set aside chunks of time for specific goals. It can be used with other productivity systems.

To use it, just block off time in your existing calendar.

Who says the Out Of Office email is just for vacation? Get creative with this autoresponder and use it for targeted projects. “I’m on a special project right now, and my mornings this week (9-12) will be dedicated to that effort. Please contact me outside of those hours for the most timely response.” Push the boundaries by setting some of your own.

1. When it comes to productivity, personal motivation and consistency are fundamental, however, working 40+ hours every week isn’t the best use of your time.
2. On the contrary, it’s the way we apply motivation and consistency that determines our productivity.

• It's sustainable. How do you feel after a day using the system? The system should help you, not burden you.
• It works for short-term and long-term goals. Your productivity system is a toolbox that should contain tools that work for both timelines.
• It works for structured and unstructured work.
• It helps to manage your mental health, taking breaks and time away into account.
• It makes space for regular reviews where you can reflect on work done and tweak your processes.

• Make decisions that matter.
• Zuckerberg wears almost the same thing every day, so he never has to spend brain time wondering what to wear each day.
• Set annual goals. It is easy to get bogged down in the day to day details and lose focus if you only have short-term goals.
• Support employees, but keep them on their toes. When you hold your employees to a high standard, you can depend on them and ensure they get things done.

Polyphasic sleepers break up sleep into multiple short phases, which allows for less sleep overall and significant increases in productivity.

The amount of sleep in each phase can vary, with some people sleeping only in 20-minute naps and others grabbing larger chunks of sleep and then supplementing with naps.

Let's define productivity. Productivity is a measure of efficiency of a person completing a task. We often assume that productivity means getting more things done each day. Wrong. Productivity is getting important things done consistently. And no matter what you are working on, there are only a few things that are truly important.

Being productive is about maintaining a steady, average speed on a few things, not maximum speed on everything.

One of my most productive rules is that the morning is for making, and the afternoon is for managing . In the morning, I do my writing, work on my courses, and perform other ‘making-type’ tasks that require my maximum performance.

Prioritization sounds easy, but it isn’t always simple. To really prioritize, don’t just make a list of tasks that need to be done and pluck off the “biggest,” “hardest,” or even “easiest.” Instead, think of your day as a set of building blocks that all need to fit together. Where’s the causality? What needs to be done first to make the rest of the day or week move better? Using this more connected method of prioritizing also helps us overcome some of the resistance we have around tough tasks.

Go through the list of tasks and ask yourself:

• Are these tasks collaborative or solo? The answer will impact how much freedom you have when building your productivity system.
• Differentiate between short and long-term goals as some productivity methods are better suited to one type of goal.
• Consider if the tasks are structured or unstructured. It will influence which type of system to use.

1. Work smart. Take on the most difficult, challenging, and important tasks first;
2. Set goals. Several studies suggest that having a concrete plan boosts confidence and feelings of control. Your goals should be specific and achievable;
3. Play your favorite jams, over and over. According to psychologist Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis’s book, On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind, listening to music on repeat drastically improves focus and productivity.
4. Clean your workspace. A Princeton University study concluded that cluttered workspaces create more distractions and decrease productivity levels.
5. Time yourself. To make the most of your to-do list, you should time yourself and track your progress.
6. Avoid multi-tasking . A Stanford University study  found that multitasking is less productive than doing one thing at a time.
7. Be good at saying “No.” According to a recent study from the University of California in San Francisco , people who have trouble saying “no,” also experience more stress, burnout, and depression. By saying “no” to a new commitment, you will have the time and energy to focus on your existing commitments.

1. What we eat has a direct impact on our performance at work. Want your mind (and your body) to perform optimally? Then you’ll need to practice good nutrition.
2. When it comes to nourishing our bodies and brains for optimal performance, it turns out good nutrition involves both what we eat and when we eat it.
3. For example, our brains work best with about 25 grams of glucose circulating in our blood stream — about the amount found in a banana.
4. If we were to snack on something high in sugar, like a handful of M&Ms, then we risk a blood sugar spike followed by a crash.

Productivity experts like Brian Tracy advise that you do your most demanding task first thing in the morning (eat a frog).

Ignore emails, eat breakfast, meditate… Whatever you decide to do, ensure you have a solid morning routine which sets you up for a productive day.

• By delegating whenever possible and surrounding himself with a dedicated team of engineers, Musk frees up his time for the projects for which he is most competent and passionate.
• Musk also focuses on activities that make money and generate revenue for his brand; this is a simplified approach among successful business owners.

This can take other forms, too, such as “What can we do to keep you happy if you were hired?” or “What do you like about your current job that you’d like to find here as well?”

These are examples of culture fit interview questions that aim to assess the candidate’s suitability as an employee of the company. Usually, there’s no right or wrong answer. It all depends on whether each candidate is a fit for each individual company.

• Clarity about his purpose and position helps Jeff Bezos get things done.
• Recognizing meetings are prospective time-wasters, Bezos steers clear of meetings that are not needed.
• He uses the “Two Pizza Rule,” never inviting more people to a meeting that could consume two pizzas. The more people you squeeze into a meeting, the less productive it is likely to be.

Set goals that go beyond simple quantity measures. Find other ways to work smarter that could lead to significant productivity increases.

It is better to do less and accomplish more than to do more and accomplish less. Consider how you do every task during the day, regardless of the size.

You can use the Pomodoro technique to work in 25 minutes sprints.

Here’s how it works:

1. Decide on the task to be done.
2. Set the Pomodoro timer to 25 minutes.
3. Work on the task.
4. Stop work when the timer rings and put a tick on a piece of paper.
5. If you have fewer than four ticks, take a short break of 3–5 minutes, then go to step 2.
6. When you have four ticks, take a longer break of 15–30 minutes, reset your tick count to zero, then go to step 1.

• Work hard – but also strive to have a life, too.
• Create a network – and then leverage it.
• Be as efficient as possible.
• Don’t be afraid to go old school if you prefer paper lists and reminders.

If you had a unproductive day then you probably procrastinate the next day so any hacks to have a productive day without distraction, here are 10 hacks for a productive day

There’s something more powerful than a cup of coffee and that’s a good night’s rest. While young people may be known to stay up till unearthly hours of the morning, getting a good night’s rest goes a long way to ensuring you’re more productive throughout the entire day. If you’re already clocking enough hours of shut eye yet still wake up groggy and tired, check your sleep area. Is the light from the street shining into your room? Are your neighbours too noisy? Take measures to ensure that you don’t just clock enough hours of sleep but also have a comfortable sleeping environment.

• Procrastinating on tasks—both small, nagging ones and large, challenging ones
• Boring work that needs just to get done
• Responding to email and other messages while working
• Staying motivated and energized throughout the entire work day
• Focusing and finishing the most important projects on their plates

1. Focus on most important tasks first
2. Cultivate deep work
3. Keep a distraction list to stay focused
4. Use the Eisenhower Matrix to identify long-term priorities
5. Use the 80/20 rule
6. Break tasks into smaller pieces
7. Take breaks
8. Make fewer decisions
9. Eliminate inefficient communication
10. Find repeatable shortcuts
11. Learn from successes as well as mistakes
12. Plan for when things go wrong
13. Work before you get motivated or inspired
14. Don’t multitask
15. Fill the tank — recharge
16. Sharpen the axe
17. Manage your energy (not just time)
18. Get better at saying “no”

Laura Earnest of Whole Life Productivity  had this to say on the importance of prioritization as a productivity habit:

“Let me say that I distinguish between efficient and effective, but that both are needed for peak productivity. Efficient is doing things right and effective is doing the right things. So the most productive people work on the high value tasks, making sure that how they are doing those tasks is the best way.

Outfitting an office with aesthetically pleasing elements --like plants-- can increase productivity by up to 15 percent.

Jazz up your office space with pictures, candles, flowers, or anything else that puts a smile on your face.

In the Moscow Method, you list all your tasks, then categorise them as follows:

• Must. These tasks are not negotiable and must be done today.
• Should. These tasks are important but can wait for later.
• Could. These tasks are not urgent and can be done when you don't feel very productive.
• Won't. These tasks must be deleted from your to-do list.

GTD was created by David Allen and is about taking your ideas, tasks and to-dos and organise them into manageable tasks.

How to deal with tasks:

• Write down anything that's on your mind, like a brain dump.
• Break it down into smaller, manageable steps.
• Organise your tasks based on priority.
• Reflect and refine your task.
• Do the tasks.

• Productivity measures how much you do or produce within a given timeframe.
• Efficiency is about being productive with less effort.

To be more productive in a way that won't burn you out over time, you have to understand how to be more efficient. Productivity often leads to working harder, while efficiency focuses on working smarter.

Projects can be managed with a Kanban board. Make three columns, To Do, Doing, and Done. Then split your tasks between them.

• To Do. Writing your tasks in this column makes them visible.
• Doing. Limit your work in progress to three items.
• Done. Write your completed tasks in this column for reviewing and improving the process.

• For hundreds of years there had been no increase in the ability of workers to turn out goods or to move goods.
• Over the long run, productivity determines what governments societies adopt.
• If productivity drops for too long, revolutions happen.

You have 2-2.5 hours of peak productivity every day. You may actually be 30% more effective at that time. For most of us, this happens in the morning.

Those are the hours when you should be working on your main goals. Why would you want to waste that on a conference call or a staff meeting?

• Desire Zone. Where your passion and proficiency intersect. Here is where you make your most significant contributions.
• Distraction Zone. Things you are passionate about but have little proficiency for.
• Disinterest Zone. Things that you’re proficient at but aren’t that passionate about.
• Drudgery Zone. Tasks for which you have no passion and no proficiency.
• Development Zone. How to gauge work outside your Desire Zone but potentially moving toward it.

True productivity is about doing more of what is in your Desire Zone and less of everything else.

Below is a list of the major productivity hacks and their effectiveness as per the Productivity Youtuber Ali Abdaal.

Life Changing

• Having Systems instead of Goals
• Daily Highlight a Key Task  
• Consuming Content at 2x/ 3x Speed
• Enjoying the Journey

Essential

• Delegating - When the per hour rate for a task is lower than yours
• Timeblocking - Blocks in calendar 

Useful

• 5 Minute Rule - do something for 5 minutes to create the inertia

Nice to have

• Pomodoro Technique
• Batching
• To-do lists
• Deadlines
• Goals

Works for others, Not for me

• Eisenhower Matrix
• 2 min rule
• 2 day rule
• Colour Coding - Calendar

• Create a schedule for your day and stick to it!

• Chunk: Group like tasks together into blocks of time, then focus on those specifics.

• RPM: Short for Results-oriented/Purpose-driven/Massive Action Plan: a system to uncover what you want and then reap the rewards.

• Harness the power of habit and productivity will become second nature.

Those that do multitask the most are the worst at it.

Productivity is defined as, “having the power to produce.” By that definition, multitasking is the opposite of productivity because you are more prone to distractions and have less power to produce what you need to produce.

If someone treats themselves to a dress after a week of saving, this undermines the achievement they have made. 

Try to view the act of you achieving your goals as the treat. 

When you first wake up, your body starts releasing alertness hormones to get you up and ready for the day. Every time you go hit snooze, you slow down this process.

If you become more productive and start finishing work earlier people may expect you to find more stuff to do to fill in the remaining hours. You can leverage that extra work into a promotion or raise – or convince your boss to adopt a telecommuting plan so you can work from home.

But productivity goes beyond work. Being more productive in your life means having more time to do the things you like.

• Work hard and make no excuses for doing less than your best.
• Sometimes change must happen to move forward.
• Believe in your dreams and goals and stay focused.
• Hire the best talent you can and fully support them.
• Cut down on paper – utilize email, online scheduling, and cloud sharing first and always.
• Filtering can help reduce your incoming emails and communications to a more productive level.
• Use a whiteboard to enhance collaboration, tell stories, brainstorm, and power new ideas.