Simple Productivity Hacks That Actually Work - Definitely(ish) - Creative Copywriting and Content Management

It seems like there is so much buzz around productivity these days. Who doesn’t want to feel like they’ve accomplished everything they’ve wanted to by the end of the day? In truth, productivity is what stands between having an idea and actually creating results in your life.

However, I sometimes feel that productivity is often put on a pedestal. Hustle culture seems to glorify crossing off a massive to-do list, rapidly creating results, and making sacrifices for the sake of being productive. Buzz words like motivation, hustle, and productivity paint a picture that you are either giving 100% or nothing at all. If you’ve ever tried this for a second, you’ll realize that giving 100% of your efforts for the sake of productivity doesn’t last long. This is a recipe for burnout if there ever was one.

So, what productivity hacks can you approach in a healthy way that will actually lead to getting the results you want? Let’s take a look at it, and like many things I talk about on this blog, it begins with a shift in mindset:

Productivity Thoughts to avoid

Where people often go wrong in trying to get more productive is they look for the action steps first. They try to get the best apps, planners, productivity hacks, or timers to ensure that everything on their list gets crossed off. While these action steps and tools won’t doom your productivity, they won’t get you far without a change in mindset.

Here are some thoughts and feelings you might have that trip up your productivity:

“All these things have to get done today”
“I am in a rush to complete these tasks”
“I’ll have to sacrifice sleep, eating, or relaxing to get these tasks done”
“This task is getting done no matter what”
“If only I hadn’t procrastinated on this”

Who hasn’t adopted some of these thoughts before? I definitely have, and they haven’t gotten me anywhere! Sure they might result in one or two tasks getting completed, but results don’t really serve you unless they are consistently completed over long periods of time.

Being 80% productive most days is better than 100% productive for only a couple days.

Now let’s talk about some productivity hacks that actually work.

Adopt The 80% Rule

I actually first heard of this rule when listening to a podcast episode featuring Hugh Jackman. In the podcast, he explained that when he’s singing and performing, he tries to only put in about 80% of his effort. Committing to 80% will allow him to release tension, relax and enjoy his performance, and maintain his stamina. This kind of blew my mind that when we see Hugh Jackman performing, he’s only putting in 80% of what he’s got!

Recently I’ve started adopting the 80% rule in a lot of areas in my life, but productivity has been largely impacted by this switch in mindset. It allows for flexibility and adaptability when I’m doing tasks. Also, frankly, it helps make it so I don’t absolutely hate my day-to-day routine!

How many of you have reached the end of that day not having completed everything on your to-do list? Well, what if you decided that completing only 80% of the list was good enough? It sounds counter-intuitive, but it will help you stay more consistent over the long run and help increase your productivity. Most importantly, I think, it keeps you from getting discouraged and throwing in the towel completely!

Block Scheduling

Without block scheduling, I would be completely lost and slip into overwhelm daily! For a long time, I ran my days in a pretty laissez faire way, but I would always have enough time to do everything I needed to get done. In my current position I’ve reached a point where there are more things to do than time to do them. So what do you do in this case? Block scheduling!

Basically, block scheduling is a productivity hack that means you block certain hours in your day to dedicate to certain tasks. When you reach the end of that time block, you move on to the next set of tasks even if you haven’t completed the ones you’re on. This will ensure that you touch everything you are responsible for in a day, even if you don’t finish everything.

You’ll notice that there is a Flex Time built into every day. This is the time for you to do any miscellaneous tasks or finish up things you didn’t finish during the earlier blocks of time. This is a game changer for staying on top time management!

(By the way, this is a schedule I made as an example! I hope this will be my reality eventually though!)

recording your time spent

One of my biggest issues I had with block scheduling was when things would interrupt my schedule. Sometimes I would just want to spend an extra 15 minutes to finish up a task instead of move it to my Flex Time. Other times, someone would come to me with an urgent issue that needed to be addressed right away. Both of these would throw off my block schedule big time! Here’s the solution: record how you actually spend your time.

If your block schedule gets thrown off, so what! Just record how you actually spent your time so you can analyze it later. This will allow you to see that you are actually spending 3 hours answering emails daily instead of the 2 you have blocked off. Analyzing what you’ve recorded will then allow you to see that you need to adjust how much time you’ve allotted for certain tasks. Productivity hacks like this don’t work unless you reflect on how effective they actually are.

If you’re working for yourself, this is absolutely essential to see where your time has the highest impact on your business! It may help you brainstorm where and when you need to outsource certain tasks. If you work for an employer it can help show just how valuable your time is. They’ll be blown away by the productivity hacks you bring to the table.

Calendaring

Calendaring is something I use more in my personal life than at work. Similar to block scheduling, calendaring is basically putting your to-do list on a calendar. Instead of having a massive to-do list that your cross off haphazardly throughout the day, you can calendar times for certain projects.

Instead of having a to-do list like this:

Vaccum the house
Plan meals for the week
Write blog post

You put those things in different times on your calendar, then you show up to those tasks like you’re showing up to an appointment. When it’s given the same treatment as an appointment you would have with someone else, you can’t help but show up for yourself.

By the way I HIGHLY recommend using a digital calendar! While paper planners are fun, they always fail me because of their lack of edit-ability and portability. Plus, a digital calendar is easily shared with others and synced across several devices.

Limit your productivity tools

There are so many productivity tools and apps out there that promise to increase your productivity almost instantly. What you have to remember is that no tool can fix a broken system; productivity has to come from your own habits. It’s very easy get sucked into new productivity methods or practices and then bail on them when they don’t work. Take the time to get really good at 1 or 2 tools or practices before you decide to switch it up. That way you will know that it’s the tool that wasn’t working and not your mindset.

This part of the reason why I no longer use a paper planner is because it was taking more time to fill out than what was actually useful. Sure it looked very photogenic, but my calendar wasn’t on my phone when I needed it to be! I’ve found this to be true for many apps too. Oftentimes it just takes more time than it’s worth. Just stick with one or two old faithfuls and get really good at them.

Limit your focus

I fully suffer from “shiny object syndrome”, can you relate? I think this is the case for a lot of entrepreneurial and creative brains. We just want to do all the things! However tempting it is to add more things to your list of goals, you’ll thank yourself later if you limit your focus to only a couple things at a time.

To be fully honest, this is the biggest struggle for me on this list! To give myself time to adjust I’ve started picking only 3-4 big focuses or goals per yearly quarter. (Yes, I divide my year into quarters like a nerd.).

Here are some examples of monthly or quarterly goals you might decide to give your focus to:

Train for marathon
Increase business revenue by $5k
Complete personal trainer certification course

Then that might be it! All your extra hours you have in your block schedule can be divided into your main focuses. Instead of jumping around from project to project and never finishing any of them, you owe it to yourself to complete something by giving it your full attention.

So I invite you to embrace these productivity hacks along with me! Some of them I’ve gotten quite good at, others I’m still working on but I’ve seen proof for how well they create results.