14 Ways to Get Productive!

Here are 14 ways to get more productive, with a few guidelines for how your personality influences your ability to get things done. It is often useful to apply several of these methodologies at the same time for maximum effectiveness.

1. Personal Kanban

Pronounced "con-bon"

The Kanban technique uses something called "swim lanes" that roughly represent the life cycle of a task. Put things you need to do in the first "TO DO" swim lane, and sort them by priority. Most important at the top.

Put tasks you're currently working on into the "IN PROGRESS" swim lane. Try to keep the number of items in this swim lane to three or less (this is perhaps the most import rule to remember when using the Kanban technique).

Finally, the third swim lane is the "DONE" category. It's good to keep track of what you've accomplished.

If you already have a "Get it done!" personality, where checking things off your to-do list is most important, you may skip a few details along the way. TIP: Make key details their own action items. Don't just build the house, treat each room as its own project.

2. Eisenhower Matrix

Draw a 2x2 grid, two columns by two rows. The left-hand column is labeled "Not Urgent" and the right-hand column is labeled "Urgent". The top row is labeled "Important" and the bottom row is labeled "Not important"

If something is important but not urgent, "Decide" when you want to work on it (set its priority compared to other tasks).

If something is important and urgent, "Do" it now.

If something is not important and not urgent, "Delete" it from your list.

If something is not important but urgent, "Delegate" it to another resource.

3. Eat the Frog

This is more about psychology than anything else. On your to-do list for the day, pick the most challenging or unpleasant task and tackle it first. This makes the remaining action items for the day seem easier. It also helps you focus on what matters most first.

Are you one of those folks who love group projects and spend all your energy getting things kicked off, but lose interest before the project is completed? Use that "go team!" energy to delegate tasks to those who are detail-oriented and great finishers but lack the up-front enthusiasm you have in spades.

4. SMART Goals

Define your goals using the SMART acronym. Ensure they are: Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time-bound. It's often difficult to get things done if they are poorly defined, aren't realistic, aren't measurable, etc.

5. Must, Should, Want

At the beginning of each day, assign your tasks into three categories: Things you Must do, things you Should do, and things you Want to do.

If everything seems to be equally important, group everything into three equal-sized categories and only focus on the first group until it is completed (see the Editor's Bonus Method at the end of this article).

6. Five-Second Rule

If you find yourself faced with a task that you dread beginning, count backwards 5-4-3-2-1, then begin. Pretending the task is a rocket launch and even saying it out loud helps you overcome action paralysis. Getting started is often more difficult than doing the task itself.

There are some people who love to solve problems and refine existing processes until they're perfect — except perfection never seems to be achieved and they don't know when to stop. If you're one of these innovative individuals, be sure you clearly define what "done" looks like and give yourself permission to say, "It's good enough, move on."

7. Warren Buffett's 25/5 Rule

This method can help if using the "Must, Should, Want" approach led to the creation of a list of apparently equally important tasks.

Start by listing your top 25 action items. Rank them by the impact or benefit their completion will have, then only work on the top 5. (It's common to discover the remaining items on the list don't provide enough benefit to be tackled at all.)

8. Tim Ferris Lead Domino

This approach can pay big dividends when you have a hard time picking which task is a higher priority than another. Look for single decisions or actions that eliminate the need for other actions or decisions.

Being detail-oriented is profoundly useful, but for some people it comes at the cost of initiative and action. They can follow a recipe or a project plan to a high degree of accuracy, and that's super valuable, but relying on others who have that "Let's get started!" or "Let's get it done!" energy is what it often takes to see the project from start to finish.

9. No Multi-Tasking

To start, there really is no such thing as multi-tasking. What people think of as multi-tasking is really just rapidly switching from one task to another, which is often less productive than focused effort. In fact, research has shown that "multi-tasking" can drop efficiency by as much as 40%.

With this approach, adopt an attitude that you will focus on one task at a time until it is either completed or until a pre-determined allotment of time has expired (see number 14 below).

10. ABCDE Method

Similar to the "Must, Should, Want" method, this approach involves categorizing your tasks. For each action item, put it into one of these five categories based on what happens if the task is not completed:

A. Severe consequence

B. Minor consequence

C. No consequence

D. Delegate if possible

E. Eliminate and stop doing

11. 3-3-3 Method

Remember your school days during childhood? Each day was broken up into fixed-length segments where you would focus on reading, math, recess, etc.? This 3-3-3 approach taps into that surprisingly effective framework.

Plan each day into three equal-length blocks, in this order:

• 3 hours of deep work on a project
• 3 hours focused on urgent and crucial tasks
• 3 hours working on maintenance or system tasks

12. Pomodoro Technique

This is a more granular form of the 3-3-3 method.

For each task, set a 25 minute timer. Focus on the task until the timer goes off, then take a 5 minute break. Repeat this process until the task is finished. The Pomodoro technique helps improve mental agility and focus.

13. Pareto Principle

Focus on the tasks that provide the biggest impact for the effort. Figure out which 20% of the items on your list will provide 80% or more of your desired results. This mental technique helps you focus on results instead of effort because the ideal is to spend 20% effort to get 80% results, instead of 80% effort with only 20% results.

14. Time Blocking

This is a broader approach to productivity that relies on the concept of time blocking. Whether it be minutes, hours, or even days, start by setting blocks of time on your calendar. Schedule one task per block. Focus only on that task during that entire block of time. This combats the fallacy of multi-tasking and helps you stay focused without burnout.

Editor's Bonus Method

I like to group action items into three equally sized groups. The first group is considered "Must be done," the second is "Should be done," and the final is "Nice to be done."

As the names imply, the first two groups represent action items that all need to be completed, but the first group are the action items that benefit from the soonest possible completion date. For them, time matter.

The second group, "Should be done" are exactly that, they should be completed, but the timing of when they're done is less important.

Action items in the "Nice to be done" are essentially optional, where if budget or time or resources don't allow them to be completed, the overall project would still be considered a success.