Easy Tools To 10x Productivity
That Only Take 2-5 Minutes To Implement
As my work has increased due to taking on new roles with Morely Group & working on Progressus, I have become far more aware of how I am using my time.
I have recently implemented three things that have helped me manage my time far better and get more work done in less time.
There is absolutely tons of work that has been done on productivity by experts such as Ali Abdaal or Andrew Huberman, but these are pretty simple and if they work for me, they will likely work for you!
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is how I have personally chosen to organise my time but you can use Apple’s version if you want.
If you are anything like me, you might find yourself trying to do 3 or 4 separate tasks all at once and you end up getting none of them done to a great standard.
However, using Google Calendar allows you to allocate time each day for all of the things you want to get done.
It also allows you to colour code them, so you can see visually if you are working on all the right areas. For example, the exercise section on my calendar is in red so I can look at it and see that I have made time to exercise.
I will put everything in my calendar the day before so that I have an idea of how my day will be structured.
This is a massive hack and if you aren’t time-blocking, you are leaving brain gains on the table.
Pomodoro Technique
When scheduling tasks in Google Calendar, I normally schedule tasks in 30-minute intervals e.g. 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1 hour and a half.
This allows me to use the Pomodoro technique, which consists of these main steps:
Pick the task that you want to do.
Set a timer for 25 minutes.
Focus on the task for 25 minutes with no distractions, phone etc.
Take a 5-minute break once the timer is up.
Repeat 4 times and then take a long break.
This increases your focus 10x and makes you realise how much time you spent sitting down and not actually working.
If you pause the timer every time you take a break or when you aren’t doing focused work, you’ll realise that out of 2 hours, you are only fully focused for 1 hour and 15 minutes of it.
I’m sure there is lots of research on this technique that proves its efficacy.
Meditation
Now, until I started meditating, I thought meditation was some woo-woo, spiritual garbage that required you to sit down cross-legged like a monk.
I use it as a tool to calm my mind down and to help me focus.
We are constantly taking in so much information all of the time and trying to relax can be like trying to park a car while it’s driving at 100mph.
Meditation and mindfulness help with that.
Combined with time-blocking on Google Calendar and breaking that down into focused Podomoro blocks, meditation will help you to get the most out of those focused bouts.
5 minutes a day to just relax and focus on your breathing.
That is all.
Bonus Points:
Caffeine - always helps with focus but too much will send you west.
Do Not Disturb - your phone is the worst distraction in the world, turn it off or ideally, it won’t be in the room.
Environment - try to limit the amount of potential distractions around your workspace.
Minecraft Music - super relaxing and can help you get lost in work.
Sleep - nothing will hinder your productivity more than a bad night’s sleep.
Thanks for reading,
Progressus Network
P.S. Episodes 9 & 10 got filmed today and Episode 4 will be going out on Sunday. Stay tuned!