9 Simple Tricks to Boost Your Productivity

What does it really mean to be productive? People will tell you it’s about staying focused or managing your time better, which is technically true, but not very helpful when your ADD brain is jumping between ten tabs, three unfinished tasks, and a random urge to reorganize your book collection instead of putting in the work.

You might have heard the overused “work smarter, not harder” line, it’s actually the truth. Knowing what matters, keeping your focus on the right task, and not wasting energy on irrelevant stuff will help you boost your productivity and make your workload lighter.

1. Learn to prioritize

A lot of the time, your laziness isn’t what’s keeping you from finishing the tasks at hand. There’s a good chance your brain is just overwhelmed and can’t prioritize properly. When everything feels important, it becomes weirdly hard to start anything at all. Rather than staring at a to-do list and feeling overwhelmed, please identify what truly needs to be addressed first. Look at your deadlines and see which tasks can go to the back of the queue and which should be done right away. Once the most important stuff is clear, the rest becomes a lot less intimidating. If you can finish a couple of tasks in one day, you can use your evening to have some fun and relax instead of stressing out about the list.

5. The morning routine

We are not talking about waking up at 4 AM, dunking your face in ice-cold water, and then doing a workout for 2 hours, but having some semblance of a morning routine is a great way to start off your day. This could mean making your to-do list over breakfast, stretching for ten minutes, going for a short walk, or just not reaching for your phone the second your eyes open. The point is to start your day on purpose rather than immediately letting it happen to you.

3. Stop pretending multitasking works

While it’s very cool to think that you’re multitasking, i.e., juggling five things at once, it’s actually an illusion. In reality, your brain is constantly switching lanes and expending energy with each switch. All that back-and-forth can be quite taxing on your noggin, and you’ll feel the fatigue after a while. Losing focus, making more mistakes, and simple tasks taking up more time than usual—all that and more is your brain struggling to handle things. So instead, pick a task, give it your full attention, and finish it before bouncing to the next one.

4. Take breaks

You may pride yourself on working until your brain turns into mush, but what’s the point of doing that when you end up re-reading the same sentence six times? Breaks are an essential part of maintaining productivity without gradually losing your sanity. One easy and trending method is the Pomodoro technique. You work for 25 minutes without distractions, then take a 5-minute break, and repeat. After a few rounds, take a longer break. It is simple, but it works because it gives your brain a rhythm. Many other systems may appeal to you, but the basic idea is the same: work for a bit, get up, stretch, walk, and return.

5. Reward yourself

Dopamine is your friend. In fact, it’s your best friend when you’re working hard on something. It’s clear that small rewards can actually help you stay motivated. Finished a task? Grab a snack, play that one Ado song you love, get on Twitter for five minutes, or do something tiny that feels fun. But it’s important that you don’t overfeed your brain with “treats,” for you will get addicted. It’s one thing to watch a funny video and another to doomscroll for an hour. Let your brain take a break, not a vacation.

6. Tidy up your room

A workspace full of trash can make your brain feel trashy, too. Seeing all those random papers, coffee cups, chargers, utensils, and other random objects that should not even be there makes it harder for your brain to think clearly. It doesn’t need to be a perfect magazine-ready setup, but having a clean, functional workspace helps more than people think. Put away the stuff you are not using. Keep the essentials nearby. Add shelves, boxes, drawers, or whatever makes it easier to stay organized, and voila! You’re already being more productive than you were 5 minutes ago.

7. Change the scenery

Sometimes the task is not the issue. Imagine sitting at the same desk for hours, trying to finish one small task. It feels impossible, but all you need is a change of scenery. Maybe grab your laptop and visit a coffee shop, or sit on a park bench, or have a pint in a pub if that’s your fancy. All that background noise keeps your brain running in neutral, which means the ideas will come sooner or later, and all you have to do is write them down.

8. Figure out your peak hours

It’s crazy to say, but a 9-to-5 is not the best time bracket for everyone. Some people are sharp in the morning. Others peak late in the evening. So, trying to force yourself into someone else’s productivity schedule is usually a bad move, unless you have no wiggle room, of course. Pay attention to when you naturally feel most alert and focused. That is when you should tackle your hardest or most important tasks. Once you stop fighting your own natural rhythm, you’ll feel much better, and the work will start feeling a lot less painful.

9. Break big goals into mini-milestones

Have you ever wanted to write a book? One would think it’s simple. Just put words on paper, proofread the text, and send the manuscript to your publisher! But, in reality, there are thousands of micro-tasks stuffed into that one mega-task. That’s why big goals can become intimidating, and that is when procrastination sneaks in. Honestly, fighting procrastination might be the hardest part of this process, but there is a viable solution: break the goal down into smaller bits. Maybe even crack those smaller bits into bite-sized tasks if you need to. Instead of answering all your emails, do 2-3 at a time. Instead of “writing chapter I,” maybe start with just the first page. Progress is progress, no matter how small.