Several years ago, I set on path to a more productive life. Here is a report on how I achieved it. I hope it helps you.

To-do Lists:

You absolutely need a to-do list. Period. Any app or a notepad would do. Personally, I use any.do as it allows you to categorize tasks based on urgency/time frame.

What it does:

Dramatically increases your odds of completing tasks. Frees up mental energy; so you can concentrate on the tasks themselves. Quickly complete small tasks which would have taken you days or weeks, merely because you would have forgotten them. When free from your regular responsibilities, you can tackle the little things instead of wasting time. Miracles happen when you note down the slightest of your ideas about large creative or technical projects, and turn them into action; instead of forgetting them immediately.

Not-important-tasks list:

I also maintain a not-important-tasks list. You should try it too. It clears your mind and your to-do list and lets you concentrate on the essential tasks instead of wasting time on tasks with little benefits/consequences.

Goals:

I maintain a list of goals and divide them into two categories: “Present” and “Future.” I also used to have a dedicated calendar for each goal, marking which days I have made progress towards the particular goal.

What it does:

Dramatically increases your odds of achieving a goal. Define which goals you are working on right now and know if you really are making progress. You will know if you are working on too many/too few goals. Setting realistic deadlines for your goals is a big motivator in the long run. Teaches you to work on your goals almost everyday — you do not want to break the streak.

I no longer log whether or not I made progress towards a particular goal on any given day, as right now I have grown enough to be automatically making progress towards them on an everyday basis, but it is a good idea if you are not there yet.

Habits:

When you have a to-do list and are doing great, you soon realize that you need a separate list of habits and repetitive tasks.

Again, you can have them under two separate categories: “Habits” and “Frequent Tasks” and also have a separate calendar for each of them, marking if I did it on any given date.

What it does:

Frees up your mind and to-do list. No more adding/deleting the same tasks every day. Once you develop a habit, you no longer need self-control or motivation to do it, and you can keep reaping the benefits from it. Daily logging teaches you to do it every day, without breaking the streak. You know if you are really making progress, get a sense if you are trying to do too many things at once.

Right now, instead of maintaining a simple list of habits, I have several categories in which they are divided, based on frequency.

Here are some examples of what each category contains:

Daily: Simple Chores and habits. Exercising and checking weight in the morning; walking and relaxing at night.

Weekly: Things that I want to do once every week are randomly assigned to either Mondays or Thursdays. Have habits you want to do bi-weekly? Assign them to both Mondays and Thursdays.

Read a book, go through all bookmarked pages, revise recently learned concepts are some of my weekly/bi-weekly habits.

Monthly: Mostly consists of utility bills, followed by monthly indirect tax payment. I also participate in a monthly book club. As all utility bills do not arrive by 1st of the month, I do these between 15th to 20th of every month.

Quarterly: Quarterly submission of indirect tax reports. Revision of concepts learned during the quarter.

Yearly: Renewal of domain names & hosting, filling of direct taxes. As taxes cannot be filled during Jan, I do these tasks on 15th-20th April.

What it does:

Clears up the to-do. You do not forget the tasks you have to do many weeks/months later, and you also don’t have to look at them each time you open your to-do list. Helps in breaking bad habits. Doing something daily? Why not slowly reduce the frequency to bi-weekly and then weekly. Clearly define the date/time for habits you have already developed. Ex.: only one day per week of eating fast food — on Mondays. You can also set short-term repetitive tasks to weekly/bi-weekly. Ex.: reminding someone to do something.

If you are new to this, it is best to start with 1–2 new habits and gradually move to such a system.

The Quantified Self (Points):

Its a relatively new concept and very few people actually use it. I too don’t use it anymore. Anyhow, here me out, as it had a significant impact on me and can help you too.

Basically, you assign points to yourself for everything you do. Implemented with different rules by different people and apps. I had to try various rules before zeroing in on the one that suits me best.

Here is the system I had:

A “Daily Points” system. You cannot carry forward points from previs days. You start with 0 points every day. No negative points, no spending of points, no fines, no rewards, no bonus points. Keep it simple. Points at the end of the day is a measure of your productivity. You can set a goal of how many points you want to earn each day. I also had the system of “Weekly Points” for some time, as it is not possible to have the same productivity on weekends.

Why no spending of points?

Spending on rewards creates a virtual economy, making it complicated. Causes Overjustification effect, i.e., the all habits vanish, and the individual becomes even less motivated than before when the rewards are removed. Any changes in the system can decrease the price of an item in the virtual economy, making it very attractive to the individual who can then reward himself with it many many times, which would reduce productivity. Earning zero points while performing non-work activities is good enough.

Why reset to zero points over and over again?

I experimented with an ever-increasing point system, but they are problematic as the human brain does not respond to absolute values as well as to the proportion of change.

An important point to note here is that you cannot compare your points with someone else’s as there would inevitably be some differences in the system or how many points you assign to same/similar tasks and habits.

What did this system teach me?

Learned to be hard working. Pick up tasks one after another instead of drifting off to breaks/leisure. Don’t celebrate yesterday’s success. Don’t dwell on yesterday’s failure. You have to work hard to ‘win’ today. Clearly know, which days were more productive, in spite of dealing with widely different tasks. The only way to earn points is to work now, the only way to lose points is not to work now. Gave me dopamine rush for things I wanted to do, instead of only for things designed by companies to give me a dopamine rush. Others’ (and sometimes your own) assessment of how productive you are and how much you are the right path, can be vastly different from the reality you see in your daily points. To measure self on one’s own terms, not to derive one’s self worth or measure from external people, apps or social media.

It greatly depends on how seriously you take it. Now, if you already have all these benefits sorted out, you do not need a quantified life, but for those who do not, there’s no harm in trying.

Quick Add:

The concept here is that when the thought of doing a small task occurs, you can immediately complete it, without adding it to your to-do list. Want points? Just add the points for your completed tasks.

Also, it is best to limit the number of points for each task to either 2, 5 or 10, or whatever works for you. Instead of assessing the difficulty and duration of each task and assigning points to each of them — that is a lot of unnecessary work.

Pro-tip: Award points for your best effort, not for results which are out of your control.

Timers:

A great tool while doing anything that takes several hours at a stretch: studying, reading, programming, etc.

What it does:

Put an end to overestimating the amount of time you spend working and underestimating the amount of time you spend on other activities. Just run the timer, give yourself 10 points per hour instead of determining points for every task individually. Do one or more tasks while the timer is running.

Pomodoro Timer:

If you find your mind wandering off a lot or if you are constantly thinking of taking a break when working with the simple timer, you should give Pomodoro timer a try. Here you are pre-committing to working for 25mins straight followed by a 5 min break or work for 45 mins straight and take 15 minutes break.

Once you start the Pomodoro, you have to complete it no matter what, else, it is considered “void” and you get no points for it.

Time Since Last Activity:

It is just a cool idea I have had, but wasn’t able to try as there are no apps which have implemented it. Basically, after completion of each task, it automatically calculates the time passed since your last task completion.

How it can help:

Quick, hassle-free estimate of how productive you have been. If you have just completed a small task and the timer says a few minutes, it is a good sign, but if it says a few hours, you need to manage your work time and leisure time better. Can teach someone to pick one task after another instead of deviating to leisure activities. Can inspire people to complete small, little tasks in succession quickly.

Winstreak:

One day, I came across this image, and it motivates me even today:

Inspired by it, I had a “Yes, I did it!” calendar for a long time. Every night, I would mark whether or not I reached the “Yes, I did it!” step.

Here are all the benefits I derived from this exercise (your experience may be different):

Made me feel a sense of accomplishment after a productive day. Instead of using a separate calendar for each goal and habit, just use this one most of the time. Much simpler. Record of which days I did well and for how many days consecutively. Motivated me to stay on track — didn’t wanted to break the streak. Motivated me on days I had a lazy start and didn’t have enough time left to achieve daily points target — I can still ‘win’ the day here. Stopped me from being all about the daily points goal. Encouraged me to socialize, attend a friend’s birthday party, etc., as I would ‘loose’ the day if I do not, no matter how many points I scored that day. Forced me to get over some hesitations and fears. I could have scored the daily points goal without doing it, but then I cannot truly say, “Yes, I did it!” — which means I ‘lost’ the day. Thought me to focus on the tasks I have already decided to do, instead of drifting off to just-thought-of-not-so-important-tasks such as (i) “Let’s watch one more video on this topic” (ii) “Let’s simply keep exploring this software — and give myself more points for it.”

Concluding Remarks:

No single goal, habit or trick can give you a happy and productive life. Only when you have been through a lot of these, you start to see the real benefits. For example, I learned to do smaller, easier tasks as breaks from big difficult ones. The system, on the whole, caused it, no individual aspect. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Also, by no means are the things mentioned in this article are all you need, and everyone’s needs are a little different. I hope this helped. Thanks.