How To Be Productive: These 11 Tips Will Help You Slay Your To-Do List

Productivity is a buzzword often thrown around with efficiency and time management. Many only consider productivity at work, but personal productivity is one of the keys to building a better life. 

As a certified life coach, I help people learn how to be productive both at home and at work. It starts with understanding what productivity is and why it matters. 

What Does Being Productive Mean?

We often conflate productivity with busyness, but productivity goes deeper than doing a lot.  You can busy yourself arguing with strangers on Reddit or 100-percenting your favorite game, but does that mean you’ve been productive?

Maybe If you’re a Reddit moderator or Twitch streamer, but for most of us, those activities just kill time. 

Being productive is more than doing a lot. It’s doing a lot towards a specific goal. It could be anything: losing weight, writing, completing chores, self-improvement, professional development, or something important to you. 

Why Should We Care about Productivity? 

There’s no doubt why it’s essential to be productive at work – we need to keep our jobs, right? And most of us want to excel in our careers – so we need to slay our to-do lists. 

But what about productivity at home? Why do we need to be productive at home after we’ve worked an eight-hour shift?

Here’s the secret nobody else will tell you. You don’t.

There’s no requirement to be productive in your personal life. It’s OK to come home and recharge after work. If you’re content with your day job and your work-life balance, you’re probably already as productive as you want to be, so don’t worry about it. 

But, if you hate that you get home from work and don’t get anything done or waste your weekends doing nothing, our tips can help you improve productivity both at home and at work. 

Here’s how to be productive, stop wasting that time and start getting stuff done. 

How to Be Productive

Sometimes it takes a conscious effort to make yourself productive. You must tell yourself what you will do and stop yourself from getting distracted.

Here are 11 ways to do that:

• Take Care of the Small Things First
• Journal
• Brain Dump
• Make a List
• Set a Specific Time Frame
• Say No
• Create a Routine
• Put the Distractions Away
• Focus on the Most Important Tasks 
• Take Time for Self-Care
• Reward Yourself

Take Care of Small Things First

Have you eaten, used the restroom, and let the dog in or out? 

Stopping every five minutes to tend to small things like this can destroy your vibe and get you out of the zone. You must take care of these small tasks before starting. 

Imagine trying to accomplish anything if you have to get up and use the restroom, then get a glass of water, check the mail, and switch the laundry over. Your hour of productive time is going to be gone before you even get started. 

Making sure that you and your surroundings are ready is one of the first steps to ensuring productivity.

Journaling

Journaling is an underrated productivity tool. Use your daily journal to express gratitude, log your workouts, and write down what you want to accomplish.

Journaling for productivity allows you to set goals, track accomplishments, record task lists, monitor progress, and work out complex problems. It gives you a way to visualize your progress and allows you the satisfaction of checking items off a to-do list. 

All sorts of journals help with productivity. Grab the one that’s right for you!

Brain Dump

Sometimes, we are so overwhelmed with everything in our heads that we can’t focus on the most critical task. We might need help figuring out what that even is!

A brain dump can help. It’s a system of getting everything floating in your head out on paper. Putting your thoughts on paper will help you organize them and stay focused on what is essential. 

We have a free bundle of brain dump worksheets to help you organize your thoughts and stay at your most productive – get it here!

Make A List

Is making a list the same thing as journaling? You’re writing stuff you need to do down in both, right? But they aren’t the same, and doing both is vital for productivity.

Your journal entry will be much broader than your to-do list. For example, you need to do many things if one of your goals is to publish a blog post. You need to write the post, create photos, focus on SEO, create a killer headline, do social media shares…and the list goes on.

List-making corresponds with the goals you laid out in your journal. Your journal entry may have a big goal, like “publish a blog post,” while your list will outline all the small tasks required to complete that goal. 

You can add a task list to your bullet journal spread if you prefer everything in one place. 

 Set a Specific Time Frame

It’s hard to be productive all day, every day. But it’s much easier to be effective from 4 pm to 6 pm! That means you only have to focus for two hours, and your mind can look forward to a sweet relaxing reward after. 

Set a specific time of one to two hours to which you dedicate yourself to being productive. You may get so engrossed in it that you spend even more time on it!

Time blocking is the basic idea behind the Pomodoro technique. You set a timer for a short time, focusing on a specific task for that timeframe. When the time is up, you can move on to something else. 

Say No

People wanting you to do things for them is a massive hindrance to productivity. I understand that it’s great to help people out on occasion. But it might be time to say no when helping others becomes such a drain on you that you can’t accomplish your own tasks. 

Ask yourself if the person who needs assistance really needs it or if they just want company. Put headphones on to minimize interruptions. Don’t let other people waste your time. 

Saying no and focusing on what’s important to you is a great way to boost your own happiness and productivity. 

Create a Routine

Focusing on a specific time for productivity works even better if you make it a routine.  I’m a morning person, so I’m at my most productive levels first thing in the morning. Therefore, I use that energy to get personal stuff done before work.  

Setting a daily routine like this will help you be more productive. Set a specific time for getting stuff done each day and do your best to keep to that schedule. Eventually, it will become a habit, and being productive during that time will be second nature to you.

Put the Distractions Away

Distractions are one of the biggest productivity killers out there. Our phones burst with distracting apps, calling us to waste our time. But we can find ways to stop ourselves from procrastinating with distractions.

The biggest distractions usually come from our phones – so turn off the notifications and put them away! Put it someplace out of reach for the next hour or so, and don’t go looking at it.  You can even set a timer to tell you when you can look at your phone again.

Focus on the Most Important Thing First

Getting a big, important task off of our to-do list feels fantastic. Once you knock that huge task out, you will feel productive. Use that energy to complete some of the smaller things on your list. 

Whether you have time to finish those minor tasks, you can feel proud knowing you have achieved something huge. 

Take Time for Self Care

Increasing productivity is hard when you’re tired, hungry, or unfocused. Take some time for self-care to ensure you have the energy to get stuff done.

Ensure you sleep well, eat a healthy diet, and take naps. Doing these things to take care of yourself is not only motivating but will boost productivity. 

Reward Yourself

What’s the point of productivity if you don’t get anything out of it? Reward yourself! 

Reward yourself for achieving your daily goals, completing significant milestones, and or developing creative solutions. 

You can reward yourself with a favorite snack, some downtime to read a book, a relaxing bath, or anything else that motivates you. But remember, you don’t get that sweet reward until after the hour allotted time of productivity!

Productivity Tools

Being productive is hard. But thankfully, there are tons of resources available to help you!

Hey folks! Transparency Disclosure- Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. That means I’ll receive a small commission if you decide to click on it and buy something. Don’t worry, it doesn’t cost you anything extra!

Productivity Printables

The world abounds with productivity planners and printables to help you slay your day and get more done. 

We dedicated an entire article to reviewing the best ones. Read it here!

Books on Productivity

Printables aren’t for everyone. Sometimes you just want a good old-fashioned book.  My favorite book on productivity is Getting Things Done – the Art of Stress Free Living by David Allen. This book is about improving your day-to-day productivity, which will enhance your overall productivity.

The Four-Hour Work Week is another great read (and one of my picks for the best finance books!) because it discusses optimizing your overall productivity and using that to create a dream life. It’s more of the big picture on productivity than the day-to-day, but I love the message, so I had to include it. 

For more books and resources on how to be productive, check out our list of the top books on productivity. You will definitely find a book on this list to help you!

What are Your Top Productivity Tips?

What do you do that helps you stay productive in your everyday life? Let’s start a conversation on how to be more effective to help everyone achieve their goals!