Productivity & efficiency toolbox
Here is a list of habits or tricks I collected over time on how to improve productivity and work more efficiently.
The night before
Review today
- Do a 5-minute today’s review.
Plan tomorrow
- Identify tomorrow’s top 3 daily targets.
Sleep properly
- Know what can help you sleep well.
- Clear your head before bed through journaling, yoga, or meditation.
- Restart your sleep after 20–30 minutes not being able to sleep. It helps clear the head.
“The bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.”
- E. Joseph Cossman
Morning
Drink 2 glasses of water right after waking up
It helps wake up the body.
Get up early at a regular time
- People’s brains function better in the morning.
- Have a morning routine. Rhythm helps you form habits and create a sense that you are doing small steps daily towards a greater goal.
Review long-term goals daily
It helps make the day’s activities more intentional and aligned with your future.
Avoid information overload early in the day
- Don’t use your phone first thing in the morning. Set up a rule, such as no phone till 9 am.
Eat a good breakfast
- Have some protein and some fat.
- Make a smoothie with fruit and real yogurt.
- Coffee alone is counter-productive.
The day
90 minutes — 3 hours concentrated work daily
- Even 15 minutes can be useful, particularly if you do it every day.
- 3 hours of hyper-efficiency is great already, and sustainable for decades. Aim for that.
Break
- Give yourself a break after a good period of sustained concentration.
- Nap.
Start small
- Big chunks of free time will never exist.
- Do not wait for a big chunk of free time to start. You will never get big chunks of free time ever in your life.
Put your phone away during focus hours
- Out of sight, out of mind. Even better, put the phone in a jar. Now opening it is an intentional action.
Eat healthy snacks
Such as nuts and raisins.
Think scope & set timelines for every small task
- Timebox tasks to avoid iterating forever and ever. Curse of perfectionism — things never go out.
- Know why you are doing a task. How much value is this task going to bring you? Then decide time allocation.
- Break a big task into chunks and finish it over the course of a few days.
We all experience inefficiency after spending hours on a big task. Stop before it is not productive anymore.
“The best way is always to stop when you are going good.”
- Ernest Hemingway
Timer
- Countdown creates urgency. Have it always visible.
- Mind wandered? No problem. Look at the timer, you’ve accomplished this much already in 13 minutes. Just wasted 6 minutes? No problem, you still got 41 minutes, get back on track.
For example, I often have this timer window on my desktop with what I do side by side.
Working at night
- A shower helps refresh and clear the head.
- Take a quick 15 min night walk in between tasks.
- Turn off the phone early at night.
State of mind & distractions
How to shift state of mind
- Take a shower, or even better, bath if time allows.
- Change of environment.
- Refuse to be tempted.
“If you refuse to be tempted for 15 minutes (25 on a really bad day) you will find that the clamor in your mind will settle down and you will be able to concentrate on writing. If you do this day after day, you will find that the power of such temptations does not reduce, but the duration of their attempts to distract you will decrease. You will also find that even on a day where concentration is very difficult, you will still be able to do some productive writing if you stick it out.”
— Jordan Peterson on writing
Had a really bad day?
- Failing is ok. Getting lost is cool. What matters is how long it takes for you to bounce back on track.
