How to Get More Done: 6 Timeless Habits of Highly Productive People
You owe some habits your absence.
Habits are the forkballs of your everyday life.
We all have habits, don’t we? The only difference is some people have *highly* productive habits, and some don’t.
Take, for example: you spent your whole day watching HBO Max. You see a pile of undrafted novels parked right beside your bedside, winking at you. But you ignore — like you ignore healthy legumes.
Ignoring productivity isn’t the main danger. The main problem is building a habit. Eventually, when you practice the same things (habits), it becomes your uniform without even realizing it.
— Félix Ravaisson-Mollien, French Philosopher.
In fact, to change them, you need to go back and forth to reconstruct the habit. So, this whole process of building/unbuilding habits will make you sick. True.
Building and sticking to habits isn’t as hard as a coconut. If you’re unsure what habits to acquire, try focusing on the true & trusted habits.
“Don’t confuse activity with productivity. Many people are simply busy being busy.”
— Robin Sharma, Best-selling Author.
In short, productivity is about building tiny habits that bring you value. It’s like earning money while snoozing, knowing your career & life are solid as a rock.
Highly productive people do the same. Once you build good habits, you can reapply them daily for the rest of your life.
Without further ado, here are 6 habits of highly productive people below:
(Scroll down)
1. Smash your to-do list in half
“Having many tasks on the plate doesn’t make us productive. It actually does the opposite. Because our brains aren’t wired for it,”
— Tim Stobierski, Author at Northeastern University.
Suppose:
You wake up in the morning. It’s a fresh start on a rainy day. You whisper to yourself, “I’ll have fun today.” As soon as you plunge out of the shower, notifications start landing one after another. It seems like your employees are awake too.
Notification started from 1 and ended on 19.
Now you have 3 meetings, 2 presentations to make. And also, not to forget your side hustle which you were ignoring for a week.
This happens every single day (Damn!)
According to Stephen R. Covey, “tasks never end.” We just have to tackle them playfully.
Here’s what you can do, make a:
- A to-do list
- Add sections important/very important/ not so important
- Now fill tasks into each section
With this habit, you can easily wham your to-do list in half. Plus, you can now focus on today’s important objectives.
Remember that the idea of doing tasks before is useless. At some point, it works. But there’s a chance if you do it before, you won’t enjoy the result afterward.
The best trick is to stay in the present and enjoy today’s tasks.
2. Cultivate deep work
A *normal* act after making a to-do list is
- To get to work
An *abnormal* act after making a to-do list is
- To swim on social media feed
“When we know the upcoming tasks, we choose not to do them and instead have fun. This increases anxiety and chances of low self-confidence.”
— Chris Winfield, aka ‘The Super Connector.’
When you know your plans for today, get up and start doing the work.
Of course, it looks thrilling to just spend “Two more minutes, mum, please” on social media. It’s only then the hard feelings of being unproductive start to creep in.
- Listen to me: nobody told you that you could not use social media.
- Let’s do this: first, you do the work, and then you can spend quality time on social media.
We humans must understand that we have to do first things first. In other words, we need to do the deep work.
Deep work is an ability to focus on tasks without distractions. The deep work method can help you finish off tasks earlier, so you can focus on other casual tasks.
For deep work, you need to:
- Be resilient to do the important things first
- Build self-control
- Reward yourself (in the end)
“Rewarding yourself at the end of good tasks increases the spirit. For example, after completing the work, you can reward yourself with crispy chicken tenders.” (Yum!)
— Wendy Wood, A Psychologist.
3. Obey the 80/20 principle
In fewer words:
“80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. If you’re doing ten tasks, two will be vastly more important than the others.”
— Brian Tracy, Author.
Also known as the Pareto principle, the 80/20 rule is the best way to increase productivity.
- It states that eighty percent of your result comes from twenty percent of your actions.
Note: Hack #1 and hack #3 are different as hack 1 focuses on decluttering your to-do list, and hack 3 focuses on making more impact with less, minimal force.
It’s important to keep in mind that the 80/20 rule isn’t something new. Writers/authors are using this rule from the beginning.
So, how do we apply?
If you’re going to do 10 things today, look at the things that make the (most) impact. For me, I usually:
- Walk
- Exercise
- Cook
- Write
- Browse social media
- Dig an issue to fight
- Read
- Sleep
According to Sarah Garone, a nutritionist, “we’re full of energy when we wake up.” Hence doing the most important tasks proves useful. Writing is hard for me, so I:
Write → Cook → Exercise → Read → Browse social media → WalkEasy!
4. Take strategic breaks
Tom Rath- Author and Researcher, believes:
“Breaks every 20 minutes don’t ruin your focus on a task. Contrary to what I might have guessed, taking regular breaks from mental tasks improves your creativity and productivity. Skipping breaks, on the other hand, leads to stress and fatigue.”
Also, Allaya Cooks-Campbell writes:
“When we don’t take breaks, our mind gets exhausted and ruins the whole day.”
Remember the time: When you were so drained that you couldn’t stop yourself from fleeting at the mobile screen—or staring at an object on the wall?
These are the signs of exhaustion.
Hence, taking regular breaks strategically improves your mental well-being. It also makes the productivity game exciting.
I follow the strategic break method every day. Even when reading or studying, I use the Pomodoro Timer app in the background.
- Pomodoro app rings a bell after 25 minutes to pause and take 5 minutes gap in between.
Mostly, the bell reminds me of the (basketball race) I used to win in school. Just to hear the bell, I study speedily.
Hence, my productivity is now increased+ fun time.
Try it!
5. Use time pockets
Time pockets, in other words, are like empty pockets.
…they don’t do any good to you.
Time pockets are time gaps you have between the activities throughout the day. For example, commuting, queueing, waiting, etc.
Alyssa Gregory, Digital Marketer.
Most people like me waste lots of minutes on the commute. Like 15, 35, 60!
Although I work from home, I realize wasting time also wastes energy. I am highly productive between the time pockets. Whenever I want to travel by subway, I get happy. Why?
Because I take a *book* with me — without exception.
I spend the time reading it. Sometimes, I also listen to music. In short, I never waste time.
What do you do between time pockets?
Here’s what you can do:
- Listen to podcast/ songs/ audiobooks
- Read a book
- Write down story ideas
- Complete your novel
“The real spice is not wasting time but making the time valuable for you.”
Terri William, Journalist.
With the time pocket method, you can turn wasted time into your favor.
6. Automate
With technology, everything is possible.
Once scrolling, I heard a quote on a Facebook page “I pity people who don’t use technology to lessen their work burden.”
And maybe it’s right.
Technology has its side effects, but it can improve our productivity by up to 84%.
How?
I use automation tools for:
- Newsletters: I usually write them 2 days before I send them out. Scheduling time in GMT sends it automatically to my users across the world.
- Bills: I always receive bills between the 15th–30th. For that, I usually pay them from my mobile. I have apps installed that remind me of bills unless I pay them.
- Social media: When sharing posts on my social media page, I take help from the “Meta Business Suite” and schedule my posts. This way, the posts automatically get published at the right time.
- Blogs/ articles: Since I am an editor of two major publications on Medium, I sometimes use automation tools to schedule user posts. This also applies to my posts.
- Emails: Not trying to be cool, but I’ve installed a “WhatsApp scheduler” that lets me schedule messages. I have also used automatic email responses on both my Gmail and WhatsApp.
Here are some other things you can do (with automation):
- Delete spam emails
- Pay taxes/ mortgage
- Schedule appointments
Automating tasks helps to take the burden off our minds. I believe automation is my #1 tip to increase productivity.
Final thoughts:
Stop waiting for the perfect moment to apply these habits.
- The perfect moment is now!
Even in the middle of the day, get up and start arranging these habits to work. Don’t even waste one day.
Remember that impossible is just a (raw) opinion. The doors are always open for those who are bold enough to knock.
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