Personal Productivity

Do you want to set ambitious goals and achieve them? Stay on top of everything and still enjoy life to the fullest?

Becoming a genius at personal efficiency isn’t straightforward.

However, it’s not too challenging if you know what and how to do it.

I’ve leveraged my experience and the most reputable sources worldwide to create something exciting.

First, I’ll discuss the general principles that will help lay the foundation for your productivity.

Then, we’ll move on to the building blocks – specific advice and techniques. 

Principle 1: The Four Pillars of Productivity

The foundation of any productivity consists of four elements: time, energy, attention, and skill.

Your personal efficiency depends on how you manage these four components. They are closely interconnected but cannot replace each other, so it is necessary to develop all four elements. 

For instance, you won’t impress anyone with your results if you have plenty of time, energy, and a clear understanding of what to do but can’t focus and keep getting distracted. 

No energy, skill, or concentration will help if a task that requires half a day’s work is crammed into an hour. And if you lack the skill for a task, you’ll overspend the other resources — time, energy, and attention —without getting closer to your goal.

Principle 2: Expanding Your Toolkit

There’s no single “magic” secret to productivity. But I have 35 tactical techniques that can help you get more done.

Many factors affect what you can accomplish daily, each relating to managing your time, energy, attention, and skill. 

Below, I’ll share my list of personal efficiency techniques gathered from various sources. Each method is designed to help you manage one of the four key components more effectively. 

You may already use some techniques, learn about others for the first time, and find some strange at first glance, but I still recommend trying them.

Principle 3: The Counterintuitive Truth About Hard Work

Working too much or too forcefully seriously undermines your productivity.

Chris Bailey explored his personal efficiency and conducted a unique experiment, alternating between 90-hour and 20-hour workweeks for a month. When comparing the volume of work completed, it turned out to be the same!

This is because people put in more effort when they know their time is limited and can afford to waste time if they have plenty of it. According to Parkinson’s law, work expands to fill the time available for completion. 

In other words, writing a letter to a client can take an hour, but if someone is given four hours to complete it, they’ll use all four hours.

If you work forcefully, applying too much effort in a short time, you’ll quickly burn out. Energy is not infinite; we all need to replenish it through exercise, rest, and food (more on below).

To summarize, intense work only offers a short-term productivity boost. You might accomplish a lot in one or two days of hard work, but you can’t maintain that pace constantly.

Principle 4: Basics That Boost Performance

Thus, the next principle follows: the three most effective ways to boost your efficiency — exercise, diet, and sleep — are simple and accessible to everyone.

This advice may seem obvious, but it indeed works. The same author confirmed this through personal experience. Throughout the day, he experimented with various efficiency-enhancing methods, but at the end of the day, only three always worked without fail: exercise, sleep, and diet.

Principle 5: The Real Measure of Productivity

Productivity is not about how much you worked but how much you accomplished.

Measuring your productivity by the hours you spent working, the number of books you read, or the words you wrote is pointless. Counting such things gives you a minimal view while creating an illusion of fruitful work. Only the results you achieve matter.

Several key tasks determine your success in any area (health, finances, work, relationships, personal life). Focus on the processes that create the most value and offer the highest return on your time, energy, and attention investment.

Now, let’s move on to specific rules.

Managing Time

Rule 1: Make Plans and Lists

If organizing your life has never been your strong suit, start with the basics — make to-do lists. 

Why bother? 

First, we can’t keep 80% of the information in our working memory for more than two minutes. Second, if we try, our brain can’t multitask effectively and gets quickly tired. So, jot down your tasks, set deadlines, and forget about it for now if it’s not urgent.

Whether a night owl or an early bird, carve out some time each morning or evening to set your tasks. Spending 10 minutes planning your day can save you up to two hours daily.

Rule 2: Don’t Try to Fill Every Free Moment with Tasks

When planning, about 40% of your time should remain free. That means 60% is for scheduled tasks, 20% for unexpected tasks, and another 20% for minor and spontaneous tasks. 

Time management experts categorize tasks into three types around which your schedule should revolve:

• Deadline-bound tasks, e.g., “Investor meeting at 12:00”
• Time-budgeted tasks that can start anytime but have a fixed duration, e.g., “Read an article – 1 hour”
• Flexible tasks for everything else

Rule 3: Track Your Time Spent (Chronometry)

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Do you know how you spent your time yesterday? 

A couple of hours on social media, an hour for meals, eight hours of work… Chances are, you’ll significantly misjudge your time because our perception of time is highly subjective. 

Try logging all your activities and the exact time spent on them for a week. This way, you’ll get a clear picture of where your time goes, spot time-wasters, and likely discover new things about yourself. 

Chronometry is the most accurate way to learn time management.

There are also apps for time tracking, like Rescuetime, which records how you spend your computer time and generates activity stats, application usage, website visits, idle time, and peak work hours.

Rule 4: Combine Tasks

Some tasks can be performed simultaneously without sacrificing productivity. 

Think about which tasks in tomorrow’s schedule can be combined. 

For example, you could discuss a joint project with colleagues from another department over lunch or invite a client to dine with you. What can you do in your car or on public transport while commuting?

Or make a special list of tasks that don’t require mental engagement (like laundry, cleaning, jogging, etc.), allocate time, and do them all at once while listening to something beneficial (audiobooks, TED Talks, etc.).

Rule 5: Don’t Turn Into a Robot – Don’t Micromanage Your Day

Avoid planning every minute of your day. 

Besides the risk of derailing with the slightest hiccup, there’s another danger. 

If your schedule includes tasks like “make coffee,” “brush teeth,” “check emails,” “commute to work,” etc., marking them as done might give you a false sense of productivity. Avoid adding daily routines to your plan.

As a rule, don’t set more than 8-10 tasks per day—you won’t be able to keep up. Also, prioritize three main tasks and focus your attention and efforts on them first.

Rule 6: The Two-Minute Rule

When planning, apply the two-minute rule. If a task takes less than two minutes — replying to an email, making a call, placing an order—do it immediately instead of adding it to today’s to-do list.

Rule 7: Set Priorities

Start your day with the most critical tasks. This is when your focus and work capacity are at their peak. 

Try to clear low-priority tasks quickly. If they take just a few minutes, get them done and dusted. If not, delegate if possible or postpone them. 

If you’ve postponed a task more than three times, you can probably scratch it off your list — you’re likely fine without it.

Managing Attention

Rule 8: Single-Tasking

Focus all your attention on the task at hand. Multitasking doesn’t boost — it diminishes your personal effectiveness. 

It’s draining and prevents you from seeing the results of your work. It lowers the quality of your work — when you can’t concentrate, the likelihood of making mistakes increases. 

Moreover, doing several things at once can negatively affect your relationships. For instance, people feel uncomfortable when you’re talking to them while glued to your phone.

Rule 9: Be Prepared for “Not Feeling Like It”

Sometimes, you don’t feel like working, and that’s it. Willpower is a finite resource. Don’t force yourself. In such cases, it’s better to either:

a) Eat that frog

This is a popular time management technique. Tackle a simple task that’s been on your list for a while. This might kickstart your productivity.

b) Engage in a physical, monotonous activity for 10 minutes (wash dishes, make coffee, clean up). 

Such monotony is also great if you need to “reset” or catch some inspiration (monotony helps set the stage for creativity as your brain tries to escape the dullness).

c) Tidy up your workspace

Numerous studies show that clutter hampers concentration. So, if you’ve decided to procrastinate on work tasks, tidying up your desk or organizing files on your computer might be the way to go. 

You might stumble upon a document or note that sparks an idea and jump-starts your work.

Rule 10: Take an “Info Pause” for Important Tasks

If you’re about to tackle an important task, focus solely on it and eliminate distractions — pause your email and turn off your phone. 

Gmail has an Inbox Pause feature that lets you choose when new emails arrive. Disconnect the internet or close your browser. 

No matter how engaged you are with your current task, the internet will always tempt you to wander.

Rule 11: Know When to Stop

Remember the Pareto Principle — 20% of efforts produce 80% of results. 

Don’t overextend yourself, and avoid perfectionism. Remember the law of diminishing returns — at some point, the outcome no longer justifies the effort invested. 

Details only matter when they genuinely impact the outcome. Focus your attention on what delivers the maximum effect.

Rule 12: Manage Your Focus

Once you start a task, focus on doing it, not on the end result or the quality — do your best. There will be time to correct mistakes later. 

Thinking about the outcome and comparing it to the amount of work ahead can demotivate you and lead to procrastination. 

It’s like walking a tightrope — you’ll lose balance and fall if you look up or down. Keep looking forward.

Rule 13: Immerse Yourself in a Work-Friendly Atmosphere

Personalize your workspace. Remove unnecessary items, leaving only office supplies and things that inspire and motivate you. 

Studies suggest that even wall colors can affect you differently: blue stimulates brain activity, yellow emotions, red physical activity, and green calms and comforts.

Experiment with another way to create the right work atmosphere: use a phone or laptop app that simulates the ambient noise of a coffee shop. 

For some, this background noise positively affects productivity and creativity.

Rule 14: Work a Bit on Sunday Evening

Weekends are for rest and recharge. But Sunday evenings are good for thinking about the workweek ahead, so Monday morning doesn’t catch you off guard. 

Organize your papers, outline a plan for the week, and check the status of projects. Moreover, it’s an excellent time to finish what you didn’t manage last week — no calls or requests will distract you.

Rule 15: Balance Short-term and Long-term Perspectives

What differentiates strategic goals from tactical ones? 

Tactics are what you’re doing now, what helps you move closer to your goal. 

Strategy is the bigger picture, how your life is organized, and what you ultimately work and live for. 

Always relate what you’re doing to your long-term goals. Crossing items off a to-do list is fine, but it’s pointless to exert effort if it doesn’t bring you closer to your ultimate goal.

Rethink the concept of productivity. It’s not about how much you’ve done today but about the actual impact on people and events you’ve managed to achieve. A squirrel in a wheel makes a lot of moves but hardly achieves success in its life.

I recommend creating and maintaining a list of long-term or medium-term tasks (at most 10, and definitely in written form, not just in your memory).

Managing Energy

Rule 16: Take Breaks and Reward Yourself During Work

Time management experts advise against diving headfirst into work without breaks. 

It’s essential to take short breaks regularly. This keeps you alert and helps you critically assess your work. 

Rewarding yourself for completed tasks with small treats can increase your desire to fulfill responsibilities and achieve goals. 

Opinions on the length of breaks vary. According to a study by Desktime, a famous work time tracking system developer, the optimal ratio is 52 minutes of work followed by 17 minutes of rest.

Francesco Cirillo, creator of the popular Pomodoro task management technique, suggests taking short five-minute breaks every 25-30 minutes, followed by a more extended 30-40-minute break after four cycles.

Some psychologists believe a person needs one complete break (1-1.5 hours) in the middle of the workday and two more minor 15-20 minute breaks, taken two hours after starting work and two hours before finishing.

Observe yourself to find the work/rest intervals that suit you best. These can be fixed or tied to task progress.

Rule 17: Tidy Your Workspace

Your desk is your control center, where each day begins. Desk clutter can distract you and drain your energy. 

Statistics show that American managers spend an average of six weeks per year searching for lost documents.

Applying the “one-touch principle” in your work can be helpful: if you pick up a document or open a file, immediately take some action—file it, pass it on, read it, respond, throw it away, but don’t just set it aside.

Rule 18: Say “No” (Eliminate Unnecessary Things from Your Life)

You might be surprised by how much time you spend daily on emails, SMS, and calls. 

Create a “Thanks, But No” list of tasks you shouldn’t be doing and keep it visible. Over time, this list should grow. 

Learn to say “no” to secondary tasks and time wasters like TV, social media, and YouTube browsing.

Consider limiting social media use (if it’s not essential for work) to three times a day — morning, post-lunch (when you don’t feel like working anyway), and evening. 

Try this for a week, and you’ll notice a significant productivity boost.

Rule 19: Learn to Manage Stress

Invest some of your time in stress management strategies. You’re still exposed to stress even if you have a fixed work schedule without urgent projects. 

The rhythm of the big city constantly affects us, so learning to relax is crucial. Experiment to find what you like best. 

Popular stress relief methods include exercise, yoga, massages, favorite music and reading, outdoor walks, and creative activities.

Don’t forget about the emotional aspect — spend time with people who genuinely care for you, including friends and family. Focus on personal interactions, not social media communication. 

Studies show that people who regularly make time for their families double their energy levels and business productivity.

Rule 20: Replenish Energy — Monitor Your Health, Eat Well, and Get Enough Sleep

Manage your energy. Every machine can only move with fuel. 

Sometimes, it’s better to sleep an extra hour and tackle a challenging task in a few hours than to come to work sleep-deprived, spend the day nodding off, and drink gallons of coffee. 

Time saved by cutting sleep severely undermines your productivity. 

Again, the simplest yet most effective things are exercise, proper diet, and adequate sleep. 

Let’s devote separate rules to these three aspects.

Rule 21: Stay in Shape with Proper Nutrition

The ancient adage “You are what you eat” highlights the importance of proper nutrition. It directly affects your physical well-being and energy levels.

It is common to view proper nutrition as a game — “the more healthy food I eat, the more points I score” — but even vitamins in excess can be harmful. 

It’s crucial to balance your diet: consume about 20% protein, 30% fats, and 50% carbohydrates. Don’t radically change your eating habits; if you eliminate all your favorite foods, healthy eating will become a burden.

Try starting by cutting out alcohol, smoked foods, processed foods, sweets, and overly fatty products and including more vegetables. After some time, you’ll feel an unusual lightness. 

Use tricks to adapt to dietary changes, such as:

• Eating healthy food first (vegetable salad, porridge) leaves less room for unhealthy options. 
• Leaving the table feeling slightly hungry. A small plate helps reduce portions without sacrificing satisfaction. 
• Eating in front of a mirror can help you moderate your intake. It turns a meal into a ceremony where you eat thoughtfully and avoid overeating.
• Eat several small meals daily, every 3-4 hours, to control appetite, metabolism, and cortisol (stress hormone) levels. 
• If you need a snack, choose wisely. Do not have cookies, candies, cakes, or pastries! Keep fruits (like apples or bananas) or a mix of nuts and dried fruits handy to quickly satisfy hunger.

Seek advice from nutrition experts. For example, did you know that tomatoes and carrots should be cooked to increase the concentration of certain beneficial substances? 

Consume foods that enhance your focus and concentration. Chris Bailey, a personal productivity blogger, compiled a list of nine highly effective foods: blueberries, green tea, avocados, leafy green vegetables, fatty fish, dark chocolate, flax seeds, and nuts.

Drink plenty of water. Some specialists recommend drinking a glass of water on an empty stomach right after waking up since your body has been without water for the last 8 hours and might be dehydrated. 

Use stimulants (like caffeine) only when you truly need a short-term productivity boost. Turning caffeine consumption into a habit will make it ineffective over time.

Rule 22: Get Quality Sleep

On average, adults need 7 to 9 hours of good sleep. Consistent sleep deprivation leads to hormonal imbalances. Interestingly, oversleeping can also harm the body. It’s not just about sleeping enough; your sleep must be quality. Follow these guidelines:

• Turn off the TV, computer, and phone an hour before bedtime. Or at least 30 minutes if you’re tight on time. The blue light from devices signals to your brain that it’s daytime. Consider reading a book instead.
• Create a sleep schedule. Try to go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time every day. This will help structure your day.
• Avoid intense physical exercises before bedtime. They can raise your body temperature, making it harder for you to fall asleep.
• Avoid alcohol before sleep.
• Don’t use the snooze button. It confuses your body by starting a new sleep cycle, making it the worst way to wake up.

Sleep consists of 90-minute cycles with alternate slow and rapid eye movement (REM) phases. Waking up during a slow-wave sleep phase can leave you feeling groggy and tired while waking up during REM is more conducive to feeling refreshed. 

Many sleep trackers and apps are designed to wake you up comfortably.

Consider a power nap. Our ancestors had a long night’s sleep and a short daytime sleep. A dip in energy levels between 12 and 2 p.m. is natural. Some cultures retain this habit (e.g., napping at desks in China, siesta in Spain). 

The rule is that daytime sleep should be brief (20-40 minutes) to avoid deep sleep, which can leave you feeling sleepy and lethargic afterward.

Some researchers have experimented with sleep patterns, like the two-hour sleep cycle, where you’re awake for 1 hour 40 minutes and then sleep for 20 minutes, repeating the cycle. Or try sleeping 3-4 times a day: work for 4 hours, sleep for 2 hours, and so on. 

You can try it, and if it works well for you, why not?

Rule 23: Exercise Regularly

Many of us lead sedentary lives. Start each morning with some form of exercise. 

Pay attention to stretching. Constant tension manifests in muscles, creating a “corset” that impacts internal organ function. Stretching exercises are the best way to relieve muscle tension.

For overall endurance and body tone, engage in physical activities at least 2-3 times a week for 1.5-2 hours. If you’re new to exercising on your own, stick to the basics:

• Remember to be consistent, gradual, and correct in your approach.
• Please don’t overdo it. Maintain a pace where you can converse without losing breath.
• Always warm up before exercising.
• Monitor your exertion level, breathing, and heart rate — consider a fitness tracker or heart rate monitor.

Diversify your workouts with apps that track your activity level, recommend exercises, and allow you to compare results with friends. 

Rule 24: Find Your Biological Prime Time

It’s proven that our brains and bodies function differently at various times of the day and night. Biological prime time is when you’re at the peak of your efficiency. 

If you apply this knowledge to everyday task planning, you can learn to perform tasks with higher productivity.

Generally, it’s best to engage in intensive mental work within 2-3 hours of waking up. Brain activity dips after lunch as energy is redirected to digestion, making it a good time for creative tasks. Evenings are ideal for physical activities due to greater muscle strength, joint flexibility, and coordination.

You can conduct your own study on your body’s strengths and capabilities. For three weeks, track your well-being and energy levels hourly. This will help you identify your activity peaks and downtimes, allowing you to adjust your work schedule and lifestyle. 

During the experiment, try to limit alcohol and other stimulants (like caffeine), go to bed and wake up at the same time every day (ideally following your natural desires, not an alarm clock), and maintain a roughly consistent level of work and physical activity.

Rule 25: Be Joyful

Researchers emphasize the importance of joyfulness in life, considering it a significant factor in personal productivity. Smiling shows that you’re feeling good and works the other way around — smiling makes you feel a bit happier. 

Additionally, a good mood and smiling positively affect the heart and immune system, lower blood pressure, and reduce stress hormone levels.

We are drawn to people who smile and appear joyful. Studies suggest that such individuals are perceived as more attractive, confident, decent, and decisive, and we trust them more. 

Try conducting your next business meeting in a good mood and notice how people start reacting differently to you. Develop the ability to stay in a good mood constantly.

Be friendly. Get to know your colleagues — what they’re interested in, what they like, what they think. It’s observed that friendly relations in the office increase job satisfaction by an average of 50% and even increase the likelihood of being promoted by 40%.

Managing Skills

Rule 26: Develop Useful Habits

About 40-45% of our actions are performed automatically, following previously learned habits. That’s why it’s so essential to develop beneficial habits. 

It’s believed that forming a stable habit requires 21 days of regular practice. You’ll need to put in some effort, but it pays off quickly as beneficial skills start working for you, increasing your efficiency.

Rule 27: Get Rid of Bad Habits

Eliminating harmful habits is equally important. One way to motivate yourself is to make bets with a friend. 

Pay each other fines each time you break your word. This helps you realize the cost of your bad habits rather than their pleasant effects. 

Rule 28: Become Highly Efficient at Time-Consuming Tasks

Mastering touch typing can save you a lot of time and effort.

Special online courses are available for this. With intensive practice, you can master this skill in a month.

The same applies to speed reading — learn to read diagonally or through specific books (e.g., IceBook Reader). Reading a summary of the book first is recommended — often, that’s sufficient to get the valuable information you need.

Use a second monitor. Statistics show that having a second monitor increases your efficiency by 30% if you work with information.

Prepare templates for frequently used things that take up a lot of time. For example, if you often communicate with clients, create basic email templates.

Optimize internet searches by taking breaks, stopping yourself, and focusing only on what you are looking for. Statistics show that 47% of online time is wasted on useless and distracting activities (procrastination).

Rule 29: Work Efficiently with Email

Turn off email notifications — in most cases, they’re unnecessary distractions. 

Set up automatic email sorting, check your email several times a day at set times, and deal with it as quickly as possible. 

However, if you think checking your composed email is a waste of time, you’re mistaken. Skipping this step saves you a minute or two, but repairing damaged relationships with clients and partners could take months.

Rule 30: Conduct Meetings Effectively

Meetings are an inevitable evil of office life. So, try to minimize their harmful effects. 

Prepare key points before the meeting, briefly stating the meeting’s goal, tasks, discussion points, and expected outcomes. Send these points to all participants via email and print them out for the meeting. Ensure everyone has reviewed them and is aware of the issue at hand. 

Carefully monitor timing, guide the discussion, and avoid stray from the main topic. Ask participants to put aside their smartphones and focus solely on the meeting.

Rule 31: Develop Active Listening Skills

Active listening is a rare skill in our arsenal, not because we lack the ability or interest (though often we do), but because social networks, smartphones, and the habit of giving and receiving instant responses seem to negate this skill and provoke an attention deficit. 

However, in the age of knowledge, the primary way to create value is to understand what people genuinely care about, which can only be achieved by listening.

Active listening significantly improves communication quality: it helps you get to the heart of the conversation, avoid misunderstandings, and establish closer contact. During conversations, listen and speak in a 70/30 ratio. 

Make pauses to allow the other person to think and continue, nod, use affirming interjections, maintain eye contact, show interest, clarify and rephrase, and use open and advancing questions. 

Your goal is to step back from your perception and show the person you hear and understand them.

Rule 32: Enhance Your Communication

Use specific techniques and methods to convey your thoughts to people, most simply and understandably. Without this, clients and partners will stop understanding you.

Always adhere to the Minto Pyramid Principle when presenting your ideas. In this case, thoughts are arranged in an order optimal for perception. 

To capture the reader’s attention, start with a question that is relevant to them. The introduction describes the situation that generated this question, followed immediately by the answer. 

The answer generates new secondary questions addressed to others. The response to the main question represents the main idea of the entire document and, therefore, the pyramid’s apex. 

Thus, all ideas are organized in a particular order, and the narrative unfolds from top to bottom — from the general to the specific.

Rule 33: Train Your Brain

The better developed your intellect, the better you perform. You can make your brain work better. 

Even if your job does not involve processing information or creating graphs, learning to calculate mentally, identify logical traps, develop memory, and think ahead is still beneficial.

A brain occupied with daily routine starts to lose these skills and gets used to patterned operations, so give it a periodic shake-up. Start learning a new language, solve puzzles and mathematical problems, play chess or bridge, visit quests, and engage in other intellectual entertainment. 

Rule 34: Trust Your Colleagues

Don’t be afraid to delegate authority and distribute tasks. Many seemingly successful employees suffer from a “fear of delegation” and believe that if they want something done well, they should do it themselves.

Unfortunately, they often find confirmation for this belief, further reinforcing it.

First, you will never create something worthwhile alone. Second, this approach often hides the fear that others might do the job and challenge your indispensability and value.

Try not to control your colleagues and subordinates overly. Treat them as adults: loosen the reins a bit, and let them know you trust their strengths and abilities. Once people start to see their work as their own business, they will show you wonders of responsibility and productivity.

Rule 35: Be Open and Ready for New Experiences

Be more open-minded. Stop worrying about what other people might think of you. 

Nobody cares about your personal life, appearance, or salary. You’re not bound to follow a predetermined script for your life: don’t be afraid to take risks, tackle new projects, and change your life as you wish.

Set time frames in which you’d like to learn something, try a new activity, or acquire a new skill — once a week, once a month, or every 2-3 months— and keep a journal of your achievements.