Top Productivity Bloggers Share their #1 Tip

productivity-tip

I regularly get asked for my number one productivity tip, what one thing made the biggest impact on my productivity and my life in general. It is a difficult question to answer as there are so many tips that I share regularly, things that I have changed in my life, things that I stopped doing, others I started doing. I decided to ask the other productivity geeks and experts; what is your #1 Productivity tip?

And here are their replies:

Lauren from GetmeGeekyLauren Rothlisberger is a consultant and a Mom of 3 girls, she loves focusing on technology and productivity. You can find more about Lauren on her website

Lauren’s #1 Tip: Remove all Distractions

“Alright so your probably thinking, duh, this is pretty obvious. But I don’t think we actually apply this to our day. Sometimes it means turning off the WIFI connection or email client. But my favorite distraction to focus on is television. I so often hear people say they don’t have enough time in their day to start a blog or test out their small business idea. But they seem to still have time to post on Facebook about the latest Bachlorette episode. Just try a personal experiment. Cut out all television for a month and see what happens. Chances are you have more time than you think. Another idea is recording your must-see TV and watching it while folding laundry or some other small task. I hope this helps carve out more time in your day so you can focus on what is most important.”

Jeremy Roberts Cloud Productivity title=Jeremy Roberts Director, Solutions Consulting ANZ/KOR at Sprinklr.

Jeremy’s #1 Tip: Manage your calendar

“When you don’t know what your day holds, you end up doing nothing productive. Take some time at the end of each day, or each week, and block out chunks of time in your calendar (even just on your phone) for the next couple of days, or even the next week if you can. It makes a huge difference when you’re ready to get to work and you know exactly what needs to be done and when. If you’re not sure how long a particular task will take, block out 1.5 to 2 hours. I find that after this time either the task is done, or you’ve had enough of it. Then, if it’s not complete, review it again at the end of the day or week, then repeat. Starting the day with an agenda will have a huge impact on your productivity, stress levels, focus and your procrastination.”

Brett KellyBrett Kelly is a writer from Southern California. He used to work as the Developer Education Manager for Evernote he now offers Marketing and Web design at Your Robot Army

Brett’s #1 Tip: Write it down

“Always have a way to record ideas, tasks, whatever, no matter what you’re doing. And then, obviously, do something with what you’ve written down. Be honest with yourself about what you have time for, If you’ve had a project on your list for three months and it’s not moving, get rid of it and don’t feel bad. You’re only one person and all of your work will suffer if all you do is agree to take on more stuff.”

Neen James Neen James, MBA CSP, is the President/CEO of Neen James Communications, LLC.An international productivity expert and native born Aussie, Neen delivers engaging keynotes that have educated, and entertained audiences with real-world strategies that apply in all roles, whether at work or in life. Neen also provides one-on-one consulting and mentoring to women on a variety of business issues and topics. Find out more about Neen, visit her at www.neenjames.com.

 

Neen’s #1 Tip: Conquer the world in 15 minutes

“You can achieve an amazing amount of highly productive, focused activity in just 15 minutes. The ’15 minute rule’ as I call it, is the secret to super-productivity. In 15 minutes you can call a client, write a thank you note, exercise, meditate, make a healthy meal, have a real conversation with someone you adore. No one has an hour anymore but people will invest 15 minutes with you. Break tasks into 15 minutes, set the timer, ready, set go!”

Chris SmithChris Smith is a technologist, writer, and husband. He holds a degree in MIS and CMPSC from Penn State. Chris is also interested in personal productivity, creativity and how to use technology to get things done.

Chris’ #1 Productivity Tip:Have a Productivity System

“Having a productivity system (whether it’s a GTD one or just a simple todo list) is important, but it’s only as good as the information we put into it as well as how often we review it. A process including a weekly review is vital to my own productivity. I find the times that I’m the least productive is when I don’t center myself with my trustworthy productivity system and let it help guide my work through the day. Having a system that is used and useful is the most important thing to keep me productive and creative day-in and day-out.”

Tracey FoulkesTracey Foulkes is a keynote conference speaker and productivity specialist at Get Organised . She is passionate about organisation & inspires businesses, teams & individuals to maximise & maintain productivity.

Tracey’s #1 Productivity Tip: Accountability

“If you are struggling to shift from doing high focus, high reward tasks over what is quick, fast and easy; find one or more accountability buddy to help you stay focused and on track. A daily/weekly/monthly/annual check-in might be just what you need to shift gears into taking productive action.”

Timo KianderTimo Kiander, a.k.a. Productive Superdad, teaches WAHD super dad productivity for work at home dads. If you want to get more productive in your own life, grab 222 of his best Tips for Becoming a Productivity Superstar over at his blog.

Timo’s #1 productivity tip: Wake up early

“Especially in the family environment, this tip guarantees that I get work done. I wake up every morning between 05 – 5.30 AM and start working on the most important task of the day. Also, this tip ensures that I’m not spending too much of our common family time later in the by day working.”

Rafal MorysonRafal Moryson  says “I’m passionate about personal productivity and technology that lets us achieve more. I love making things work and I’m always on the lookout for more effective ways of doing things from managing email to projects to reading and learning. Becoming familiar with different productivity techniques and tools allowed me to be engage in a lot of different areas that interest me. I am able to merge work, family, triathlon and endurance training with running as well as reading and learning about productivity, business and technology. It’s a lot of things to juggle but I really enjoy it.”

Rafal’s #1 Productivity Tip: Plan

“Plan – plan your day, week, month and year. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been realizing how powerful the technique of planning is. It provides clarity, direction and focus. It lets you make decisions that fit into your long term goals and strategies. It’s also a basis of effective action taking when all steps have been laid out. Planning sounds complex and lengthy but only if you allow for that. Really on individual level it’s very simple. Define what you need/want to accomplish and make a list of necessary steps. I’m trying to make it as simple as possible so I mainly use paper or digital tool like Evernote. There is this quote that no plan survives a battlefield but without one your are better off not stepping on to it. So plan, do and adapt the plan.”

Daniel GoldDaniel Gold is a productivity & presentation design consultant, keynote speaker, and author of the internationally acclaimed Evernote eBook on how to leverage both Evernote and the Getting Things Done time management system and the Official Springpad eBook!

Daniel’s #1 Productivity Tip:Focus on the process and not the tool

“All too often we get bogged down with which app to use and end up tinkering or “hacking” for so long that suddenly, we’ve spent more time playing and not enough time doing. To truly achieve a sense of balance in your productivity workflow, focus in on what system you’re going to use and how you want to get things done. What few things must absolutely go right in order for you to be successful in your productivity system? If you didn’t have an app, how would you do it in the physical world? Master your workflow and soon you’ll realize what tool or app to use!”

MIke VardyMike Vardy is the Managing Editor at Lifehack. An independent writer, speaker, podcaster and “productivityist”, you can read more of his writing at https://productivityist.com/

Mike’s #1 Productivity Tip: Create space for yourself

“Take the time to create space for yourself and you’ll create the space to make time for yourself. Basically this boils down to planning. Set yourself up so that you have the space (mental, emotional, environmental, etc.) so that you can make the best of the time you have. Do that, and you’ll be able to take the time away from everything and simply enjoy life.”

My advice to you is to chose one tip and implement it in your daily life, change can be daunting when there are so many things that need to change but making one small change can make a big difference in your personal and professional life.

But remember “Productivity is worthless if you don’t enjoy the journey.” It doesn’t matter how much or little you achieve today, tomorrow or this week as long as you had fun while doing it.

Add a comment below and let us know what your number one tip is.

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Comments (27)

Thanks again, Ciara, for including me in such a fine and distinguished group! These are some really amazing tips and you had a fabulous idea to put together this post! Brilliant and well executed!! Cheers!

I agree!

Thank you for including me in this group, really awesome 🙂

Cheers,
Timo

Thanks Daniel, thanks Timo for your contributions. My readers will benefit greatly from your experience and wisdom.

This is a great list and some great comments, thanks for putting it together. Helped me find your blog too!

Thanks Dean great to have you stop by glad you enjoyed the post

Thanks Ciara,
Great people, great tips. Some new blogs to read.
Best
Rafal

“Remove all Distractions” This has transformed my life.

In the past two months I’ve eliminated all passive entertainment from my weekdays – reading news, reading books, playing video games, reading books, watching videos, and reading books. Wow was it hard – I just love reading too much. But once I did it, I found I suddenly had an extra 2-4 hours each day. Half that time has gone to exercise, and the other half to my piano. Success!

G’Day gorgeous

Great blog! Fabulous and such an honor to be included with such rock star thought leaders!

OH so many good things. Wake up early – one of my favs! Writing things down -need to do that or I forget or accountability – these are things that I practice often. Great tips from a great bunch of peeps!

Great tips.

I ALWAYS write things down when I wake up at 6 am. Works perfectly so far!

Hi Ciara,
You put together a nice assortment of people and thought processes. Thanks for the wide array of tips from these groovy folks.
Jeremy’s tip resonated with me the most, perhaps because I already do a version of what he recommends. Actually planning out your week, and blocking off time on your calendar for different events, works. In April, I started doing this every Monday morning from 8:00 – 9:30 and it’s really helped me get stuff done. It’s not a new concept of course (I stole it from Scott Dinsmore of Live Your Legend, who stole it from Tony Robbins, who stole it from who knows where…).
So if Jeremy didn’t already throw that tip out there I would have offered it up myself.

Ciara, thanks for all of these great tips. I think I can put practical use to all of them!

Great tips. My favorites, get up early, write things down and give yourself 15 minutes.

Great batch of tips, Ciara. I really like Mike Vardy’s (create space for yourself)…I’ve only had my writing nook for a few days now, but already I’ve used it several times for writing (imagine that!). Creating the space for myself opened the doors to creative productivity. Definitely works!

Thanks everyone for your input and comments, getting up early seems to be quite a popular one, I too find it a good time to get stuff done without the distractions of the day.

Thanks Ciara for pulling these wonderful people and Top Tips together – now to get productive and pick just ONE to help me plan, get accountable in a focussed way in just 15 mins at 6am! Seriously, each tip resonates, all the advice is uncommonlu common sense and it is simply a case of getting on with it.

It was nice to see Video links from the Productivity Bloggers – sending a Video link is a really Productive way to Blog, or Vlog. When you love your stuff and have lots of ideas for Blogs, you can easily create Vlogs quicker – thinking of an idea, film it as a simple / honest / fun chattiing conversation to a real person… you can do it on a smartphone & upload in no time, then Vlog via YouTube…

To have a productive Impact – DO remember to use your Keywords & Keyphrases as Video Title, Description & Tags – write your Blog as the Description AND add links to your website & Social Media or you get no VSEO and miss the drive to your website / call to action.

Trust that gives some of the team ideas – check out an example I shot here:
http://youtu.be/o-rK-e6nOWo

Time for serious Playing with Productivity – thanks!

Thanks Lottie, great tips you have added there, a great way for bloggers to create more content more quickly. Ttime to get started with my vlogs!

Hi Ciara,

I’m really happy to be at your blog, and this was a great post. Thanks for introducing me to such great productivity bloggers!

I loved the tip by Neen James. I’ve been experiencing something recently with half hour, power sessions. I never knew one could get such highly focused work done, in a short space of time. I certainly do believe it now, though!

Timo Kiander’s tip was great too! I love writing eBooks between 6 am-8 am on weekends!

Thanks Hiten, you have inspired me too, that’s a great idea to schedule time on a particular morning to do a piece of work. I do get up early but I do it to exercise or meditate but never thought to replace it with work if I am trying to get a product finished. Thanks for the inspiration and thanks for dropping by.

It was an honor to be included on this list. I really enjoyed reading the other tips. Always something to learn!

I am a big fan of making a to-do list every morning.

Something not mentioned above is “Saying No”. This is not always easy, but sometimes necessary to get things done and be more productive.

Good point Jason, we all need to learn to be assertive when it comes to people who take up our time. It’s not selfish to put yourself first. Thanks for your contribution to the our tops tips.

Super helpful information – with the emphasis on PLAN. I find that’s my biggest downfall. When I fail to make a plan for my day or week I’m constantly sidetracked and then left wondering what happened to all that time. Many of these tips can work together wonderfully: wake up early, make a plan, set the timer and go!
Thanks for the inspiration!

That’s true Sarah, they are all great tips and may work for us at different times but planning is definitely key to getting things done

Ive found my people!! Productivity and Evernote. I just wrote two posts about Evernote; one as a tip and one with tips but more humorous. I thoroughly agree with no t.v. I really don’t like it and if I’m going to relax it will be with learning something geeky or writing. Every once in a while maybe a half hour but all of our lives are just need true attention. Visiting all of your blogs. So great to see everyone writing about Evernote!! Great tips from all!

Whoah! Helpful tips from awesome people.
Of course, we’d only really use tips that came from people who are successful and who clearly know what they’re talking about. I’ve been using some of these tips for quite some time now, like waking up early and creating a good plan. It’s pretty effective. I still have to try some of these tips out. 🙂

If it’s okay to add another great person on this awesome list; one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the planet, Sir Richard Branson also got great productivity tips. His number one secret to productivity is exercise. It improves focus and concentration because it increases energy level and makes you sleep better.

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