Know These Productivity Hacks Your Productive Friends Do Differently

Do you have that one friend or colleague that seems to be running circles around everyone?

Every time you turn around they’ve hit yet another major milestone.

Wrote a book.

Discovered a cure for cancer.

Increased their revenue by 30%.

I’m being dramatic, but you get the picture.

This is about that friend who has their shit together.

They properly plan.

They have boundaries.

They get the RIGHT shit done at the RIGHT time for the RIGHT reasons.

Do you want to be able to say the same for yourself?

Try adopting some of their habits…

I’m not saying adopt their routines or schedules. We all are unique so the way you do what you do can and should be different, BUT you can adopt some of their daily principles and habits:

 

Maybe you’re thinking I’m going to tell you to:

1. Wake up at 5AM
2. Meditate, Exercise, & Eat a Healthy Breakfast upon waking
3. Write out a to-do list
4. Take breaks every hour
5. Complete the hardest task first

 

Well, I’m sorry to disappoint, but this is not what I was going to say. I don’t believe in a blanket statement, one-size-fits-all platitudes.

 

Believe it or not, all your productive friends are not necessarily doing the above things daily, but I’m willing to bet money they are:

 

1. Waking up at least an hour before someone else demands their time.

Whether this places them in the 5AM club is neither here nor there. The key here is they are not rolling out of bed and directly into someone else’s agenda.

They are giving themselves the time and space to fill up their cup (in whichever way works for them) before diving into other people’s emergencies and demands.

They’re not afraid or apologetic about being selfish with the first hour of their day.

 

2. Choosing to meditate, exercise, and eat at the most appropriate time for them.

I know quite a few productive people (including myself) who skip breakfast altogether. Again, not recommending you do the same. I’m simply pointing out that most Productive Bosses eat when their body is ready to eat, exercise at the time of day best for their rhythms, and reserves meditation for a time that’s most beneficial for them.

Point being, they do all of these things, yes, but it doesn’t always happen at the top of every day and that’s okay. Your productive friends understand the power of making sure their routines match their natural rhythms.

 

3. Scheduling their “to-do” items directly inside their calendars.

Many of your productive friends are not deciding the day of what their needle-moving tasks are going to be. They have likely set goals and targets for the month, broken those goals down into actionable tasks, and placed those tasks inside their calendar.

If they do review the day of or the night before, it’s likely to refresh their memory or move things around if any part of their schedule has shifted since setting the goals.

In other words, they knew what needed to be done before the day it was due arrived.

 

4. Breaking when necessary, but remaining in a flow state when the situation warrants it.

Maybe you’ve heard of the famous Pomodoro Technique which encourages people to work for 25 minutes and break for 5 minutes consecutively for 4 rounds, then take an extended 15 to 20-minute break and start again.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret…come closer….Your productive friends do not do this shit. They’d likely never get anything done if they did this.

Instead, most of them would rather remain in a flow state for an hour to 90 minutes and then take a break. I have yet to meet a high performing, productive boss who interrupts their flow state every 20 to 25 minutes. It’s nonsense.

 

5. Completing their most needle-moving task first which is not always the “hardest” task Brian Tracy coined the phrase “Eat That Frog” in his book of the same title.

He was saying when you wake up in the morning, you should complete your hardest, most difficult task first.

Let me just say this, I LOVE Brian. He’s my mentor! I’ve learned so much from him, but I respectfully disagree and I think your productive friends will too.

While it is important to complete your most important, needle-moving tasks first, those tasks are not ALWAYS the hardest or most difficult. In fact, I’ve experienced the opposite to be true. It’s the shallow tasks (the tasks outside of our zone of genius) that prove to be the hardest.

Our needle-moving tasks (the tasks WITHIN our zone of genius) are not only most important, but also easier than the shallow tasks. To respectfully disagree even further, the needle-moving, zone of genius tasks shouldn’t necessarily be completed first thing in the morning.

Instead, those tasks (which require lots of brain power and focus) should be completed at the time of day when your energy is at its peak! If that’s first thing in the morning for you, great! But, that’s not always the case for your productive friends. We’re all different.

 

I say all this to say, ignore all the cliché productivity advice you hear and start paying attention to the actions and principles your productive friends live by.

If you want to properly plan, establish boundaries, and get the RIGHT things done, at the RIGHT time, for the RIGHT reasons, in the RIGHT way for YOU, I highly recommend enrolling in CONQUER Your Chaos Crash Course where I walk you through the 7 steps to ruthlessly reclaiming your most precious commodities: Time, Energy, & Attention.

You’re one 8-week course away from becoming a Productive Boss just like your productive friends.