The Top 5 Most Shared Tips for Maximizing Productivity in 2019

Part of the Series: The Top 20 Most Shared Life Tips for 2019

Posted on January 26, 2017 by Christine S Ntim

Everyone needs shortcuts. That is why we read the stories of successful people. We hope to get insights, tactics, and strategies that can be applied to our everyday lives. Yet with so much information online, it’s hard to get the nuggets of wisdom that can truly make a powerful impact on our endeavors.

So I'm sharing top tips via my #CSNTIMTIPS newsletter thread. Many of the tips centered around personal branding, productivity, and mental health. These are my top tips to get you ready for the new year.

Multitasking is not productivity. Effective execution of multiple demands in a timely manner = productivity. The better you get at this- the happier you will be. Here are my top tips on getting things done-efficiently.

1. Use a project management tool. Whether its Trello, Google Keep, Basecamp, or Asana- leverage a project management tool to manage multiple projects and easily include collaborators.
2. Turn off all notifications on your phone app. I bet you absolutely hate this tip but it works. Notification blinkers on apps like messenger, gmail, whatsapp, snapchat, instagram, twitter etc will always lure you into checking into social media plaforms and wasting at least one hour per day. Yet with no notifications, you can designate times in the day to check on messages across all your apps.
3. Schedule out your time backgrounds. Start with your yearly top goals and break it down by quarterly milestones, then monthly execution goals and finally weekly to daily tasks. Too many times people schedule on a day-to-day basis and wonder why they are not hitting their big picture goals in an effective manner. By working backwards, you start to list out specific action steps that will help you achieve your goal and cancel out the stuff that won’t.
4. Bucket Email Activity. For those who monitor email throughout the day- you are setting yourself up for unmanageable stress, lost time and extremely low productivity. Some of the best ways to handle email is to either schedule times during the day to check for updates or dedicating full admin hours. I personally check emails 3x a day- in the morning, lunch hour and after dinner at 8pm. Usually this eats 3 hours of my time because 70% of my emails are requests, 20% are opportunities and 10% are random errands. Every once in a while I limit check ups to once a day and do full email admin days to clear out my inbox. (SaneBox does a pretty good job of prioritizing email and eliminating stuff that I don’t really need to look at.”).
5. Wake up Before 9am no matter what. This is a controversial one because some might argue that you should create a schedule that works best with your lifestyle. Yet I highly recommend starting your day early for several reasons. Firstly, you give yourself room to get as much done by noon to feel satisfied that there is still the rest of the day to keep progressing on tasks. Secondly, every successful person ever interviewed always highlighted an early morning routine to kick off their day. I myself complete the “Golden Hour” every day. In the first hour that I wake up I do all of the important to do- exercise, tea drinking, reading, meditation, and cooking (I eat 6-7 times a day and need pre-cooked meals ready).

Loved these tips? Sign up for my newsletter via www.christinesntim.com :) Want to have me speak at your event- book via [email protected].