Three productivity hacks to max out your day
I’ve been on a roll for the last four or five months due to some seemingly small changes in how I spend my day. They’ve made such a huge difference for me that I thought I’d share them in the hopes that they also help you max out your productivity. I took a lot of this from a podcast by Tim Ferriss where he interviewed James Altucher. I’ve included a link at the end of the article.
Defining Your MIT
Since about the beginning of this past summer, I’ve started my day by sitting down first thing in the morning with a cup of tea and thinking about all of the things I need to get done that day. I organize my list into two buckets on a piece of paper. At the top of the paper, I write “MIT”, and about half way down I write “T.” These stand for Most Important Thing and Things, respectively. The Most Important Thing represents the task that, if I get it done, will provide what Tim Ferriss calls a “force multiplier.” That is to say, the effect of getting that one task done will have a much larger impact than all other tasks to be done.
I will generally take the entire time it takes me to drink my tea to make the list. I don’t have my computer on, I don’t have my phone nearby. It’s just me, my list, and my thoughts. It’s amazing what just ten minutes of focus at the start of the day will do to establish your top priority for the day.
Stay off e-mail / distractions for large chunks of the day
I know what you’re thinking. “I can’t not be on email! The world will melt!” But this one change will absolutely revolutionize your day. I guarantee it. I typically start work around 7:00 a.m. and I won’t check email until 10:00 a.m. I get anywhere from 2.5-3 hours of uninterrupted (for the most part) work at the start of the day when I am at my most fresh. Most people don’t get that much all day. By the time I reach my first email check, I’m usually a long ways down the road to completing my MIT. I take 30-45 minutes and plow through all of my emails and knock out as many tasks from my “Things” list, then try to get back on my MIT no later than 11 (or 1 hour after my break). I try to spend the next two hours focused on my MIT until I break for exercise / lunch. I then try to get another large block in the afternoon from say 2-4 p.m. of uninterrupted work, and spend the last part of the day taking care of the last items on my list.
It’s hard to overstate how important it is to not even have your email up in a browser tab. When you see that (1) in the browser tab, the temptation is too great to click over there and see what it is. Don’t do it. If you need help, check out 80 PCT Solutions, who provide great tools to help you be disciplined and focused in your work.
As James Altucher said in that interview, if you are working out of your inbox you are working on someone else’s priorities.
Stack meetings into large blocks on your calendar
If you have to have meetings, schedule as many as you can back to back on particular day. The cost of switching brought about by meetings is so incredibly high that you may as well just have a full day of them. I try to schedule all of my meetings on Wednesdays if at all possible. There are Wednesdays where I have 8-10 meetings that day. It’s a soul-crushing day, but it makes all of the other days much better. If this isn’t possible for you, then at the very least schedule all meetings in the least productive part of your day. For me, that’s late afternoon. I generally won’t put a meeting on my calendar (unless it’s a customer meeting) before 4:00 p.m. If I’ve had a really productive morning and early afternoon, my brain is usually a little baked by late afternoon anyway.
If you’re getting to the end of your day and not having anything accomplished, try these three practical ideas and see if they change your trajectory. Define your MIT, stay off distractions, and keep meetings either to a single day or to the part of your day where your energy is at your lowest.
Here’s a link to the podcast I talked about with Tim Ferriss and James Altucher.