# 3 Tips To Maximize Your Productivity By [vuo-rupd.eth](https://paragraph.com/@vuo-rupd) · 2022-08-30 --- Have you ever felt that you have so many things to do, but so little time to complete them? Productivity allows us to make better use of our time. By saving a little time here and there, over the long run, it actually saves you a lot of time. These time savers might seem small initially, but compounded over time, they allow you to do a lot more, thus achieving more than your peers and competitors. Don’t Say You Don’t Have Time ============================= Everyone has 24 hours every day. Elon Musk has 24 hours. He is able to manage so many companies and has the time to play Elden Ring, as well as accomplish so many things such as sending rockets to outer space and developing full self-driving vehicles. With so many people hustling and working hard each and every day, it seems that time is always not enough. You want to chill and watch Netflix, but also want to build on your side hustle. On the other hand, you want to play your favorite game of Pokemon too. It’s not that you don’t have time. You spend it mostly on unproductive activities. How many times do you pick up your phone in a day? How many hours do you spend a day watching a video of a dog chasing its own tail by scrolling through Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Tiktok? To tackle this problem, plan out your day the previous night. Personally, I use of Google Calendar to plan out my day. Every night, I will plan out what I want to do the next day. Together with a to-do list (another good method that I will elaborate in the next sections), I plan out how long I will need to complete the task. By having a specific task to do at a certain time of the day, I reduce the chances of me procrastinating, as well as deciding on what to do. Finding Your Peak Hours ======================= Are you a morning person, an afternoon person, or a night person? Different people have different body clocks. That is the same as your peak hours. Do you find yourself concentrating better and able to do deep work at certain hours during the day? Knowing when your peak hours are can help you in the long run. You will experience increased productivity and efficiency by doing deep work during your peak hours. Your environment plays a part too. Have a clean environment when you’re doing deep work. By having a clean environment, your mind will focus better on your task. Your peripheral vision affects your concentration more than you would expect. Just shifting things away from your direct sight is not as helpful as you would think. Find a dedicated area to do your deep work. Train your brain that when you’re in this area, it’s time for deep work. Productivity and efficiency will increase as your brain automatically switches to work mode. If you can, invest in a good pair of noise-cancellation headphones. This way, you can multiply your concentration by shutting out the outside noise. You can try binaural beats where you change the state of your brainwave to help you achieve maximum focus. To-Do List ========== Of course, the most important tip to improve productivity is to have a to-do list. I’m sure everyone including your parents and kids knows of this tip. You use this very often. From grocery shopping to completing your work tasks. Take a look at your most recent to-do list for your work. How many items are there on your list? Do you find yourself adding more and more tasks to your to-do list? How many times do you really complete all the tasks on your to-do list? Do you feel suffocating and demoralized looking at your to-do list? It certainly feels great when you cross out items from your to-do list. It gives you a sense of achievement. Having too many things on your to-do list will affect your efficiency. Having too much quantity affects the quality of your work. You will feel the pressure to finish certain tasks faster in order to finish subsequent tasks on your to-do list. Personally, I have a maximum of 5 tasks on my list at any one point in time. This makes my list less cluttered and I can focus on providing quality work. Having fewer items on your list also gives you a buffer for any urgent work that needs to be done. At the end of the day, if you have lesser tasks in your list, chances are you will be able to strike off all the tasks for the day. This keeps you motivated, satisfied, and fulfilled. This way, you will find fun and joy in clearing your to-do list, instead of dreading it every day when you look at your list. Let me know what you plan to do and what resonates with you the most. Click [here](https://2minutesliteracy.wordpress.com/category/personal-development/) if you want to learn more about productivity, personal development, and leadership. Subscribe and follow to receive more content like this in the future. Find more about me [here](http://linktr.ee/keeleytan). --- *Originally published on [vuo-rupd.eth](https://paragraph.com/@vuo-rupd/3-tips-to-maximize-your-productivity)*