5 Work Hacks To Supercharge Your Day

Conventional and unconventional ways to boost productivity

There’s building a better mousetrap, then there is building a better way to make a mousetrap.

It’s no surprise that we love to read about productivity hacks. We may be perfectly productive at the moment, but we wonder if there isn’t a way we could turn that up a notch — that we could boost our productivity more.

Here are five hacks that work well for me. Give them a try, or use them as inspiration for finding your own productivity hacks.

Adopt a pre-work ritual

I’m not talking about lighting candles and banging a gong. A pre-work ritual can be as simple as taking a walk around the block, driving to the nearest coffee shop for a large hot with extra milk only, or reading a few pages out of an inspiring book.

The first two options are great for helping you get your mind thinking about the day ahead. The last is a good one for getting you pumped up — depending on the book. Lately, I’ve been reading sections at random out of Seth Godin’s The Practice: Shipping Creative Work. They’re concise pieces that address creative work and make for good bite-sized readings. Prior to that, I’d read a few pages of Somerset Maugham or P.G. Wodehouse — two authors whose use of the English language I find especially inspiring.

If you go with reading a few pages of a book, make it a book that speaks something to you.

When I’ve completed my ritual (whether it’s going for a drive to get coffee or reading a book), I’ve identified my start point for work and find it easier to sit down and get right to it.

Create a shopping list for the day

You could call it a to-do list, or a task checklist, or whatever. I often refer to my list as a shopping list because I write it down in the same little notebook that I jot down things I need to pick up on my next trip to the grocery store.

I like pen on paper, but you could easily use Google Keep or a similar note-taking app.

The point is to make a list of the various things you want to accomplish that workday and then check or cross them off as you complete each item. It doesn’t have to be in order. Big tasks can sit right next to small tasks. But having the list within sight helps keep me focused, and watching the items get crossed off one by one makes me feel good about my productivity that day.

It’s small rewards that go a long way.

Let the music in

Some people can work only in silence. I’ve always needed a little something on in the background.

Some background noise works better than others, and music has always been the one that works best for me.

Not all music, mind you. Classical, for some reason, I find too distracting. The same goes for heavy metal and most punk. Jazz is great. Also some blues, Irish traditional, and Afro-beat. Your music choice will be a personal one as everyone’s taste and engagement level are different.

Music might not even be your thing. That’s okay, too. But if you’re looking for new ways to up your productivity, give it a try.

I don’t recommend talk radio, news, or podcasts while working. All three are more demanding of your attention, and that will take you away from your work at hand.

Bonus tip — vinylize!

If you’re working from home, get a cheap record player and a few records on good, old-fashioned vinyl.

Instead of streaming your music with a device, put on an album you enjoy. An inexpensive record player likely will not have features such as auto-repeat or disk stacking. That means if you want more music when one side of an album ends, you’ll have to get off your butt to change it.

Getting up and moving around is a good thing.

Be kind to yourself, take a break

I’ve been freelancing in one field or another for over 25 years. Some of those days have been very, very tedious. As an example, a few years ago, I put together a multi-volume set of books outlining every English-language World War II movie ever made — with pictures. That meant going through several hundred images, prepping them for print, and laying them in among text that also needed to be checked, page by page, for correct formatting.

The project took a couple of months.

Good lord, talk about tedious work. But it paid decently.

The trick to avoiding going mad when a work assignment involves intense but tedious tasks is to break things up with regularly scheduled mini-breaks.

When faced with eight hours of mind-numbing tasks, understand that you’re going to be more productive if you don’t burn yourself out. To keep this from happening, set a time on your phone or computer to go off every 25 or 30 minutes. When the alarm goes off, take three minutes. Stand up and stretch. Get a cup of coffee. Say hello to a co-worker or, if at home, pet the dog.

Then get back to work.

Keep the break short because the alarm will go off again in another 22 or 27 minutes. By keeping the breaks short, you’re not going to lose much, if any, momentum in your actual tasks. You will, instead, have taken the time necessary to quickly refresh your eyes and attitude.

If you find your momentum being disrupted, tweak the frequency and length of your breaks until you find your optimal balance.

Build a nest

Get comfortable.

Ernest Hemingway used to write standing and nude with his typewriter at waist level. Agatha Christie liked to write while in the bathtub. I get a lot done on the couch.

I used to work at a cramped desk on an uncomfortable chair in a room with lousy lighting. The productivity difference since my basement office’s flooding forced me to the living room couch has been enlightening. It’s a comfortable seat. The lighting here is good. I can spread my notebooks next to me. I’ve since tweaked my setup to include an easy-to-access case for my laptop, a caddy for my pens and phone, a sturdy surface for writing on my lap, and room for a few coffee cups to gather.

It’s comfortable. It works.

I don’t have the TV on. Instead, I’ll either stream music or play records, and I get a lot of work done in a day.

For you, it might be the kitchen table where you’re most comfortable. Or maybe even your bed. I’m not here to judge; I’m just here to encourage you to find a place where you can be productive and comfortable.

I never saw much sense in punishing oneself in the name of work.

That said, if you find your productivity dropping or you’re falling asleep mid-project, get up and move around from time to time. If that doesn’t help, then maybe this isn’t the hack for you.

It was worth a shot.

It’s all about what works best for you

Advice on productivity should be taken with the understanding that mileage varies from person to person. We’re all different. We’re working different sorts of jobs and have different things that help and hurt our productivity.

Not all of these hacks will work for you, but I’d be surprised if there isn’t at least one that doesn’t turn your productivity up a notch.

We’re all trying the best we can. Helping each other along the way is the least we can do for each other.

Thank you for reading. I’d love to share more with you via my Bi-Weekly Word Roundup newsletter sent to subscribers every other Sunday. It will feature news, productivity tips, life hacks, and links to top stories making the rounds on the Internet. You can unsubscribe at any time.