10 Proven Strategies to Boost Productivity & Create a Clear Plan for Achieving Your Goals

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2:10That's c-a-l-m dot com forward slash j-a-y for 40 % off. Calm your mind, change your life. Sometimes your productivity is hampered because you're not solving a people issue and you're trying to solve a task issue. And sometimes your problem is you're focusing on people when actually it's a system issue. So ask yourself, should I solve the system or do I need to solve a relationship? The number one health and wellness podcast. Jay Shetty. Jay Shetty. The one, the only Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose. I'm so excited to welcome you to a new episode. It is great to have you here. If you're focused on developing yourself, building your mindset, strengthening your habits, you're in exactly the right place.

3:03I just want to thank so many of you that I've bumped into recently as I've been out and about. It means the world to me when you come up to me and tell me your stories and share your experiences of listening to the podcast. It really makes my day. And I love giving you a big hug, saying hello, fist bumping wherever we are. And I wanna thank you for your reviews. I wanna thank you for your stories. I wanna thank you for the clips you make on TikTok. Keep the energy spreading. Remember, when you share an episode of On Purpose, you could be helping someone else go through a breakup. You could be helping someone find their passion.

3:40You could be helping someone build a habit that might change their life. And I'm so grateful that you're a part of this mission and a part of this movement. Now, today's episode is a theme that I think we all struggle with. If you want to be more productive and less burnt out, this episode is for you. If you want to achieve more, if you want to build more, if you want to create more, if you want to use your time more wisely, this episode is for you. If you've been wasting time, if you've been feeling like your priorities keep going to the bottom of the list, if you feel like even at this point in the year you're so far away from your goals, this episode is for you.

4:27Now I'm going to share with you some tips and tricks that have helped me along the way to have better time management, have better energy management, and have better stress management in order to be productive, but also be effective. I think for a long time, we went down this toxic productivity route, where everyone was stressed, burnt out, overworked, overwhelmed. And when you end up in that space, it's really hard to pivot. It's really hard to figure out how to get out of it. And you almost feel like what was the point of being that productive? And at the same time, all of us want to create, we want to build, we're meant to grow as humans.

5:08And if we're not growing, we feel like things are falling apart. So I want to share with you some really practical steps that you can apply starting today that are going to transform the way you work, live and love. Now I want to start off with probably my favorite principle of all that has transformed my stress levels, my mindset, and it is the art of solo tasking or monotasking, doing one thing at a time. I've found that when we do one thing at a time, whether it's eating, whether it's brushing our teeth, whether it's talking to someone, whether it's browsing the internet, whether it's watching a video, when you do one thing at a time, your stress level drops.

6:01When you do one thing at a time and you're absorbed and immersed, your quality of effectiveness increases. When you do one thing at a time, you feel a sense of accomplishment and completion. This is a really interesting thing in today's day and age. We live in a world where our lives are constantly incomplete. We have books that we've read a page of, a couple of, and they're incomplete. We have a show that we started that we even forgot about. And then when you go back onto it, you're like, oh my gosh, I actually started the show. I was on episode two halfway through, but I forgot I started it.

6:38We live in a world of incompleteness. So much of what we start never ends. Now, I'm not saying that we have to finish everything we start, but if we focus on one thing at a time, chances are our completion rate is going to go up. Now, what does that do? The completion rate going up makes you feel more successful and accomplished. It makes you feel you got to the end of something. It makes you feel like you got somewhere. You went on a journey. Otherwise, an incomplete journey is imagine you're like, you know what? Today, I think I'm going to fly to New York. I'm going to actually, you know, halfway on the fly, I'm going to decide I actually want to go to Atlanta.

7:16OK, when I'm on the way to Atlanta. Right. So that incompleteness is what creates inconsistency, instability in our lives. And we often don't make that connection of just how incomplete things have become. How many of you have a task that's been incomplete for three days and you completely forgot about it? or how many of you had a notes on your phone and you were writing some notes about something you got distracted from a message then someone sent you a tiktok link and then after that someone sent you a youtube video and then after that someone sent you a link on amazon and now you forgot that note so our incompleteness and this idea of doing one thing at a time allows us to feel more accomplished it allows us to close the loop in our minds it allows us to not have this constant state of distraction.

8:09Now research shows that when one switches from task A to task B, their 100 % attention does not automatically go to the new task. Some people remain stuck at the original assignment. This is from the research. Now it says that this is attention residue and it's strongest if task A was unbounded or low intensity in nature before a person made the switch. Even if you complete task A before switching, part of your attention will remain temporarily on task A. So what we're saying is that if you don't complete task A, if you don't finish task A and you move to task B, you could find that 40 % of your energy is still trying to solve task A.

9:00And now 60 % of your energy is going to task B. Now let's say you go to task C. You've left 40 % behind. Now that 60 gets split up again. You've got 40 % in task A. You've got 30 % in task B. And you've got 30 % in task C. So you're only giving your leftovers. You're giving the residue to the next task. So your attention is getting more split and fragmented. Whereas what we think happens is, oh, I was giving 100 % of my attention to that. Now I'm just going to move it over. It doesn't work like that. So when you have lots of tabs open, when you have your email, your text, your WhatsApp all open on your laptop screen, and you're able to switch between all of them, it actually creates this challenge.

9:49This research I found from the great book called Deep Work by Cal Newport. And in the book, it says the principle of attention residue works like this. Every time you switch from task A to task B, some of your attention remains in task A. Concentrating on the new task is harder. So you lose some productivity when switching tasks. One task at a time, complete the task. I promise you, you will feel like you have so much more confidence, so much more assurance. And when it comes to the end of the day, you're not looking at your list going, that's still incomplete, that's still incomplete, that's still incomplete, because the mind always over amplifies how far you have to go, not how far you've come.

10:34Right? Generally, so we have to switch our perspective. When you're halfway up a mountain, you could either look down and think, wow, I've come a really long way. Or you could look up and go, oh my gosh, I've got so long to go. And what we need in this mindset is actually, I may have a lot more left to do, but I completed a lot today. I hope that idea of completion really resonates and sticks with you because I see the incompleteness in our minds causing so much stress and anxiety. And that's what happens, right? If something's left incomplete, if something's left undone, that's what causes you stress that's what causes you anxiety so the reason why doing one thing at a time is important is because you can complete it now I'm not saying this has to mean you complete every book if you're bored by it or you complete a tv show if you're bored by it it's just interesting how much of our life has become perplexed by incompleteness principle number two cleaning your external space.

11:36And what does that mean? I don't mean that everything has to be perfectly tidy. What I mean is that when you come to your work desk, you have what you need there. You're not constantly getting back up and down going, oh, I forgot the post-it notes. Oh, I forgot the highlighters. Oh, I forgot to download this app. Oh, I didn't really have the latest version of ChatGPT. Whatever it is, right? Whether it's analog or digital, it's there where's your water bottle is it there where's your little snack where's your nuts that you need to nibble on now of course you can get up and go and get those things and it's good to move around during the day but overall is your space set up for success or is the first thought when you come to your desk oh oh i hate working here hate being here the first thing when you get into your bedroom oh it's just too hot in here like set it up for success right so cleaning your external space can have massive impact on your productivity.

12:31One of the things I think we underestimate is scent, sight, and sound. When you walk into a space, what scent makes you feel that way? So when I walk into my workspace, I want a candle or a diffuser that has an energizing scent because I know I need to bring focus. We don't use the sense of smell enough in order to motivate our mind. Use that. Figure out a diffuser. Figure out a scent that when you smell it, you're like, okay, it's time to work. It's time to focus. Now a sight. What's something you want to see? I have this, I have some art pieces in my office that have phrases, reminders. I have quotes on my table.

13:13I have little quote books that I can just flick through to get motivation. I'm surrounded by the energy and it's right there so that I can do it. I know that if I'm feeling a certain way one day, I can pick up one of my books. I can pick up one of my affirmation cards. I can read it out to myself. And then sound. Are you someone who likes to work in silence, chatter, or music? A lot of us don't even know that. We don't have the self-awareness to recognize it. I'm a silence worker or I'm an instrumental music worker. I like lots of instrumental beats. I'm I have to have them on in the background.

13:47It gets me to lock in. Or I like silence. I really don't like working when there's chatter or background conversation and background noise. It doesn't work for me. So figure out yours. Number three, don't have a to-do list, but have a to-start list. And what I mean by that is, a to-do list is a list of everything that you need to do. A start list is like, well, where's the most important place to start, right? So when we have a to-do list, like, for example, I could have on my to-do list, write a chapter of my book. Now, that's quite a big thing on my to-do list, but what's my to-start list? Okay, to start, write out what I think the chapter breakdown is going to be, right?

14:35Let's say on your to-do list, it says to complete a presentation. Okay, but to start, what do you need to read? So your start list almost makes it so easy for you that you just lock in rather than you look at the item on your to-do list. Now, this takes an extra step when you're planning. When you're planning, you may have to sit down and think to yourself, OK, I have this to-do list. OK, what do I need to start? So it's an extra step in advance. But then when you wake up and you look at your to-start list, you know exactly what to get locked into. I think this has been a game changer for me because so often you look at your to-do list and maybe a to-do list is work on that, you know, got to finish off that project for work or maybe the to-do list is obviously for simple things like laundry or whatever, that's different.

15:23I'm talking about things that you've kind of been putting off for a while, things that get stuck on that to-do list for too long, things that are always there almost it feels like. Have a to start list, not a to-do list.

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16:58This next one applies to that as well. How many of you on your to-do list cross things off? How many of you will put a cross next to it or put a line through it? Now, this is really simple and you may be like, Jay, that's not gonna work. I believe it all works and I'll tell you why. It's because you're constantly in communication with yourself and our body and mind picks up on subtle cues very strongly. There are subtle things in society that have been so hardwired. For example, if you see a cross next to something, you generally think it's wrong from school. If you see a cross next to something, it generally means don't enter, do not go here, caution, right?

17:45That is a symbol. It's an emblem for something. Now, you may not process that logically, you can differentiate between a cross on your to-do list and a cross at a traffic signal or a sign or when they have those train crossings. You can tell the difference logically, but subtly, when you're not processing it that intentionally, you're getting a negative impact. So what I want you to do is swap your crosses for ticks. Put a big tick, put a color tick, put a green tick, seeing color, seeing a certain symbol, color gives us a certain emotion. And we devalue how much these things work. We undervalue how powerful these things can be, right?

18:28We just think, oh yeah, it's just, you know, this is just pseudo stuff. It's like, yeah, sure. Maybe, maybe there isn't something massively scientific about it, but the idea that you're learning to give yourself positive affirmation, a positive validation of completion, a positive sense of self, I think it will make a big difference. One of the most well-known tools, which I only recently realized I was lucky to learn when I was very young, and just how many people never actually got exposed to it when they were young. And I wanted to share it with you. And if you know it, that's great. If you don't know it, then I really hope that this changes the way you work.

19:09It's called the Eisenhower matrix or the Eisenhower box. And Eisenhower's strategy for taking action was organizing the inbound of a task. So on your to-do list or a task that comes through, there are four ways of defining them according to Eisenhower. The four ways are either urgent and important. These are things that you will do immediately. There's important but not urgent. This is stuff that you'll have to schedule to do at another time. Then there's urgent but not important. This is ideally something that someone else can do. It may require you to do it but not with the same amount of intentionality and focus.

19:59And fourth, neither urgent nor important. And these are tasks that you actually want to get rid of. Now, when you start doing this, and I want you to do this, and again, it's almost like you'll think, well, why do I do that? Why don't I just get on with the task? Because you might find when you do this for the first time, a lot of the tasks that you're spending time on may be neither urgent nor important. I analyze every one of my meetings at work this way. We often go around the team meeting and my team will be filling me in on things. And I'm asking myself, how much of this was urgent? And how much of this was important?

20:36And how much of it required me? And so ask yourself, is this urgent and important? Let me do it immediately. Because often what we do is we trade what is important for what is urgent. And I think that's one of the biggest misses in productivity and time management. We get a request that's urgent for someone else. That's another thing. Not only is it not important for you, it's not urgent for you, it's urgent for someone else and we drop what we're doing. And being able to say, hey, I'm going to get back to you in five minutes. I've just got to finish something off. Hey, I've been working on that.

21:15What time do you need it by? When do you need it by and in what condition are you looking for? We're looking for it to be. Are you looking for it to be complete. I think these qualifying questions help you to plan it out, help you to factor it out. One of the big ones of this, this is the next principle, but this applies to the next principle very strongly. No email until 10 a.m. A lot of us, we get to work and the first thing we do, and I remember I used to do this as well, was I used to open my email. You're starting your day off with a few things. First of all, it's reactive. You haven't started proactively on what you need to focus on, you start reactively with what everyone else wants to focus on.

21:57Therefore, it's urgent to someone else, even if it's not urgent and important to you. And thirdly, you get distracted down a rabbit hole and you focus on things that you don't even know are of value to what you're trying to do. Set a time, no email for the first 30 minutes of the day, no email for the first hour when I get into work. I'm going to focus on my projects. I'm going to focus on what I need to deliver. I'm going to focus on what I need to build. That's how you want to plan your day out, right? That's how you want to focus. One of the next productivity tips that's made a big difference in my life is something I called goal of the day and goal of the week.

22:34I knew the goal of my day today was to script, research, and record two incredible solo episodes. This is one of them, right? That was my goal of the day because I'm traveling for the rest of the day today. I'm flying to London. And so my goal of the day is to get to London safely and do that. And that's it. I have a lunch in between for work. And that's but that's my goal. My goal is simple. It's the podcast. It's the solos. It's being present with all of you. That's the goal of the day. No matter what happens, I have won if this goes well. I think what we often do is we have 10 goals of the day.

23:08We have 10 goals of each day. And it's almost impossible. Now, this doesn't mean you don't do more tasks. I've done more tasks today. I haven't had the luxury of only doing two episodes. I've got a lot of other tasks to do today. But I'm very clearly in my mind saying to myself, this is the win. Because what happens is that every day will feel like a loss when you look at it and you look, I didn't get six out of 10 things done. But maybe you got two of the most important things done in those four things you got done. We don't properly weigh things for what their value truly is. We overvalue something and we undervalue something else or we give everything the same value and no tasks.

23:52Like to me, recording my solos today and doing a bit of housekeeping, they're not of the same value to my work. They're not of the same value to my life. They are of different value. And so the goal of the day has to be based around what you value today. Some days the goal of the day will be to get the dishes done tonight. Someday the goal of the day will be to get the laundry done and that's totally fine. But know your value. Set a goal of the day and set a goal of the week and pursue that. Don't pursue this endless feeling of I just want to check everything off my list. I just need to get everything done.

24:31Because you could get everything done and 10 more things are going to appear. But if you've done the big things, if you've done the big goals, goal of the day, the goal of the week, you're going to feel a sense of accomplishment. The next principle is know your best time to be productive and put the most important activity at that time. This is another self-awareness tip. If you know when you're most powerful, lean into that. I know that I'm at my best energy in the morning. I'm far better all the way up until 1 or 2 p.m. that is my golden time that is my most impactful time so I'm going to place one of my most important activities in that 9 a.m to 1 to 2 p.m slot then other things I'm going to add later on in the day what I find is a lot of us will find our best stuff we're doing it at the hardest times so many of us are trying to do our best work at the worst time during the day for us so get a sense of it.

25:31Observe yourself, audit yourself over the next week and ask yourself, what time of day was I most productive? What tasks do I find easiest? What builds my confidence? Am I better when I start with the hardest thing at the beginning of the day or the easiest thing at the start of the day? Know your best time and schedule accordingly. And this applies to the next rule, which is lean into beast mode. You have to follow momentum. Sometimes I'm on a streak where I'm just writing and it's really flowing. And I realized to myself, that's the win of the day. I'm going to switch some of my tasks and focus on that.

26:05Sometimes I'm in a recording mode and I can tell I've really locked in and I'm like, all right, let me just lean into this. Right. And I think a lot of us don't follow our momentum. We don't follow that desire and energy when it's flowing, it's flowing, go with it and lean into it. Now, if you work in a workplace with other people, the biggest blocker to productivity, people think it's chatter or noise. And that is there. There's some truth in that because one of the principles that I'll talk about later actually refers to that. But the one I want to talk about right now is actually one of the biggest causes of inefficiency at work is a lack of trust.

26:45When people have a lack of trust, you have to ask them three times for that document. When people have a lack of trust, you have to navigate a meeting so carefully that you're de-energized after the meeting. When people have a lack of trust and chemistry, there's likelihood of being more conflict or competitiveness. We have to try in our workplaces to create a space of workplace trust. And what that is, is to make sure people don't feel intimidated and you don't feel intimidated. And I know this is so hard because sadly, you're around people who have their ego up, their barrier up, their boundary up.

27:26You've kind of got into the same place now. So what do you do? And I've been there before as well. I remember being in workplaces where I really felt that it was backed up against the wall and I really didn't feel like people were warm, right? Not just to me, to each other. Sometimes people were warm to me and not to other people. And that made me uncomfortable. So what do you do? I can honestly say that leading with integrity, leading with respect, leading with your best self, communicating effectively, always going higher, no matter how hard it is, will ultimately win the trust of the right people.