5 Habits To Enhance Your Productivity

Yuli Azarch | December 4, 2017 | No Comments on 5 Habits To Enhance Your Productivity

Productivity is such a big thing, for many years I was like “hey, I’m efficient and I am doing well.” I thought I was doing a lot with my time. But, the more and more time passed, I realized I wasn’t as effective as I thought.

Now, with every new trick and habit I find and implement, I see how I’m becoming more and more productive.

In this episode, I share the best habits I use to enhance my productivity in my life and work. Below, you can find 5 habits which I picked up from my years of experience. These habits allowed me to be more efficient, to produce more and generate much more revenue, and I believe they could enhance your productivity, too.

Lessons from this episode:

1.       Plan your day. (01:01)
2.       Meditate every day. (04:03)
3.       Workout regularly.   (07:14)
4.       Have a morning routine. (09:40)
5.       Delegate anything you can. (12:39)

5 Habits To Enhance Your Productivity

1. Plan Your Day (01:01)

Don’t start your day until it’s planned. Write everything down on a piece of paper and create a plan of how your day will actually look. Ask yourself what are you going to do, why you’ll do it, and which specific actions you need to tackle that day.

When you plan your day, you don’t let others control it. Instead, you are on top of it, because if you don’t have any plan and what you do first thing in the morning is opening your email, your project management tool, Skype, or any other communication tool you use, you’ll start jumping around.

You’ll be controlled by the email or by the project management tool because all of the sudden you can’t prioritize. You get ten, fifteen emails and you start jumping around.

When that happens, you’re being controlled by what you do, and you start to spend your time on tasks that might not be important at all and that won’t let you enhance your productivity.

For me, having a fresh new list allows me to tackle the most important things first. In a world where we’re overloaded with communication tools, information, and social media, I still use pen and paper to plan my day.

Don’t get me wrong; I do use email and project management tools such as Slack and Skype. I use them all, but when it comes to planning, nothing can enhance your productivity like a fresh list written on pen and paper. This list directs my day. When I get kind of lost and don’t know what to do, I remember I have a fresh list I wrote in the morning and follow it.

Also, don’t start your week, month, or year until they’re planned. You’d want to plan as much as possible. For example, I have a weekly process where I plan my week as well. I look at the things I want to do, the biggest outcomes for the week, I schedule them and plan my week.

And I plan my year, too. At the beginning of the year, I set goals, I know what I want to do, and I write on paper which goals I want to attain, why I want to get them, and I write everything that’s important about them. Basically, I plan my whole year. It can be a very flexible thing, but as long as you have something planned and written down on paper, it allows you to come back at it and enhance your productivity if you ever get lost.

If you’re planning anything, start with your day. Get a piece of paper and start writing what you want to do, what you want to achieve and which actions are important to do it.

For many years, I didn’t plan my day, and I don’t remember how were my days before. But since I started doing it two years ago, my life has not been the same.

2. Meditate every day. (04:03)

Meditate every day. Do it for, ideally, ten to twenty minutes every day to calm down your mind. Our minds are going from place to place all the time, and we’re having thoughts all the time. And by meditating, you regain focus.

In meditation, you’re basically trying to focus on one single thing. This can be as easy as reading, laying down, or sitting down, focusing on a mantra. Just focus on the moment, on being here and now instead of paying attention to random thoughts.

For example, when I meditate. It allows me to focus on one single task and it’s much easier to focus after I meditate, as opposed to multitasking and jumping around five different things I might be doing.

When you meditate, you can focus on one task and go deeper into your work, which can enhance your productivity.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that meditation helps me follow my plans. If I have a plan for the day and I’ve meditated, I’ll be very relaxed, focused, and able to do what’s needed.

On the contrary, on those days where I don’t meditate, I still have my plan, but it’s tougher for me to concentrate and follow my plans. I may have something written, but I might also be jumping to social media and email.

This happens to me, and I believe it also happens to many people, especially in a world overloaded with communication tools. And I really believe that many of the tasks we do are not the tasks that move the needle and could enhance your productivity.

Only a few of those things are going to help you grow and get more money, and by planning the day and meditating, I’m able to tackle the most important of them and just do it with no distractions, allowing me to do what I’ve planned.

These are two of the things that have allowed me to become more productive and grow my seven-figure online business.

In the case of meditation, it’s something I’ve been doing for the last 12 months; before, I did it once in a while, and even then, I noticed its benefits.

Now, it’s part of my daily morning routine. In your case, even if you don’t do it, start slow. Do five minutes a day or maybe even ten minutes every two days. Don’t make it too hard. Make it easy, so it starts rolling naturally on your life, and I think you’ll find its benefits really quickly and you’ll even do it every day to enhance your productivity.

3. Work Out regularly.   (07:14)

Working out and eating better will give you more energy. When you work out, I really believe you’re not only working your body, but you’re also working your mind. You’re also becoming smarter, you’re activating your brain and getting more energy. And the more energy you have, the smarter you can work.

Also, you’ll be less sick and being sick is one of the main productivity killers in the world because you’re knocked down and unable to do anything. Working out is such a simple thing, and I come back to it as often as possible.

Right now, I work out every day. I keep it very light, and I try to include some tougher workouts. I do yoga as well and, basically, I’m just taking care of my body.

Richard Branson was once asked about one of his secrets for productivity, and he said: “work out.” And, in my opinion, if Richard Branson says something we might as well listen to him when it comes to being productive.

Just from my own life and my experience in the last few years, I’ve noticed that my brain is so much sharper after a workout. My brain thinks better; I plan things better. I’m able to be more productive as opposed to the way I work when I’m not working out and have a less active and smart brain.

Taking care of my body makes me and my brain feel better. I think better, and I’m able to strategize better in my businesses. I just have more energy and don’t need coffee to get it. I do drink coffee for its taste, but I don’t need it for energy.

And having more energy can make you better in business, and it can also help you enjoy life even more. That’s why I think working out can enhance your productivity because every single time after I work out my brain feels crazy sharp.

I recommend you doing something daily. If you don’t work out regularly just start with something light. It doesn’t need to be big, just start with something and get it into your routine.

4. Have a morning routine. (09:40)

Most successful people around the world have a morning routine. I’ve never read or researched about a successful person who didn’t have one.

This habit really combines with the other three habits where you just take care of yourself. When you take care of your body and your mind as your first thing in the day, especially at the beginning when nobody controls your time, you nurture yourself.  You can enhance your productivity, and you’re able to focus.

Simply put, a morning routine allows you to take care of yourself and sets the tone for the rest of the day.

For example, in the past, I didn’t have a morning routine, and it’s something I’ve started doing every day since three and a half years ago.

Let me tell you; it’s one of the things that has dramatically changed my life. I’ve become more productive, happier, I have more energy, and I’m actually taking care of my body.

So, the key is having some form of morning routine where you take care of your body and your mind. There are many different routines, and every person has one, but let me share with you some of the things I personally do in mine right now.

I start by taking a liter of water to hydrate my body after eight hours of sleep and include a set of deep breathing after, which allows me to add more energy to my body right away. I also take a cold shower and, if I can, I jump to a cold lake or the sea to wake every cell of my body. Then, I work out; it can be yoga or bodyweights. Afterwards, I plan my day and meditate.

That’s it; I’m done. All in all, it takes me an hour and a half to do everything. I believe it sets the tone for the rest of my day, makes me feel sharper and allows me to complete my daily habits.

I don’t think it matters what you do specifically as long as you have a morning routine that works for you. For me, having a morning routine drastically changed my life, allowing me to be ten times more productive, and it could enhance your productivity, too.

Believe me, I was there, jumping to the phone first thing in the morning a few years ago and I wasn’t as productive as I’m now.

5. Delegate Everything You Can. (12:39)

You need to become good at delegating. You need to delegate things you hate, that take your time and that don’t produce much value per hour. By having more people doing all your stuff, you’re able to focus on things that matter and increase your value.

Let’s say you’re doing customer support in your business and it’s a $15/hour task. What if you could hire someone for this amount and instead of doing it yourself, you go to work in sales or marketing?

Right away, just by delegating a task, you’re increasing your value to $100/hour.

And what if you hire someone to do your marketing and sales and focus on bigger, more important things?

So, delegate everything you can. I started delegating really early in my online career, and it doesn’t have to be work stuff only; it can also be personal stuff.

For instance, I have a personal assistant, and I also travel a lot and try to delegate research of where I’m staying or what can I do in each city. I try to delegate as much as possible because, for me, it’s all about spending time on things I enjoy and that are important and, sometimes, when I travel I do things that are not as important.

Before delegating, I spent too much time researching and finding accommodation, but now I can simply find a person that can do it better than me and that will enjoy doing it.  So, delegate as much as you can.

I regularly write down, on a side, all the things I hate doing, things that I know will take a lot of my time, and this list gives me things I need to delegate. The list changes constantly, but I feel in such a better position now that I’ve done it.

I now have almost 20 people working for me full time, and I’ve given them all those things I hate to do. This allows me to do all the things I like and I enjoy and focus on the important things rather than those other things my workers are doing.

I believe it’s important you monitor what you do and how you spend your time so you can delegate the less important things so you can enhance your productivity.

So, let’s do an exercise.

Open a single spreadsheet and write down what have you done in the last hours. For example, write the time when you started working and the tasks you did.

Whatever it is you’ve done, write it down on paper. After having something on paper you’ll realize where you actually spend your time, and after you’ve done this, you’ll know whom you need to hire next, what you could delegate, and what you should delegate.

This will allow you to focus on the important things and enhance your productivity.

Last Words Key Takeaways

• Try and plan your tasks as much as you can. Use a notebook and a paper and create lists of what you need to do
• Meditation can help you gain focus. Start slow and roll it into your life slowly.
• Working out gives you more energy and boosts your health
• A morning routine, whatever it is, can help you take care of your body and your mind
• Delegate the tasks that consume your time and focus on doing the things you like and enhance your productivity

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to comment and leave your 5-star feedback.

All the best until next episode,

Yuli