How To Enhance Productivity And Manage Time Better?
Have you ever felt that your life is all over the place and you aren’t able to do the things you actually want to just because everything is so unorganized? Well, you’re not alone. I used to face these exact problems and instead of doing something about it, I just used to sit back and procrastinate. This was only until I dug up some info on how to set up productivity systems that help you organize your data and declutter your life. Not only this, but these systems also help you be the most efficient version of yourself by putting every unit of available time to good use.
Before we begin, I want you to know that you’re not the one who’s completely at fault here. Our education system has been set up in such a way that nobody has cared to teach us how we can stay organized and maximize our productivity and because of this, we have to end up finding our own solutions. I’m going to share with you some tips I deem to be valuable and you can put these to use right away.
The big picture of increasing your productivity is having a set, well-defined plan. While I’ll dig deeper into the tools which can help us to achieve this, you have to keep in mind that any alternative way that helps you set and follow a well-defined plan will help you increase your productivity. Planning ahead of time is the secret of some of the most successful people and it is yet not exploited by most of us. Did you know, it is said that Elon Musk plans his day in as small as 5-minute segments? Well, you don’t have to get to this level from the get-go, but it’s always a nice thing to aim for.
To set up the ultimate productivity system, we’ll be using a few apps.
Why use apps?
In light of recent events, people almost talk like advancements in the field of technology have done nothing but harm to us. I don’t intend to jump into the topic of whether or not this is actually the case, as my intentions are just to let you know that technology can be used to your advantage as well. If done right, it’ll give you the edge you need over your peers who are aimlessly scrolling down their Instagram feeds.
That said, all of the tools you need to set up a productivity system can be used in the old-school, pen and paper, style.
If this is the case, then why do I think apps are superior to using a pen and paper?
i. Access from anywhere
Let’s be honest, there’s a much higher chance of you having your phone on you when compared to a notepad. Moreover, apps give you the ability to sync your data which will allow you to seamlessly switch between your devices, further smoothening your workflow.
ii. Set reminders
While you could note down things on a piece of paper, it is very easy to forget what it exactly was a few months down the line. On an app, you can set reminders which will notify you of a specific task or event a day in advance. Moreover, you can program tasks to repeat on specific days of the week which will make your life just a little more easier.
iii. Use the search tool
Do you know what’s the worst thing ever? Getting an important piece of information and writing it down on a piece of paper only to later realize that you have misplaced the piece of paper itself. Note-taking apps, on the other hand, let you use the search feature by typing in keywords which will help you retrieve the original entry you made.
While these reasons don’t seem as big of a deal when stated, I still do believe that they benefit your workflow and productivity without actually letting you realize how they’re affecting you. But again, you’re always free to use the pen and paper versions if that’s what works for you.
What Apps To Use?
App #1 - Calendar
App of choice - iOS Calendar
Best Alternative - Google Calendar
As I stated earlier, if you could do only one thing to improve your productivity, it would be planning. Having a well-defined plan is the key to achieving success. Calvin C Newport, author of the New York Times bestseller, Digital Minimalism, says;
“Sometimes people ask why I bother with such a detailed level of planning. My answer is simple: it generates a massive amount of productivity. A 40 hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without structure.”
This leads us on to time-blocking. Time-blocking means planning your day in a way such that specific slots of specific hours are reserved for specific tasks. Once this is done, you’ll have a proper idea of what task you should be performing at what time the following day. You don’t have to time-block at the level Elon Musk and Bills Gates do to start noticing the positive benefits associated with this process.
How you actually do it is simple. You open your calendar app and put in the events for the following days along with the time you’d like to allot for these specific events. Once this is done, you just have to follow it as planned. As James Clear, author of New York Times bestseller Atomic Habits says,
“If you want to be the type of person who accomplishes things on a consistent basis, then give yourself a schedule to follow, not a deadline to race toward.”
Here are some additional tips you can consider while using the calendar app:
i. Create Multiple Calendar Types
You can create different color-coded calendars for different categories such as work and home. This will help you sort out events visually a lot more easily and will reduce the perception of clutter.
ii. Set Reminders If Necessary
Calendars also allow you to set reminders, so it’s a good idea to turn them on if you feel you tend to forget things.
When I started time-blocking, I was very confused as to how I could know how much time a particular event would take in advance. After some practice, I have realized that this varies from person to person.
For example, I’ve realized that I can solve questions for 3-4 hours straight but I start to lose focus if I try to read and study new material for more than 2 hours at a stretch. Obtaining this knowledge because of time-blocking helps me time-block it better for the next time, and the more I do it, the more precise my time-blocking gets. This thereby creates a loop which is making my planning a lot more efficient the more I do it. In short, don’t overthink it and just start. Evolve the process along the way.
You can either fill up your calendar on the weekend for the upcoming week if you have big general time-blocks, or you can plan it the night before the following day if you wish to get a little more detailed.
App #2 - To-Do List
App of choice - Todoist
Best Alternative - Google Tasks
Once iOS 13 rolls out, I’ll give a shot to the revamped version of the iOS reminders app to see if it gets the job done. If it does, I’ll make a switch as it is better integrated with the Apple ecosystem.
A to-do list can be a great tool to improve your productivity and time management. Many people frequently get confused as to what is the difference between a calendar and a to-do list. To put simply, a calendar is where you usually record all events and a to-do list is where you record tasks. While a calendar entry could be ‘Shop for groceries on 20th September’, the to-do list would go further and list the tasks specific to this event, i.e. what exactly you need to buy. Having a well-defined task list helps you know in advance, what you have to get done in a given day and this, in turn, helps you manage your time more effectively. But how do you go about deciding the priority of tasks in your to-do list?
As Mark Twain says,
“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”
What does the ‘frog’ mean? It is the task, one you know you should get done as soon as possible, but yet you think you can do it later. Thus, the best way to go about getting tasks done is by starting with the most important tasks that are urgent. To better understand task categorization and prioritization, check out the Eisenhower Matrix.
Also, if you plan on using a pen and paper to plan your tasks, you can choose to create the matrix and list the tasks accordingly to give yourself a clearer picture.
If you are planning on using an app, here are a few more tips to remember:
i. Recurring tasks
Schedule recurring tasks at once so you don’t have to add them multiple times. For example, if you know that you will be getting the laundry done every Saturday, go into Todoist and type in ‘Get laundry done every Sat’ and it’ll automatically schedule the task for you every Saturday.
ii. Create subtasks
A subtask is just a way to better organize your time spent completing the main task. It can be as simple as creating a parent task called ‘Study Chapter 1’ and creating subtasks under it called ‘Finish reading’, ‘Practice questions’ and ‘Solve quiz’ which can each be marked complete individually.
iii. Create separate Projects
This is just another way of organizing your task list. Projects are basically categories which can allow you to sort tasks by nature. The most commonly used method of creating projects in your to-do list is by creating one called ‘Work’ and one called ‘Home/Personal’. That said, feel free to be more specific and create multiple projects.
App #3 - Notes
App of choice - iOS Notes
Best Alternative - Evernote
I have to say that Notes is my most used app out of all the apps mentioned in this post and there is a good reason why. While the other apps are primarily to manage your time and enhance productivity directly, a note-taking app takes another approach to achieve the same. This might make you wonder about what exactly should you be putting into your note-taking app? Anything and everything. Whenever you get a random idea, enter it as a note. No matter what this idea is. It could be an idea about launching a new product, an idea about writing new content, maybe it’s just random lyrics that popped up in your mind. Save it as a note. What is the point of doing this? Our brains generate multiple ideas and we only remember a small percentage of them. You never know when you might need the idea you once randomly came up with and then discarded deeming it as useless. By noting down your ideas and thoughts, you save a copy of them which can be referred by you whenever needed. Maybe you never need some of them, and that’s totally fine. These documents don’t take up much space. But in the case where you do need one, you’ll be glad you had noted it down.
How do I go about making this process as simple as possible? I keep a shortcut on my phone which helps me create a new note in no time. Remember that the point of this is to be as quick and efficient as possible. This has helped me not be lazy about writing stuff down immediately. Then, I pick a day every week, say a Friday, where I transfer the notes into their respective categories. For example, if I had new ideas for blog content, I transfer it into the ‘Blog Ideas’ category I’ve created and I transfer random lyric ideas into the ‘Music’ category. By doing this once a week, my notes are decluttered and organized which improves my workflow.
Here are some tips which you can use while using the Notes app:
i. Save links and attachments into notes
This has been a game-changer. Whenever I need to research a specific topic, I might start browsing it on my phone. I save these links to notes which can directly be accessed on my laptop, thanks to the wireless syncing. In fact, going back and forth between devices becomes so easy as you can literally continue where you left off.
ii. Lock notes
You can lock notes if you want to. This is great if you wish to save private information. Moreover, you can unlock locked notes on your phone by using Face ID or the Fingerprint Scanner which makes getting into and out of these notes a piece of cake.
App #4 - Project Manager
App of choice - Trello
I don’t have a most popular alternative for Trello as the features it provides you with in the free version are hard to beat. Trello is a project management app that uses the Kanban method to enhance your workflow. Kanban is a scheduling system for lean manufacturing and just-in-time manufacturing. While the Kanban method is generally used for production units, we can implement it by considering ourselves as an individual production unit which will then help us to achieve our desired results in the most time-efficient way possible. What the Kanban method does is that it visualizes your workflow and splits it into different parts of the process.
You start off by making lists - generally called ‘To-Do’, ‘Doing’ and ‘Done’. These are represented by the vertical columns. Then you can add in ‘cards’ to these lists which represent each project. This project can then be dragged between the different lists based on their status.
What can you do with Trello?
Add due dates for projects.
Set reminders.
Add attachments.
Add labels.
Add collaborators to enable working with a team on a project.
Here’s how that could look.
Tip: Use labels to visually sort projects as completed (green) or not (red).
Besides this, you can use this app to create mood boards and vision boards. You can list down your goals and move them around as you achieve them. The possibilities of creating something with Trello are unlimited and it depends on how you end up using the app.
Conclusion
I know this was a long read so if you made to the end, pat yourself on the back. Try incorporating the above tips into your workflow and you’ll start seeing changes sooner than you expect. To summarize this post, I’ll list down the 4 apps I use to step up my productivity and time management skills.
Calendar App - iOS Calendar
To-Do List App - Todoist
Note Taking App - iOS Notes
Project Management App - Trello
Play around with these and see what works best for you. Maybe you’ll realize that you make the best progress by just winging it or maybe you’ll find it impossible to believe that you were surviving without these in your workflow. Either way, I hope you got something out of this post the same way I did when I discovered these things for the first time. In the end, enhancing productivity comes down to making a conscious decision to prioritize and schedule what matters. As Greg McKeown, Author of New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less said;
“If you don't prioritize your life, someone else will.”
