It’s not about working harder but learning how to work smarter.  Below are some tips that can help you increase your efficiency, your productivity saving your time for people and things that matters to you the most in life.

Practice the 80/20 rule

Focus on 20% of the things that are important because they yield the greatest value. These would be the need to do task that contributes and will have the most impact to your bottom line, or in achieving your life goals.

Know when is your productivity period

We all have times when we feel more energized and productive. Identify when your times are and schedule the work that requires the most effort to be done then. For the other times, you can focus on menial tasks or schedule time for fun.

Get the most important tasks completed first

This can be difficult for some.  It certainly was for me.  I used to do the easy, less important activities first and then procrastinate until the end to do the important task. But then someone challenged me to try this for a month.  I realized by getting the important task out of the way first, it helps improve my energy since I’m not spending the whole day in dread and heaviness convincing myself that I still got that BIG thing I need to do.  It’s about just do it.

Plan your day the night before

Before you sleep, spend a few quick minutes thinking about all the things you want to get done the next day.  Write it down and then prioritize. In doing so, you set yourself up to get cracking when you wake up in the morning.

Multi-task

For activities that does not require a lot brain work.  For example, doing laundry and listening to a pod cast.

Meditate

There are countless studies that have been done that shows if you mediate for just like 10 minutes a day, it can tremendously help ground you, bring peace and boost your mental clarity.  This is true as I find whenever I miss a day or two of meditation, my days always seem more chaotic.