The Best Productivity Hacks Around

Below are the 49 productivity hacks that everyone should know about.

This is going to be a powerful guide, so get ready to bust through any procrastination problems you’ll never have again.
Enjoy!
Apps, Plugins, and Web Help Productivity Hacks

1. Momentum (Google Chrome Extension)

This beautiful chrome app replaces your default popular tabs home screen with an awesome motivational message, the ability to set tasks and links you need to use, and an awesome picture.
It makes it easy to stay on track and not end up back on facebook, which happens often when going to a new tab.

2. Brain.fm

Brain.fm is an awesome little helpful web app that I stumbled upon about a year ago. It works by using brainwave frequencies to help you acheive whatever you are trying to get done.
A little bit of external motivation never hurts.
I use it for intense work, while reading, and during almost every nap I take. Using this service is easy and fun, and it customizes to your feeling and how the specific frequencies help you over time!

3. Binaural Beats (Delta and Theta Waves)

If you want a free version of brain.fm that isn’t necessarily customized to your actual feelings, youtube has tons of what are called Binaural Beats.
The brain works off of frequencies, theta being the one that Monks get into when meditating and Delta being the one that the brain goes into when you are in deep sleep.
By blasting these frequencies into your ears over time, it helps to naturally tune your brain into the fequencies and then activate the action that you want to be in.
Pretty cool right?

4. Time Saving Apps (Asana, Slack, Evernote)

Some of the best apps are out there nowadays to help you effortlessly save time and hassle.
Asana is an amazing app that allows you to set-up all of your tasks and projects for whatever you have going on, then assign roles and set dates for when you need to get it done. All in all it has drastically helped me and my company get everything we need to done each week.
Slack is another nifty little communication application for companies and small groups to use. It has been an awesome time saver for me because it integrates with asana, and really is fun to use.
Evernote, on the other hand, is an application based at keeping all of your notes, documents and any other ideas clean and organized.
Many entreprenurial people use it and it is defninetly something to check out and become efficent with because the more you use it the better it becomes (plus you can take a screen shot of all your notes and it translates them to text, organizing by how you wrote them.)
Daily Habit Productivity Hacks

5. Wake Up Earlier

“The Early Bird Gets The Worm” is a phrase we have all heard and for good reason.
In the morning it is quiet, no one is awake, and you have the ability to actually get things done without distractions. Most successful people get up when the sun does (and sometimes earlier) as it allows them an extra hour of work before any obligations come about.

6. Stop Checking Email First Thing In The Morning (Batch Check)

Checking email immediately in the morning is a great way to procrastinate. Most people try to claim that they’re being productive by checking their email first thing, but email can really just be a mechanism for time wasting.
Don’t be someone who thinks that responding to email all day every day is productive.
Actually try out 30 Days without email like Emily Kramer and Jim Renaud of Asana. They took 30 days off and it was a worthile experiment.
If that sounds crazy try one other thing.
Batch Checking Emails
Save checking emails to one time during the day, and you won’t have to think about it often. One 30 minute block shuld be enough for you to get the important emails out you need to, and not have to deal with all the other junk in your inbox.

7. Take a Coffee Break (You Deserve It)

Creating a time where you take a coffee break in the morning allows you to work with the break in mind. Meaning you know that there is a desingated time where you will stop working and go get some coffee.
By setting this artifical time barrier accountability you will be able to get more done in less time.
Plus, giving yourself an awesome reward like some amazing coffee is always a nice treat in the morning.

8. Make Your Bed Every Morning

There is a lot to think about in the morning, but to start it off in a positive manor I recommend making your bed.
See, in our minds, when we accomplish something we feel a hit of dopamine and a positive feeling, this means accomplishing anything.
By making your bed in the morning you start your day with a mini accomplishment that sets stage for you being productive and killing it the rest of the day.

9. Use Tony Robbin’s Rapid Planning Method

In the morning go through the quick exercise of asking yourself these three questions
What do I want?
Why do I want it?
What’s My Massive Action Plan
Answer these and then start taking action for the day, you will be set.

10. Try Out Focus Blocks

Focus blocks are an awesome tool we use here everyday.
All you need to do is set a timer for 90-minutes and work hard at one specific task, then when the alarm goes off take a 20 minute break.
After that set another 90-minute timer and take a 30 minute lunch break after. Make it so you work on your biggest most important projects in the beginnging of the focus blocks when you are best set up for success.

11. Starting With Your One Thing

That is a very important point to combine with the focus blocks.
If you haven’t read The One Thing yet you really need to.
Essentially what it focuses on is “doing the one that by doing will make everything else easier.” If you focus on this at the beginning of every morning you will seriously improve your productivity.

12. Or Start With Your Least Desirable Task

Starting with your one thing is nice, but sometimes there is a very important looming task that you never want to get done.
Most likely it isn’t your one thing, but it should be.
So start with the hardest, nastiest, most undesirable task and then you only have better and better tasks to achieve over the day. Getting rid of the worst only leaves better!

13. Use the Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro technique is awesome.
Personally, I like to pair it with focus blocks, doing two focus blocks at a time and then jumping into Pomodoro’s for the rest of the day.
A Pomodoro is easy
25 minutes of specific tasks
5 minutes breaks
Repeat as many times as necessary
After you start to implement chunking down tasks this will make it seem so simple to get anything big actually done.

14. Create a Break Agenda

With the Pomodoro comes scheduled break times, but sometimes you just need to set times in stone for you to relax.
For example, every day at 10:40 I go for a walk for about 20 minutes.
I love having that break scheduled because I jam out on a task for a couple of hours and then get some activity and let my mind rest before round two comes around.
It is a simple way to make your brain expend the mental energy knowing that it will have time to rest in the future.

15. When Schedules Aren’t Your Thing, Work With Your Body

Everyone has their own natural flow times.
Mine are from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (maybe a little later) where I can get a ton of creative work done and usually I can get some more done from around 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Since I know this schedule I can allocate those times to writing articles, creating ads, filming videos or anything that is creative.
The other times I leave for reading, learning, analytical work, or any monotonous work I don’t care for much.
By sectioning my times to my natural rhythm I set up my day to ensure that I am always doing my highest and best, and you could be doing it too.

16. Keep Your Phone On Silent Away From You

One thing I notice so often in offices is people constantly checking their phones.
Sometimes repeatedly in the matter of one minute.
Instead of using your phone as a way to cop-out from doing the actual work you need to do, keep it on silent and away from you.
That will make sure that you aren’t playing with it every time a beep, vibration, or song comes on because you forgot to mute your phone.

17. On That Note Turn Notifications Off

In our hyper-stimulated, super notification driven, absolutely dopamine hit thirsty society we all constantly have a buzz, bing, light turning on and off, or something notifying us of something else.
Stop that.
Turn it off.
Your productivity will increase tenfold if you don’t look over and see some light blipping or that you have 10 worthless notifications on snap chat.
Check it all at one time just like your emails and your productivity will shoot through the roof.
Simple Productivity Hacks

18. Say “No” More

Stop saying yes to everything.
Being a yes man can be good for a while, getting you some awesome new experiences and maybe opening you up to a network you never thought you could have, but it only squelches productivity.
Saying no on the other hand saves times and allows you to only get done both what you want to and what is truly important.

19. The Two Minute Rule

David Allen made popular an awesome rule I think everyone should follow if they want to be more productive.
“If something only requires two minutes do it now”
It is that simple if anything takes two minutes shouldn’t you just get it over with, that will surely shake off that laziness gene you keep building up.
Maybe it starts with making your bed every morning.
When it only requires two minutes just get that damn task done and move on.

20. Make a Kick-Ass Playlist

Every morning I feel that I need something to pump me up, I jump to the awesome playlist I built out in Spotify.
Not only does it help me get into the grind, but it makes me happy.
I love dancing around getting work done, while being productive in the office, it sincerely helps get my energy to the level that I need it to be for the day and then I take it from there.

21. Draw or Write Things Out Visually

One of my mentors, Darren, has to draw things out.
It helps him process, break down, and see how things will actually help or work in his mind.
I do the same thing now, breaking down complex actions, and taking everything that I do and making it into a visual on a piece of paper not only to solidify it in my mind but to see how it truly works.
Just like this article, I broke down first what I wanted to give to you guys, sketched an outline and now we are here.
Try writing out your thoughts, it will definitely help.

22. Partially Quit Social Media

When you take a deep dive into social media, so does your time.
The average American spends at least one hour on facebook a day.
Yes, one whole hour out of 24 a day on facebook, doing what?
Well usually it seems to be absolutely nothing of importance, and I and you, on the other hand, are always doing something important, so take a step back from social media for a while as you regain your ability to be in a constant mode of productivity.

23. Never Read The News

Quite frankly the news isn’t news at all.
It is the worst of what is going on and at that, it is blown out of proportion almost every time.
Keep your thoughts your thoughts and just avoid the news.

24. Make The Most Out Of Lost Hours

When you are in the car driving for hours, on an airplane with no way to do anything “productive” or at a family gathering there is a ton that you can do.
These hours shouldn’t be lost, don’t let them be.
Instead, focus on calling people you need to talk to, sending texts, networking, updating your social media, or responding to emails.
Heck, even listen to podcasts when in the car or exercising to get an extra benefit while doing a seemingly time-consuming task.
Environment Productivity Hacks

25. Go To A Coffee Shop

I know that working constantly from the same place can really burn me out.
Really it gets me annoyed, I get frustrated and feel like everything around me is in stagnation.
On the other hand, going to a coffee shop is a nice little change of scenery and one that I really need sometimes to become productive again.
Plus it makes taking a coffee break that much easier and gives you some quality (if you go to a nice coffee shop) as an added bonus.

26. Try Working Outside

Maybe you don’t want to actually leave your workplace
Well then working outside will provide a new scenery and some nature for you to boost your productivity in.
In fact, there was a study done on people walking in nature and productivity which elicited the results that when in nature the brain works better and more efficiently in all aspects.
Heck even having a plant inside your office or a big picture of nature can help your brain recall those responses.

27. Stand-Up While Working

Ever noticed what happens when someone takes an important call, presents a project or viewpoint to someone else, or does anything that is truly worth their time?
Well, they seem to be standing the whole time.
Your brain and body have a physiological reaction to working more efficiently when standing.
The diaphragm is open and you can breathe, your neck doesn’t tense up and your shoulders stay more relaxed, on top of that you can burn off the excess energy that has you fidgeting in your seat by just standing up.

28. Set Up A Vision board or Pinterest Motivational Board

When you set up a vision board (which I love to do) there seems to be some solidification with having your goals laid out in front of you.
Almost like you are writing down your ideas to make them real.
Keeping it in a place that you always see also has an awesome ability to constantly motivate you to push harder, stay productive, and go get what you truly want.
In a future post there will be a whole tutorial for how to craft them, but for now, just put together what you truly want to achieve and make it easily visible day after day in your environment.
Healthy Productivity Hacks

29. Exercise More

Barack Obama, Richard Branson, Mark Cuban.
They all have one thing in common (well, they actually have a ton of things in common) they exercise everyday.
Getting in some sort of movement is amazing for the brain. Ever since reading Daily Rituals, I realized how many of the great minds this world has seen would go for walks or perform some type of exercise every day.
It may be a worthwhile habit to get into, and while it can seem scary, you can just start easy with going for walks until you get into the groove.

30. Focus On Good Sleep

I have tons of resources allocated to this and in my new sleep course I will teach you exactly how to dive into the perfect night of sleep but for now review this article.
This will really help you get into a great state for sleep, that is actually restful and we know that doesn’t happen often nowadays.
Sleep will make or break your day of productivity so don’t miss out on good sleep.

31. Fuel The Body

One of the best ways to sap your productivity is to always be eating in a calorie deficit or always trying to achieve weight loss.
I know it sucks because most of us want to get to low body fat levels, or are trying to lose some type of weight.
Just keep this rule at hand
Diet for 8 weeks, then reverts back to eating until full for massive productivity
The less you eat, the less your mind wants to do so choose wisely and if you are working on a huge project or getting a big goal knocked out of the way in the near future I would say back off from the strict dieting and put more energy in your goal for now.
You can always diet, but many other opportunities will pass you up.

32. Eat Breakfast

Well, I don’t believe breakfast is the most important meal of the day, I think for many it helps set the stage.
Eating breakfast in the morning can help you get your mind off of food, fuel your brain with glucose and let you spend the rest of your day hammering out work until you really need a meal.
Some eggs, toast, fruit and you should be on your way for the day.

33. Don’t Eat Breakfast

If you’re on the other side of the spectrum and never hungry in the morning try practicing intermittent fasting.
This will kickstart your catecholamine system, giving you a little bit of adrenaline and a euphoric type brain feel for a good amount of time.
Productivity will seem easy for a bit.

• A word of caution: If you only are thinking about food until you get your first meal then stop fasting and start eating breakfast again.
  Don’t let your productivity slip because you identify with a dogma of dieting (like I used to).
  

  34. Do a 10 Minute Morning Primer

  
  Every morning I wake up and perform my morning routine.
  One of my favorite parts is the morning primer that gets my body going and helps jumpstart my mind.
  At the most it takes ten minutes to do, but yours could be longer or shorter.
  Just get the body into motion and if you don’t know where to start to check out this article to give you an idea of what a morning primer is and how I use it.
  Actually, in Falling Into Success I detail out how to create your and when to integrate it for the best benefits.
  

  35. Just Breath

  
  Yes just breath.
  Sometimes your mind is cluttered with everything and anything that could be thought of.
  Us humans have amazing monkey minds that can jump from topic to topic, create full fake stories (how do you think they make family guy) and keep you awake and distracted all night and day.
  Well instead learn to just breathe.
  Take a deep breath in and a deep breath out.
  Follow it and ensure that it is the only thing you are focusing your attention on. When your mind fades come back on to it.
  And yes, meditation is that beneficial, just check out this article to prove why you should be meditating every day or at least incorporating the mindfulness aspect into your day.
  The Other Productivity Hacks
  

  36. Use Red and Blue More Often

While it may seem a little strange, using different colors can have a huge effect on your brain.
That is why McDonald’s uses Red and Yellow as their feature logo colors.
Red calls for attention to detail and yellow helps to stimulate wanting nourishment.
The matter of fact is we can also use this to our benefit, making certain colors appear more in our work to influence us to take action.
When it comes to red and blue this study helped show that blue is a color that boosts productivity and red boosts attention to detail. So changing your chrome browser, background or even using those colors in your writing utensils and parchment paper may help.

37. Unplug One Day A Week

Nothing is worse than technology driven sensory overload.
Taking one day off a week can lead to a metaphorical cleansing of all that technology that has been taking over your productivity and your life.
Saturdays seem to be a really social day where you can sit back, relax and go outside, get some fresh air and not worry about using technology.
Well, it can also be a time where you resort back to good old fashioned pen and paper, writing out what you need to and setting some awesome goals for your future (like this post talks about)

38. Get Rid of Pointless Meetings

Meetings can be a very productive time for people to catch up with each other, ideas to be hatched and a company to advance.
But…
Most meetings are meaningless wastes of time where everyone could rather get a slack message or asana notification (on their computer not their phone because their notifications are turned off) and just get to work.
Sometimes getting everyone together to sit down in a meeting just leads to worse and worse productivity so stop doing that!!!!

39. Cut Down Meeting Times

On the same side of the spectrum comes meeting times.
A 2-hour long meeting is something that really shouldn’t happen but a couple of times a month.
Actually, Gary Vaynerchuk takes whatever the time for his meeting in and cuts it in half. What typically happens is the same thing that would have in that time although, only half of the time is wasted.
Meaning when yo cut down the time and keep the workload the same, you set an artificial parameter of when and what you have to do, and you get it done.
Everytime.

40. Plan Your Day The Night Before

One of the productivity habits of a lot of the elite is planning their day before they go to sleep.
15 minutes can make it so you get to bed 30 minutes earlier, by not stressing about what you have to do tomorrow.
You can make it a brain dump like The Art Of Manliness guy does where you put down every and anything you have to do just to get it off your mind, or you can structure it.
This just allows you to have a list and be ready to get the worst thing, one thing, and any big tasks out of the way right when the day starts.

41. Schedule In Some Down Time

With planning your day make sure schedule in some down time.
Maybe watching a funny TV show, browsing the web, or reading a book, just make sure that you aren’t always pushing yourself as you don’t want to get burn out then have to go through a productivity recovery that can take a while.
Which directly ties into

42. When You Aren’t Being Productive Be Productive

What I am saying is that while watching TV you can be texting people in your network, posting on social media, or checking emails.
Just because you are relaxing doesn’t mean anything else can’t go on.
Also, you could always be reading as your down time and reading in itself is a very productive act as you are gaining more and more knowledge.
Some books I recommend are Antifragile, Never Eat Alone, Trust Me, I’m Lying, Mastery, Zen and The Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance, and anything by Ernest Hemingway.

43. Take Caffeine Naps

One of my favorite productivity tools and something that I think has as powerful effect as Adderall in some cases is a caffeine nap.
By taking a nap in the middle of the day, I reset my energy levels to soar through the rough so my productivity never caves, and using caffeine makes a world of difference.
How you perform a caffeine nap is:
Drink a cup of coffee 30 minutes before you plan to wake up
Nap using brain.fm or a time for 15–30 minutes
When you wake up the caffeine will be kicking in in addition to the rest you got from the nap
There you have it: the perfect way to boost productivity midday where it seems to crash for most people

44. Make Your Routine Sacred

Us humans function the best off of routines.
Routines are so important for the fact that just by getting them down most of the time we accomplish more than almost everyone else. Think about it, getting up and doing routine elicits so many mini accomplishments it’s amazing.
Don’t let anything ever get in the way from your routines.
Instead, start making your routines sacred.

45. Set Insane Goals

If you never try to reach for anything amazing how far can you go?
With all of my life coaching clients I like to do one thing, make them set the furthest, most out of the world goals that they could only dream to achieve.
When you set the bar higher and higher you have to shoot higher and higher and this just forces you to actually jump higher than you ever would have, even if you don’t hit your goal.

46. Break Down Your Goals Into Bite Sized Pieces

If setting these goals seems crazy and impossible to actually nail down, then making them into bit sized chunks you get out anytime is an amazing strategy to use.
With everything that I have as an overarching goal, I like to break it down into things that I can achieve every 3 months and then break those down even further.
What you find is that you are building the rungs on the metaphorical ladder for you to reach your goals.
Then you will wake up, get your one thing done, and know that everything you do is moving you closer and closer to your ultimate overarching crazy unattainable (to most but not you) goal.

47.Stop Trying to Be A Perfectionist

Being a perfectionist never allowed anyone to get anything done.
Actually, I used to try to be a perfectionist, and all it lead to was the inability for me to act.
What my motto is now is “put out something and refine until perfect.”
The thing is perfection is something almost no one ever reaches in anything and half of the time most computer programmed systems don’t reach perfection.
Stop trying to get perfection and start taking action.

48. Get Up and Go

Okay, this is the last one.
Get up and start going.
Start making something of the newfound productivity skills you just learned.
And if you like this join the community and get all of the resources that will help you achieve anything you set your mind to.
Thanks,
-Austin