Checklists

Productivity (basics)

  • Capture. Write down everything
  • Clarify. Decide next action (must have a verb, achievable in 2-4h). If <2 mins, do it
  • Plan. Schedule 1-3 most important tasks before starting the day
  • Do. Focus on one task at a time. Avoid distractions
  • One thing at a time – no multitasking or task switching
  • Devote your full attention to the task at hand – no interruptions / distractions
  • Develop a sense of urgency – set deadlines. Work ‘expands’ to fill available time.
  • Manage energy. Do tasks according to energy level. Take breaks
  • Block long periods of uninterrupted time for deep work on important tasks
  • Keep lists – to-do, “to-do today”, someday/maybe, agendas, waiting for, calendar
  • Don’t do things not on the daily to-do list. Add any new to-dos for ‘tomorrow’
  • Write new ideas in a ‘working memory’ document, and get back to the task

Productivity (tricks / getting unstuck)

  • Break tasks into smaller components
  • Just start. Even if only for 5 minutes
  • Do a ‘bad first draft’, and improve it later
  • Once you begin a task, stick with it until it’s 100% complete. Or set a target to reach before you can stop working, and hit it no matter what.
  • Use timed bursts (e.g. 25 min “pomodoro” session, 5 minute break)
  • “Do this, or do nothing”
  • Do it now! Recite this over & over until you’re sick of it, cave it, and get to work
  • Get up at 5am and go straight to work on your most important/unpleasant task
  • Deliberately try to move faster than usual
  • Take immediate action, without a perfect plan. Adjust course along the way
  • Re-write goals/to-dos until inspiration comes
  • Have 2+ very important tasks to switch between if procrastinating
  • Work shutdown ritual at the end of the working day
  • Productive meditation: go for a walk, and focus on a single well-defined problem
  • Imagine you have to leave town for a month, and finish all major tasks by the end of the week
  • If nothing helps make progress, consider quitting the project

Productivity (high level / meta)

  • Have a productivity system that you trust – start with simple lists, check them daily
  • Find your “bottleneck” – reflect on what holds you back, and work on fixing it
  • Review every week your system, goals, calendar, lists
  • Use a trigger list to reduce overwhelm or brainstorm new to-dos
  • Identify your values
  • Create a clear vision / purpose
  • Define goals
  • Cut back/delegate/postpone commitments/projects/tasks
  • Rank your to-dos (ABCDE) and focus on 80/20 – high leverage activities
  • Focus your time on important/non-urgent activities (quadrant II)
  • Don’t try to do efficiently something that doesn’t need to be done at all
  • Batch together similar low-value tasks, such as phone calls or errands
  • Understand how long tasks take; don’t overcommit. Learn to say No
  • Establish good habits – make them obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying
  • Zero based thinking – knowing what you know today, would you choose your habits?
  • Maintain agendas (list) for each person you regularly meet (e.g. boss)
  • Create checklists for things you need to do daily / weekly
  • Reduce distractions and stress by making a relaxing clutter-free home and office
  • “The resistance”, or urge to procrastinate, is a sign you’re doing something hard/important
  • Turn pro: show up every day. show up no matter what. stay on the job all day
  • Train your ability to focus intensely without distraction
  • Understand excuses (I’m too tired, I’ll do this later, etc) and costs of procrastination
  • Become better friends with future-you. Save him/her time by doing the thing now
  • MVP and iterate – try to end each day/week with something that works
  • When something undesirable is delegated to you, delegate it to someone else or bounce it back to the person who assigned it to you, and challenge them to justify its necessity

Productivity traps to avoid

  • “Gathering more information” – you have enough to start / make progress
  • “Upgrading tools/system” – tools rarely make a difference, don’t change system more than 1/year
  • “Planning out everything” – unless it’s irreversible and very important, move quickly to doing
  • “I’ll just do this other thing” – only doing the thing is doing the thing
  • “I already spent X time/money on this” – ignore sunk costs, quit if it’s the best thing now

Motivation

  • Stay in flow – task not too hard and not too easy
  • Link tasks to your goals/values/vision/purpose
  • Set ambitious goals that will motivate you – can you 10x something?
  • Plan, breaking down the steps. What’s the smallest possible next action?
  • Seek work that you’re passionate
  • Work using your strengths
  • Work on something that’s useful to you now
  • Close loops to increase your energy and reduce stress
  • Keep positivity
  • Approach tasks in new ways
  • Set a time limit – use the power of deadlines
  • Keep it fun
  • Visualize success
  • Give yourself rewards
  • Acknowledge progress so far
  • Be with someone that motivates you
  • Read/Watch motivational stories/videos
  • Take a break
  • If you knew you were going to fail, would you still do it?

Change Habits

  • Commitment. Commit yourself to your habit change, as publicly as possible
  • Practice. Changing your habits is a skill, and like any skill, it takes practice. Nothing works the first time
  • Tracking. It’s best if you log your progress on your habit every day
  • Support. Do your habit change with a partner, or join an online group
  • Rewards. Reward yourself often, early on
  • Reflect – What is holding you back? Probably internal reason – take ownership of what is the bottleneck of your progress
  • Focus. It’s extremely important that you maintain your focus on this new habit for the full 30 days. Find ways to bring your focus back to your habit. Post up signs or posters around your desk or home. Send yourself email reminders. Put it on your desktop picture
  • Motivation. Find as many ways to motivate yourself as possible
  • Make a habit part of your Identity (what would a healthy person do?)
  • Start small. To form new habits, make them obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying
  • Obvious: write down habits, use implementation intentions, habit stacking, design your environment.
  • Attractive: pair habit with something you want, join group that has the habit, create a motivation ritual.
  • Easy: Reduce friction to start the habit, prepare the environment, master the decision moment, downscale habits until they can be done/started in 2 minutes, automate habits.
  • Satisfying: reinforcement after habit, enjoy when avoiding a bad habit, use habit tracker, don’t break the chain, never miss twice.
  • Breaking bad habits: Invisible (reduce exposure, remove cues), unattractive (benefits of avoiding), difficult (increase friction or use commitment device), unsatisfying (accountability partner, make costs of failing big and public).

Happiness / stress

  • Physical health: Sleep 8-9 hours, Exercise daily, eat well, stop sugar, stop caffeine.
  • Meditate
  • Journal. Write down gratitudes, worries, unclear commitments, repetitive thoughts
  • Close loops – reduce the list of “things you’re not doing” by abandoning or doing them
  • Simplify information stream. Stop watching TV / news / YouTube / social media and other distractions/stressors
  • Quit clubs, projects, and subscriptions that take more of your time than they’re worth
  • Banish trolls from your life. Associate with positive happy people instead
  • Focus on what you can control, let go of what you can’t (past/future)
  • Happiness is being satisfied with what you have