With that being said, here are my top 5 tips that drive my productivity daily (from least to most important):

5. Eliminating Distractions

Yeah yeah, I know. This isn’t the first time you heard this, but just because it’s cliché doesn’t make it any less effective. The flow of your work (which I explain in my #1 tip) is absolutely crucial to your productivity, and something as simple as a phone notification can easily interrupt your momentum, causing you to work inefficiently.

Here are some of the many ways you can reduce being distracted while working:

1. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb.

Unless you’re expecting a very important message, this one is a no-brainer.

2. Make things more accessible to you.

Bring things like water or healthy snacks to your desk. This will help you work for longer periods of time without feeling burned out or tired.

3. Work on one task at a time. (More details in tip #3)

4. Take breaks when necessary.

Frequent breaks are crucial to continuing the momentum of your work. However, be sure to know the difference between a well-needed break and loafing around. Effective breaks include organizing your room, going to the gym, and maybe ONE episode of your favorite TV series. Just be sure your work-to-break ratio is reasonable.

Bonus tip: If you find that you have a low attention span and need to take frequent breaks, try using the Pomodoro technique.

4. Stop beating yourself down

Don’t fall into this mindset trap:

“I could’ve done more today.”

Look, I get it. You’re a very ambitious, goal-driven person, so you’re always looking for ways to improve yourself, which is an amazing quality that not everyone has. However, ending your day with negativity is counter-productive, and you have to establish the boundary between destructive and constructive self-criticism.

Yes, maybe you could’ve completed one more assignment, worked on one more project, and played one less round of Valorant. But living in constant disappointment and regret is a recipe for burnout, unnecessary stress, and poor mental health. It’s simply impractical to set near-impossible expectations every day because no how hard you work, you’ll never be satisfied.

Instead, choose to be satisfied with your work that day.

Remind yourself that progress, no matter how big or small, is still progress, and you should be proud of that. Focus on small improvements because if you improve by 1% every day, you’ll be 37.78 times better than you were previously in one year. On the other hand, if you worsen by 1% every day for a year, you’ll be down to essentially nothing.

Having this positive mentality will help you sustain a productive lifestyle without sacrificing your mental health.

3. Daily Highlight and Ivy Lee Method

Have you ever drowned in an endless to-do list and ended up doing nothing?

Here is a personal strategy I created by combining 2 organization techniques:

Daily Highlight: Write one task that absolutely MUST get done by the end of the day no matter what.

Ivy Lee: At the end of the day, write 6 things you want to get done the next day in order of priority. Work on each task one at a time from most important to least, and only move on to the next task once the previous one has been completed.

By combining the 2 systems, you should get this:

1. Daily Highlight (Very Important!!!)

2. Important Task #2

3. Important Task #3

4. Important Task #4

5. Important Task #5

6. Important Task #6

What I love about this system is its simplicity and effectiveness. Even if your day is extremely busy and you can’t get through everything, as long as you complete your Daily Highlight, the day is a success! Furthermore, by working on each task one at a time, you clear your mind of external worries and distractions while making the best use of your time (multitasking is a recipe for chaos). I recommend giving this a shot!

2. Parkinson’s Law

Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time it is allotted.

For example, if you give yourself a whole week to complete a poster project, you may spend the first day finding the perfect poster, another day gathering materials, and a few days organizing the content on the poster before finally starting the project itself.

Compare that to someone who wants to complete the same poster in a single day. This person only spends an hour or two gathering the poster and materials, a few hours organizing the content, and finally, a few hours working on the poster.

Despite having the same task, the 2nd person completed the poster significantly faster because he allotted less time to the assignment and thus, worked much more efficiently.

So what’s the secret to overcoming Parkinson’s Law?

Deadlines!

By setting personal deadlines on the tasks you have, you facilitate efficient productivity and discipline. Furthermore, if you never set a deadline, all of those things you want to do will just slip away. That video idea you want to make? That hobby you want to pick up? They will all simply become regrets the longer you wait.

1. The Law of Inertia

I made sure to save the best for last because this single tip boosts my productivity by at least 500%:

Newton’s Law of Intertia: An object in motion stays in motion. An object at rest stays at rest.

If we apply this concept to productivity, we find that actions create actions while idleness creates idleness.

By using the power of momentum in our daily lives, we find that once we start something, it’s much easier to keep going. Let the momentum build up as the day goes on and before you know it, you’re accomplishing one task after another. It’s also important to make sure that your breaks are reasonable and constructive, such as going to the gym, and not destructive, like mindlessly scrolling on TikTok for an hour.

Here’s an example of what my day may look like when I follow this concept:

1. Morning routine: make my bed, shower, skincare, brush my teeth
2. Prepare breakfast: quick smoothie and perhaps prepare a bowl of protein cereal
3. Work on Daily Highlight
4. Break #1: Restroom, refill water, and organize my apartment
5. Continue working
6. Break #2: Prepare lunch
7. Continue working
8. Break #3: Work out at the gym
9. Break #3 continued: Shower and relax
10. Finish your work for today + plan the tasks for the following day
11. Final break: Go eat out with friends

This is why experts say that motivation does not cause action but is merely a byproduct of action. On days when I don’t utilize momentum, I become a couch potato, watching pointless YouTube videos and wasting time away.

Here are some things you might be doing that are KILLING your momentum:

• staying in bed once you wake up
• checking social media immediately when you wake up
• not making your bed
• not having a morning routine
• taking excessively long breaks
• endless TikTok and Instagram scrolling

Some of the concepts I described in this blog can be found in James Clear’s Atomic Habits. He goes into great detail about this topic and many more. You can purchase a copy of his book here: https://amzn.to/44xotlo.