10 Best Tips to Supercharge Your Productivity

You know I love productivity tips. I’m a bit of a productivity junky. Give me books or courses on the topic, and I will devour them. I will also test and see which of the productivity tips I will actually love and start using. So, here’s the list of the top 10 productivity tips I’m currently in love with. I’m sure they will supercharge your productivity as well.

What is productivity?

Before I share the list of 10 tips to supercharge your productivity, let’s define the word “productivity.” Essentially, it is the quality or power to produce in abundance and yield results, benefits, or profits.

It’s all about achieving more output with less input. For example, completing the team’s performance reviews in only 2 hours instead of 5 hours..

Why do you struggle with productivity?

I wish there were one answer to this question. You might struggle with productivity for many reasons, ranging from not knowing how to be more productive to being in an environment that doesn’t support efficiency. However, in our current reality, one major factor for the lack of efficacy is having too many distractions.

Productivity requires focus. Without the habits and systems to be efficient, you end up majoring in minors and not reaching your full potential.

You were born to be great and make a difference. Being unproductive keeps you mediocre and stops you from shining your whole light. So, let’s get going and increase your productive output.

10 Best Tips to Supercharge Your Productivity

Now that you know what productivity is and why you might be struggling with it, it’s time to focus on the 10 best tips to supercharge your productivity.

Tip 1: Turn All Notifications Off

I’m not kidding. Turn all notifications off. Even as a manager or executive, you don’t need to be accessible at the drop of a hat. 

If you want to increase your productivity to work less but achieve more, the first thing you should do is eliminate distractions when you work. And since technology is our biggest distraction these days, I urge you to please turn your email and even messenger notifications off. 

Ideally, you will want to have a system where people know how to reach you in a real emergency (for example, a dedicated phone), but for now, try turning off the notifications. 

You will find that the world keeps revolving while you focus on your most important work. If you respond to someone late, chances are they would have found other ways to figure things out. It’s a win-win situation. You get to do your focused work, and other people get to learn and grow!

Tip 2: Bookend Your Days

Have rituals for the beginning and the end of the workday. 

For example, I start my days with 5-10 minute guided meditation followed by reading an inspirational and thought-provoking principle. This sets me in a very productive and high-energy frame of mind to start working and getting things done. 

At the end of the day, I review my emails and prepare my 4-5 tasks for the next day. Then, I close all the applications and the laptop. This small ritual creates a boundary between my workday and the evening with Jores. 

What rituals can you introduce to start and end your workdays?

Tip 3: Singletask

Remember when multitasking was all the rage? Oh, wait a minute! There are still people and companies that advertise multitasking as a virtue!!!

Forget about it! Science has proven that we don’t really multitask. We just switch our cognitive attention from one subject to another. And it turns out that people who think they are great at multitasking are actually the worst!

So, from now on, focus on one thing at a time. If you are in a meeting, be in the meeting. If you are preparing a presentation for the strategic meeting with higher management, prepare the presentation. 

You can thank me later!

Tip 4: Plan Your Week

You have goals, right? You want to get promoted, earn more, work less… you name it. 

And you know what? Chances are that you had the same dream a year ago. Why didn’t you achieve it?

One of the reasons you are struggling with achieving your goals is that you don’t do what’s necessary to achieve them.

What’s the solution?

Great question (as always), my fellow high-achiever!

You need a system to help you do this. And this system includes weekly planning. 

Once a week, you want to sit down and review the past 7 days in terms of your career and life goals. Then, you want to plan the next 7 days. What are the activities that will move you closer to your objectives? Write them down and do them!

And then…

Tip 5: Schedule Your Most Important Tasks!

If you want to get something done, put it in your calendar. Take ownership of your calendar. 

During this weekly planning (which I do on Sundays), you want to identify the critical to-dos for the week and book time in your calendar to do them. Ideally, you will want to schedule time in the morning for most of the cognitively demanding tasks (unless you feel at your best later in the day). 

Your productivity will skyrocket when you start planning and scheduling your vital priorities! Trust me. It’s a life-changing habit. 

Tip 6: Delegate

Yup, the next tip to supercharge your productivity is to delegate. Even as a first-time manager or executive, you have a team. Learn to delegate the lower-value tasks to them. As a leader, you are paid to have your fingers off the keyboard. 

Think about the primary purpose and value of your role. Are your tasks aligned with what only you can bring to the table? 

If your team can do it and it’s not one of your vital functions, give it to them. Even if it takes you time to transfer the knowledge, it’s worth it. It’s an investment into your future where you can focus your time and energy on your vital functions and priorities. 

And guess what? As you advance your career, your vital functions and priorities can have an “unfair” impact where you spend half of the time working but achieve double or triple the result!

Tip 7: Close Unnecessary Applications

Another of my favorite productivity tips is to keep open only the applications and documents I need for the task. It makes work so much more streamlined. 

I know that many people, and you might be one of them, have multiple tabs open on the browser. Close them!

Keep open only what you need to complete the next action you are focusing on. 

Yes, it might take time for the application to load when you need it later in the day, but who cares? Get up and grab a cup of coffee while it loads.

Tip 8: Take Breaks

Breaks? What breaks? Aren’t we talking about productivity?

Another incredible observation, my fellow workaholic. However, one of the secrets of the high-achievers is the breaks they take. 

Yes, this includes coffee breaks during the day and a walk after lunch or in the afternoon. There are so many choices as long as you get up and leave your work environment to refresh your mind. 

This tip is also about your weekends and vacations. Have long and short vacations. Be 100% off on your days off. This will clear your mind, feed your soul, and charge you for the time when you are 100% on for work next. 

When is your next break, and what do you plan to do? 

Tip 9: Cut the Salami and Shelf it

Yes, I’m getting hungry. It’s almost 6 pm as I’m writing this, and the foodie in me is already wondering what we will have for dinner on this beautiful evening. 

But I digress. The ninth productivity tip I want to share with you is based on the old adage that you eat an elephant one bite at a time. 

What does it mean in terms of your productivity?

Simply put, break the complex projects and objectives into smaller chunks. Work on the chunk; once done, shelf the project for the next time you will be working on it. 

You will find that this process does a few things for you:

1. It removes the overwhelm from the big mountain in front of you
2. It gives you peace of mind because you know where you are and what you are doing next.

Tip 10: Find What Impacts Your Energy

Another goldmine on the list of the 10 best tips to supercharge your productivity is all about mastering your energy. 

Productivity and performance are dependent on the level of engagement you have with the task at work. When you are excited by it and committed to it, you are engaged. In this situation, you are willing and motivated to do something.

Your engagement can range from “Won’t” to “Choose to”. The four stages are:

There are 6 factors that can affect how energized and engaged you are at work:

• Spiritual: your direction, purpose, and values are at odds with what you’re doing
• Mental: multitasking, conflicting demands, stretching too thin
• Emotional: misperceptions of things that happen to you, needs not met, or you encounter situations you don’t understand or know how to handle
• Physical: body can’t function well enough
• Social: social conditions aren’t optimal – maybe you’re not surrounded by people who support you
• Environmental: environmental conditions aren’t optimal—poor lighting, etc.

If you can find out what’s impacting your engagement and how to move from “I don’t want to do this” to “I choose to do this,” your productivity will benefit immensely. 

You’ll stop procrastinating and start feeling more fulfilled and engaged at work. Wouldn’t this be amazing? 

Conclusion

Productivity is a critical ingredient if you want to reach the greatness you were born to achieve. Being productive allows you to do less and achieve more in a meaningful way.

When you start planning your week, schedule your most important tasks, bookend your days, remove various distractions, and keep yourself engaged with the work you do, your results will multiply.

And if, after implementing the 10 best tips to supercharge your productivity, you are still struggling with focus and getting things done, I’m your gal. Schedule a call here, and we can talk about the ways I can help you get more things done with less effort, more ease, and more flow.