“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed”

~Peter Drucker

You are a smart person, right?

Because you KNOW that the only two major constraints in your life and business that are holding you back are TIME and MONEY.

The funny thing is that those two constraints are intertwined.

What do I mean?

If you have no time, but money, you can always create more time by spending money on hiring extra help; expand your staff, hire consultants or outsource part of your tasks.

If you have no money, but time, you can always create more money by spending your time on income generating activities; get an extra job, sell your services as a consultant, start a new business or focus more time on income generating tasks in your existing business.

You might be thinking: “Okay, Tor, I get it. But what if I don`t have time nor money?”

Well, that is the million dollar question, isn`t it?

And the answer is…

*Drum roll*

You should start to create MORE TIME in your life, and if you want more money, you can spend that extra time to earn more money.

How do I know this?

Because I have done it myself.

So in other words…

if you know how to create more time, you will be able remove both major constraints, time and money, in your life and business

That is pretty cool, right?

Becoming more productive and being able to free up more time and leveraging your existing time, is one of the most skills that can literally multiply your success.

If you can become more productive, you can achieve more by working less and create the life you dream of (which you deserve).

So for this important topic, I had to bring in help from some of the best experts in their respected fields.

As you probably have guessed from the headline, 80 experts will share their wisdom with you.

Yes, you read correct, I said 80.

I asked them the following question:

What is your best productivity tip that you use in your business?

Note: this is definitely one of the best collections of expert productivity tips out there. When you see the contributors on this post, you will understand why.

If you don`t agree, send me an email and I will lash myself with a wet noodle. This post is over 13 000 words and you should bookmark this page for future reference.

Additional note: This blog post won the Most Epic category and got featured on Boost Blog Traffic.





When Glen Long, Managing Editor of Boost Blog Traffic, says that a post is truly epic.

Well…then it IS truly epic.

Note: Do you want this post with the 80 awesome experts as a PDF file?

Click on the image below to get the PDF file + my free eBook “Insane Productivity Hacks” showing you a step-by-step system to DOUBLE your productivity in 7 days.

If I were to give a proper introduction of all of the experts with all of their merits, the list of their achievements alone would surpass 13 000 words by far. I would definitely advise you to check out every single one of the experts.

Without further ado, here are the experts…

(Click on the links below to go directly to the experts.)

Neil Patel | Evan Carmichael | Yaro Starak | Joel Brown | Jaime Tardy

John Lee Dumas | Chris Ducker | Ian Cleary | Donna Moritz | Henneke Duistermaat

Scott Eddy | Meghan M.Biro | Laura Vanderkam | Craig Jarrow | Mike Vardy

Aaron Lynn | Mark Shead | Annie Mueller | Todd R.Tresidder | Jennifer Gresham

Jonathan Mead | Glen Long | Annemarie Cross | Jennifer Johnson | Ramsay Taplin

Pauline Cabrera | Farnoosh Brock | Martina McGowan | Ebong Eka | Brittany Bullen

Ryan Cruz | Stuart Walker | Henrik Edberg | Adam Connell | Sue Anne Dunlevie |

Jenna Dalton | Adrienne Smith | Sara Arrow | Primoz Bozic | Adam Binder

Marc Andre | Ryan Biddulph | Enstine Muki | Jaime Buckley | Sylviane Nuccio

Samar Owais | Andrea Beltrami | Anthony Metivier | Christian Karasiewicz | Ankit Oberoi

Brandon Schaefer | Dennis Seymour | Mandie Sanders | Pooja Lohana | Darren DeMatas

Harleena Singh | Carol Amato | Sonia Thompson | Sarah Peterson | Brent Jones

Kevin Duncan | Paul Back | Peter Banerjea | Matthew Loomis | Fabrizio Van Marciano

Deborah Tutnauer | Brandon Yanofsky | Lauren Tharp | Codrut Turcanu | Nathan Ambrose

Andrew Warner | Ash Read | Barry Moore | Jason Will | David Amerland

Matthew Capala | Erlend Bakke | Jomer Gregorio | Drew Briney | Luke Jordan



Neil Patel from NeilPatel





The best productivity tip I use in my business has to deal with emails. A lot of people spend countless hours in their inbox because they are inefficient.

To save time, don’t open up your emails unless you have time to respond. Otherwise you will end up reading the email, coming back to it later, reading it again, and then replying. By only reading emails when you have time to respond to them, you’ll save time because you won’t have to re-read the same email.

Don’t open up your emails unless you have time to respond. Click To Tweet



Evan Carmichael from EvanCarmichael

Chunk your time.

Things you do many times per day do once per day (email, social media, etc).

Things you do multiple times per week do one day per week (meetings, writing, etc.) It will add hours to your week every week and literally saved my business and my sanity.

Things you do many times per day do once per day. Click To Tweet



Yaro Starak from Entrepreneurs-Journey





My number one technique is really two concepts combined, the 80/20 Rule and the Theory of Constraints.

I use the 80/20 Rule to identify the tasks that deliver the big results, and deliberately ignore the rest. This is key because being productive is just as much about what tasks you choose NOT to do, as it is what you do.

The Theory Of Constraints shows me what I am missing in order to complete a task or meet a goal. Once I know the most important goals thanks to the 80/20 Rule, the TOC then tells me what is missing to make those goals happen.

This combination means I am always focused on the most important tasks that lead to completing the most important goals.

The challenge is knowing what your 80/20 goals are and what are the constraints that are stopping you from completing them. Once you figure that out, everything else is easy because you know exactly what you need to do.

Everything is decided before you even start work – it’s all about what you choose to do!

Use the 80/20 Rule and the Theory of Constraints. Click To Tweet



Joel Brown from Addicted2Success

Manage your energy! From the moment you wake up to the moment you rest your head, if you want to be productive and efficient with execution in any area of your life, you must learn to manage your energy. Exercise, drinking plenty of water, keeping your stress levels down and meditating. Meditation is a great way to rebalance the levels of energy in your body.

Time is no longer the most important commodity, Energy is. Who has lived more fully? Someone who sits on a couch all day and lives to 100 years old? Or someone who dies at 80 and had enough energy, to travel the world, achieve their dreams and experience everything they possibly could while they were here and breathing?

Energy is the life force for effective productivity.



Jaime Tardy from Eventual Millionaire

I think the best productivity tip is doing the RIGHT things.

Time will slip away unless you know the actions that will provide the most impact to your business.

So first you need to know your goal and what you are aiming at. Once you do, I like to differentiate between active actions and passive actions. Active actions are the ones that PUSH you outside of your comfort zone towards that goal. Passive actions are all the other things. (Like email, and social media checking!) When you focus on ACTIVE actions then you’ll hit your goal faster and easier.

And that’s the whole point of productivity! 😉



John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur On Fire

Schedule Once is by far the biggest time saver in my life. Being a Podcast host that interviews 8 Entrepreneurs a week, Schedule Once turns a potential scheduling nightmare into a simple email with a link, and takes care of follow up, reminders, and booking in the calendar of choice. LOVE it!



Chris Ducker from ChrisDucker

I have one very simple productivity rule that I have and it works brilliantly! It’s as simple as using your calendar properly. Bottom line, everything goes on my calendar. And I do mean everything – email time, social media time, thinking time, publishing time, everything. My rule of thumb is: If it doesn’t get scheduled, it doesn’t get done!



Ian Cleary from Razor Social

Use an editorial calendar for blogging. It’s very difficult to be successful on social media without a blog but it can be the most time consuming part to social media.

An editorial calendar helps you plan out your content and assign out any tasks related to the content. By planning and scheduling the content there are many advantages:

Planning will reduce time you spend on blogging

It will ensure you have more variety to the content you produce

It will help when there are multiple team members involved.

A great editorial tool to use is CoSchedule.



Donna Moritz of Socially Sorted

The best way that I have found to stay productive is to focus on one thing at a time and quit multi-tasking. Focusing on “one thing” enables me to get bigger projects done without getting distracted. A number of small actions help with this:

– Block booking any consultations, podcasts or interviews into one or two mornings a week. I was finding that I was getting very distracted from task-switching when jumping from a podcast interview to working on a project. When I started blog booking my appointments using V-Cita or Calendly, it freed up my time and made me more focused and in “the zone” for interviews.

-Using Google Calendar to allocate blocks of time to different activities such as interviews, program development, blogging. Then I would enter in specific tasks within those blocks of time. It really helps when planning projects and launches.

– Batch my blogging, visual content creation and social media posts. This was a game changer. By batching my blog posts or social media posts I had more time to engage with people, and work on other projects that bring in revenue.

-Switch off social media platforms (and sometimes literally taking the apps off my phone) when I need to stay really focused.

I’m not perfect… sometimes I stray, but having even some of these strategies in place makes a huge difference to my productivity levels (and reduces overwhelm!).



Henneke Duistermaat from Enchanting Marketing

Productivity is about doing more things that give me energy and fewer energy-sucking tasks. Rather than try to cram as much work as possible into my to-do list, I think about my working hours and wonder: (A) What would I like to do with these hours? And (B) What would benefit my business most?

The key to productivity is setting the right priorities – working on tasks that you enjoy and that benefit your business.



Scott Eddy from MrScottEddy

The best tip I can give is to know what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are. I do not get close to things that I know I am not good at, I find people that are way smarter than me, and then let them get it done. When someone thinks they can do anything, that is dangerous territory, and is a recipe for disaster.



Meghan M.Biro from Talent Culture

Don’t be afraid to try out new technology and productivity tools to help you and your team to stay on track (and on the same page.) Focus on what you enjoy in business and in life – this will help you to stay productive and prioritize what you need to focus on right now.

In addition, motivating and fostering a strong company culture is key to make your organization a productive one.



Laura Vanderkam from LauraVanderkam

I make sure to plan my week before I’m in it. Each Friday, I look at what’s on my calendar, and think about what are my professional and personal priorities, and what needs to happen to move me toward my goals. It’s hard to start new projects on Friday afternoons, so doing this planning then turns what could be wasted time into productive time. Also, by planning on Friday, I can relax on the weekend knowing there’s a plan for Monday. Then when I hit Monday, I know what I’m doing so I don’t waste productive morning time deciding. I’m ready to go!



Craig Jarrow from Time Management Ninja

Saying No to Get More Done

Most people have a hard time saying “No” in their business. In fact, most people will say “Yes” to a request, even if it keeps them from getting their own work done.

You need to be able to “Say No” in three major areas:

Interruptions – Don’t let email, instant messages, or the phone interrupt you. Close that email client, turn off the notifications, and silence your phone. I go to the extreme that I won’t even answer calls from numbers not in my address book.

Appointments – Just because you received an invite doesn’t mean you have to say “Yes” to that meeting. Decline appointments that are not worth your time, or conflict with your priorities. Beware meetings that have no agenda or should be a quick conversation vs. a get together.

Obligations – It can be tempting to say “Yes” when people ask for favors. However, you can’t take on other people’s work if you aren’t getting your own done.

Saying “No” in your business isn’t about being rude. It’s about being productive and getting work done.



Mike Vardy from Productivityist

I’d say that working according to mode more than anything else has been a real game-changer for me and my business. Instead of focusing on working by project – or even action – I look at my tasks based on mode (Writing Mode, Email Mode, Planning Mode, Home Mode) so that my mindset is better connected to the tasks I need to complete.

In addition, I tether those modes to the map of my day and my plans for the week and beyond. I allocate themes to every day of the week and those themes help inform what my overarching focus should be for that day based on best practices and desired work and lifestyle. For example, I tend to tackle most of my administrative tasks on Thursdays because that is when the theme of the day is Admin. So I’ll look at all the tasks across multiple projects that have the Admin Mode tag/label and work on those things. I have found that by giving your brain waypoints like daily themes and modes that you can use to steer yourself and your life in the right direction, your overall effectiveness, efficiency and quality of life will improve in a big way.

Aaron Lynn from Asian Efficiency

Nice and simple:

Write your to do list the night before.

This may seem simple, but it lets your subconscious work on what you have planned as you sleep, and you’ll wake up the next morning full of purpose and momentum – and that leads to a VERY productive day.

The most powerful tip I know for productivity is this: Stop doing stuff that isn’t valuable. So much of what people do in attempting to be productive involves just trying to fit more low value tasks into the same amount of time. Being productive means accomplishing more with the same or less effort. What is valuable is different from person to person and it also depends on your stage in life. There was a time where mowing my own lawn was valuable to me and there may be a time in the future when it will be again. Right now it isn’t and I hire someone to mow. Hiring someone to do tasks for you is one way to stop doing tasks, but so is getting rid of things that eat up your time or declining events and activities. You don’t need to become a hermit, delete your Facebook account and get rid of all your stuff, but you have to recognize that your time is a very limited resource. Spending it on things and people that are valuable to you is one of the most important pieces of being productive.



Annie Mueller from Freakishly Productive

The shift that has helped my productivity most is to change my mindset. As long as I identify myself as a victim of whatever interrupts my productivity –whether that is my kids, or spouse, or emails, or whatever–then I remain helpless to overcome it. I have no power, I am subject to what happens in a day, and my productivity remains out of my hands. It took me a while to see that taking responsibility is taking power. It’s taking control. And ultimately it means gaining freedom. When I focus on the power I have over my own choices and responses, I gain conscious control again, and I can determine my own path: freedom.

Many people don’t realize that they are taking the victim role. We do it automatically, because it is easier to blame than to look hard at our own choices. It takes courage to think through the circumstances and focus on our own mistakes, not so we can beat ourselves up, but so we can decide how to do it differently next time… and, most importantly, realize we have the power to do it differently. Taking responsibility means facing your fear, and fear is the thing that messes up our thinking more than anything else.



Todd R.Tresidder from Financial Mentor

Below is my favorite time management tip that few people follow…

Do the hard stuff first. Think of the one thing that will have the biggest, positive impact on your business and start your day working on it. Don’t clear emails first or make phone calls or do anything else that is comfortable or easy. They will all get done anyway. Instead, start with the hard stuff. The big projects that have big impact. Think of the one thing that will move the ball forward the most and make it the top priority – every day. When you accomplish that big, difficult project then everything else will be easy.



Jennifer Gresham from Everyday Bright

Productivity doesn’t happen, can’t happen really, without clarity. You need a clear idea of the outcomes you want to produce and the strategies that will get you there. When I find myself spinning my wheels it is nearly always because I haven’t taken the time to get clear on those two things. For example, when I was trying to grow my business, I jumped from one strategy to the next without much luck–strategies that didn’t play to my strengths, that I wasn’t excited about implementing, and didn’t relate well to the outcomes I wanted. I wasted a year trying to duplicate someone else’s success, then catapulted my earnings more than 5x within a month after stepping back and getting clear on what would really move the needle forward. Productivity, in my mind, is the flower of strategy.



Jonathan Mead from Paid To Exist

Choose to do projects that make you come alive. Do what you can’t not do, so that the motivation and inspiration makes it hard for you to stop, not hard to get started.



Glen Long from Boost Blog Traffic

At Boost Blog Traffic we’re a small, distributed team and since no two people are in the same location (and most are in different time zones) it can be tricky to keep track of what everyone is doing. This sometimes leads to duplication of effort or time spent working on problems others have already solved.

So we’re putting a big emphasis on tools this year: Slack instead of email for team communication, Asana for task management and basic planning, and Google Drive for content collaboration. It’s all tied together with a company wiki that describes our best practices for the various tools we use.



Annemarie Cross from AnnemarieCross

I’m the first admit that I can easily become distracted and unproductive IF I let myself, so I have compiled a number of strategies I follow on a daily basis to ensure tasks get done.

Here’s what I do as part of my Productivity Ritual:

1. Remove any and all distractions, which includes social media, emails and phones (Gasp! Yes, you read correctly – shut it all down).

2. Identify the time of day you are at your best and schedule important tasks that require your full concentration during that time. For me, mornings are when I am at my best, which is when I work on writing articles and other content creation projects.

3. Batch similar tasks together. For instance I’ll batch all of my writing and creative tasks together in the morning, all of my follow up phone calls later in the day, and checking emails and responding as necessary at certain times of the day. Doing this enables me to ‘get in the flow’ and maintain my momentum.

4. Set a timer for 30 minutes and work uninterrupted during that time frame. You’ll be surprised just how much you can get done in such a short amount of time.

5. No multitasking – EVER! I learned this lesson the hard way after accidently deleting my entire website with one click of a button, when working on several tasks and not concentrating. Never again. (Thank goodness for backups).

There you have it; five steps to keep you focused and on-track to knock your productivity goals – out of the park, every time!



Jennifer Johnson from Coaches Connection Academy

As busy entrepreneurs driven to build our business, we can tend to get boggled down with so many needs, and get so stuck in the busy-ness of all the details required in running a business, that we fall into overwhelm. Whether it is the behind the scenes, such as marketing, networking & connecting and follow ups, or the seemingly never ending emails and social media postings…then, of course, there are all the details necessary for providing great service and taking excellent care of your clients. There always seems to be ‘one more thing’ on the to-do list…or one more thing that didn’t make it to the ‘to-do’ list.

While I have systems for each of these components (thank goodness!) Even with systems, you need a simple ‘master system’, to manage the flow of your smaller, individual systems. My answer is Planner Pad! It is a hub for all you thoughts, post it notes, meetings, follow-ups, goal setting, and expense tracking all in one organized space. It acts as a funnel system, which visually lays everything out clearly so you can be your best!

My business is made up of multiple components, each one very much like its own business, and I also am blessed to have time to give back as a volunteer with a couple of great organizations. My Planner Pad has been the best thing ever for me! Check it out for

yourself at www.plannerpads.com



Ramsay Taplin from Blog Tyrant

The best thing I ever did for the productivity of my business was work hard to find good people to outsource to. In fact, it took me well over two years of trial and error until I found the right person! Now, however, whenever I need a new design or coding job I can just shoot a quick email and it’s done in minutes.

For example, in my guide on how to start a blog I go over dozens and dozens of tasks a new blogger might need to do. If you’re a total beginner it might take you a week. But if you spend $100 you could hire someone to set it all up for you in less than a day.

I think part of being productive is focusing on what you are good at and not wasting time trying to learn every different aspect of your business. Find other experts to help you with that.



Pauline Cabrera from TwelveSkip

My best productivity tip? Write a weekly or daily to-do list but be sure to be realistic. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Just put down what you can do for a week or for a day, and be specific.

I use a paper planner to write my to-do lists and an iPhone to create reminders. This way I can better track of my progress and my schedule.

Having a “to-do” list in front of me is my way to encourage myself to get things done, thus become more productive. When I see a list that I have to do, I always feel like I have to focus and do it because I’m excited to see the outcome, and I don’t want any feelings of regret later.

So make it a habit to write down a “to-do” list every day or every week instead of wasting your energy trying to remember the things you need to complete.



Farnoosh Brock from Prolific Living

Are you obsessed with getting less sleep so you can secretly brag about it? The person who sleeps 4 hours a night is not a hero. Sleep loss can lead to serious health issues, loss of focus, and according to WebMd, it dumbs you down! Ouch!

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve tried every hack to sleep less over the years, and now that I am getting enough sleep, my productivity has doubled! Doubled!! I love my waking hours just like you, and yes, I do wish that we needed less sleep so we could participate longer hours in life, but that’s not up to us to change, and if you force yourself to sleep less, it catches up sooner or later.

Commit to getting enough sleep and be proud of it. And trust the rested happy body to give back with focus and productivity.



Martina McGowan from MartinaMcGowan

There are two key things that I focus on, and a great deal flows from the. The first is, self-management. Self-management means presenting my best, authentic self in all situations. Knowing myself well- highs/ lows, peaks/ valleys, most (and least) productive times of day, how to sense and make adjustments for fatigue and negativity. It is about managing me- my time, my moods, my focus and attention, as well as life’s distractions.



Ebong Eka from EbongEka

My life changed once I realized the importance of my time and productivity. I write a daily to do list, which is done by many, but I directly align each task with my intended outcome. So I only do things that are related to a measurable goal. As Dan Pena, the 50 Billion Dollars man says, “what can be measured gets accomplished. The other thing I do is set blocks of time to accomplish longer tasks – I put my phone in a box (in the car). In addition, I disable the Internet or I go to a secluded place. I believe there’s happiness and pleasure in progress. I tend to get momentum when I accomplish tasks regardless of how small or minor they appear to be. Too many people work for the sake of working and fall prey to minutiae activities. This is why I align my actions with a specific and intentional goal.



Brittany Bullen from BrittanyBullen

My new favorite thing is Boomerang Calendar for Gmail.

What this tool allows me to do is view my availability and schedule meetings from my inbox instead of having to open a separate window. I can also suggest possible meeting times within the body of an email and when the recipient clicks the time they want, we both receive a calendar invite so I don’t have to enter the appointment manually. So basically, I now have a robot-secretary! Pretty cool.



Ryan Cruz from Traffic Salad

Actually I have two tips that I’ve constantly used but they are closely related.

1. Make time for your business – We all have 24 hours a day, and it’s important that I invest at least 1 hour a day for my business. And that 1 hour in business doesn’t include browsing “viral” stuff on the web (which could be a big productivity killer!)

2. Have a systemized step-by-step plan for every business process that I have. – I constantly tweak a step-by-step plan for almost every aspect of my business. If I’m going to start a “new blog” or website, I already have a checklist of things to do (and tweak as necessary). If I’m going to do a promotion, I also have a list of set of checklist that I follow. I’ve found that this has saved me a lot of time and has helped me become more productive.

The second tip is, understanding the real desired goal or aim. There are always many things going on, and not everyone is on the same page about what needs to be done. There are many paths that can lead to the expected, or hoped-for outcome. But, you must know where you are trying to go or what you are trying to achieve ultimately. Stay prepared to broaden your thinking. Be ready for change, or a shift in perspective.



Stuart Walker from Niche Hacks

The best thing I’ve found is to lay out my goals for the year, break those down into quarterly achievements I’d like to hit then work out what I have to do each week / day to get that done. Then break it down into a small list of daily tasks and schedule them on Google Calendar to have them mailed to me every day.

It tells me exactly what I have to do so I can just get on with it. Don’t always stick to doing my lists but if I’ve not plan like that I end up forgetting what I should be doing and do nothing.



Henrik Edberg from Positivity Blog

My tip would be to just take one small step forward at a time. And to focus 100% on that small step and nothing else.

This is, in my experience, one of the most effective ways to reduce the pressure and the expectations you may put on yourself and to start moving out of standing still or procrastination. Plus, by being fully focused on that small step with less pressure on yourself you’ll do a better job too.

It may not sound like much but these small steps quickly add up.



Adam Connell from Blogging Wizard and Purcus

Choose the right time to manage your emails.

Email is the first thing some people check when they get up. The issue with this is that you start each day on someone else’s terms.

Sure, if your job revolves around responding to email (e.g. customer support) then there’s no way around this. But if that isn’t the case, it’s worth blocking out some time in the afternoon to manage emails.

This will ensure that your day is focused around what you need to do, not what other people need you to do.



Sue Anne Dunlevie from Successful Blogging

I use Evernote as an additional memory bank! I can capture my blog post ideas and synch them over all my devices so I can always jot down my potential headlines and topics when I’m out and about.

I prefer to keep my to-do list in a moleskin notebook (old school style). But I can take a picture of any of my pages with the CamScanner app for Android and save them to Evernote.

Evernote is the best thing to happen to my productivity. They also have cool accessories and notebooks that you can get on Evernote Market.



Jenna Dalton from JennaDalton