Ultimate Guide for Productivity.

This will be the last guide you will ever need on productivity, but you have to apply the methods that we are going to discuss in this article. This article got big because I wanted to add every single important thing.

I will recommend reading this article when you are relaxed and have some time. Because I have put a lot of effort into writing this article.

For a very long time, I've been experimenting with different strategies for productivity. As a result, now I’m able to complete my work and also work on my hobbies like chess and game development.

You will learn:

• Misunderstanding about Productivity

• What Things Make You Unproductive.

• Things you should do or Productivity

• Powerful Methods for Productivity.

• Good Habits for Productivity.

Introduction

One of the habits in the book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, was “Increase Productivity”. So, first, let’s understand everything from the beginning to keep your concepts clear before we move towards strategies.

Misunderstanding About Productivity

Productivity is a measure of how an individual efficiently completes a task.

Due to many stupid content creators, productivity is getting misunderstood a lot. Now people think productivity means completing a lot of things with the same caliber in single day work or picking the best productivity software in the market.

The truth is that productivity means getting important things done with consistency and saying no to 99% of opportunities.

Understand that opportunities here are not related to job opportunities. Here opportunities can be anything which distracts you from completing your most important tasks.

Some people will argue that 99% opportunity is very big, but you should understand that In life there will be trade-offs everywhere. If you want to complete your most important task which takes you towards your main goals, then you have to say no to irrelevant things.

You will have to make hard decisions in your life if you want to achieve your meaningful goal. You will have to trade off things that don't affect your life much.

The author of the book “Flow”, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Explained a story of where he wanted to conduct interviews with people who are best in the field of productivity and creativity.

Among all of the people, one man replied to Mihaly that the secret to his productivity was to keep rejecting such interview invitations.

This is the best example where your priorities are above everything. You are going to reject opportunities that are going to drain your energy and distract you.

In the book “One Thing” by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan. The authors explain the idea of “Start Small". “Going small is ignoring all the things you could do and doing what you should do”, Here you have to understand that not all things are equal.

But people usually think the opposite, that being productive means completing everything. Thus their calendar and To-do list are filled with a lot of inessential tasks. Result, the most important things will be missed or get less attention.

You must build momentum regularly with the things that are important rather than building momentum with all things.

Some people will be confused about what are those important things. We are going to discuss a method in this article to find your priorities in your life.

Summary, Focus on things that are your need and not on what you want. You just must spend a few productive hours daily completing tasks that matter.

The thing that Makes You Unproductive

Not Setting your Priorities in life.

“No Clarity of your priority = Easily Distracted.”

Be 100% clear about your “priority”.

If you are a programmer, then one of your priorities should be to spend some time daily learning new things because the tech world is constantly evolving. But if your colleagues ask you to do some extra work or you get any other work which is not aligned with your priority, Tt should be avoided at all costs.

This all boils down to that one non-negotiable work which you can’t avoid.

When I started my personal development journey, I came across Robin Sharma’s 3 step success formula.

“With Better Awareness Daily you make Better Decision Daily and with Better Decision Daily You Get Better Result.”

Now after 4 Years, I phrase this 3-step success formula of Robin Sharma. It’s all about clarity. Knowing your priorities will make it easy to make good decisions.

Your Survival Mechanism.

When you do something that takes energy from you then your biological programming tells you “Why are you doing this stressful task? Stress is bad for you. You can watch a YouTube video, that will be fun.”

What’s the big deal in watching a YouTube video while working? Your point is good but these small bad habits will compound and make you an unproductive guy.

You must get away from this mindset if you want to achieve something meaningful.

But how? I have discovered a very powerful method of “WHY?”, Questioning every urge and behavior. Question yourself when your mind asks you to stop working and watch YouTube.

See this urge as a different entity and question him. Where did you come from? Why do you want to distract me?

You will get answers like, from the stone age your brain is programmed to keep you safe by putting you in your comfort zone, Saving most of your energy to survive.

Ask questions about the urges, feelings and behaviour as if they are an entity that wants to destroy you.

Wasting a lot of Energy on irrelevant Things.

Daily you have limited energy; We all focus on time management but how many of us focus on energy management?

When you do something like watching a YouTube video or scrolling TikTok your brain must process everything, this takes a lot of energy. That’s why you should always complete your important task first.

After completing a long task, you should go for a walk, and give your brain some time to rest and fresh air.

If you just keep pushing your brain to complete every task and also watch YouTube, All this will drain your energy quickly, and if kept pushing then this will result in fatigue, brain fog and sometimes chronic headaches.

Give your brain the rest it needs, further in practical tips I will explain power naps.

Must Do Things For Productivity

1. Remove distraction

Your phone is your biggest distraction. A very simple yet effective trick is to keep your phone in a different room. Delete all social media from your phone. Your phone’s primary goal should be communication, not entertainment.

Nicolas Cole, Author of the book “The Art and Business of Online Writing”, has mentioned in many tweets that, He has deleted all social media applications from his phone though his business is on social media.

Author J. K. Rowling said, “There came a day where the window cleaner came. The kids were at home. The dogs were barking. And I could not work.”. So she moved to a hotel, A distraction-free place, where she could complete her book.

2. Prepare the Night before.

This is not rocket science. All productive people have planned their whole week. They don't have to think about what to do next.

We don't have that busy schedule but we can plan at least the next day, So we don’t have to spend time planning the day, we already have the plan.

One method I have adopted from the book “One Thing” is to focus on one thing for a week. What's that one important thing that will you focus on this week to get the most out of it?

So I have a section in my To-do list called “Focus of Week”. This task should be done first with maximum energy, So I can generate quality work for that thing. For example, “Outlining the Novel.”

3. Develop a Second Brain (Note-Taking).

"Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them." – David Allen.

Many people including me make the mistake of not writing their ideas, Thinking that we can retrieve them later. But most of the time we forget our valuable ideas.

Building a second brain means storing all of your thoughts and learning in one place where you can retrieve any data whenever you want.

Note-taking is nothing new, It has been practised for centuries in various cultures, one example could be scriptures.

From Thomas Edison to Leonardo Da Vinci, Most of the genius personalities were good note-takers. Leonardo Da Vinci’s 7000-page note has been preserved.

Thomas Edison has made 5 million pages of notes which are still stored as an important historical record of the United States.

I will recommend the PARA method of note-taking, and use Obsidian as digital note-taking software. Don't waste your time searching for the best note-taking application.

I have been experimenting with note-taking systems for 2 years now. With experience I’m suggesting to just use obsidian and avoid notion, it will just distract you with lots of features.

Soon I’m going to launch a book on Note-Taking which will include practical advice about note-taking and powerful methods of note-taking like PARA, Zettelkasten, etc. So stay tuned.

Methods for Productivity.

In this section we are going to discuss methods to set your priorities, eliminating inessential tasks and acing your daily tasks.

Warren Buffett’s 5/20 Rule (Setting your Priorities)

First, let’s set up your priorities. I will share Warren Buffett's (21st Century’s most successful investor) 5/20 Method. Almost every world-class coach teaches this method to their clients.

Follow these steps.

1. Write down 25 things you have to achieve in your career. (For now, you can write the top 25 things you have to complete this week)

2. Now circle the 5 most important things for you. Which you can’t live without.

After you have completed you will have 2 lists, first with top 5 goals, and second with 20 more goals. Till now you have understood that you have to put your 100% energy into these 5 goals, but what about the second list? You would think, Oh these are my secondary goals, I will complete it side by side when I will get time.

No, That’s not the correct answer. The second is your Avoid-At-All-Cost list. This second list is going to suck your energy and will keep distracting you from your main goals. You can only look at the second list when you have completed the first list.

3. Avoid the second list at all costs.

Understand the power of elimination. You have to eliminate inessential things from your life, to keep things simple for you.

This is a great line in the book “One Thing”, “Extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.”

Eisenhower Box (Decision Making Tool)

When you are planning your day one night before after you have written down everything you want to do tomorrow. Put every task in one of the boxes. If a task is:

1. Important and Urgent (Will be done first)

2. Important and Not Urgent (Schedule it)

3. Urgent and Not Important (Give it to someone else, or will be your least priority task)

4. Not Urgent and Not Important (Eliminate it)

The good thing about this technique is that it straight away highlights your non-negotiable task of the day.

One important lesson you need to understand is the fastest way to complete a task is to eliminate it. You have to make a hard decision at this point because the tasks that are not leading you towards your final goal should be eliminated.

Now this example of the Eisenhower box I planned for the week. I have observed that this strategy works best with weekly planning. I write down 1st and 2nd box tasks on the to-do list, Everything else is eliminated or delegated.

Some people will complain that I’m doing less, It’s not the truth. I’m doing what I need to do rather than what I want to do. I’m completing my high-priority tasks with all my energy, so I can produce quality work.

“A person being ‘too busy’ is a myth ... People make time for the things that are really important to them” – Mandy Hale

The Ivy Lee Method (To Ace Daily Tasks)

Ivy Ledbetter Lee helped one of the richest men in the world in 1918, Charles M. Schwab.

His Method is as follows:

1. At the end of each work day, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than six tasks.

2. Prioritize those six items in order of their true importance.

3. When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task.

4. Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.

5. Repeat this process every working day.

You might be thinking, this is so simple. It’s okay for you to think that, because the executive team of Mr. Schwab was feeling the same, but they thought let’s give it a shot.

After three months Mr. Schwab and his executive team were very delighted with the progress of the company. Mr. Schwab gave a $25,000 check to Ivy Lee. A $25,000 check will be equivalent to approximately $520,000 in 2024.

This technique works because of Simplicity, Elimination of Distraction and Single-Tasking. Unknown distractions and emergencies are inevitable, so get rid of them or deal with them when it’s important.

Good Habits for Productivity

Don't Multitask.

Multitasking is a major productivity killer.

When you are doing tasks together you are not multitasking, you are switching tasks rapidly. Your brain is not made to do multitasking. You are training your brain to not focus on one important task.

Many researches has shown that multitasking slows down cognitive processing and increases our chances of making mistakes. Because each time we switch tasks, our brain has to readjust to the new task, and this readjustment takes time and energy.

Sleep.

“Sleep supports nearly every system in the body.”

A good sleep boosts your productivity. Good sleep is the reason for your good brain functioning and your physical health. In my experience getting quality sleep is more than how long you are sleeping.

Don’t ever get stuck in the loop of working more hours a day by sacrificing your sleep. This will just drastically reduce your performance for the next day.

Few tips to get better sleep

• Get exposed to sunlight or natural bright light.

• Close all your electronic devices 2 hours before going to sleep (So you can enter into an alpha (Relaxed) state of mind, Don’t ever go to sleep when you are in beta (Highly Reactive)

• Don’t Consume Caffeine after 2 PM.

• Use a blue light filter at night time.

• Don’t consume alcohol before going at night.

• Exercise daily (Our next topic)

Exercise.

You don’t have to become a bodybuilder or go to the gym for exercise. Just open YouTube and follow a simple 15-minute workout routine and follow it daily.

You can also do a free body workout (Calisthenics), and buy some small dumbbells if you are a bit serious. You can do all the important exercises and even get a good physique at home.

During lockdown, I gained a lot of weight. So I started working out and fixed my diet. My family members were suggesting I should go to the gym, But I knew I could do this at home with just free bodywork.

After 5 months of consistent training and a strict diet, I got shredded, and now I’m in good shape.

I have saved a lot of money which I would have spent on going to the gym and traveling. I'm happy about it. But I’m not demotivating you to stop going to the gym or join a gym.

Power Naps

In a power nap, You shut down everything, close your eyes and just relax for 20 to 30 minutes.

Many politicians and business personalities also leverage power naps to maximise their productivity.

Research was conducted on employees who had to take power naps during working days, Sara Mednick (Sleep researcher at the University of California) concluded, " Naps had the same magnitude of benefits as full nights of sleep if they had a specific quality of nap. "

I remember my chemistry teacher used to take small power naps between hour-long lectures. He used to write all the notes on the board, then he gave us time to write all the notes down and in the meantime, he used to take some small power naps.

One day he revealed that he only takes 4 hours of sleep daily. He used to take lectures from morning 5 AM till Late Night. Still, he was energetic in every lecture.

I too started taking power naps and it changed my life. Before power naps, I used to feel very tired in the evening, but after taking power naps I was feeling energetic in the evening. I can complete more things which I wasn’t able to do earlier.

I use the Pzizz app for power naps. The music in the app is relaxing.

Stay Hydrated.

Drink water frequently. Studies have shown that even 1% of dehydration can cause a 12% decrease in productivity, and 3% - 4% of dehydration can cause a 25% decrease in productivity.

I was very ignorant about being hydrated. I used to get consistent headaches every day. but I still was not fixing this problem, Because I was unaware of these statistics, and how much water is important for our brain.

But after I knew about these statistics I was shocked to know. So I started experimenting with my routine. I always kept a bottle filled with water on my table, drinking water more frequently.

I can confirm that, after this, I didn’t get any headaches, I was more focused and productive. I was able to observe that sudden refreshment and boost in productivity.

Conclusion

Focus on things that need to be completed first, rather than wasting your time on a hundred different things at the same time.

Don’t just take notes, You have to apply all these methods and habits in your daily life.

So congratulate yourself, if you reach the end. This means you are serious about self-improvement. This article got big. But I will try to keep the article a bit short next time. The topic of productivity is big, So I had to add things that work.

Peace Out ✌️