The one thing to do each day to double your productivity

As I explained in my last post, a 10-minute planning ritual each week saves you hours by providing you with a bird's eye view of the days ahead.

At the risk of stretching the aviation metaphor: Productivity is about getting the most of what matters out of our limited energy, attention and time. Thus, it's crucial to avoid spending our days on autopilot because that mode ultimately leaves us stressed out, overworked and unproductive.

To that end, it's great to have a planning routine each morning to set implementation intentions (i.e. deciding in advance what to do and when to do it) for the day. I've been doing that every workday for years, and it never takes longer than 3 or 4 minutes.

The time each week I spend setting implementation intentions – 25 to 30 minutes in total – is by far the best investment I make at work. According to Cal Newport, combining weekly and daily planning can roughly double our productivity.

Managing our workday with to-do lists is a terrible idea to use implementation intentions. Yet, we have a much better alternative at our disposal: Our calendars. While implementation intentions work just fine with both digital and physical ones, I use Newport's physical Time-Block Planner for several benefits that I will elaborate on next week.

To create a daily planning ritual, set aside 3 or 4 minutes before you start working in the morning. Recall the three things you want to have accomplished by the end of the week, and then go through the following three steps. 

First, plan your collaborative work. Start with the meetings on your calendar, and then add email and group chat to your schedule at predetermined times of the day (e.g. 10 am, 2 pm and 4 pm). By batching your collaborative work, you will both prevent stress and benefit from the maximum amount of uninterrupted time during the rest of your day.

Second, plan at least one 45–90-minute bout of deep focus per day. For most of us, there is work best done in that mode every single day. As a bonus, you'll experience less resistance each time you practice it. Batch your focus work for times of the day when your mental energy is structurally highest by taking your chronotype into account.

Third, don't forget to add defocus bouts to your daily schedule. Have a longer break when your mental energy is structurally lowest. For most of us, that's during the mid-afternoon. Also, insert defocus bouts every 45 to 90 minutes by taking a mingle break, movement break, or combination of the two. Pause for at least 5 minutes after a collaborative bout and for at least 10 minutes after a focused one.

Above is an example of what daily planning using the Time-Block Planner could look like – including hourly adaptation, which I'll elaborate on in next week's post.

If you liked this post, please share it with others:

Until next week,Christian