50+ proven strategies to boost your productivity

Imagine a world where your productivity isn’t just a checklist of tasks, but an expansive field of possibilities for personal and professional growth.

Once you start approaching it holistically, your productivity has no limits.

Today, we unveil 50+ proven strategies designed to unlock your next level of efficiency and effectiveness.

Let’s dive in!

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Before we begin: Here’s what you might have missed last week

• In issue #28 of The Productivist, I shared a guide to never feeling stuck again.

• You learnt the importance of reconnecting with a future version of you.

• You discovered healthier strategies to empower yourself through self-talk, expectations management, and much more.

Click here to access the full issue.

Big idea #1: Focus is a trained skill.

1. Multitasking is killing your focus. Focus on one thing at a time.

2. You don’t lose focus. Your focus goes on things that DON’T MATTER. Stop saying you lost focus, and start cutting out the noise that stills it.

3. Create before you consume.

4. Keep your phone in a different room & turned off during focused work.

5. Don’t keep your inbox tab always opened. Instead, try blocking out 3 20-minute daily slots in your calendar to check and reply to emails.

6. Have an emergency communication channel for which notifications are always on. Instruct your close ones and your team to use that channel for emergencies ONLY.

7. Use greyscale mode on your phone to lessen your addiction to it.

8. Educational content counts as entertainment (and a waste of time) unless you truly act on the newly acquired knowledge.

9. Have you heard of the “if it takes less than 5 min, do it now” rule?

There’s a caveat to this rule: If you are in the middle of another task, and a short one pops up, even though it takes less than 5 minutes, do NOT do it now. Just write it down to revisit it after you are done with the current activity.

This is how you prevent getting sucked into distraction when your one short task is to send someone a message.

10. If procrastinating on a specific task, set a timer to 5 minutes and commit to working on it for just 5 minutes. Chances are you will carry on after the timer goes off.

11. If you have been distracted/unproductive, turn your day around in under 20 minutes:

1. go for a quick walk

2. drink a glass of water

3. take 6 deep breaths

4. then close your eyes and ask yourself, “what's most important thing to focus on in the next 50 min?“

5. set a timer for 50 minutes and commit to focusing on that one task until the timer goes off.

12. Use the speed button on all audio and video content. Not only does it help to keep your mind engaged, but you can also finish the "Atomic Habits" audiobook during your next 3-hour flight.

13. Every unfinished task is like another tab opened in your mental browser slowing down your productivity. Make sure to do, delegate, or drop it as soon as possible to close those tabs.

14. To get into a flow state, you need clarity, concentration, and a challenge:

• What’s my objective?

• What is likely to distract me and how can I proactively remove it?

• How can I make this task’s difficulty level just slightly above my ability level?

Big idea #2: It was never about time management, it’s about energy management.

15. 7+ hours of sleep daily.

Always work towards improving the quality of your sleep, the only guidance you need → Sleep Mastery Checklist

16. Sunlight before screenlight, every day.

17. What you consume (food and information) affects your energy and focus.

18. Rest can be productive if you come back more focused and energized.

19. During work, take breaks every hour to stretch, move, and drink water.

20. Make your rest 7 times more productive by incorporating all seven types of rest into one: physical, mental, social, sensory, emotional, spiritual, and creative. (More about all seven here.)

21. Have at least one day per week where you don't work.

22. Your evening routine is more important than your morning routine.

Don’t be random about your evenings. Check out this guide to stress-free evenings.

Big idea #3: If you don’t plan your day, someone else will.

23. If it is not on your calendar, it’s not happening.

24. Simple rule of ONE: One priority per day is to be completed by 1 PM.

25. Block out 50-minute slots for distraction-free deep work related to your priority project(s).

26. Plan your day the day before, not in the morning.

27. Block out a “buffer hour” at the end of a work day to catch up on tasks if any and plan the next day.

28. Schedule time for scrolling social media and news (if at all).

29. Batch similar tasks together in your calendar to reduce task-switching costs.

30. Stop 60-min meetings when they can be 17-min.

31. To make a group meeting effective, do at least one of the following:

• Share the agenda with attendees ahead of time and ask them to come prepared with ideas.

• Reduce the number of attendees to <5 people.

• Make it a standing meeting.

32. Parkinson's Law states that work will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion. The lack of (or flexible) deadlines causes procrastination or even prompts you to fill your time with trivial stuff.

33. Do not book every minute of your day. Allow for more empty space. You and your mind need a break to process the information already pouring at you throughout the day.

34. Every new week comes with its own Friday Finishers: three tasks to be completed by EOD Friday.

35. Don't prioritize your schedule, schedule your priorities.

36. Write down your 3:3:3 plan: 3 hours on most important project, 3 shorter tasks, 3 maintenance activities.

Big idea #4: You can have it all if you don’t do it all.

37. If you have more than 5 goals, you have none.

38. Never confuse activity with accomplishment. Your effort is not correlated with results. Otherwise working 100-hour weeks would have made every entrepreneur rich. It’s not the case, however.

39. 80/20 principle: 20% of your tasks move the needle the most. Learn what they are. Triple-down on your 20%. Make it 60%.

40. Your joyful productivity is directly correlated to your skill of omitting unnecessary work, outsourcing most tasks, and optimizing whatever’s left for you to do.

41. Know when to quit. Beware of the sunk cost fallacy.

• Quit reading a book before finishing it if you don’t enjoy it.

• Quit a friendship you had since childhood if you no longer enjoy each other’s company nor have anything in common.

• Quit a career that drains your sole even if you’ve given it 10+ years of your life.

42. Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. Create a capture system and an organization system. (Learn how to optimize your second brain here.)

43. Learn how to use technology as your personal assistant instead of just letting technology use you.

44. Make “no” your default answer, and only if you see the availability in your calendar and the proposed activity adds to your happiness, health, well-being, or wealth, consider saying “yes” to it.

45. Ask for help. You will go farther faster.

But to be able to ask and get the help you need, you have to prioritize building meaningful relationships which starts with being intentional in the way you influence people.

Start by learning 5 powerful ways to boost your influence.

46. You always have the time, it’s just not a priority right now.

Big idea #5: Your environment influences your productivity more than you expect.

47. Have a dedicated workspace.

• Don’t browse Amazon there.

• Don’t watch Netflix there.

• The desk itself becomes your cue to be focused on work.

48. Make your workspace the coolest part of the house/office.

49. Mise en place: prepare for your deep work session beforehand, not when it starts. Plug in your laptop, fill up your water bottle, and throw out your phone.

50. Standing will save you hours per day. Standing meetings. Standing desk. No one wastes time if standing.

51. Set triggers and reminders to stay focused throughout the day.

Use rituals or your senses to trigger focus:

• turn on binaural beats (I love brain.fm),

• use essential oils diffuser, or

• light a candle.

Big idea #6: Motivation comes in motion.

52. Revisit your goals every morning, not just once in January.

53. You don’t need more time. You need more reasons to use it wisely.

54. It’s never about intensity, it’s about consistency.

55. Start before you are ready because you will never feel ready.

56. Ask the right questions. Instead of “Why do I have to deal with this?” ask “How can I make this task fun?”

57. Engagement, energy, and joy are up to you to generate, and not the task.

58. Do not underestimate the power of socializing your agenda. Your chances of following through increase every time you describe your goals out loud. Not to mention the external accountability component that comes with sharing your goals with others, it could just be a missing ingredient in your success.

59. Productivity is NOT about maximizing every second of your day. It’s about having all the time you need for things that matter most in life.

Tiny habit: Break unhealthy habits.

Many people focus on what they should do to succeed, but here's a secret:

It's just as important to stop doing certain things.

All your hard work can go to waste if you don't kick these bad habits to the curb.

Here are some pretty obvious ones:

• lack of sleep

• unhealthy diet

• lack of exercise

• constant scrolling

• partying too much

Now, let's add a few more to that list:

• not following through on what you said you would do

• caring too much about what other people think

• blaming others when things go wrong

• not being able to remove distractions

• taking everything personally

• not being able to say “no”

• always putting things off

• avoiding discomfort

• self-deprecating

• overcommitting

• gossiping

None of these things help you get closer to what you want.

So, what can you do this week to eliminate some of these things and get on the right track?

The Productivist Question

I'm confident that somewhere within this issue you've discovered at least one new insight that sparked your interest.

The real question now is: Are you willing to give this new knowledge a chance in your life?

A common barrier to embracing new strategies or habits is our inherent resistance to change. This resistance often stems from a fear of outcome pain, encapsulated in the thought, "What if I invest my time and effort, and in the end it doesn't work out?"

Today, I invite you to challenge this mindset.

Instead of dwelling on the possibility of outcome pain, let's dare to ask a more empowering question:

• What if it does work out?

Imagine the doors that could open, the growth you could experience, and the success that might follow.

Allow this question to guide your approach to any new venture or change you're considering.

Have a productive week ahead,

Valeriya

PS: Would love to hear your biggest takeaway today. Please reply to this email or DM me on LinkedIn with your thoughts!

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