5 Essentials of Productive People
Hacks you can start implementing today.
When it comes to productivity, we all struggle with relatively similar issues. Not having enough time, a lack of energy, or even a lack of motivation.
However, there are some people who seem to have the ability to get absolutely everything done on a daily basis.
“Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.” –Thomas Edison.
We all want to achieve our goals and have the life of our dreams, and the only way to do that is by identifying ways to do more with the little time we are given. With the right approach, you can end every workday feeling more productive and accomplished.
Remember, it’s not about working longer — it’s about working smarter. Productive people understand this and utilize productivity hacks that help them stay efficient withing expending a ton of effort.
The best thing about these hacks? They’re simple to implement into your day-to-day life. In fact, you can start utilizing them right now.
They Only Touch Things Once
“A lot of people waste time and energy by rereading and reconsidering tasks they have to do. Instead of taking care of the task at hand, they might think, “I’ll take care of this later,” and move on to something else. Later on, they will have to re-evaluate what to do with the task, and this again eats up time and energy. It’s not uncommon to do this a couple of times for the same task.” — Thanh Pham
Highly productive people don’t save emails or phone calls to deal with later.
As soon as something gets their attention, they either act on it, get rid of it, or delegate it. Leaving things and coming back to them later is a massive time-waster; it’s much easier to get it done at the moment rather than jump from one task to the other.
“Let’s say you have five tough emails in your inbox. They have meeting requests, require research, ask multiple questions… “you’ll take care of this later.” You reread the email twice before taking action the third time. If it takes you 2 minutes to reread the email, that’s 20 minutes of re-work. Just 20 minutes of re-work a day, five days a week for a 48-week working year adds up to 80 hours. That’s two full 40 hour work weeks!” — Thanh Pham
I often find myself saying, “I’ll set that appointment up later,” whenever I don’t want to deal with something in the moment. Usually, it’s a band-aid fix, and while I feel like it gives me more time at the moment, it actually takes time away at the end of the day because I’m forced to deal with it at the end of my workday.
Instead of constantly putting things off and making claims that you’ll revisit the situation at a better time, identify how you can take it off your hands right away.
It’ll save you ample time.
They Get Ready for Tomorrow — Today
Productive people finish off their days by creating a plan for the following day.
This will allow you to identify what you accomplished today, and it’ll help you start the following day on the right track. Without having a plan, you’ll go into the day without knowing what needs to be done to get you closer to your end goals.
“For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.” –Benjamin Franklin.
I like to utilize time-blocking to get the most out of my days; on top of that, I typically have 3–4 non-negotiable tasks that need to be completed without fail. At the end of every night, I skim my to-do list and make sure those few things are completed, and I’ll jot down the next few things that I need to do the following day.
This helps me stay focused and allows me to have a stress-free morning. I’m not scrambling to try to identify what to start with or what needs my attention the most. Instead, I just look at my to-do list and start with the first thing.
They’re Comfortable Saying No
No is something I was always afraid of saying, but the truth is productive people remain productive and successful because they’re not afraid to turn people down.
By saying no, you’re honoring your commitments and giving yourself ample opportunity to accomplish whatever you said you were going to accomplish.
When I used to work my 9–5, I had to find whatever free time I possibly could to work on my side-hustle. It was easy to say no because I had an actual job to go to on a daily basis. Now that I work from home, saying no has become a challenge because friends will always say, “but you work from home. Why can’t you hang out?”
They simply don’t understand that working for yourself — and from home doesn’t mean you have more freedom to hang out and do whatever you like; it actually means you have more on your hands because now you’re the one running your own business, and you have to make sure you’re on top of everything.
In a study conducted at the University of California in San Francisco, researchers found that the more difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout, and even depression.
If you learn to be comfortable with saying no, it will lift your mood and amplify your productivity.
They Don’t Try to Multitask
Productive people know that multitasking can, in fact, hinder their productivity. Writer Amy Vetter writes for Inc Magazine,
“Research confirms that monotasking — and not multitasking — is the secret to getting things done.”
According to a study conducted at Stanford University, it confirmed that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers discovered that people who are regularly bombarded with numerous streams of electronic information aren’t able to pay attention, recall information, nor switch from one task to another as well as those who complete one task at a time.
Multitasking will reduce your efficiency and performance because your brain is only able to focus on one thing at a time. If you try to do multiple things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully.
I’ve always tried to challenge myself in this area, but my end result was always lacking. Now, I like to set time-frames for certain projects, turn off my phone, and click out of all tabs that aren’t necessary for the task at hand.
They Go Off the Grid
In a video made by millionaire Alex Becker, he talks about how giving up certain things in your life will help you become successful.
One of the things he mentioned that stood out to me was getting off the grid. In his words,
“Just move. You don’t have to do this forever, but seriously one of the things that’s going to eat up your time more than anything else is friends and family. Every single weekend your friends are going to ask you to hang out with them. You don’t have to hang out with them every single weekend. Go be out on your own in a place that nobody knows you, keep your head down, and just work. I don’t know a single person that has taken the time to do this for their business and hasn’t come out of it successful.”
I know what this sounds like — intense. No friends? No social life? Here’s the thing, unless your social group is a group of successful individuals that are heading in a similar direction as you and will inspire you, there’s no real benefit to giving them your time.
My writing career took off when I locked myself in my 750 ft. square apartment with my partner and gave up weekends to instead focus on my personal development and growth. What initially felt like such a huge and even sad sacrifice turned into the best decision of my life.
Don’t be afraid to go off-grid when you need to. You don’t need to cut everybody out of your life, but if your goal is to take your business to the next level, you’re going to start having to get out of your comfort zone and doing things that require sacrifice.
These are 5 simple yet effective productivity hacks that you can start implementing into your life today.
Try them all out and see what works best for you. For example, going off the grid was the best hack I’ve ever utilized. While it was hard at first, it enabled me to kickstart my career and differentiate what truly matters most to me.
It won’t be easy, but it’ll be well worth it after you start seeing the incredible results coming in.