80 life hacks for productivity

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

These tips will help you better manage your time, energy, and attention - and get more done as a result.

Time

How to find time

1. Set aside less time for important things. When you have a limited amount of time, you have to force yourself to strain to get everything done in a short time.

2. Stop watching TV. According to some estimates, on average, we spend 13.6 years of our lives watching television. This time could be spent on something more useful.

3. Write down what you spend your time on. This way you can see how much time is wasted and assess where it would be better to spend it.

4. Refuse to do things that take away your time, energy and attention and give you little in return.

5. Stop striving for the ideal. Know when to say stop. This is especially true for not particularly important things like cleaning.

6. Have a technical day. Shift all household chores like washing, cleaning, and shopping for one day so that you don't waste time on the rest of the week.

7. Write messages short and to the point, no longer than five sentences. This way you will spend less time answering emails.

8. If you are using the Gmail email client, try The Email Game app. It turns mailing into a game.

9. Stop sorting mail into folders, this only complicates the search for the necessary letters.

10. Learn to touch-type. The average typing speed is around 40 words per minute, while touch typing increases to 60-80 words.

11. Keep track of how you spend time on your computer with RescueTime. It works in the background and itself notes how much time you spend on different sites.

12. Set aside most of your income so you can quit work earlier and go on a well-deserved vacation.

How to waste your time

13. List your most important responsibilities, and then consider which ones you would choose if you could only do three a day. This means that these activities should be devoted 80-90% of your time.

14. Reduce the time to do something if it causes you resistance. This method will help you gradually introduce new habits. For example, if you find it difficult to meditate for 15 minutes, try setting aside 10 or at least 5 minutes for it. And over time, you will get involved.

15. Every day, do at least one important, but not urgent business, so as not to forget to move towards your goal.

16. Use the Pomodoro method. With this technique, you need to work at intervals of 25 minutes, and then take a five-minute break.

17. Make a list of important things to do when you feel like procrastinating. This will help you do something useful and distract yourself.

18. Live the two minute rule. If a task takes less than two minutes to complete, do not postpone it or add it to the to-do list, but complete it right away.

19. Plan your free time. When it is clearly structured, we enjoy it more.

20. Determine what to do next, evaluating four factors: the conditions in which you are (at home, at work), how much time you have, how much energy you have, what are the most important things.

21. Be aware of how you spend your time. For example, set a reminder on your phone every hour.

22. Sometimes take the time to completely disconnect from work.

23. Plan. Every minute you spend scheduling will save you five minutes getting the job done.

24. Remember that when people say “I don’t have time for this,” they are actually showing how important it is to them.

25. Wait before sending an important letter or message. Give yourself some time to collect your thoughts, then your answer will be meaningful.

Energy

Life hacks for the body

26. Go in for sports. This not only energizes, but also improves health, improves mood and helps you sleep better.

27. Eat well. The worse you eat, the faster you run out of energy and the less energy you have left for business.

28. Drink coffee only when you need to focus and recharge. With frequent use, it ceases to work.

29. Do not drink many cups of coffee in a row, drink water after drinks with caffeine and do not consume caffeine on an empty stomach.

30. Avoid caffeine 4-6 hours before bed. That is how much it is in the body after consumption.

31. Drink plenty of water. It improves metabolism, helps eliminate toxins, and even suppresses appetite.

32. Keep a food diary. Those who keep track of their meals tend to overeat less often.

33. Get enough sleep, even if sometimes you have to sleep for it. Sleep improves concentration and attention, reduces stress and reduces mood swings.

34. Don't drink alcohol before bed. It affects the quality of sleep, which means that the next day you will be lethargic and unhappy.

35. Sleep during the day. If you feel that your energy is running out, try to lie down for a while. This will replenish your strength and help avoid burnout.

36. Constantly assess how much energy you have and act according to your condition. If you are tired, it is better to rest, and when you are full of energy, take on difficult tasks.

37. Calculate the time of day when you are most productive by recording the rise and fall of energy every day for a week.

38. Paint the walls of the office the correct color. It is believed that blue stimulates the brain, yellow stimulates emotions, red stimulates the body, and green creates a sense of balance.

39. Do not use electronic devices before bed: they emit blue light, and it makes it difficult to fall asleep.

40. Give preference to natural light. Daylight reduces stress and energizes.

41. Install the f.lux program. It makes the backlight of the screen warmer after sunset. Unlike blue light, warm lighting does not inhibit melatonin production or interfere with falling asleep.

Life hacks for the brain

42. Find ways to relieve stress that help you. For example, you can play sports, read, listen to music, walk, meditate, go for a massage, or have a creative hobby.

43. Take breaks while working. This makes it possible to distract yourself, gain strength, find a new way to solve the problem.

44. Start small. The less change you want to make in your life, the more likely you are to actually take this step.

45. Notice when you criticize yourself in vain. According to David Allen, creator of the GTD method, 80% of what we say to ourselves is negative comments.

46. Make more friends at the office. Not only does it increase job satisfaction and interest in work, but it can also help you move up the corporate ladder.

47. Look on your calendar with whom you have met in the past few months. Think about which of these people especially inspired or motivated you. Try to spend more time with them.

48. Lower your expectations. This will help you relax, have more enjoyment out of life and not worry about the opinions of others.

49. Understand that most people don't care about your success, income and appearance. By realizing this, you will feel that you are freer than you thought.

50. Use visualization to be more productive. Imagine that you need to leave town for a month tomorrow. What activities would you definitely do before leaving? So you will understand what you need to do first.

51. Don't always try to avoid conflicts. Moderate stress only increases productivity.

52. While working, include background noise, for example on the Coffitivity website. It mimics the sounds of a cafe, and this, according to research., increases productivity and tune in to creativity.

53. Every day, remember three things for which you are grateful. This trains the brain to look not for the negative, but for the positive in life.

54. Write down one positive impression each day. So the brain seems to experience it again, and this energizes and makes you happier.

55. From time to time, remember to relax and let off steam. You are not a robot and you cannot be productive all the time.

Attention

How to manage your attention

56. Meditate. This will teach you to focus on one subject better than any other activity. In addition, meditation soothes, increases blood flow to the brain. Short-term meditation increases blood flow in the anterior cingulate cortex and insula., helps fight procrastination.

57. Give up multitasking. It reduces productivity and concentration, leads to errors and stress.

58. Every day write down what you need to do, who to contact, any thoughts and ideas that are spinning in your head.

59. Include in your diet foods that improve attention: blueberries, green tea, avocados, leafy greens, fatty fish, dark chocolate, flax seeds, nuts.

60. After you have finished something, clean up after yourself so that next time it will be easier to start. For example, wash the dishes right after a meal, and fold back your uniform after a workout.

61. Slow down. We often live on autopilot without noticing anything around us. Try to do everything consciously: this way you will better distribute attention and, accordingly, do more.

62. Disconnect from the Internet when you need to do something important. This will make you less likely to be distracted.

63. To avoid temptation, replay the course of events in your head in advance. For example, if you're looking for a healthy diet, imagine that on your way home you don't go to McDonald's and buy fast food.

64. Use your smartphone less: it constantly distracts your attention and even harms relationships.

65. For a time from 8 pm to 8 am put your phone in flight mode. This will help you fall asleep faster and not be distracted by social media before bed and immediately after waking up.

What to pay attention to

66. At the beginning of the day, identify three results that you want to achieve today. This will help you focus on the essentials.

67. Don't get hung up on doing as much as possible. The main thing is to do what is important to you. When you know why you want to do a particular thing, you get it done faster.

68. Develop a growth mindset. Successful people are distinguished by the belief that their abilities are limitless.

69. Set yourself clear measurable goals, limited in time, but achievable. Then it will be easier to achieve what you want.

70. Stop mindlessly surfing the Internet, try to do it consciously. To do this, take frequent breaks and focus on what exactly you need to do.

71. Disable notifications about new messages. They do not take a lot of time, but they are very distracting.

72. When you need to completely immerse yourself in work on a project for a day or two, set up an autoresponder in your email. For emergency communication, you can enter your phone number.

73. Don't reply to every new email right away, check your email on a schedule several times a day.

74. Identify the key habits that you would like to develop. When they become stronger, they will change the rest of your life. For example, habits of cooking at home, getting up early, spending more time with family can be key.

75. Make bad habits more costly by agreeing with someone to pay for each fine.

76. Reward yourself. Changing your behavior is not easy, and the reward for moving towards your goals will help your new habits become stronger.

77. Keep anything that distracts you away from yourself for at least 20 seconds of walking. To get distracted by something, you first have to get to this subject.

78. Listen carefully to the interlocutor. This will teach you to better understand people, help strengthen relationships and avoid misunderstandings.

79. Give time, energy, and attention to six important areas of life every day: health, emotions, career, finances, relationships, and relaxation. Try to develop them in a balanced way.

80. Always have a specific goal in front of you. When you constantly ask yourself why you are doing this or that task, you begin to see how it relates to what is important to you.