The top 3 strategies I use to supercharge my productivity

Alexander Carroll
Jul 23, 2017 · 2 min read

Over the years, I’ve experimented with many different strategies to help me become more productive and focused with my work. I have a full-time design position, but also freelance on the side, so I’m always looking for ways to work smarter, not harder.

I create a list of 3 small things I need to accomplish before 11am

I noticed that small, non-urgent items would pile up in my head and distract me from getting my real work done. So, I decided any time a small item would pop up, I would add it to my list to tackle tomorrow.

Sometimes, they could be small design tweaks for a client that would only take a few minutes. But other times, they would be small errands or tasks I had to complete.

An example list would look like this:

  1. Update layout for client’s business cards
  2. Set up auto pay for rent payment
  3. Print return label for shirt I ordered that was too small

See? All of these items would take five minutes or less, and getting them out of the way in the morning not only makes me feel a lot more accomplished to begin my day, but now I’m not worrying about these small tasks in the back of my head all day. It also helps me ease into work instead of jumping head-first into a huge project.

I work in 25 minute spurts

I started testing out the Pomodoro Technique, where you work in spurts of 25 minutes, then rest for five minutes. I usually do two or three of these per day.

Another tip: I listen to Brain.fm while I work to help the focus even more!

I start working early in the morning

So many people have written about the benefits of getting up early and starting work right away. But I’m sharing it because it really works!

Even if you work from 7–8:30am with minor breaks here and there, you can get so much more accomplished because you won’t be distracted by emails, Slack conversations, or the constant need to check my Twitter feed to see if a major hockey trade went down.

Alexander Carroll

Written by

Visual designer and consultant for startups / https://alexcarrolldesign.com

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