The Best Life Hacks to Increase Your Productivity

Are you trying to juggle and balance many things in your life? Learn the best life hacks that have increased my productivity as I balance working a full-time job and building the business of my dreams! Being productive isn’t just about getting more work done quickly. These recommendations will not only help you towards achieving your dreams but also ensure that you’re making the best use of your time and producing high quality work that truly matters.

In this blog post, you will learn the tools and strategies to be more efficient and leverage your time. Be more productive when you need to complete your tasks and have more time to do what you love with the people you love!

To get the best results out of your time and energy, this is one of the life hacks that encourages you to focus on the things that are going to move the needle towards achieving your specific goals. According to this concept, 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. In other words, it’s vital to know and identify what specific 20 per cent of your efforts do you need to be spending your time on to receive 80% of your results?

Rather than being productive for the sake of feeling productive, focus on the right tasks that are going to yield the best results. Are there tasks on your to-do list that are just filling up space? Or are they intentional activities that are helping you achieve your goals? To summarise, you can simplify the( your work flow) process and have more ease when you focus on doing the tasks that bring you closer to achieving your goals.

How to define the right things to put your time and energy towards:

• Research, learn and gain knowledge from books, podcasts and other people who are where you want to be and who have achieved what you want to accomplish. Instead of reinventing the wheel completely, learn from how they did it, and shape it into a strategy that works well for your business or goals.
• Continue to refine your processes, systems and strategy for success/ to achieve your desired results

This is one of the life hacks for completing high-quality, deeply focused work sessions that are completely distraction-free.

Focus on completing one, high-priority task and give your 100% time and attention to that one task. Eliminate all distractions and go deep rather than wide.

Furthermore, give yourself a time frame for your deep work sessions. For example, a 2-hour deep work session with a mini break, followed by another 2-hour deep work session.

To sum it up, deep work sessions can help you to get the most out of your time while you are working. Designate time blocks throughout your day to complete deep work sessions. Overall, this life hack can support you in finishing what you need to complete more efficiently and with a higher-quality output.

If you’re wanting to understand and learn more about deep work sessions and how they can leverage the time and effort you put into your work session and boost your productivity, watch this YouTube video by Ali Abdaal.

Mindset tip:

Focus on working when you’re working and play when you are playing. Be present with the task you are completing in this moment.

Affirmation: “I put aside all other things on my mind and deeply focus on my present task.”

I only just recently found out that this was a method! This is one of the best productivity life hacks that teaches you to do the most important task on your to-do list first. Further, it helps you manage your priorities and focus on your most important action that will bring you closer towards your goals. Therefore, boost your productivity because you’re focusing on the most important thing that will move the needle.

Another tip for this productivity life hack is to do the task you’re avoiding first. Eat the frog and do the thing that you’ve been avoiding. To sum it up, this method supports you to accomplish the tasks you feel more resistant to first to improve your motivation, satisfaction, boost your concentration and beat procrastination.

To sum it up, this method helps you conquer tasks you feel more resistant to, first. In turn, helping you increase your motivation, satisfaction, boost your concentration and say ‘seeya later’ to procrastination!

When you are feeling your best, you are more likely to do better at your tasks. Thus, you’ll be more productive!

By prioritising your self-care, you can boost your focus, mental clarity and energy levels, all of which can significantly increase your productivity. Overall, fill up your cup so you can pour from an overflowing and connected to your self cup.

Practical Ways to Practice Self-Care for Productivity:

• Sleep: Prioritize 7-9 hours of sleep each night
• Exercise: Move your body every day
• Spend time in nature to recenter, connect and ground yourself
• Eat regular meals: Nourish your body with meals that sustain your energy levels and focus
• Set the scene: Make sure you’re feeling prepared and ready for the day. Do what you need to do to feel this way before you start your work session
• Journaling and mindfulness habits: Practice your self-care habits before you start your day and throughout your breaks to make yourself feel clear, at ease and focused for the day
• Socialise: Make time to socialise each day to socialise and check in with the people you love and who support you
• Do what you love: Have fun outside of work. Go to events, meet people and do what you love so you continue to increase your feelings of joy

This is one of the best life hacks to boost your productivity as it makes you focus on one single task rather than scattering your time and attention towards multiple different things at once.

What if you chose to niche down your attention on finishing one task until the end before you moved on to the next task?

Switching from task t0 task can actually decrease the quality of your work and how much work you are able to complete.

How to focus on one task to increase your ability to get more high quality focused work done:

• Schedule
• Catch yourself when you are switching from task to task
• Prioritise the most important task as your number one priority to complete followed by your further priorities
• Time block. Dedicate time in your day to focus on your one single tasks
• Say no to the other things, until you’ve got the one thing completed

If you’re real about using the time you do have to achieve your goals, prioritise and choose to use your time on the specific tasks that will move your needle and say no thank you to the rest, or put that/them in the will do ‘later’ section.

This has been one of the best life-changing life hacks for me. Be more productive by preparing your mindset for your day the night before.

Plan, prioritise and prepare your schedule for the next day the night before. Instead of using your time in the morning to plan your day, set your day up for being productive by already having a clear direction of where you’re headed and what you need to prioritise and focus your time on.

My favourite daily planner is the Content Creator Planner from The Dailee.

By clearing up your mental space in the morning through planning your schedule and knowing what you need to do on the day the night before, you will be able to get straight into work when it’s time to work.

An additional tip that has helped me be more productive: I used to overload my daily schedule with all these things that I thought I needed to get done in order to achieve my goals. I put too many to-dos on my schedule for one day. This led me to feeling like I was pouring my time and energy into many differet categories at once and never really completing one thing or at least in less time. To summarise it, choose 1-3 top priority tasks, write them down in your daily planner and work through them one by one.

• Reduce overwhelm and stress by planning your schedule and priorities the night before
• Are the tasks in your daily schedule getting you closer towards your goals and are they in alignment with your strategy for success?

Okay, this is one of the best life hacks to increase your productivity, as it’s a great tool to support your deep work sessions. Instead of risking the distraction of using your phone as a timer, buy a 60 minute timer to use for your productivity sessions.

Overall, using a timer can ensure that you are not dragging out the time you have allocated to complete a certain task. Instead, the simple practice of using a timer and having it in your peripheral vision can motivate you to make the most of your time and put your all into your work in 60 minute intervals.

Number 8 on the list of the best life hacks to increase productivity is about having boundaries in your work environment. Whether you’re a digital nomad working from a cafe, an office or from home, have boundaries around your major distractions. Set up a distraction-free zone while you complete work and try to implement this as a habit too!

For example, if it’s your phone, pop it on DND mode, pop it in a different room or use social media app blocking apps.

Best tips for setting up a distraction-free work environment:

• Stick to your deep work sessions.
• Say no to all other distractions during your deep work time slots. Aka, your laundry can wait, stop thinking about it. Sometimes, our mind will try to distract us by thinking we should be doing other things.
• Practice self-awareness when you find yourself getting distracted by other things and wanting to reach for your phone.
• Have your water and coffee and all other things that you need prepared, with you and ready to go
• Have a particular action that you do signify, “I am starting work.” i.e. light a candle, burn incense, turn on your music or start work at the same time each day.
• If people are a distraction while you work, wear headphones to keep you zoned in on your task.

This is one of the best productivity life hacks by Ali Abdaal. It not only increased my productivity levels but it also increased my ability to stay consistent. If you’re ready to stay more consistent with your dreams and enjoy doing your tasks more, learn this tip!

This is my take on it. Instead of seeing your work as just work, why not try viewing it as if it were a hobby that you enjoy? The more you view your work/ tasks as enjoyable, the easier it becomes to complete what you started and do what you said you were going to do. Therefore, viewing your work as an enjoyable activity or making it as fun as possible can boost your productivity and help you overcome your resistance to showing up and doing the thing.

Lastly, remember that sometimes the resistance to showing up to completing your to-do list tasks is a mind over matter thing. Once you start doing the thing you realise that it’s not that difficult. A way to boost your productivity and ability to get work done is to train and apply the mind over matter concept.

Read: Feel-Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal

One of the best life hacks to boost your productivity is to have a strong connection to your ‘why you’re doing what you’re doing’.

Why do you want to get things done off your to do list? What is the why behind getting more high-quality, deep focused work done in fewer hours? Being connected to your why can fuel your decision to show up and get your work completed.

Your why for increasing your productivity can be a combination of things. For example, it could be so you can spend more quality time with your partner, loved ones and on your interests. Further, it could be so you can create a larger impact, so you can travel the world and have more money.

To summarise, being connected to your motivation for why you value making the best use of your time can support you to remain focused and productive during your allocated work hours.

When do you feel your most creative and productive? Pick a time in your day that suits your unique energy levels and attention to start and complete your biggest work tasks- the tasks that need your creative thinking and mental thinking the most. Further, schedule this time in your planner each day to complete deep work sessions. Then add the other top priority tasks from your to-do list into your daily planner. For example, if a task requires less of your creative and mental thinking but still needs to be completed, schedule it after your most important tasks.

Overall, this is one of the best productivity life hacks for optimising your time to make the best use of the hours in your day when you complete your best work and are most focused & energised.

Tip: Keep a daily routine of starting working at the same time every day. This will help form your habit and signify to your body that “Hey, I’m ready to work now.”

If you’re feeling more inspired & excited to do one certain task over another, it’s okay to follow your flow. As long as you’re not avoiding what really needs to be done.

For example, I have a content calendar where I have already scheduled my blog post and content for the following months.I’ve come to this point where I have found that I do better, and am more productive when I follow where my creativity, momentum and energy are going. Rather than doing the blog post that was scheduled for this week, just because it was on the schedule for this week.

This life hack for productivity is allowing yourself to not be too structured and rigid. Overall, allow room for flow!

Making decisions quickly leads to decisiveness, which in turn builds your self trust and confidence. Make decisions quickly to overcome procrastination. Overall, quick decision-making frees up your time and mental space, allowing you to focus on what really matters.

Start small with what food you choose to buy at the grocery store.

A tip that I learned from a podcast episode that helped me train to be a better and quicker decision-maker was, that it’s okay to just go for the good enough choice. This helped me overcome the overwhelm of fearing the wrong decision and the habit of perfectionism. Overall, this life hack helps you trust yourself more to make decisions and thus boost your productivity.

Parkinson’s law states that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion”.

This life hack to increase your productivity is about setting deadlines for when you need to have your work completed by and sticking to a consistent schedule. The Parkinson’s law infers that the time you allow yourself to complete a task will be the time it’ll take you to do it. For example, if you give yourself the whole day to do something it will likely take you the whole day. But if you allow yourself four hours of deep work to complete your task, you’re likely to be way more productive. Then, for the rest of your day you can go out and enjoy your life and/or complete other tasks on your to-do list.

 📉 Set timeframes to complete your tasks and goals

📉 Schedule your work hours in your daily planner to work on your specific tasks

Productivity isn’t just about being more productive but optimising your time so you can 1. complete high-quality work that brings you closer towards achieving your goals, and 2. have more time doing the things you love with the people you love. I hope that these life hacks have supported you to increase and improve your productvity knowledge and skills.

Final Productivity Mindset Tips:

• Work when you’re working. Play when you’re playing. Remain present.
• Positive Affirmation: “This task I’m doing is the most important thing I could be doing right now. Nothing else matters right now.”
• What if it could be easy? What if focusing on the ‘right things’ were easy? What if getting things done was easy? What if achieving your goals and getting closer towards your goals was easy? Affirmation: Getting things done is easy for me.

What’s the most valuable recommendation you’ve received from this blog post? What did you learn?

hare your response with me and the Living Her Way community below. 👏👇💕

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