Master Your Day: 100 Productivity Hacks to Transform Your Routine

Julie DeLucca-Collins explores 100 productivity hacks to help you manage your time better, prioritize effectively, and boost your overall productivity. Learn practical tips like time boxing, saying no, and moving more to transform your daily routine.

 key  topics

Time boxing for productivity
Prioritizing tasks based on goals and values
The importance of saying no to maintain focus
Incorporating movement to boost creativity and energy

Brag the 100 Most Useful Productivity Hacks PDF

Transcript

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Have you ever had one of those weeks in which time just seems to get away from you? I know that we all have them. And by the way, as I'm wrapping up the week, it just seems like things keep coming up and creeping up. And I feel that productivity is getting away from me. And if you're new here, my name is Julie Delica Collins, and this is Brave Moves, the Daily Ish podcast in which we talk about inspiration, motivation, and some of the live lessons and hacks that have helped me be able to go confidently in the direction of my dreams. And if you're new here, I'm so grateful that you're here. And if you've been here before, I'm glad you're joining me today because listen, I found a list of a hundred, one hundred, and I'm not going to go through all of them, but it's going to be kind of fun to kind of dissect some of these and tell you whether I use them or not. But a hundred most useful productivity hacks. So let's get into it. And let's see, maybe you use some of these and maybe you don't. And maybe I will share a couple of these that can make a big difference for you. So let's get into it. So number one, the first productivity hack that I found was time boxing. And apparently there's a lot of people who really do use time boxing. And this uh the PDF that I found says it will improve your life at the core. Simple, assign a fixed period of time to a task, schedule it, and stick to it. And this is something that I do. I put in my calendar tons of tasks. The problem for me is at times I compromise and I say, you know what? I'm supposed to be doing this. It's on my calendar. And I end up sidetracking myself and pushing the boundary. And it makes me think, how many times do we schedule time for ourselves? And it's so easy to say, schedule it, put it in your calendar. And then we end up giving in, we end up pushing back, we end up not prioritizing. And this is one of the reasons why perhaps time boxing is not working for some of us. Now, the thing about how it works is that it touches on so many aspects of our behavior. It's time boxing, it's about single tasking, doing that one thing. The one thing that I know for me is that when I do time box successfully, I set a timer and I say to myself, okay, let's beat the timer. And that seems to be really good in getting me to do the things that I want to. Now, my goal is to continue to time box, continue to add these things into my calendar. But what I want you to think about too as you're looking to time box is remember to share these priorities, these self-made appointments in your calendar with other people. Because when you don't, then they end up trying to, well, take over your time. So time boxing is one of the first uh top 100 productivity hacks. Now, here's the other one for prioritizing. And prioritizing is another productivity hack. And a lot of us have tons to do. And unfortunately, we are not prioritizing what matters. When I work with clients, I will say to them, let's look at your calendar and then let's look at the list of tasks that you have on your to-dos. And then let's prioritize and let's figure out which ones move the needle more. Now, if you are like any entrepreneur they know, sometimes it is so much easier to jump into the things that, well, we like, that are fun, that are flashy and yet not boring and do not move the needle. So when it comes to prioritizing, it's very important for you to think about what are your goals, what are your values, and then create your priorities from that. And when you're prioritizing, remember that things like email, um, getting and researching something or working on Canva, these things are not necessarily moving your needle. And the other way to prioritize is maybe the task does need to get done, but it shouldn't be yours to do. It could be something that you delegate. You know, today one of the things that I really need to do is laundry. Why? Because, well, we've been going through the bathroom renovation that never ends. And every time we see the end of the tunnel for the bathroom renovation, something happens. But needless to say, our washer is disconnected and we need to do laundry. My mom and I are traveling over the weekend. So I thought, you know what? I'm gonna go and I'm gonna take my computer and I'm gonna go work from the laundromat because at this point, my friend, I need to go to the laundromat. And then I realized, like, wait a minute, that's a priority, but that's a priority I can delegate. So I'm dropping off the laundry. It may be, maybe 50 cents more expensive, right, than what I would normally pay if I were doing the laundry myself. However, it is actually buying me back my time. So prioritizing is incredibly important. Now, one of the things that people say when you prioritize is you can also color code the things that you are working on. Because when you're color coding, then you can say, hey, these are green tasks, these are blue, these are yellow. And that sets uh the tasks apart in your calendar or in your list, and you can decide what's most important. Okay, here's another productivity hack that maybe we don't use enough. And if you've been listening to this podcast, you know that I talk about it. And that is saying no. Now, if you are a people pleaser, my friend, saying no is one of the most freedom uh techniques you will incorporate into your life. It is so much easier said and done at times, but ultimately when you say no, you will see that you can meet deadlines. You can actually give yourself some grace, you can actually also give grace to other people because sometimes we say yes and we say it in a way that, oh yeah, sure, I'll do it. And then we resent people. So if you want to do things right, say no to the things that maybe are not priorities, they're somebody else's priorities for you, or maybe someone is giving you a deadline that you are going to get stressed over trying to meet. So saying no also helps your well-being because it takes away some of the pressure, and people will respect you and understand when you say no. Okay, here's another productivity hack that also uh surprised me. But I think that this is really good. Now, this goes back to your well-being, and this is to move. Now, moving does a lot for you. It gets the blood flowing around your body, it can break you out of the daydream or out of the boring or out of the doldrums. And also, moving will help you create creativity within you or help you stir that creativity. And it's good for you to basically stop being sedentary. You know, sedentary is something that we all suffer from these days, and moving can be something that can enhance what you're doing daily. Now, if you have problems like me moving, try doing a couple different things. Maybe you want to wear a wearable alert or set a timer or do a bathroom renovation that is forcing you to go up the stairs and down the stairs every time you need to go to the bathroom. The other thing, too, is I really believe that moving doesn't have to be a whole half hour, 20 minutes. A lot of times, if I'm feeling myself being dragged down, I will turn on a song and just do a little quick dance party in my kitchen or at my desk and really move the needle for myself through the moving. Of course, there are so many other things that we can talk about when it comes to productivity hacks and things that we can we can do. And I definitely want to touch on a few, right? That I'm not gonna go deep into them, but I want you to think about maybe some of the things that are here in this list, because there are a hundred, can help you be able to become more productive. We've talked about the two-minute rule. Also, another productivity hack that you can do is eat well, create a to-do list, take short breaks, control your devices, um, control your social media, choose when to check email, organize your workspace, start earlier, breathe, turn off your alerts, shorter meetings, uh, sight blockers and productivity tools. I love this. Plan ahead. Perfect previous planning prevents problems. And these are just some of the first 20 that this list shares. But I really want to encourage you, my friend. Productivity is sometimes not a one size fits all. Productivity is something that you have to decide what are the things that work for you, what are the things that don't work? And really don't try to incorporate all of these things at once into your life. Pick one and decide, I'm going to experiment this. I'm going to give myself grace if I am not perfect. And if this is the new productivity thing that I'm trying to incorporate into my life, then I will improve every day 1% better. And my friend, your brave move, and I'm going to put this list in the show notes. Go, go click. And maybe you want to go ahead and go try one of these. And listen, there's one for everything. There's one hack here out of a hundred that I am sure you will be able to incorporate because productivity doesn't have to be boring, but it can be the bravest move that you make. Until tomorrow, don't forget, go confidently in the direction of your dreams.