Have you ever noticed that some of the most productive people seem calm and relaxed while others are furiously working yet seem to get nothing accomplished? I certainly have.

Hi, I’m Don Smith, the founder of The Personal Growth Channel, a popular personal development community with nearly 20,000 followers. I’m also a father of five, a general manager at an IT company, a board member, certified life coach, club coach for Toastmasters, high school group leader at my church, and read several books and write several articles most weeks.

The other day, someone asked me how I do all of that. That got me thinking about what I do, which led to this article. The funny thing is that I’ve found productivity often has more to do with what you DON’T do rather than what you do. Here are five tips for a more productive day.

5 Tips For Increasing Your Productivity

Productive Versus Unproductive People

Ever heard of the 80/20 rule? That one that says 80% of your results come from 20% of your activity, and 80% of your time is wasted on the 80% of your activity that produces nothing? If you’ve ever read much at all, I’m sure you have. Here is what most people’s days look like.

Actual Photo of a Typical Person’s Day

Let’s contrast that with what a highly productive person’s day looks like.

Actual Photo of a Productive Person’s Day

The second person in this picture is likely to be much more relaxed, yet many times more productive.

So how do you go about restructuring your day to spend the majority of your time being productive?

1. Create a Priority List Each Day, Then Mark Useless Shit Off

Create a list of your to-do items at the end or beginning of each day. Add in things that you know that you need to do to maintain your health like exercising and strengthen your skills like reading for personal development. Now, cross off anything that isn’t productive. If you’re like most people, that’s probably about half your list. Congrats, you’re halfway done before you even got started! Learn to say no!

I like to keep a physical notebook nearby for this purpose, it makes me feel accomplished to look down and see a bunch of things marked off at the end of the day. It also helps make sure I don’t forget anything (which happens more than I care to admit) and allows me to decide what to do next based on the priority.

2. Use Multi-Tasking and Single-Tasking Wisely

Multi-tasking is the enemy of productivity in my experience, but only in certain circumstances. When I’m focused on completing a project, I’m focused. Any time you take your attention off a project and move it to something else, that robs precious minutes from your day as your brain has to readjust to the task at hand.

If something is urgent, important, and a higher priority, then it will need to be dealt with first before returning to the task at hand. Normally putting all of your focus on the new priority task until it is completed or better yet delegating it if that’s a possibility is your best bet if this happens. I would still consider this single-tasking though, where you should put all your resources into completing the highest priority task first.

Multi-tasking is not always bad though. There are some tasks that do lend themselves well to multi-tasking. These tasks are typically ones where you have periods of time where you are waiting for something or someone before you can continue the task.

For example, years ago when I was a computer technician, we were installing software on computers in a lab. It takes some time each time you press a key to get to the next screen when installing software, so I would go from one machine to the next after pressing a key rather than waiting for the computer to finish its tasks. By the time I got back to the first PC, it would be ready for the next prompt. I once finished loading 10 PC’s in the time it took a coworker to load one PC as he sat waiting for that PC to go to the next screen without moving to the next PC.

My point is there are exceptions, but in general, you’ll want to stay focused on the task at hand or you’ll lose precious time finding your place again.

3. Log Your Day

For the next week, I challenge you to log what you are doing every half hour of the day. I guarantee you’ll find time-wasting activities. Eliminate them if you want to be productive.

4. Go Slow to Go Fast

In the article “Need Speed? Slow Down.” from the Harvard Business Review, 343 companies were analyzed and a paradox was found. Leaders that took the time to pause and reflect rather than constantly “go go go” routinely beat out the competition.

There’s an old story about an old lumberjack and an up and coming young lumberjack. Full of energy, the young lumberjack worked tirelessly, while the old lumberjack took a 15-minute break every hour. Yet at the end of the day, the old lumberjack had managed to cut down nearly a third more trees than the young man! When asked, the old lumberjack smiled and said, “Every hour, I stopped and sharpened my ax. That allowed me to get more done with less effort.”

“Every hour, I stopped and sharpened my ax. That allowed me to get more done with less effort.”

Slow down and sharpen your ax from time to time.

5. Guard Your Calendar

Guard your calendar. Block off time for those things that are important. Be sure to pencil in time for your children, spouse, health, thinking, fun, and recovery time.

Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, once turned to Bill Gates in an interview and said, “I can buy anything I ever want, except time.” Guard your time and use it wisely, you’ll never get it back.