50 Ways to Increase Productivity and Achieve More in Less Time
Here are 50 ways to increase productivity and add hours to your day.
1. Set a Timer; Estimate the time you need to tackle different tasks and set a timer for each of your tasks. When it comes to the time limit, move on to another task first.
2. Eliminate All Distractions; Distractions include the phone, email notifications and having multiple web browsers open on the desktop.
Learn how to get rid of all distractions in this guide: How to Focus and Maximize Your Productivity (the Definitive Guide)
3. Listen a Lecture That Boosts Productivity; Distractions should be avoided.
4. Find Meaning in What You Do (And Love What You Do); Enjoying what you do is the ultimate way to increase your productivity.
If you aren’t sure what you love doing yet, don’t worry. Leo Babauta has some unique ways to help you: How to Find Your Passion
5. Prioritize your tasks ahead of time; By listing your tasks in order of importance, you can make sure that you finish all of your most important tasks during the day.
Learn a unique technique to Prioritize Right in 10 Minutes and Work 10X Faster.
6. Batch Similar Tasks into a Single Batch; Tasks like blog writing, phone calls, email and errands (assignments) can be grouped into a single batch. You will save time by completing similar tasks in one session.
7. Complete Your Most Dreaded (to be in great fear) Tasks First Thing in the Morning; Whichever activity you are dreading the most is probably the one you need to complete first thing in the morning.
Many people tend to check emails in the morning because after checking a list of emails, they feel fulfilled. But that’s just an illusion of having achieved more.
Doing simple tasks like checking emails first in the morning is bad for you. Instead, do the difficult tasks because you have more energy in the morning to tackle them!
8. Reward Yourself for Finishing a Big Task; To stay motivated for whatever you do, reward yourself every now and then.
Keep track of your small wins and milestones and celebrate them. So whenever you struggle about your progress, you see how far you’ve come!
Find out more about this 2-Step Approach to Self-Motivation: Track Small Wins and Reward Yourself.
9. Don’t Multitask; Research has shown that multitasking is not productive. If you think you can multitask, think again.
For optimum productivity, focus on one thing at a time.
10. Step Away from the Computer
The Internet has become one of the number one distraction. To increase your productivity, try to do as much of your work offline as possible.
I do this a lot when I try to brainstom new ideas and have found it to be very beneficial to simply unplug.
11. Use Focus Tools
Make good use of apps and technology to help you remove distractions.
Here’re 18 Best Time Management Apps and Tools to help you stay focused. This way, you’re not distracted by the web, e-mail, or IM.
12. Just Start
Often times, starting is the hardest part. People tend to wait for the perfect time with perfect condition to start. But there’s no perfect condition.
Once you get going, you will quickly get into a rhythm that could last for hours.
13. Find out Your Productive Hours
Everyone has a certain time of the day in which they are more productive than others. For me, it’s the morning.
Find out when your prime time is for productivity and optimize your work schedule accordingly.
14. Keep a Notebook and Pen on Hand at All Times
This way, you can write down your thoughts, to-dos and ideas at any time. The key is to get everything out of your head and onto paper. Your subconscious mind won’t be reminding you about it every other second.
15. Write a Blog to Chronicle Your Own Personal Development and Achievements
The blog keeps you accountable and always working towards self improvement and personal growth.
When you write down all the small achievements you’ve been having, you’re also more motivated to move forward.
And you know what, this is how I started Lifehack too!
16. Write out a To-Do-List Each Day
I like to plan my day the night before. This way, I can get started on my most important tasks as soon as I wake up.
Make sure you don’t make any of these common to-do-list mistakes!
17. Write Your Most Important Tasks and To-Dos on a Calendar.
The key to good time management is knowing where to be and what to be doing there at any given time. Effective calendar management goes hand in hand with good task list management.
Learn here How to Use a Calendar to Create Time and Space.
18. Reflect on Your Productivity Constantly
As you go throughout your day, repeatedly ask yourself:
“Am I currently making the best possible use of my time?”
This one simple question can be an excellent boost to your productivity.
19. Get up Early Before Anyone Else
I know it could be difficult for some to wake up early in the morning but nothing beats a quiet house!
Here’s How to Start Your Day at 5:00 AM and some Simple Things Early Risers Do to make waking up early easier.
20. Get Plenty of Sleep
When you work online, sleep can become a long lost memory. However, it’s important to get plenty of sleep so that your working hours can be as productive as possible.
21. Exercise
Research has shown that midday exercise boosts productivity and morale in the workplace.
Take a short walk at lunch or do some simple stretches during your break to maximize your productivity.
Here I have some exercises recommendations for you:
29 Exercises You Can Do At (Or Near) Your Desk
15 Simple And Quick Office Stretches To Boost Work Efficiency
22. Outsource as Much as Possible
If you want to achieve more in less time, learn to delegate or outsource work.
23. Set Some Exciting Goals
Without worthy goals, you will never be motivated to get things done.
Set goals that are challenging and achievable. The best goal setting framework is SMART goal.
Learn here How to Use SMART Goal to Become Highly Successful in Life.
24. Tell Other People About Your Goals
When you tell others about your goals, you will instantly be held accountable.
25. Listen to Podcasts
Listen to educational podcasts or audio books while you’re driving to work, cleaning the house, exercising, or cooking dinner.
Audio learning has the power to add hours to your day. Not to mention, your cranium is sure to thank you for it.
Some recommendations for you: 11 Podcasts To Inspire Yourself
26. Read David Allen’s best-selling book Getting Things Done
This is one of the most important productivity books you will ever read. Read it, apply the tips in your daily lives and get more things done.
Here’re more great books about productivity too: 35 Books on Productivity and Organizational Skills for an Effective Life
27. Learn to Speed Read
When you can read faster, you will read and learn more! Check out these 10 Ways to Increase Your Reading Speed.
You can also make use of the app OutRead to help speed up your reading speed!
28. Learn to Skip When You Read
When you’re reading a book, just read the parts that you need and skip the rest. But you have to read with a purpose.
Learn how to make it work here: How to Read 10X Faster and Retain More
29. Focus on Result-Oriented Activities
Pareto’s law (also known as the 80 20 rule) states that 80% of the outputs result from 20% of the inputs. This means that 20% of our actions result in 80% of the results.
We must find the 20% that is creating the 80% of our desired outcomes and focus solely on those activities.
30. Take a Break
You can’t always be working at optimum productivity. Instead, you should shoot for working in short bursts at your most productive times.
31. Start a Polyphasic Sleep Schedule
What is polyphasic sleep?
Polyphasic sleep is a sleep pattern specification intended to compress sleep time to 2-5 hours daily.[1] This is achieved by spreading out sleep into short (around 20-45 minute) naps throughout the day. This allows for more waking hours with relatively high alertness.
While you can learn more about it here, you’re recommended to take some naps during the day to recharge your energy too.
32. Learn to Say “No”.
We can’t do everything and therefore we must learn when to say no in order to save our sanity.
Learn the Gentle Art of Saying No from Leo Babauta.
33. Go on an Information Diet
Most of the world lives on information overload. We must eliminate mindless Internet surfing.
Stop reading three different newspapers a day and checking your RSS feeds multiple times a day. Otherwise, you’ll never get anything done.
The key is to limit yourself only to information that you can immediately take action on. Here’re some simple tips you can try: 10 Simple Productivity Tricks To Manage Overloaded Information
34. Organize Your Office
The piles of paper around your desk can be a huge barrier on your productivity. Optimize your time by organizing your office, setting up a system and dumping the junk.
Check out these 21 Tips to Organize Your Office and Get More Done.
35. Find a Mentor
By modeling after those who have already achieved success, you will save yourself a lot of time and energy.
A good mentor is hard to find, so here’s a guide to help you: What to Look for in a Mentor
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How to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed ?
Here's the Solution
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36. Learn Keyboard Shortcuts
With technology’s help, you can double your work efficiency. Even better, you learn all the shortcuts when using technology, for example keyboard shortcuts.
When you use keyboard shortcut, you gain 64 hours every year!
37. Improve Your Typing Speed to Save Time
Do you know you can save 21 days per year just by typing fast?
You don’t really need to take some serious courses to type faster, try these typing games online:
Barracuda
Fingerjig
Bubbles
38. Work from Home and Avoid the Daily Commute
If your job is a flexible one, consider working from home. This saves you the commute time and you’ll find yourself more energetic throughout the day as you have saved the long ride.
Take a look at these tips to help you stay productive while working from home:
How to Work from Home and Stay Ultra-Productive
39. Get Rid of Time Wasters
Common time wasters include Instant Messenger, video games, Flickr, checking your stats 10 times a day, television and extraneous Internet surfing.
Don’t rely on your willpower, make use of some of these useful tools to help you stay focus: 10 Online Apps for Better Focus
40. Plan Your Meals in Advance
Plan out all of your meals a week ahead and make your grocery list accordingly. This will save you quite a bit of time and money.
41. Cook Your Meals in Bulk
When you cook your meals in bulk, you will have plenty of leftovers. This can avoid having to cook everyday.
Find out more about how to make cooking in bulk works: Once a Month Cooking: Productivity Hack or Overrated Time Suck?
42. Protect Yourself from Unnecessary Phone Time with Caller ID
The minutes you spend on picking up unnecessary phone calls are time wasted. You can prevent that from happening.
Check out this detailed guide how you can deal with those unnecessary phone calls: How To Lose the Useless Items that Weigh Down Your Day – Cellphone Calls
43. Take Shorter Showers
This one may sound silly but it’s actually something I struggle with. I spend up to 30 minutes in the shower. Think of the time I could save simply by speeding up a bit.
44. Save the Trips to Bank by Taking Direct Deposit
Many employers now offer direct deposit. If yours does, then be sure and take advantage of it and save yourself from a number of trips to the bank.
45. Auto Pay Your Bills
How many times have you been worried about whether you missed the bills deadline?
Auto paying your bills will save you time and eliminate late fees and increased interest rates.
46. Shop Online
Whenever possible, avoid going to the store. When you shop online, you can be more focus about what you’re getting.
47. Speed up your Internet with a broadband connection.
Many people are aware of the slow speed of internet but aren’t doing anything about it. In fact, this is the number one Internet time-saver!
If you must use dial-up, then you can use accelerators like Propel and SlipStream to double or even triple your speed.
48. Keep up the Speed of Your Computer
If you’re a Windows user, use Windows hibernation feature to avoid the slowdown of exiting and restarting Windows.
Or maybe, consider switching to Mac as there’re plenty of Advantages You Probably Don’t Know About Switching To Mac From PC.
49. Turn off the TV.
The average American watches more than 4 hours of television every day. Over a 65-year life, that’s 9 years glued to the tube.
For better health and productivity, turn off the TV. Here’re 11 more reasons to tell you to stop watching TV so often.
Turn off the TV and you are sure to get more out of life.
50. Use a Tivo or DVR.
This can help you cut an hour-long television show down to just 40 minutes. You can save time while not missing the fun.
So, here’s the ultimate list of techniques you should learn to boost productivity. Pick the techniques that work for you and make them your daily habits. As time goes, you’ll find yourself being a lot more productive.
More Time Management Tips
7 Effective Time Management Tips To Maximize Your Productivity
How to Be Productive at Work: 9 Ground Rules
How to Not Get Distracted: 10 Practical Tips to Sharpen Your Focus
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