Hustle culture is dead, and I’m planting a vegetable garden on its grave.
This is not your Rise And Grind productivity advice blog—we’re working smarter, not harder, and DEFINITELY not longer. Here are ten proven tips you can use to boost your productivity, build sustainable work techniques, and reclaim your time.
1. Tackle one task at a time
While multitasking might seem to make you more efficient, that’s actually the opposite of reality.
Multitasking often leads to people being less productive than if they focused on one task at a time, making it a counterintuitive practice. Attempting to multitask can reduce the quality of your work, increase the time it takes to complete those tasks, stress you out, damage your memory, and decrease creativity. BoooOOoo!
If you focus your attention on one thing at a time, you will see an improved quality of work, faster completion, reduced stress, better memory retention, and enhanced creativity.
To help you focus on one task at a time, you might try a method like time blocking, where you decide exactly what task you will do and when you’ll do it. Assigning tasks to their own time allotment can make it easier for your brain to let everything else go for now and focus on the task at hand.
The short of it: Ditch multi-tasking! It slows you down and makes everything worse.
2. Prioritize
Not all tasks are created equal! Prioritization is incredibly important for time and task management, especially when we’re trying to lower our energy input. So get down to the details of what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and why it’s important.
You might use a tool like the Eisenhower Matrix to help you visually prioritize what needs done and when. This method sorts tasks into four categories: what to do now, what to schedule, what to delegate, and what to disregard entirely.
To make more dramatic and sustainable changes to your task prioritization, the 80/20 Principle can give you insights for what bigger-picture things you should be spending time on. It helps you narrow down what 20% of your effort is producing 80% of results.
The short of it: Figure out which tasks are the most valuable for you.
3. Plan your day the night before
An enormous amount of our effort and mental energy go into making decisions. And decisions permeate our days. We constantly make micro-choices (and macro-choices) that drain us, creating decision-making fatigue.
So how do we combat this? One way is to limit the decisions you have to make. This could be by nailing a morning routine, by creating a “uniform” that helps you avoid decisions while you get dressed, by standardizing meal(s), or by setting alarms and reminders for activities to lessen the brain power they require.
Another way is to make your decisions ahead of time so they won’t disrupt your day. Try planning your day the night before. This could be a simple to-do list, time blocking your entire day, or just setting an intention.
You might also prepare yourself or your home. Clean the kitchen, lay out your clothes for the next day, make your lunch—all of those little things that can pile up and make our day much more stressful. Taking a half hour each night to get things in order can save you hours the next day.
The short of it: Make decisions ahead of time and automate the ones you can.
4. Eliminate distractions
People crave distraction. Especially during the more boring, mundane, or stressful times of their day. For most people, that time is working hours. Chatting with a co-worker while you draft emails, playing a YouTube video while you work overtime, starting a game of Magic The Gathering: Arena while a project uploads, or multi-tasking all make work seem easier and more fun. But is it?
Distractions are one of the biggest productivity killers. They make your tasks stretch to fill your day, making the work you accomplish and the leisure/fun you experience beside it both lower quality. If you eliminate distractions and knock out your work hours earlier, then you could intentionally set your attention on socializing, hobbies, and rest.
Focusing improves the quality of your output and your mindset. When it’s time to work on a project, eliminate as many distractions as possible. This could include:
- Turn your phone on Do Not Disturb
- Use Cold Turkey or another focus software
- Tell the kids to go make mud pies in the backyard
- Give the dog a treat puzzle
- Replace the battery in the beeping smoke detector
- Draw the curtains
- Throw on your noise-cancelers
The short of it: Distractions might seem like they lessen the pain of work, but they just extend it.
5. Leverage technology
There’s no reason to manually perform all of the tasks that humankind has had to perform in the past. We’ve got technology for that. Leverage technology to help streamline your daily functions.
Try a task management app, like Todoist, Trello, or Asana to organize your tasks and track your progress. These tools help you break your larger goals and projects down into manageable daily tasks. Putting your to-do list together all at once saves you brain power later.
Calendar apps can help you schedule appointments, set reminders, and block out time for focused work. Use the same app and sync it across all of your devices to stay organized.
Website blockers are a great way to keep you on task during focused sessions. Cold Turkey, StayFocusd, or Freedom could help you out here.
ChatGPT can help you generate ideas, give you a template to jumpstart an email draft, and even problem-solve. Use AI like a co-worker to bounce your thoughts off of. Two brains are better than one, and an AI won’t stick around to show you its vacation photos afterward.
Humans are not machines, so there’s some biology involved when we talk about leveraging technology for productivity. Ergonomic tools can improve your long-term health, increase focus, and give your work sessions some longevity. Try an adjustable desk, an ergonomic mouse or keyboard, or even an app that can remind you to take breaks and stretch.
The short of it: Automate and streamline your work with technology.
6. Delegate
If a task doesn’t need your particular attention, you might try delegating it to someone else. Delegation improves the efficiency of resource consumption, develops skills across your team (or family), boosts morale and empowers others, prevents burnout, and allows for better time management.
If you’re staunchly anti-delegating, work on that! It can be hard to let things go and accept that someone else might do things differently than you do, but if it’s a low-priority task or something that doesn’t require your skillset, practice handing that task over to someone else to free up your time. Read about delegating for perfectionists for more tools.
The short of it: Pass along tasks when appropriate. You’re not the best at everything, and not every task needs your particular attention.
7. Use the two-minute rule
The two-minute rule helps procrastinators and perfectionists alike to take a little more control of their day. The rule is simple—if you think of something you have to do, and it’ll take under two minutes, do it immediately.
Believe it or not, doing those small tasks right away can save you a lot of work. Putting it off means you have to use brain space to store that task, spend time thinking of it until it happens, and strategize doing it in the future. If you do it right away, it’s off your plate.
So get up and start the dishwasher, bring that box of donations to the car, send that follow-up message, or change that flickering lightbulb before you go insane.
Caveat: If you’re in the middle of something like a deep work session, turn this rule into a write-it-down-to-do-when-the-current-task-is-finished rule.
The short of it: If a task will take under two minutes, do it immediately (or write it down).
8. Work in focused sessions
Focused work sessions are one of the simplest time management tools with the biggest payout. Parkinson’s Law is the idea that your work will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion. If you have until the end of the day to complete a work task, you’ll likely finish it right before the end of the day.
Focused sessions—or work sprints—remove this issue, make you more productive, and give you back your time. So next time you have a project with a deadline, try self-imposing a more immediate deadline and see how quickly you can get it done.
You might try the Pomodoro Technique for a structured version of this idea.
The short of it: Lock in on your task and finish it instead of letting it consume your day.
9. Take breaks
This may seem counterintuitive, but I’d say that breaks are the most important productivity principle we have. The effects of rest on productivity cannot be overstated. Just a few of the benefits of regular rest periods are:
- improved focus and concentration
- enhanced creativity
- reduced stress
- physical health improvement
- better memory and learning
- increased motivation
- higher energy levels
So what does taking a break look like? There are a few different forms, and it’s good to employ several of them. Here are some break-taking guidelines:
- frequent, short breaks (e.g., five minutes every half hour)
- less frequent, longer breaks (e.g., an hour every four hours)
- physical activity (lift a few weights or grab a quick walk)
- disconnection (do not take a break from the Big Screen by looking at the Small Screen)
- mindfulness (practice deep breathing, meditation, or just sitting in silence for a few minutes)
- healthy snacks and water (use your breaks to refuel yourself)
- take a nap!
The short of it: Breaks are equally, if not more, important to work.
10. Integrate end-of-day reflections
Most professionals and creatives will sing the praises of laying out a roadmap before your day to set intentions, goals, and plans. But it’s equally important to reflect back when the day is done. You can include this in your end-of-day routine.
An end-of-day reflection can be quite simple. You can even make a template for it to make it easier (after all, who wants a homework assignment after a work day?). Here are some examples of questions you might use to check in with yourself:
- Did you hit your goals? Why or why not?
- What roadblocks did you notice?
- How can you alleviate those roadblocks in the future?
- What were you pleased with? What were you displeased with?
- What changes would you like to make tomorrow?
The short of it: Daily reflections are just as important as daily plans.
These ten tips can help you regain control of your time and manage tasks efficiently. It really all comes down to intentionality and preparation. Know what tasks you need done, why you need them done, and focus on them to complete them promptly. Don’t let work expand to fill your whole day, and don’t undervalue taking breaks.
Happy working less!
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