Everyone looking for productivity in daily life but what do they get? They just get a busy day. Getting busy and running after a to-do list and being productive both are different things. Being productive means you achieve more with fewer efforts.
Keep your schedule in mind we come with the topmost powerful hacks for productive days from the some of best self-help books in the industry. This article is based on the lifestyle of some most productive people in their fields. Without wasting your time, here is the list of the 09 most powerful hacks to be more productive.
09 hacks to be more productive
1. 20-20-20 Rule of morning
The way you start your day powerfully shapes how productive you will be throughout the daylight. A productive day starts in the morning, Robin Sharma in the book 5 AM club discusses how should we live the first hour of our morning to get the most out of our day.
The 20-20-20 rules of morning suggest that we should divide our first hour of the morning into 3 parts of 20 minutes and start our day with 20 minutes of movement, 20 minutes of reflection and 20 minutes of learning.
You can take it as the first 20 minutes for body movements(such as exercise, jogging or just walking), and dedicate the next 20 minutes for your mental health(do meditation or review your annual or daily to-do list) and the last 20 minutes dedicated to learning and growing(read books or listen to the podcast in last 20 minutes of morning hour).
2. Daily 5 concept
One of the greatest secrets of some productive people is that they make a daily to-do list and achieve that list throughout the day. And this daily 5 concept is the extended and smarter version of the to-do list.
In the Daily 5 concept, you will assign 5 important and achievable things to yourself throughout the day and try to get them all.
Imagine doing 5 little important things every day takes you closer to the most important goal of your life, if you could repeat it for just a month you will reach 150 important little things in a month and 1800+ tasks throughout a year.
3. Eisenhower Matrix
The Eisenhower matrix is derived from the book “7 habits of highly effective people”, It helps you to quickly determine what you should work on and what you should ignore.
Everything you do in life can be classified by importance and urgency. We often spend our lives focused on the Urgent things instead of the Important things. and this matrix will surely help you to choose the correct priority to start your day with.
This is the 2 X 2 matrix, which helps you to give priority to important and urgent tasks. The Eisenhower matrix makes your priority clear than ever. Try to understand this by figure.
Buy the book “7 habits of highly productive people”
4. 80/20 principle of time management
The 80/20 principle of time management makes it clear that our 80% outcome of work comes from 20% of all time. And if we want to increase our productivity we need to work to make better use of our 20% of the time.
In other words, the better we work in our 20%, the better the will be overall result. To understand this, we could take the example of an office meeting, 80% of the outcome of the meeting comes from the most important 20% of the meeting if we will able to make better use of this 20% we will get the best possible solution.
These 20% times of the day are the peak hours of your day which bring 80% of the total result throughout the day. You should use this to achieve the most important and urgent tasks of the day. The better you use this 20%, the better will be the result but first, you need to identify your 20.
To understand this deeply, we have written an article on the 80/20 principle of time management.
5. 60/10 rule of focus
Nobody, not even highly productive people, can focus for eight hours straight. It simply isn’t possible. Do you know an average or more than the average person, has a limit to perform a certain task with the focus and which is something between 20 to 45 minutes.
That means you need a break your session into small parts and the better will be to give yourself time to relax for 10 minutes in 60 minutes.
Take a little break for 10 minutes or change your focus on a different thing just to make another session of great focus again. These 10 minutes will give you fuel for the next 50 minutes. you could do this with 50 minutes of focus and 10 minutes of relaxation or could take 2 sessions of 25 minutes with 5-5 minutes of break.
Keep in mind to choose something to lighten in these 10 minutes of relaxation.
- 15 Tips to improve your focus and concentration at work
- Buy the book “The Pomodoro technique” from here
6. Distance from distractions
Ting tong.., a notification from your social media handles, and if check it, on average you will be back in the workspace after 25 minutes. And you will be surprised to know, according to data, more than 90% of notifications didn’t need your attention at the instant time. But it cost you precious time.
With emails, social media, and a thousand little to-dos, it’s easy to get distracted when you’re trying to be productive. To be more productive in your day, you need to make distance yourself from distractions, especially from your mobile phone.
Make a list of other things which may distract you, and try to eliminate them.
- Don’t Miss: 10 hacks to get rid of mobile addiction
- Related: 18 pro-tips to stop being distracted
7. No Multitasking
Multitaskers never are all-rounders, they are the ones who left every task in middle or take more time than usual. If you want to be more productive then you should say no to multitasking every time.
This is not only us, researchers show we(almost everyone) are bad at multitasking. Actually, multitasking means you are switching your focus on two separate things together and resulting in you achieving both with more time. Every time your switch tasks you need to refocus on the things and which ultimately takes more time.
Eliminating multitasking is one of the most productive habits you can develop. The better you replace with the habit to concentrate on one thing at a time, one step at a time.
8. Second wind workout
I am a fan of workout in the evening, the second wing workout is about gaining energy in the second phase of the day. In the morning a perfect sleep helps you to get to work soon but you may feel a lack of energy in the latter half of the day, for we have a second wind workout.
According to many fitness experts and surveys, exercising in the evening post-work hours is a great way to burn fat and also relieve you of stress and worries. Exercise in the latter half of the day helps you in gaining your energy again and makes you active for the remaining part of the day.
Schedule a second workout at the end of your workday to give you a second wind for a great evening. You’ll
beat the exhaustion most people feel after work, re-energize your willpower batteries so you improve your evening choices and even find your cravings for sugar in the nighttime are significantly lower.
You could also choose your favorite activity in the evening workout (swimming, dancing, jogging or whatever you want)
9. 7+20 sleep pattern
We are all familiar with night sleep timing, we need somewhere between 07 to 09 hours of sleep at night depending on our body. but those extra 20 minutes of naps during the day can boost your focus, help you stay active, and most important reset your system.
Sleep is the best way to recover your body and mind. There is a book written on this topic, “Take a nap and change your life”, in this book author helps you to understand how a nap can boost your productivity. Most people recommend a short nap of 15-20 minutes for better productivity for the day.
A quick nap of 20 minutes helps you to reset your system and give you a burst of alertness. That’s what most people really need to stave off sleepiness and get an energy boost.
At the closing time of the article, now recap our hacks to be more productive throughout the day
Green and Black Modern Overlay Healthy Lifestyle Infographic by Shivam GautamMost of the hacks are derived from this book, if you are interested to know deeply about these techniques buy these books from here( we earn a little commission)
20-20-20 rule of morning and 2 workout is best.
That really fabulous!