Here are the Top 5 tips you need to massively boost your productivity. These tips are drawn from the top productivity hacking experts and best-selling authors - Robin Sharma (5 am club), Steven Kotler (Stealing fire and the Habit of Ferocity), Michael Hyatt (Free to Focus) and the Famous Sleep Doctor – Dr Bruce.

Apply all 5 tips plus the BONUS tip into your life to see radical shifts in your productivity, direction and motivation! 

1) FORMULATE - Goal setting

According to Michael Hyatt, just the simple act of writing your goals down makes you 42% more likely to achieve them!  

Setting goals forces you to clarify what you want in your life. Imagine setting out on a trip before deciding where you are going. How would you know what to pack? Which roads to take? And if you have arrived or not? The same logic applies to setting goals in your life. Goals help you by giving you direction, clarity and motivation. 

When you have goals, you will more likely be able to be more effective day to day and know when you are making traction or when a task is merely a distraction. 

So, your first step to peaking your productivity is to get clear on your big goals. Decide which area of life you are wanting to improve your productivity in (Work life, Side hustle etc.) and write down 2-3 big goals.

Goals inspire you. Here’s why:

1. Knowing what success looks like you are able to celebrate the wins you make along the way to reaching your goals
2. Goals give you a vision which is a strong motivating force to help you perform
3. Goals help you set your monthly, weekly and daily tasks and ensure you are moving in the right direction.

2) ACTIVATE - The 90 Rule

Both Robin Sharma and Steven Kotler talk about completing a big hard task in the first 90 mins of your workday when your willpower is often at its highest.  

Each day start your work with the task that is the biggest needle mover, keep working on this task for 90 – 120 minutes and if you’re really in flow you can work until you complete it. By tackling your hardest or most important task first thing you have already made massive steps towards your goals before most people have even finished going through their inboxes!

Robin Sharma uses the strategy the ‘90-90-1 rule’. For 90 days, use the first 90 minutes to tackle the 1 most important task of the day. Think about how much you could achieve after 90 days of massive impact work?

3) EXECUTE – Plan your time

Write out your ‘To Do’s’ the evening or night before so that you can go into your day with a structured plan. This allows you to get started with your biggest task first (90 rule) and gives you clear direction for the day.

According to Steven Kotler, when you know what you are doing you are more easily able to access flow and reach peak productivity. Flow is an optimal state of consciousness where you increase concentration and focus.

Robin Sharma uses a tactic called the ‘Daily 5’, which is a daily list of the 5 wins you can do that day that will ensure it has been a valuable day. 

When you have this list of tasks, you are able to block out your time to be more productive. You will also be more able to notice when you are on track and at peak performance (MAKING TRACTION) and when you are not performing the most optimal tasks (DISTRACTION).

 4) AUTOMATE, DELEGATE, ELIMINATE – Get clear about how to spend your time

Write out a list of all the tasks you do in a day. Be exhaustive with this list. After looking through the list separate the tasks into priority tasks that YOU need to do and tasks you can use best-selling productivity author, Michael Hyatt’s – ‘automate, delegate or eliminate strategy’. Sorting your tasks into these buckets helps you to reduce your misspent time.

1. Priority tasks – these are tasks that you enjoy doing, you are good at and are important drivers of your goals
2. Automate – these are tasks that are important but are routine or repetitive tasks. Where can you use software to automate some of the repetitive tasks you spend too much of your time doing.
3. Delegate – These are tasks that are important for your goals, but you may not enjoy doing or you may not be proficient at. Could the task be better performed by someone else? Where can you outsource some of your tasks to freelancers, a virtual assistant, other team members?
4. Eliminate – what are the tasks you are doing that shouldn’t be done at all? These are tasks that do not drive your goals and are distractions – even if you may be good at them or enjoy them these are the tasks that are time wasters that add little value. It may be helpful to create a “No list” of the drudgery tasks that add no value to your goals that you are deciding to no longer waste your time on!

5) REJUVENATE - Put yourself first

It is important to devote time to regenerating yourself that you can show up every day with determination and focus. Taking time to look after yourself means that you can have the energy to show up meaningfully in your relationships and for your work.

Here are Robin Sharma’s and Steven Kotler’s top rejuvenation tactics

• Meditation
• Exercise/ Movement
• Restorative yoga
• Journaling
• Long saunas
• Long walks
• Massage

These tactics can be used to set you up for a day of success, help you wind down at the end of the day or can even be used midday as a break to boost your productivity and willpower when you get back to the task at hand.

The most important rejuvenation tactic is to ensure you are getting the best quality sleep possible. Here are some of Dr Bruce, the Sleep Doctor’s top tips to getting a great night’s sleep:

1. Stop using your digital devices at night (at least – stop using them an hour before bed – see tip 6)
2. Wear blue light screen glasses if you use devices in the evening to block out the blue light that disrupts your sleep cycle
3. Go to bed at the same time each night
4. Make sure your room is dark
5. Stop caffeine at around 2pm
6. Create a ‘Power down hour’ which is free from devices before bed where you get ready for the next day, have a hygiene routine and then relax before you sleep

 6) BONUS – ENHANCE with Screen Glasses

We were not designed to be exposed to so much blue light – over exposure to blue light from screens could be hurting your productivity and sleep.

Some of the symptoms of blue light over-exposure are:

• Mental and physical fatigue 
• Poor concentration and low energy
• Sore, tired and dry eyes 
• Difficulty falling asleep
• Poor sleep quality 
• Decreased cognitive and learning ability due to fatigue and poor sleep 
• Headaches
• Bad posture
• Potential increased risk of long-term eye damage

Super charge your focus and productivity and drastically improve your sleep quality with blue light glasses.