5 tips to Design Your Most Productive Day

In a recent day in the life video I created, I captured a very typical day for me. Many of the responses I got were praise on the way I’ve been able to structure my day and get so much work done. I didn’t realize it, but after many years of reading up on this subject and optimizing my life, I’ve been able to accumulate a lot of tools, habits, and processes to help me get my best work done.

In this article, I’ll share the 5 top tips that have helped me design my most productive days.

Most people say they have a hard time focusing on their work and getting stuff done. Time is our most valuable resource, yet we willingly allow people to steal it and let busy work occupy it.

There’s a straightforward solution for this: make time. Just put it on your calendar. For me, Everyday from 3–5 PM is my focused time. It’s on my calendar so no one can book a meeting with me, and I can’t do anything else except the most important task that day.

This helps me stay away from busy admin tasks and forces me to “show up” and just work.

Focus Sprints, step by step:

We measure productivity based on results and output, rather than time spent on tasks. As one of the managers, I hate being a babysitter anyway. This allows everyone to have more ownership of their tasks and the autonomy to get things done in their own way.

First, take a deep breath. Everything will be ok.

I’ve found that whenever I’m lost in a sea of unchecked to-do boxes, I have to slow down and reassess each task, relative to the impact it might create.

To prioritize tasks, you can use a simple matrix to help you plan, prioritize, and prune your to-do list. It’s commonly known as an impact to effort matrix, which can help you plot out and evaluate all of your to-dos. This will help you see what’s a priority right now, what you should plan for later, and what you can completely ignore (busy tasks with little impact).

In the previous tip, I told you to focus on one thing at a time, but you don’t want to lose your next big idea. Especially when it arrives in your head, while you’re currently working on something else. Make sure to capture your lightning in a bottle and save it for later.

For me, I keep track of everything on Notion, a tool I use to take notes, manage my projects, and store knowledge. Since I make a lot of content, I have a workspace dedicated to jotting down my random content ideas, whenever they come to me. The ones I’m most excited about stay in a priority list while the rest I store for later. It’s the same with the other significant efforts in my life, like updating my website or starting my book.

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