This is how I got the biggest increase in productivity in the last 5 years.
The idea is from this article: How to start on the most important thing every day by Malcolm Ocean (thanks, man!).
I want to emphasize that this is the most valuable habit I have, by a large margin (and I’ve got some good ones!). Therefore if you’re reading this, I think that it’s at least worth trying to create a similar system in your own life.
I second Malcolm here, go read the article, I’ll wait.
It is the new norm now, but you wouldn’t believe how big this change was for me at the time. The difference was night and day, I wouldn’t stop telling my friends about it! Ok, if you’re sold, read on for details.
My impelentation
Evening, 2 hours before the sleep time
- Write down the plan for the next morning, including one most important goal, and optional hints like “start the going out routine by 8:00, leave home by 8:30”
Morning, immediately after waking up1
- At least one pomodoro doing the most important task
Before breaking for any less productive activities like eating, Reddit or email checking:
- Dance to at least one track2, immediately followed by
- Meditate for at least 10 minutes
What didn’t work
Planning right before bed
I started to plan the next morning before going to bed, but as I was very sleepy, plans that came out were poor. Now I plan 2 hours before bed time, when I’m more lucid.
Doing things that look like procrastinating
e.g. one time I was looking for a flat to rent and that was my main task for some weeks. Problem is, browsing listings, looking at a lot of pictures, is similar to my relaxation habit of browsing Reddit. After I finished looking through new listings, I noticed that it is super easy to slip into Reddit. I started scheduling my flat search later in the day.
Planning my day as the first task
After initial success, I drifted toward “plan my whole day and then start that important task”. Didn’t work so well. While planning a day, I usually encountered a small task: “Aha, easy 3-minute win! GTD prepared me for this! I just have to start this Slack conversation to update this status”. Then inevitably I’m replaying to other messages, it’s 15 minutes later and the productive mood is gone. Ok, it’s Slack rant time! I’ve moved it to a separate post.
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Some mornings I am groggier than on others, that’s where having a clear todo list from the evening before shines – I don’t need to deliberate about what to do, no decision necessary. In case you forgot - choices are bad. ↩
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Why? According to two years of correlating my activities and mood, dancing consistently makes me happy. Sometimes it’s 3 minutes, sometimes it will be 20. ↩