I'm often asked how I am able to juggle so many tasks at once, and get a lot of things done. Productivity is a skill that can be learned and while it may appear easy, it's much more difficult to practice than one might think. Below are some of the tips & tricks I use to prioritize my commitments and tasks.
As a general note, I still have days where I break down and realize I have too much to do and too many commitments to honor. Just because you practice productivity in your life doesn't mean everything will be rainbows and butterflies from day one. But practicing these tips will help you to maximize the quality of effort you put into your tasks and ultimately improve productivity.
Turn Off Notifications
Only 2% of humans can multitask effectively. So unless you're one of the 2%, it's probably a good idea to cut that bad habit.
We don't realize how damaging multitasking can be to our workflows, because it seems harmless but it can have adverse effects.
When you try to focus on more than one task at a time, you can lose about 40% of your productivity. That's a lot of wasted time and effort!
But we live in a day and age where multitasking is almost ingrained into our workflows; text notifications, Slack messages, new email alerts, you name it. We multitask and it's bad.
Before starting a task, I set my computer and phone to "Do Not Disturb" (DND) mode and quit Slack, iMessage, and WhatsApp. I have also permanently disabled real-time notifications to my phone (either turned off completely or in DND mode) which prevents context-switching.
My friend Jason has an excellent talk on "How I Cut My Working Hours In Half & Managed To Get More Done." I highly recommend you go watch it; he's extremely entertaining and the talk is filled with riveting information and tips!
Make A To Do List
This sounds like an obvious tip, yet to do lists are an invaluable tool for prioritizing work.
I have several to do lists: a long-term list, a short-term list, and a daily list. This way, I never lose track of items, but am focused on the tasks which are immediately relevant to me.
I personally like to handwrite my daily list, because there's nothing better than physically checking off a box. But there are many great tools out there to help you remember your tasks.
I have leaned towards the Mac Reminders app due to its convenience, but am now looking in to other fun tools for prioritizing my lists. Here are a couple I recommend.
Notion is one of my new favorite apps because of its incredible robustness. You can take notes, make to do lists, create calendars, and more! The power is incredible. There is a bit of overhead to learning all of the functionalities but from what I've seen so far, it's truly a winner.
Google Keep is another popular one. Although this is more of a note-taking app, you can definitely use it for a to do list. The interface is super clean and easy to use. Plus you can download the app to your smartphone for cross-device syncing.
Start With The Hardest/Most Important Task
We have a finite amount of willpower, and once it's gone, you probably won't get another rush of it until the next day. So it's important to leverage your willpower to focus on the hardest, or most important, task first.
If you spend all of your willpower answering emails and Slack messages, you're going to have a hard time being productive on your important tasks.
We forget that we use willpower in other areas of our lives as well such as avoiding that piece of cake for your colleague's birthday, so use it while you have it!
Take Care Of Yourself
If you're not healthy, mentally or physically, you'll have a hard time being (and staying) productive. It's important to make time to care for yourself.
I always try to take an hour or two at the end of the day away from my devices (which let's be real is a struggle) to focus on things that make me happy, like reading a book.
We forget that mental health greatly impacts our ability to function, and it's not something that should be taken for granted.
Find a hobby which brings you joy and allows you to decompress from all of the hard work you've completed during the day. Force yourself to disconnect. I promise, the time spent relaxing will have a positive effect on your productivity.
Keep An Agenda/Calendar
I love keeping an agenda, both physical and digital, this way I never forget about important tasks.
As soon as I make an appointment or commit to something, I write it down. This may seem trivial, but starting the week off knowing the commitments I have on certain days allows me to plan out my tasks better. For example, if I know I have a JavaScript meetup on Thursday, I'll probably go easier on myself during the day in terms of workload. Versus a day I don't have any plans I can push myself a bit harder.
Theme Your Days
I try to designate specific days of the week to specific projects. For example, I try to work on Coding Coach, my open source project, Monday Wednesday, and Friday. Then, maybe spend Tuesdays and Thursdays creating Egghead courses. I also enjoy using my lunch breaks on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays to take a German course.
By theming your days, you cut down on context-switching which boosts your concentration.
And while this method isn't feasible for every week, it's a good schedule to abide by.
Time Box Your Tasks
I'm the person who, when I don't time box my tasks, will spend hours going on and on without making progress. Thus, I always make an effort to time box my tasks to 30 or 45 minutes (depending on the task).
When I know I have a finite amount of time to work on something, the quality of my work is much more focused. Thus, by spending less time on a task, I actually produce better work.
Many people use the Pomodoro Technique which is great! Typically this involves breaking working sessions into about 25 minute intervals with short breaks between.
I personally find 25 minutes a bit too short, so I aim for 45 minutes. I find that after this time block my concentration starts to waver, so taking breaks is really valuable to reset your mind.
De-Clutter Your Workspace
This tip may not be for everyone, but I'm the type of person who can't concentrate if my physical and digital work spaces are cluttered. After each task, I try to close all browser tabs and reset my environment. This way I start each new task with a blank canvas.
If you're able to work with 120 browser tabs and a zillion folders on your desktop, all the power to you! But I personally like to have only the task-relevant information available.
Conclusion
I hope some of these tips were useful. Try them out and see how much your productivity increases! I guarantee there will be an improvement to the quality & quantity of your work!
Latest comments (44)
Nice! I usually average 250 tabs open (my PC has 8GB RAM). Most of them are not loaded and are just thumbnails. I have lots of DEV posts and other pages I want to read.
Here's a tip: When you open Chrome, it will load all of your tabs at once which will deplete all of your memory. If you open Firefox and it restores your session, it won't load any tabs unless you click on them which is very, very handy and memory saving.
Also I'm the kind of guy who forgets to read his email sometimes.
Gift me your RAM? :)
Check out the browser plugin The Great Suspender.
800 tabs?! what were you working on?
Great, but I think that the most important part is the care of yourself.
I rarely have more than 8 tabs open because it's frustrating to navigate through them, and not being able to see the title on some of them stresses me out. I also rarely have several projects loaded in Sublime Text unless I need to look at some previous ones for reference. As a todo list I use WorkFlowy, it just seemed to meet my needs the best without having functionality I don't use.
Very cool! Loved the day themes tip
Awesome article, continue this great work Emma!
Use a good productivity app to help you. My team uses Google Drive and Quire to help us keep track of our projects.
Interesting indeed. I've come to some of the same conclusions over the past few months. A daily written todo list is very powerful. A finite amount of willpower is so true. I now try to schedule all meetings for afternoons when I've run out of steam and block my mornings for getting stuff done.
I've also found the pomodoro really good. I don't like setting a timer, but anytime my concentration starts to wander I take a short break and return with more focus.
Something I've also found useful is deliberate context switches. If I'm not getting anywhere on a coding task, I'll get some document reviews out of the way, or vice versa. Something about a completely unrelated task helps with a reset.
This is true and yet the hardest part of them all. Prioritizing work is the most difficult part. I use to handwrite them down on post-it and stick them on my desk. But things get lost easily. Now, I use online to do list app to help me organize work and personal task. I use Todoist and Quire. Todoist is more for my personal task. Quire is great for work assignments and project management. Quire is an excellent tool for organizingprojects. You can add each individual task and also include sub-task.
Awesome advice thank you! I should print this out and put them on my wall.
Here I am getting distracted. Ok back to work!
Perhaps you should switch your Notion link to a referral link. This way you'll benefit yourself and others.
I love the "theme your days" tip! It made me realize I've been stuck in this rut of trying to do a little bit of everything every day, which results in not much progress being made in any category. Some serious schedule reworking is in my future, thanks!
Love it! I always struggle with the workspace because I love postit notes!
Some other useful similar tools:
Sunsama (sunsama.com): Calendar and Task tool, makes planning your day much easier
Haystack (haystackapps.com): Makes finding documents and moving between tasks much faster
Veamly: (veamly.com): Great for communication reach roles by adding in the Pomodoro and reducing notifications.
Great points! I use hand-written to-do lists too.
One thing- if you have a ton of browser tabs, you might try looking at a tab manager like Toby. I love it! They're like better bookmarks that I can organize by project.
Yip, Toby saves me from Open Tab Overload too!
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