3 Productivity Tips That Changed My Life

I’m a huge fan of working less and living more while making as much money as possible.

 

I used to purely coach people on productivity and performance before teaching online business and productivity still has a sweet spot in my heart and spills into what I teach today.

 

To me, working less is the goal. Even if I’m doing work I love, I don’t want to be working all the time and I don’t want that for you either (unless you’re into that).

 

That’s why I teach about creating systems and focusing on passive income so that we can have real freedom in life - to me THAT is productivity.

 

Today, we’re taking a bit of a different approach to online business by not focusing on the business systems but instead focusing on you and your personal efficiency.

 

I’m going to share with you 3 of the many productivity tips that have dramatically changed my life and helped me be more productive.

 

These are highly actionable, can be used today, and will help you start striking the stump rather than hacking at the branches.

 

Let’s dive in!

 

1) The Focusing Question

 

This is a simple yet powerful question I learned from Gary Keller’s book The ONE Thing.

 

This one question will help you gain incredible focus on whatever you’re working toward. It works for both personal and professional goals from health and relationships to reaching new heights in your business.

 

Here it is…

 

“What’s the ONE thing I could do that, such that by doing it, will make everything else easier or unnecessary?”

 

Ask yourself this question for your health, wealth, and relationship goals, and see what you come up with.

 

What ONE thing you could focus on for your health that would make everything else easier or totally unnecessary?

 

What ONE thing you could focus on for your relationships that would make everything else easier or totally unnecessary?

 

What ONE thing you could focus on for your business that would make everything else easier or totally unnecessary?

 

Here’s an example from my life…

 

I teach a model of online business that creates passive income and relies on systems to do so.

 

One of the most important skills we can develop with this business model is copywriting.

 

I asked myself the Focusing Question for my business and intuitively knew that copywriting was the #1 thing I could focus on that would make everything else easier in my business - and it changed my life.

 

2) Using Alarms To Maximize Focus

 

When it comes to productivity, it’s commonly taught to eliminate unnecessary distractions (i.e. notifications).

 

What I’m about to tell you completely goes against that…

 

One of the best productivity tips that changed my life came from a book called “The 3 Alarms” by Erik Partaker".

 

In this book, Erik shares how he created 3 alarms to help him get in the mindset for a task he was about to face.

 

He would set 3 alarms for the main areas of his life - Health, Wealth, and Relationships.

 

I loved this idea when I first heard it, so I tried it out myself and I still use it today.

 

For each alarm, create a name that resonates with you and inspires you to put on a new identity THEN pick three character traits that represent that identity.

 

Here are my alarms…

 

Health (10 min before workout) - Pro Athlete: Competitive - Disciplined - Focused

 

Wealth (10 min before coaching calls) - Star Coach: Deep Listener - Present - Resourceful

 

Relationships (End of the work day) - Rockstar Boyfriend: Present - Playful - Loving

 

You can absolutely have more than 3 but at least have one for health, wealth, and relationships (you can steal mine if they resonate with you).

 

Whenever an alarm goes off, I pause what I’m doing, name each character trait, and consider what that looks like for my current situation.

 

For example, I ask, “What does being a deep listener look like? What does being present on this call look like? And what does being resourceful here look like?”

 

After going through each one (which takes a few seconds) I have full clarity on how I want to perform that task.

 

What are 3 alarms you can create for yourself in your health, wealth, and relationships and when will they go off?

 

3) Organizing Your Thoughts With Digital Notes 

 

Look, I’m not perfect. I forget things all the time, which is why I use my tech to remember things for me so I can stay on my A-game.

 

I use Apple Notes but you can use any note software to do this like Evernote or Google Drive.

 

I made a YouTube video on how to use Apple Notes to organize your thoughts & ideas and it’s been one of my most popular videos.

 

What I do is organize parts of my life into separate folders. One for business, one for personal, and one for my band (One Armed Joey).

 

I mostly use my notes for personal use and use my Google Drive for more business-related things.

 

The main idea for you is to think of your main areas of life/business.

 

For example, in my personal folder, I have a Dating & Relationships sub-folder where I put cool date ideas when I get inspiration. I also put gift ideas for the people in my life so that when birthdays and holidays come around, I’m not scrambling.

 

I have a Health & Fitness folder where I put delicious recipes for when I need inspiration, along with workouts for when I’m traveling.

 

I even have a Vehicle Information folder where I keep track of work I do on my car so when I resell it, I know everything that has been done to it.

 

 

Point is, if I didn’t have my notes, I’d be a mess.

 

Once you have your main folders set up, I recommend naming your documents and notes by keywords you’ll easily remember.

 

For example, if I wanted to pull up my Vehicle Information, I would just type in “Car” or “Vehicle” into the search bar and any note with that word will come up which makes finding your documents super fast and easy.

 

And if you choose Apple Notes, you can also use Siri to create notes on the fly when inspiration strikes.

 

Conclusion

 

Well there you have it, 3 productivity tips that have changed my life and that I still use to this day.

 

1. The Focusing Question 
2. Using Alarms to Maximize Focus
3. Organizing Your Thoughts With Digital Notes

 

There are plenty more productivity tips, hacks, and principles I live by but these are 3 of the biggest.

 

If you want to learn more tools to maximize your productivity, check out my performance & productivity course.

 

Make it a productive day!