1. Set up a delight alarm

If you feel like you waste a lot of your free time scrolling through TikTok or Reddit, here’s a tiny change to make that is guaranteed to cut your daily scroll short. It’s an easy-to-implement daily practice (try it for about a month to really see the impact): Set up a delight alarm.

Here’s how it works:

Create an Apple shortcut. Set a timer that goes off 5, 10 and 20 minutes after opening (Your app of choice - TikTok, Reddit, etc). This timer can be silent, it just needs to appear on-screen. When this timer goes off, ask yourself:

How delighted do I feel right now? Then rate your delight from 1 - 10.

Your answers will track something like this:

5-minute timer: I’m at an 8! TikTok is so delightful, I’m having a great time.
10-minute timer: I’m more like a 5. Lots of hot takes, my mind is feeling tired.
15-minute timer: I’ve sunk to a 3. I’m not enjoying myself much, but I still feel an urge to keep on scrolling…

The more you do this, the more you’ll start to notice when you feel “full” of social media. The more you quickly you can notice that you’re feeling “full” when you’re scrolling - the more easily you’ll be able to stop the daily doom scroll.

2. Create a quick capture “thought inbox”

As David Allen says:

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”

If you want to increase your productivity, create a system that makes remembering the tasks that you need to do easier with an easy, one-click capture process.

I’m talking about a one-click, easy way to capture the:

• To dos that pop into your mind at random (“Ugh I have to take that bag of clothes to thrift shop”)

• Ideas that hit you when you’re doing your weekly clean (“I desperately need to start a book club focused on books about difficult women throughout history”)

• Movie / TV recommendations from friends (“It’s time to finally watch the wire”)

• Articles to read later (“I need to read and implement MuchelleB article on 20 tiny ways to be more productive…”)

3. Create an if-then plan for different “brands” of procrastination

A lot of procrastination can look the same on the surface (you, lying on the couch, scrolling, feeling guilty, struggling to get anything done)…

But they need to be treated in completely different ways. For example, there’s:

• Overwhelm / analysis paralysis procrastination (There’s so much on your plate that you don’t know where to begin)

• Resistance procrastination (You have stuff you need to do that you’re dreading… so you do nothing)

• Low-energy procrastination (You had the WORST sleep, sooo… you’re gonna scroll instead of work on your business)

• Low-focus procrastination (Your mind is SO scattered that you feel like scrolling is the only thing that can keep your attention)

To 10x your productivity, create an if-then plan for each “brand” of procrastination. Here’s an example of my if-then plan for overwhelm / analysis paralysis procrastination:

IF you experience overwhelm / analysis paralysis procrastination (as in, you have SO many things on your to do list that you don’t know where to even begin, so you’re doing nothing instead) THEN…

1. Brain dump all of your “problems”, then turn them into “projects” (every problem is a potential project).

2. Rate them all by how much getting them done will impact your sense of calm from 1 - 10.

3. Organise them in alignment with their rating.

4. Brainstorm “bandaid” solutions for each task (e.g. instead of clearing out the whole garage, create a pathway).

5. Break down your highest-impact task and start.

4. Track your catalysts, inhibitors, nourishers and toxins

In the well-known study titled “The Progress Principle”, led by Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile, they found that:

"Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.” Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer

Twenty-six project teams from seven companies participated in the study (about 238 individuals) leading to nearly 12,000 diary entries being analysed.

When they looked at the participant's worst and best days (measured by mood, emotions and motivation levels), they found that their “best days” contained progress 76% of the time. Only 13% of their best days contained setbacks.

On days when people made progress (on meaningful work), the participants would show a more upbeat mood and expressed more joy, warmth and pride. They were more motivated and had more positive perceptions of their work and team. Progress had a dramatic effect on overall productivity.

So much so, that managers were heavily encouraged to start tracking four things: Catalysts, Inhibitors, Nourishers and Toxins. These are things that you can start to track for yourself to have a dramatic impact on your own productivity.

• Catalysts: Do you have clear and meaningful long-term and short-term goals? Do you have sufficient time to focus on them? Do you have sufficient resources to focus on them?

• Inhibitors: Is there any confusion regarding your long-term or short-term goals? Do you feel constrained in your ability to focus on them? Do you lack any resources?

• Nourishers: Do you have respect, encouragement, and support (from yourself or others) when it comes to your long-term or short-term goals?

• Toxins: Did (you or others) discourage or disrespect your progress?

Using this framework, create daily action plans centred around progress by asking yourself:

• What can I do to strengthen the catalysts and nourishers (e.g. make sure that short and long-term goals are clear and meaningful and ensure that I have time and resources to focus on my goals)?

• What do I do to reduce the inhibitors and toxins (e.g., make sure that I respect and encourage myself when it comes to my progress)?

5. Conduct a task assessment

For one week, write down every single task that you do on one big list. At the end of the week, evaluate each task by addressing the categories below:

Value Assessment

• How valuable is this task to me (or: how valuable is this task to my customers?)

• What are the direct and indirect benefits of completing this task?

Impact Evaluation

• What would be the impact if I stopped doing this task?

• If nothing changed and I stopped this, would anyone notice or care?

Delegation/Automation

Who (or: What, given the rise of AI automation) else might be able to accomplish this task?

• Is there someone else in my life or team / company better equipped to handle this task?

• Could this task be delegated without compromising quality or outcomes?

• What tools, software, or AI solutions exist that could automate or assist with this task?

• If this task NEEDS a person, are there any parts of it that could at least benefit from AI?

Optimization/Simplification

• If I only had half the time to complete this task, how might I approach it?

• Is there a template, checklist, or framework that could simplify the process?

• What would a “minimum viable product” (MVP) version of this task look like?

• Have I researched best practices or consulted others who may already do this task more efficiently?

6. Create a “questions list” instead of a “task list”

So… you have a bit of demand avoidance (you resist or avoid doing what is expected of you). A to-do list can end up feeling like a bunch of obligations that you want to actively avoid.

Instead of a traditional to-do list, try creating a daily question list.

For example:

• Instead of “Put away laundry”, you might write… “How might I make putting away laundry today feel easy?”.

• Instead of “Clear emails”, you might write… “How might I integrate clearing out my emails into my day in a way that feels natural?”.

Immediately, the to-dos feel less demand-y. They feel way less like a threat. And: you get to tap into novelty and creativity.

7. Organise an “action weekend”

1. Write a list of all of the things that are causing you anxiety, worry or frustration.

2. Turn all of those things into actionable projects that you can tackle (most problems can be turned into projects!)

3. Pick the one thing that is causing you the MOST anxiety, worry or frustration.

4. Do an “action weekend” where you take the worst item on your list, and dedicate two whole days to making serious progress on that item.

If you’re currently in an overwhelm -> do nothing pipeline, you might want to organise a few action weekends.

8. Work with your “gears”

Author of Hyperefficient, Mithu Storoni, has identified three “productivity gears” that people tend to move between. What gear you are in at any time can be easily identified through brain scans by looking at what the author refers to as a “blue dot network” (the part of the brain that controls the sympathetic nervous system).

Here are the three gears:

1. Gear 1: When you’re in this gear, it’s kinda like sitting outside watching the cars pass by. This gear is all about relaxation. You tend to be more creative in this gear - you’re relaxed and your attention isn’t focused on any one thing. You need plenty of gear 1 time to recover from gears 2 and 3.

2. Gear 2: Akin to working pretty efficiently but at a nice, steady pace. This gear is active when you are focused and making progress. Gear 2 is a really healthy place to be, and most work should be done in gear 2 to prevent burnout.

3. Gear 3: Is like a sprint. You’re in go-go-go mode. Energizing but tires you out if you’re in it for too long. This gear is active when you’re under pressure, on a deadline or actively pushing yourself in some way. When you keep on pushing even when you’re fatigued and want a break, your brain pulls for extra resources to push it into gear 3. If you get stuck in gear 3, you will burn yourself out. Creativity in this gear isn’t possible.

A Canadian research team have seen these gears at work in the brains of mice, finding that mice engineered to be more susceptible to brain disease were less likely to develop any disease if their blue dot network was made to fire in a gear 2 pattern.

To move between the gears you can use exercises to create energy and move you up a gear (like a fast paced workout or breathwork) or exercises that wind you down and defuse your focus to move you down a gear (like gentle walking or meditation).

To inject more productivity in your life, plan for your gears. Consider what gears you flow through and what gears you want to spend more time in to create more intention in your days.

9. Reframe distraction

Mindfulness for Academic Success is an evidence-based program designed to help university students at Flinders University. The research that they have done on this program shows that it not only improves academic performance, but it also tends to result in improved emotional well-being.

A lot of the progress they make comes from helping students to view procrastination and distraction as a habit that can be learned and unlearned.

As a study session begins, the students in the program practice:

1. Labelling any distracted thoughts (e.g. daydreaming, planning, judging, criticising, remembering, worrying) that appear.

2. Making “distraction notes” on a piece of paper when distractions pop up, fully acknowledging and accepting the distractions as they appear, then..

3. Moving back to studying after they make their “distraction notes”.

They get all students to practice this together, normalising distraction. As their students continue to use these techniques throughout their study sessions, they learn to sustain attention and focus over longer stretches of time and they learn to overcome procrastination.

You can do this whenever you do a work session or a pomodoro to get the same effect.

10. “Set the table” for the day ahead

If your friends were coming over for dinner, you would set the table ahead of time. That way, they wouldn’t have to deal with the fuss of:

• Finding the cutlery

• Getting out a plate

• Locating the tablecloth

You want people to be able to just sit down and get started when the food is ready.

Setting the table for your “tomorrow self” is a similar thing. It’s removing the fuss for your tomorrow self, so that they can get started as soon as you’re ready.

Create a nightly ritual of “setting the table for your future self”. That might look like:

• Tidying for 15 minutes

• Writing a to-do list

• Getting out all of the things you need for tomorrow

• Making the documents or files you’ll use tomorrow easy to access (or pre-opening them)

Or anything else that feels important for your future self to have “set up”.