My Productivity Blueprint

Through just about ten years of hustling, 100 hour work weeks, and working 2–3 businesses simultaneously, I’ve learned a thing or two about productivity and time maximization. Additionally, people often ask me for advice on productivity and process — so I feel like I finally have a good grip on how to teach my awesome ways to all of you.

First, here’s a snapshot of how I break up my day.

6 am — Wake up and stay away from my phone. First I lay in bed and spend a few minutes thinking about how grateful I am for the new day. Then I meditate for 10 minutes and make a cup of coffee.

6:30 am to 8:30 am — I get straight to work and do 4 Pomodoros (check out the Pomodoro Technique here). I typically tackle my email, social media, blog reading, and plan for the day during this time frame (more to come on daily planning later).

8:30 am to 9:30 am — Shower and eat. Do NOTHING else.

9:30 am to 11:30 am — I do another 4 Pomodoros dedicated towards 1–2 of the projects I need to complete that day. I don’t even think about checking my email.

11:30 am to 12 noon — I check my email.

12 noon to 1:30 pm — Lunch. I try to have a lunch meeting with someone new every day but on the days where I don’t, I’ll use this time to schedule any calls I need to have, reading I need to do, etc.

1:30 to 2 pm — I check my email

2 pm to 4 pm — I do another 4 Pomodoros dedicated towards the remaining projects I have for the day. Again, email is the fucking enemy.

4 pm to 4:30 pm — I check my email.

4:30 to 5 pm — I save this time for calls.

5 pm to 6 pm — I close the loop on everything else I need to do that day (random tasks, etc.)

6 pm to 6:30/7 pm — I use this time to recap my day and plan for the next one. It takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on how crazy my day was.

Depending on who you are and how you work, the way I break up my day likely won’t work for you — for instance, I bunch up as much work into the morning as possible because that’s when I’m most productive.

However, the tools I use to manage my life and stay productive will 100% help you. There are 9 things I recommend — here they are below.


  1. Start the day with a clear head. Do not go straight to your phone or computer to check your email when you wake up. You stand to gain nothing by responding to an email 15 minutes earlier and stand to lose your mental ability to have control over your day.
  2. Set aside time for email and DON’T email outside of those time frames. I literally close down my browsers and email clients and turn off all notifications so email doesn’t distract me when I’m working on something else. If it’s important, people will call you. Otherwise, all email can wait two hours for you to respond.
  3. Use a To-Do List app. My favorite is Wunderlist but there are tons of options. Wunderlist syncs across my phone and computer and allows me to keep track of all the little things I have to do every day. It also makes it really easy for you to write down random ideas/things to do as they come up without forgetting about them for the future (more to come on this)
  4. Use the Pomodoro Method for 2 hour working blocks. In a nutshell, you focus on one specific project for 25 minutes with zero distractions. Take a break for 5 minutes and do it again. It sounds stupidly simple — but it works. I literally do twice the work in half the time since I’ve started using this method.
  5. Set aside specific time frames for meetings, calls, and random to-do’s.
  6. At the end of every day, make a list of 3 projects that you MUST get done for the following day. Those should be your primary focus for your day until they’re all done. Why 3? 3 is always a digestible number and it will lessen the likelihood that you come up short. If you get these done early, great! But don’t take that as a sign that you should increase the number of projects goal that you should on a daily basis.
  7. At the end of every day, add anything that you don’t want to forget about to your To Do List. When you’re done with your 3 projects, that’s the time to focus on knocking things off of this list.
  8. Use Evernote. It’s free and is available across all devices. I put everything in it including my daily plan for each day.
  9. Every morning, look at your list of projects and To-Do List once more AFTER you’ve gone through your emails. Often times you need to make a last minute change based on what hits your inbox first thing in the morning.

If you’re really hustling, you’re going to have days where a 7 am to 7 pm schedule won’t be enough — I certainly still have a ton of them. In those instances, take a 90 minute break for dinner and make sure to get to work again by 8:30 pm. I also always shut off by 2 am — any work I do past that point is literally counter-productive — and I recommend you do the same thing. On days like this, having a plan of what you need to finish is even more important. So make sure you have your To-Do List (both projects and random tasks) ready to go at the beginning of the day. Having a game plan and strong working process are the most important parts of being productive on crazy days.

I went through this quickly to not make this overwhelming. If you have any questions on productivity/process, don’t hesitate to reach out — adam at adamgillman dot com or Twitter.