Call me lazy but I want to be productive without having to try too hard.
I’m also a minimalist which means that I’m always looking for ways to do less without letting my productivity and work rate suffer.
Here are 5 techniques I use that make me productive without having to slog it out.
Don’t Try To Remember Anything
My productivity soared when I stopped wasting my valuable brain space on remembering stuff.
Whether it’s an errand, a scheduled call, a reminder to do something, an article idea, a business idea, or just a cluster of random thoughts, I put in the effort to not have to remember anything.
I keep Notion and Apple Notes pages where I type out important thoughts the second I get them.
Make different pages titled all the different things that you try to remember and just dump stuff in those pages every time you get a thought. It might seem tedious at first, but it becomes second nature in no time.
Doing this will benefit you in 2 ways —
- It’ll free up mental space for other, more important things
- You’ll never run out of ideas because, with time, you’ll already have a ton of them listed out. This has been the single most thing that’s boosted my creativity.
Remembering things is unproductive. Human brains are terrible at remembering stuff. So, when there’s a better alternative, there’s literally no reason to burden yourself and have your productivity suffer by attempting to remember things.
Prioritize Leisure Over Mindless Consumption
When I ask most people my age what they do for leisure, they reply with either “watching shows” or “partying”. It makes me cringe and judge them even though I don’t want to.
Whilst a certain amount of watching stuff and getting drunk at a party can be leisureful, it’s very easy to go overboard into mindless consumption with those things.
Leisure is something you can do on a consistent basis in order to relax and unwind. If you’re “relaxing” every day with 4 hours long Netflix marathons and booze sessions, you have bigger problems than productivity.
So many people mindlessly scroll on social media too as “leisure”. This, when done for a prolonged period of time — is not only not restful, but also makes you feel bad.
Anything done mindfully and in moderation can be rejuvenating. Anything done mindlessly and in extremes can be detrimental.
Your sources of leisure will shape your life more than you know. Find healthy habits of leisure instead of mindlessly scrolling social media all evening in the name of “leisure.”
Passion Makes Productivity Easy
I write tens of thousands of words every month without even trying.
That’s because I can’t write. I love writing with all my heart.
I would say that writing is a pretty productive thing to do, especially if it’s making you money. I’m very grateful that I’m passionate about it because the passion makes being productive at writing feel breezy.
Find things that lie at the perfect intersection of what you like doing and what’s productive.
Genuinely liking what you do is the most powerful productivity hack in the world.
Once you find something you’re passionate enough about, you’ll feel like doing it — even if nobody’s watching, even if you’re a lazy person (like me), even during tough times.
Do More Of Fewer Things
Productivity isn’t about doing more and more things all the time. It’s about selecting a handful of important things and doing more of them.
Every time I’ve tried to take on too much, my productivity and health have suffered, eventually leading to burnout.
I’ve learned time and time again that I’m more productive when I fully focus on 2–3 very important things than when I half-heartedly do 5–6 things at once.
We humans are bad at multi-tasking. There’s only a finite amount of time, brainpower, and energy that we have. We cannot possibly give our 100% to 10 different things at once.
Half-assing many things are unproductive. Instead, pick 2–3 of the most important things in your life and give them your 100%.
Do more by doing fewer things.
Design Your Own Hacks
Truth bomb — productive people aren’t sitting around all day reading about productivity hacks.
If you want to be more productive, sure you can read an article or two about it, but after that — focus on doing.
The most unproductive thing you can do is consume too much productivity content.
Merely reading more hacks will not make you productive, implementing the ones you’ve already learned will.
These hacks that I use, nobody taught them to me. They’re not unique to me of course, but I didn’t get them from some productivity guru on the internet. I learned them by experimenting, doing, and figuring it out on my own.
Productivity is a very personal thing. Don’t blindly follow what others preach (not even me). Focus on doing and experimenting in your own life. If you do this enough — you’ll eventually discover what works for you and what doesn't, then you can design a productivity system for yourself.
Focus on the implementation of information that you already have over more consumption. Figure out what works for you. Design your own system. Good luck.
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