Ultimate Productivity Tips List: 74 Impactful Ways to Get the Most from Your Day

You’re hurried and harried.  Trying to get everything done in your life.  And at times it seems overwhelming.  Like there’s no way to stay up with it all and get things done.

But there is hope.  After scouring the best productivity tips I could find, here is my 74 “ultimate productivity tips list” that will supercharge your results…and get your sanity back.

NOTE: Checking out all these resources will take some time. You can read it all right now, try to remember to bookmark it, OR you can download the entire Ultimate Productivity Tips List in ebook form for FREE and read it later…and get the “Ultimate List: 156 Most-Read Marketing Blogs” ebook thrown in as well.

 

1. Schedule time in advance – Here you pick a block of time to work on a specific project or task, put it into your calendar.  By doing that you’re more likely to do the work than just trying to fit it in.
2. Unplug the TV and put it in the closet – TV is a distraction that some people just can’t get past.  Now this may not work if you’re not the only one in the house but it is worth trying.  You’ll find you either get more work done or have a much more satisfying family life – where you actually pay attention to each other.
3. Set a timer for 35 minutes – Breaking down your time into manageable increments and then setting a timer and working until it ends will help you stay focused and completing more work than you could without that regimen.
4. Shut off the phone, wifi, and close yourself in a room – Imagine no phone calls, no texts, no emails, no interruptions from other people.  Just you and your project to knock out.  What would be put off for weeks or months can often be knocked out in a short-focused session or two.  I’ve recommended this to people I’ve managed and they’ve knocked out large to-do-lists in a day or two that had been hanging on for weeks and months.
5. Determine your best “Productivity Window”  – Are you one of those annoying morning people who wake up all bright and cheery?  Or are you someone who loves to stay up late and is used to partying all night?  Do you crash after lunch?  Whatever it is, determine your most productive hours of the day and make sure to schedule your most critical tasks to be accomplished during those hours.  Also look outside yourself and to the people you need to interact with.  If you’re in sales are you meeting with prospects and clients on Tuesdays and Wednesdays?  Or are you squandering those prime times with paperwork and showing up on Mondays when their buried and can’t meet with you or Fridays when they cut out early for the weekend or are burnt out from the week?
6. Take a walk – Getting exercise can be as simple as taking a walk.  You’ll clear your mind and be relaxed and ready to tackle things when you return.  This is particularly important if you find yourself spinning your wheels and not getting going.  Often physical movement will clear your head and help you return to a more productive you.
7. Create a Success Journal – Often we think we haven’t accomplished much.  But keeping track of successes big and small will often improve your mood and increase your motivation.  I’ve also used this as an employee to help with annual reviews.  We typically forget all the progress made in a week, month or year.  Without documenting that you often lose track and don’t realize how successful you’ve been.
8. Commit to it publicly – For some people embarrassment or failure is a huge motivator.  So take advantage of that by telling others what you’re accomplishing.  You won’t want to have to worry about not following through and having them ask you about it.  So you’re more likely to do it.
9. Pay money – I’ve had mixed results with this. But often in sales sales managers like to have salespeople with spending habits they can barely afford.  The thought is that if they have to make that sale to pay the rent, mortgage, or car payment they will make the next sales call and close deals.  The challenge is often people will buy something like a course or attend a conference but then they don’t follow through and just rationalize that at least they learned something.  Money can, but doesn’t always motivate.
10. Set goals – Goal setting (and tracking progress towards them) is a time-tested way to make progress.  When in doubt, set goals for more than you thought you could do.  You’ll often accomplish more that way.  Human nature has a habit of either reaching the goal or stopping just short.  So if you goal is bigger, you’ll get farther with a more challenging goal. 
11. Chunk your time – Different tasks can and should happen at different points in a day or week.  So when you’re planning your tasks make sure to break your calendar into chunks and schedule accordingly.
12. To do list – The good old fashioned to do list is a time saver by helping you jump into a task rather than wasting time trying to remember what tasks you were going to do and prioritizing them.  That is done in advance with to do lists.
13. List of 3 to 5 most important things to get done that day – This keeps it manageable and memorable.  It also prevents overwhelm.  When you have a list of 20 items, getting started on the first often seems hardly worth it.  So by shortening your list you are more likely to stay motivated and knock them out.
14. Evernote app for your cell phone – Keep your to do lists with you on your phone so you have them when you need them.
15. Procrastinate Effectively – Coming up with great ideas takes time.  If, for example, you’re trying to come up with a cool blog post, you can sit at your computer and tell yourself, “Think dammit!” But you won’t find that creativity springing forth.  If however you go for a walk or a run or to the store or cook dinner – you get the picture.  You’ll find that ideas jump out of you like little leprechauns on steroids.  Then when you sit down at the computer you have all the energy and insight at your fingertips.  And you knock out that post in record time.
16. Plan your day – Take 5 to 10 minutes at the start or end of each day to plan the upcoming day.  Then you’ll be ready to tackle your priorities right away instead of having to figure them out when all the craziness starts.
17. Two-touch rule – If it is simple then knock it out then.  If not then schedule it for later and tackle it then.  But don’t keep picking up the document or task and put it down and pick it up and put it down.  You’ll never be productive that way.
18. Know the difference between urgent and important – Some urgent tasks need to be done right away.  But if your important tasks (which are often the most difficult) are tackled early, they often don’t get done.  And you or your business suffers.
19. Single-task – Multitasking sounds like a great idea.  But often what happens is you just keep jumping from one fire to the next.  By focusing on a single task and going until it is complete, you’ll find you actually get more tasks accomplished.  The biggest culprit with multitasking is your smartphone and email.  If you’ve cleared those two out of the way then single-tasking is child’s play.
20. Take breaks – Typically no more than 35 minutes in a sitting.  But test out different time durations for you.  You may be the Type “A” ADD personality who can’t sit still for more than a few minutes.  Or maybe you can sit and work hours on a project without loss of productivity.  Do what works for you but getting up and moving around will often help you get more done faster.
21. Be realistic about time – I’m guilty of this often.  I think something will take an hour to accomplish.  And an hour and a half later I’m still wrapping it up.  We are often horrible at estimating time.  But you can get better by setting timers and then seeing how long it actually takes to accomplish something.  And by guessing and then confirming the time results you can get better at it.
22. Stop perfectionism – Not everything has to be perfect.  And if you strive to be perfect in everything then you’ll find tasks take longer and your results suffer.  There are times when good enough really is good enough.
23. Delegate – You don’t need to do everything.  Is there something that someone else could do faster, cheaper, with less brain damage?  Entrepreneurs in particular often need to be focused on only the things that they and only they can do to drive the business forward.  Everything else should be delegated to employees or contractors or family members or just not done at all.
24. Just do it! – Sometimes the Nike slogan is all appropriate.  There are times where you just have to jump in and get going.  Kick yourself in the butt or get someone to do it for you.  Whether that is an accountability partner, coach, family member, peer, boss.
25. Listen to podcast or audio course while commuting – It used to be cassette tapes and CD’s.  Now podcasts are the rage.  Driving time is learning time.  Take advantage of that time and you may find that the ideas are flowing once you arrive at your destination. 
26. Take a 10 minute power nap – If you’re dragging, knock out a nap.  Set the timer on your phone and take a nap on your couch or in your car.  In 10 minutes you’ll be back energized and raring to go.
27. Brainstorm during non-work time – I know this could come off as being a workaholic or not paying attention to family.  But there are lots of times throughout the day where you can drift off and think and figure and kick cool ideas around in your head.  Whether during trips in the car, in the store, exercising, getting ready for work in the morning.  Anywhere that you have tasks you can do on autopilot.  Those are the times to let your mind go wild.
28. Schedule set times in the day to make/return phone calls and send emails – By setting a couple times a day to tackle emails and phone calls (assuming you have the flexibility) you will knock those out fast and not keep interrupting other high value tasks by the constant interruption of your smartphone.
29. 10 minute hourglass – A version of the timer but with a shorter duration to knock out quick tasks.  10 minutes keeps you ultra-focused.  Great for household chores.  You can even make it into a challenge. How many 10 minute chores can you do before you exceed 10 minutes?
30. Get your family or coworkers on board – If they know in advance the limits you’re setting and how they benefit everyone then you’ll be less likely to have them dragging your productivity down.  This is especially important from people who work from home…where distractions are everywhere and “work time” isn’t often as respected as at the office.
31. Hire a virtual assistant – You can use them to do almost any task you don’t want to do.  Certainly anything administrative comes to mind.
32. Early to rise – Although some of you are more productive at night (after kids go to bed) than early, early morning risers typically accomplish more because at the start of the day you’re more rested.  At the end of the day you’re more tired and focusing becomes difficult (along with creativity).
33. Break the job into parts – Often tasks seem overwhelming and you don’t know where to start.  But if you break the overall task into smaller bite-sized pieces, you’re more likely to get started.
34. Apply the Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) – All tasks are not created equal.  Tackle the 20% that get you 80% of your results first.
35. Tackle the most difficult or painful task first – It will make the rest of your day a breeze and get you in an awesome habit that will pay big dividends in your future work life.
36. Set a deadline – No deadline means it will take MUCH LONGER than it would with a deadline.  Not setting deadlines is just lazy (that’s your coach telling you to make it happen).
37. Put in the headphones – May keep coworkers from distracting you with needless questions or water cooler discussions about office gossip.
38. Set your phone to stun! – Okay maybe not.  The Star Trek phaser isn’t in your smartphone…yet.  But turn off the notifications for email and your social stuff (i.e. Facebook notifications, news updates, sports scores)
39. Clear out your email in box – File or delete anything you’re not actively working.  And once a week really do a purge.  I challenge anyone who says they can be productive and find things with a thousand emails in their inbox.
40. Use keystroke shortcuts instead of the mouse – If you’re on a computer all day those keystroke shortcuts can save a boatload of time.
41. Wait for others to respond – When your work requires you to live in your email box, and emails are flying fast and furious, sometimes you can wait for others to respond and solve the problem.  Then just sort by subject and move the whole group to a folder once the problem is resolved.  You can often clear 5-20 emails in a shot.
42. Get enough sleep – Lack of sleep will make you cranky and unproductive.  Get it in.
43. Avoid the sugar rush – Watch what you eat and make sure it is supporting you.  I won’t lecture you on what is bad for you but just be aware and adjust accordingly.
44. Take a vacation – If you can take two weeks off in a row you’ll find you’ve lost the insanity you had being caught up in the hamster wheel.  Of course you may find that you are so relaxed it will take a few days to amp back up.
45. Track your time – Don’t know why you aren’t getting anything accomplished?  Log what you do each day for a week.  You’ll find out pretty quick where your time is being squandered.  Then you can reprioritize your day.
46. Apply the 2-minute rule – If a task will take less than two minutes to complete…do it now.
47. Be decisive – Pick something and go with it.  Action wins 9 times out of 10 over overthinking.
48. Practice saying no – By not doing other’s work you will free your schedule for what is important to you.
49. Set mini-deadlines – Setting deadlines for subsets of the overall task will ensure the big project stays on schedule.
50. Make it a habit – If you have certain tasks that need to be accomplished regularly, set a certain time each day to tackle those tasks (like writing) so it becomes a habit you no longer have to think about or make a decision about. 
51. Reduce clutter – Clutter can make getting things done more difficult or finding what you need.  At the same time a clean desk may be too clean and make it hard to get going (like a blank page).
52. Practice punctuality – By being consistently on time you’ll more likely hit your deadlines and other commitments.
53. Get clear – If you don’t know where you’re headed you won’t get there.  And fuzzy goals or unclear steps will leave you spinning your wheels.
54. Call or walk over and discuss the issue – emails and texts can often spiral out of control.  Particularly when tone comes off wrong.  If you can call or visit the person to sort things out.  Often disagreements over email can be resolved quickly by phone or in person.  And people are rarely and underhanded and evil as you assume from emails.
55. Ask for help – If you’re not making progress on something, often getting help – brainstorming or helping provide clear direction – can get you moving forward again.
56. Document it – If you’re learning something new that is going to be done repetitively.  Or if you are going to train someone else.  Take detailed notes.  Then test your notes against the task.  Like a pre-flight checklist a pilot uses, your notes can reduce time and redo’s.
57. Handle tasks in batches – When I had a paper route my brother and I would get all the insert ads stacked in a row then we’d pull the top one off each stack and put it into the newspaper.  By doing that we could knock out the task in a fraction of the time if we didn’t batch things.
58. Be flexible – Nothing ever goes as planned so roll with the punches.
59. Create or join a mastermind group – you can hold each other accountable.
60. Hire a coach or mentor – They’ll help you both keep on track as well as see things that you might be too close to.  And they often have experience you don’t that can shortcut you to better solutions.
61. Work before pleasure – I know pleasure is fun.  But you won’t accomplish much in the instant gratification culture.  Knock out your work then enjoy the rewards.
62. Take massive action in one session – If you want to make major progress, hole up in a hotel room for a week by yourself and go crazy.  Or do a three hour binge work session.  Short work sessions feel productive but focused big chunks of time can move you along dramatically.  Blogging daily for a month will jump start a blog versus starting once a week.  You can scale back later but the positive momentum is now there.
63. Write until done – Writing articles or blog posts just doesn’t work in multiple sessions.  You lose the tone, the feel of the article if you start and stop.  So go until it is done.
64. Don’t edit while you write – Your writing will slow to a glacial pace if you try to write and edit together.  Write first then edit later.
65. Work your passion – You will just get more accomplished if you are passionate about it.  So go figure out your passion and go do it!
66. Simplify – A simple life is easier lived.  Get rid of things that require too much maintenance for the value they provide you.  Declutter.  Focus on what’s important.
67. Automate – Whatever processes or procedures you can use technology for, do it.
68. Take breaks – Walk outside to get some fresh air and stretch your legs.
69. Use checklists – Checklists reduce planning time.  You just do the next item on the checklist.  And it can ensure better accuracy as well so you don’t have to do a task over.
70. Do Not Disturb Sign – Put up a do not disturb sign or indicate the time you’ll be back or hold office hours.  Or close the door.  Those all help reduce interruptions from others in your office.
71. Let the phone call go to voicemail – Is it really that urgent?  Often they won’t leave a message and it saves a 15 minute discussion.
72. Reduce or eliminate useless meetings – Meetings can eat up a day in no time.  So regularly assess if a meeting is necessary, if it is critical you attend, and who else really needs to be there.  Shorter, fewer, and meetings with fewer attendees will make all meetings more productive.
73. OHIO – Only Handle It Once – words to live by.  Not always possible but a target to strive for with paper and emails…or dirty dishes.
74. Work from home – It is simple.  You save the commute time and eliminate a ton of distractions.

Hope you enjoyed this list.  Let me know which ones you found most helpful.  Post a comment.  Also help others by tweeting, sharing and liking on the social media channels you use.

Thank you.