Decision minimalism.
Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Barack Obama have done the same thing. They wore almost the same outfit every single day. Make less decision to avoid decision fatigue, so you have more energy to focus on truly important stuff.
Create a winning environment.
Too many friends told me they have worked so hard until they don’t have time to organize their living space and working place. We’re shaped by our environment. To work smarter, design your working place that makes your genius feels welcoming.
Stop setting goals.
Forget about your goals after you set it. Take it one step further. Build a system—routines and habits—and start focusing on that. If you’re a writer, make sure you write every day. If you’re an athlete, train every day. If you’re a salesperson, schedule appointment every day. Keep thinking about the goals doesn’t help at all.
Validate before you start.
Trash away your ideas quickly. Having more ideas is making us busier. Quickly validate your idea by asking your prospect audience (and yourself) critical questions. If the feedback is negative, forget about it.
Optimize the FIRST thing.
Improve the first item that has a cascading effect down to a funnel. Ask yourself what is the first thing you do that will affect everything after it. Some great examples: design a morning routine, increase your trackpad/mouse speed, and invest in the best WiFi modem you can afford. (Credit to Noah Kagan)
Automate and delegate.
Implement the 80/20 rule and focus on the 20 percent of work that brings you the biggest impact. Then automate or delegate the remaining. For examples, writing is my 20 percent, then I automate social media sharing and delegate editing.
Stop multitasking.
Multitasking is an illusion, we’re tricking ourselves to believe we’re handling many tasks at the same time, but what we are really doing is simply switching from one task to another, back and forth, during that given period.
Exercise.
Our cognitive performance is heavily connected with our physical performance. Schedule time to move more.
Sleep more. Take naps.
Take restful breaks. Don’t be the guy or girl who wears the honorable badge of lack of sleep with pride. Sleeping less doesn’t make you more productive. In fact, it makes you less focused and less creative. Sleep for 9 to 10 hours a day, and see your productivity skyrocket.
Sprint. Rest. Sprint.
Implement the Pomodoro technique. Sprint (focused work) for 25 minutes, take a 5-minute rest. Repeat this again. You’re going to complete the work in less time.
Separate thinking & doing.
Schedule a specific time to think and plan, then, schedule a specific time to execute the plan. What you don’t want here is thinking about what and how to do when you’re doing something.
