How to be Productive: The Ultimate Daily Checklist

How to be Productive: The Ultimate Daily Checklist

Yes, we get it—you’re not lazy…You’re just phlegmatically innovative!

It’s just like when I had a long stick beneath the bed to turn off the light so as to not have to stand up. Or maybe it was just me?

Anyway, being a couch potato won’t make you the lean, mean, and productive working machine you were destined to be.

Postpone the procrastination of tomorrow—starting today!

So, put your sloth to the side and stop sinning—here’s how to get your productivity journey on a roll through implementing a handful of time-efficient tactics.

How to Be More Productive?

Let’s get something clear—productive people make time for what they want.

So, if you’re really up for the game of non-procrastination, then you need to handle your time to the nines. But, how to do the work without getting yourself caught up in every little thing is easy and, at the same time, hard.

Why hard? Well, because you have yet to come across the perfect daily checklist.

And why simple? Because these checklists are absolutely a breeze to make.

Yes—if doing a daily checklist is still giving you a hard time, this article will provide all of the necessities for you to keep productive standards at the tip of your fingers, and be at front of everyone’s mind as one of the efficient ones.

How to be Productive: The Daily Checklist for Efficient People

Now, for all of your procrastinators out there, let us present you with a daily productivity checklist just so you know how to make your day better, and, alas, mingle with the work beasts.

So, whatever you have to do—whether that’s bookmarking this article or printing it off and laminating it as if it’s 1999—do it, because this is the ultimate productivity daily checklist for every day of the your kickass month!

(Except February. And April. And June. And—stuff it, you know what I mean. Let’s get into it.)

Tactic #1 – Focus on Most Important Tasks (MITs) First

Let’s start by saying that some tasks are absolutely more important than others. So, getting those tasks done before you move to the secondary ones is a must in remaining productive throughout the day.

Procrastination isn’t that far-fetched—if you try a combination of the most critical chores and the less urgent ones, that is. It’s really tempting to spend the entire day marking off easier, less significant must-dos rather than tackling the difficult tasks. But, don’t sway off course, even if it’s really difficult for you to primarily concentrate on what matters the most. Take a breather and dive head-first—letting the interfering contemplation in you be a thing of the past!

That’s why you should always take up a little of your time at the start of each day to select MITs (1 to 3 will do).

Keep in mind, these tasks must be completed by the conclusion of your working day, despite all odds. Also, you should know that despite them being your most important tasks, if they don’t conclude the key items, it’s wise to reevaluate, top to bottom.

Tactic #2 – Encourage a Serious Work Ethic

Let’s not lie to each other—certain chores are rather difficult, and serious work can’t be substituted!

Everyone has gone over hardening everyday tasks that may as well be completed entirely without you having to even overthink them. This is sometimes where problems occur since the less difficult a given task is, the more motivation you need to complete it. Let’s face it, it’s not all that exciting.

Take multitasking out of the picture because you’ll find it even harder to finish them while concentrating on more than one task at a time. These duties come with their own term, too—“deep work.”

And, now, a question—how to make the most of your day working through these tasks?

Deep work.

Remember—people make time for what they want, even if it means deep work, indeed.

Tactic #3 – Maintain a Track of Distractions To Help You Concentrate

Diversions are the plague of efficiency and productivity!

Whether you’re attempting to concentrate on deep work, or merely coping with lesser tasks, it’s rather difficult to sustain productive habits when there are so many diversions.

Preparing a track of distractions is one effective way to reduce those said distractions – even if it sounds like a paradox!

Just write these down wherever you want, whether they’re digital lists, or go pen-and-paper style. Either way, when a diverting notion enters your thoughts, jot it down and then return to your task.

These are ideas that require consideration and writing down if you’re in deep concentration and abruptly need to recall what has to be paid. Or, if you have a great and innovative idea about that new blog piece. They simply just don’t deserve the attention yet.

Once you get a pause or a launch break, you may either handle these tasks if they’re not that time-consuming or just include them in your list for things you ought to do later on.

Tactic #4 – Utilizing The 80/20 Concept.

Next order of business—what’s the 80/20 concept all about and how to be productive on a higher level using this method.

This rule is also known as the Pareto Principle since it was established by an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto. He argues that in any endeavor, 80% of the outcomes do come about from 20% of the attempts you make on certain tasks.

People who keep productivity levels on high altitudes select the most crucial 20% of the job and tasks to stay productive at all times. Next up, they seek methods to trim the remaining 80% off their calendar to devote more time efficiency towards activities that make for a greater effect.

Tactic #5 – Break Down Tasks into Manageable Chunks

When you have tasks that are on your list that are extensive in nature but not particularly detailed, completing them gets difficult and frustrating to begin with.

Breaking down enormous tasks into quite shorter-sized pieces is an appropriate way to start. To tell you the truth, that’s what I did when writing this article, as there were several places I wanted to start.

Oh, the irony…

“Then, how about you divide and conquer the tasks?” The thought just popped up into my mind and reminded me of what needed to be done. As I heeded what the thought had urged—this is what my to-do list ended up looking like.

• Googling up terms like “how to be productive” and “excellent, productive routines”
• Taking a look at the best 10 results about efficiency and efficient people
• I considered additional ways to ramp up my productivity levels
• Made a summary of the concepts I’ve searched out from the net and brainstormed on my own
• Utilized bullet points, wrote out particular suggestions on every technique
• Tried out a handful of bullet points every day and filtered through each one for a month—figuring out which ones worked the best
• Went over each of the said bullet points repeatedly, and I fleshed the bullet points into entire portions and paragraphs

Sigh.

Anyway, that is how your larger task will be broken down into smaller chunks. It may be time-consuming to make the chores into manageable chunks, but you’ll do the task more quickly and see the balancing effects of this daily checklist. Feeling better already?

Tactic #6 – Relax When You’re Exhausted

No one, and I do mean no one—not even the most efficient people can concentrate for more than 8 hours at a time. It’s just not realistic. Even if you’ve got everything sorted out and you’ve had like 3 cups of your favorite caffeinated beverage, you just can’t keep attention for that long.

Short breaks of a couple of minutes might rejuvenate you and even generate new thoughts. Make it a point to take breaks regularly, and, what’s even more critical, arrange them appropriately. Diversions are simple to excuse as going on a break. However, if you don’t manage the time (including when taking a break), it’s quite probable that it will shift to becoming sidetracked and less than time efficient.

It’s not your fault that the Western way of doing things is thinking of breaks as “slacking off.” Look at the Japanese for example, they even doze off in the office and everyone thinks that it’s because they’ve been working so hard, which, happens almost all of the time!

This is surely one of those tactics to resolve the question of how to make your day better—and how to do the work you’ve set your eyes on properly.

Tactic #7 – Learning from Both Accomplishments and Failures

Another difficulty that time-efficient individuals face is guaranteeing that doing rapid work also means doing excellent work.

Working rapidly puts you in a position of making frequent mistakes. Highly efficient people mitigate this danger by developing and practicing their skills at all times so that delivering high-quality work becomes their second nature.

It is self-evident that you can actually take notes from the mistakes we make, and learn how to make the most of our day when avoiding them next time. When anything goes wrong, understanding the errors is the best course of action to take.

By the way, gaining knowledge from accomplishments is just as vital, but far less likely. It’s simple really—if something goes pretty good, it is good, and making changes to a good thing is rarely beneficial.

Although, sometimes, you’ll benefit by making the accomplishment even greater the next time around.

Tactic #8 – Get Your Workstation In Order

Now it’s time for the more straightforward tactics in this productivity checklist.

Searching for lost necessities takes far longer than you can imagine. Keep your mind in one place and do not lose order over your workstation—maintain every possible tool in perspective. If you’re missing an eraser and you swear that it was just on the left of your table, but now it isn’t, it’s going to take you a lot of time looking for it in the middle of the process and progress.

Tactic #9 – Setting an Earlier Alarm in the Morning

There are two benefits when you set your alarm earlier than when you wake up. First, you probably won’t even wake up after the first alarm while tending to snooze it constantly. This will open up a window of waking up on time and even earlier. Secondly, you’ll be astonished at what you can accomplish by getting up, let’s say, 20 minutes earlier. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you’ll have more time to work, and you’ll learn how to make the most of your day.

Tactic #10 – Create a Playlist for Increased Productivity

I shouldn’t tell you what music you should listen to if you have a habit of working better with it. But, you should know by now that testing yourself to see if you’re working better with headphones on is a must. So, if you want a little bit of jazz (non-literally and literally) through some great music, then be our guest!

Tactic #11 – Make Time for Serious Work

A consistent timing for all your difficult tasks is a must – each day, preferably in the mornings. Making serious work a routine requires setting aside schedules regularly. Meaning, you’ll make the most if you’ve evaluated the time you have to manage serious tasks, and the easier ones on your to-do list a bit further.

Tactic #12 – Boredom is a Constructive Habit

It may seem strange to refer to leisure and boredom as a constructive habit, yet it’s absolutely critical. Doing deep work is never fun, and it is the thing that drives you to look for methods to pass the time. As far as feasible, stop using social media for enjoyment and become used to the boring work.

Why?

Because the more you get used to it, the better the chance it won’t be as boring as you thought it would be.

Tactic #13 – Make It More Difficult to Reach You

It’s really simple – the less email you have, the fewer distractions you’ll get. Request that individuals do the study before receiving your queries and that they include as much information as necessary in their emails. Don’t hurry with your emails also, take time so you won’t make unfavorable mistakes.

Let’s face it, it’s really not time efficient at all if you’re sending 7 emails back and forth to schedule that appointment or meeting with your colleagues. It’s rather the opposite.

Tactic #14 – Recognize Your Working Habits

Would you rather work alone? With some pauses in between? Do you have a packed schedule? You don’t have to fully focus on your calendar; simply take up some of your valuable time for focused work. Even more so if you have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD or ADHD), since this way it’ll be a lot more possible to manage your tasks in the future while minimizing procrastination.

Tactic #15 – Talk to Somebody with High Productivity

When you have enough time, converse with somebody you know that’s time-efficient to tell you how to make your day better. Getting information firsthand from a good friend of yours that has rarely missed a deadline is a great way to aid your productivity troubles.

They’ll tell you how they manage everything, while you should take notes on every crucial detail.

Tactic #16 – Exercise While You Can

It doesn’t have to mean that you should go to the gym quite often for hour-long sessions. It just means that every morning, getting your body to perform routinely stretches, 15-minute strolls, or some short fitness regimen will do wonders for your concentration levels. You just have to get that blood flowing first thing.

Tactic #17 – Opportunities for Individual Reflection

Ah yes, meditating! It sounds so eastern but the thing is it really does help with overthinking, blissfully setting all of your intermingled thoughts straight. Deep breathing exercises are also great since we rarely take a deep breath to let our body in that sweet oxygen. Some individuals concentrate on blissfulness, but any kind of individual reflection is worthwhile.

Tactic #18 – Reading for a Productive Mentality

Many people prefer to just mindlessly scroll through the internet for quite some time before they start their work. However, opening your favorite book and reading for about half an hour is a great way to keep productive. After time has passed, your knowledge of reading will reflect on your working habits little by little.

Tactic #19 – You Have to Know When the Working Day is Over

A lot of people have a thought that crosses their mind that they’re unproductive since there’s still a lot of things they can do to finish the day. This may be true in itself, but when you complete a task, permit yourself to enjoy the accomplishment. This means that you probably need to include a moment of recognition to yourself when working.

Tactic #20 – Keep a Day Log

By keeping a record of your working day, you can see the things that you’ve accomplished and the ones you haven’t. The aim is not to end the cycle after a matter of days when you’re focusing on every little piece of the agenda. Instead, take the initiative to cross off anything you’ve accomplished on the daily checklist you have.

And, breath…

Tactic #21 – Rewards For Ultra Productivity

The finest part of efficient people to keep productive at all times is receiving the luscious treat when you’ve finished with your efforts on completing the task. Whatever you do, don’t forget to include this tactic in your daily checklist. Give yourself an appropriate reward if you’ve completed most, if not all, of the things on your checklist.

This will cause your brain to recall the task as being enjoyable, making it simple to do the tasks after that. Learn to rejoice in minor victories to stay in the game.

Tactic #22 – Fix the Things That Aren’t Working

A daily checklist is a resource that you should utilize—always remember that!
Your career, circumstance, and status will shift and, as a result, so should your checklist. Review your checklist most of the time, to ensure that it’s still doing what it’s supposed to be doing. If some things don’t add up, make a little switcheroo so you don’t sway off the productivity track.

Tactic #23 – Prepare Your Bed First Thing in the Morning

This is perhaps the most underappreciated efficiency advice on this daily checklist. But, consider this scenario; when you wake up, you immediately make your bed, and with that, you’ve got yourself the first productive thing of the day. This naturally makes your mind think that the whole day should go with this productive attitude.

Tactic #24 – Select Job Automation

What’s that one task, or maybe two, that you might be able to automate, speeding up your work process and ethic? Those things may be planning your social media, paying the telephone/electricity bill, or even grocery shopping. When you automate this, you’re instantly more time-efficient and it’s a really good tactic on how to be productive.

Tactic #25 – Don’t Get Rid of Bad Habits, Just Alter Them

Let’s get this straight, that one negative habit you have, says a lot about your productivity levels, and jumbles up your “how to do the work” process. And, it’s really hard letting it go. However, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret—you’ll waste more time getting rid of it than altering it and getting some long-term advantages.

Tactic #26 – Make Your Day-to-Day Plans the Previous Night

Instead of marking the tasks that you’re going to do throughout the day, and doing it first thing in the morning, it just takes a couple of minutes to discover the benefits of making your day-to-day plans the night prior. You’ll have established a comprehensive plan for your day, meaning that you’ll dive straight into your tasks when you wake up.

Tactic #27 – 8-Hour Sleeping Schedule

Efficient people get enough time to rest for their health and productivity levels to sky-rocket! Like I’ve said, people make time for what they want—and who doesn’t like a good night’s rest and shuteye? This not only aids recovery from stressful days but also aids the functionality of your brain while enhancing your morale.

Tactic #28 – Discover Useful Things from Documentaries

It’s been a long time since you’ve learned anything fresh and useful, huh? What if a single new revelation or even a thought could transform the course of your thoughts? You’ll attain new information and knowledge just by simply watching documentaries, podcasts, and even some Ted Talks might suffice. There are a plethora of encouraging individuals and resources available.

Tactic #29 – Entrust a Task to Someone Else

When you can’t automate a hard or time-consuming task, work with your colleagues or friends on getting it done for you. But, don’t get overconfident and start delivering more and more tasks to them, since this may backfire really bad. Once or twice should be enough to keep you on track.

Tactic #30 – Rehydrate

It’s simple, to keep productive throughout the day while getting your brain to function a lot faster, drink lots and lots of water. Not only will your body absolutely feel rejuvenated, but it’s also one of the top tips on how to make your day better and ease up your procrastination.

Tactic #31 – Keep Your Energy in Check

Last but certainly not least, combine everything you saw here to keep your energy levels in check. No energy = no productivity. It’s simple as plain mathematics, the more you have energy, the more you’ll concentrate on being one of the more efficient people.

Now, for our Highly Productive Conclusion…

Isn’t it quite ironic how you should’ve been working by now, and instead, you’ve been giving it all just to read all of the daily checklists on productivity here? Don’t worry, all of these tactics will help you from tomorrow—procrastination pun not intended!

Memorize them from top to bottom, bookmark this page, or print it out and stick it where it’ll be seen and become the productive person you’ve always wanted to be!