10 ways to enhance your productivity

These are 10 things I've learned recently during COVID that helped me improve my productivity.

1. Use a flash card to list your to do items for the day

Noah Kagan writes out ona flash card all his to do items for the day. He gets satisfaction from checking things off. And the flash card is small enough where you aren't overwhelmed with too much.

2. Track your time

If you don't know how you're spending your time, how will you know whether you're working on the right things (or how to change)

3. Get it out of your head

Any tasks, projects, etc., get it out of your head and into a system. This is the basis of the GTD system from David Allen. I like using Nirvana but you can use other apps for a brain dump.

4. Wake up early

There's something about waking up early, before anyone else is up, getting a lot done, and then starting the day like everyone else that didn't wake up early.

5. Polyphasic sleeping

Steve Pavlina has lots of blog posts on polyphasic sleeping. Not for everyone but can be a fascinating way of getting more time out of your day.

6. Track your energy levels

For the mornings when you have higher energy and higher motivation, it's a good opportunity to do the hard things (write, craft reports, think through presentations). For the afternoons when you have lower energy, it's a good opportunity to brainstorm or conduct meetings.

7. Read

My source of power - reading new and interesting books always helps prime my mind with ideas. I like reading a short chapter in the mornings and then trying to figure out how I can apply it right away to my work.

8. Mid-afternoon exercise

Although I prefer exercising in the mornings, I often find a good workout in the afternoons (say between 2 - 4) helps to get me past my low energy afternoons and finishing the day strong.

9. Pomodoro + Binaural Beats = Win

There are free Youtube videos where they combine binaural beats and the pomodoro timer for super productivity (try searching for brain.fm)