It seems as if everyone wants to gain unauthorized access to data in various systems. One “hack” pertains to maximizing daily output in a time where we are engineered inextricably to hustle culture and instant gratification. I’m not exempt, but the most effective hack I have ever implemented that consistently garner productive results are habits. There are good and bad habits—both resulting from which choice you ascertain to be the blue or red pill. I use five habits that maintain productivity boosts.
The first habit I established through osmosis was to create a routine and stick to it. My father must be one of the most regimented human beings inhabiting earth. He invariably wakes up around 530am to head out for an arduous hike in his favorite canyon or for a workout at one of his frequented gyms. By 930am, he’s in the grocery store maneuvering through the aisles. With a boxer’s gait, he simultaneously wields his gregarious charisma while looking for things for him and my mother at their house. Around 1015am, he’s at home making steel cut oatmeal with blueberries, almond shavings, and honey—with a side of cottage cheese and sliced nectarine. My mother has now joined him, and they eat breakfast together. At 11am, my mother usually leaves the house (she has a more flexible routine) to offer herself indispensably to the copious community involvements she enjoys.
My father proceeds to put on his jazz music and read the paper. Then he’ll clean and take care of whatever needs to be taken care of at the house. At 2pm, he’s down for a two-hour nap. 4pm, he’s taking a warm Epson salt bath. My mom has joined him again. Sometimes he has his own community engagements, but most of the time, him and my mother start to prepare dinner while the local news on. They eat and watch the national news before breaking off into their own interests—my mother watching HGTV (Most notably “House Hunters”), and my father goes to his man cave to watch Lebron James (He watches every. Single. Game). Depending on how the game is going or ending, he’ll switch over to TCM (Turner Classic Movies). Between 915pm and 930pm, he’s nodding off to sleep and my mother is at the door doing her best to suppress her sniggling as she takes pictures to send to me and my sisters. He wakes up and goes to bed with my mother. I don’t care what kind of emergency or natural disaster attempts to interfere with or thwart his routine, he remains immovable within it.
During the monsoon season in Tucson when torrential rains pound the desert, he grabs his sturdy umbrella and goes to the canyon for his hike. If someone’s house is on fire or someone has passed away just before he’s about to take his nap, he simply says, “there’s nothing I can do now to change the situation.” It sounds calloused or even a bit stoic, but I’m sure Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca would agree that the first law of nature is self-preservation. I’m being somewhat hyperbolic in that he does only these 365 days a year. He talks on the phone with his family. Him and mother go out on dates, to events, and travel, but that routine boomerangs back intact. He’s very productive because of his routine. Always has been.
Ironically, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree as I am fairly regimented myself. As a writer, I vacillate between extremes of routine— one being a strict one that mirrors my father’s, and the other acquiescing to the whims writing instrument. In connection to the first routine, I find myself waking up, going to bed, eating the same thing, and being active at the same times during that duration. In relation to the second routine, the sporadic swerve of my pencil, pen, or keypad determines the path of my days. In this case, I discipline myself to write a maintained number of pages per day which in turn forms the routine. Either way, when I establish a routine, I tend to produce much more than when I’m milling around aimlessly without one. It’s like writing something down to hold yourself accountable for follow up of a task identified. This leads to my second habit— setting clear goals.
In junior high school, I went to basketball practice one day with my teammates. To our astonishment when we got to the court, there were no basketballs available to shoot around with. On the court, there were fourteen notepads with a pen placed atop each one. One of my teammates belted out, “Aye coach, where are the balls at!?” Our coach proceeded to remain mum and point to the notepads. When we walked over to the notepads, each one had a sticker with our names on them. After our coach told us to pick up our new gifts, we walked over to the bleachers with him and sat down. “For today’s practice, we are going to write down our individual and team goals.” As much as I loved basketball, I somehow knew this was the perfect opportunity to cultivate a new habit that would help me beyond the borders of a rectangular court. My goals looked amorphous on my notepad, defying the laws of mere athletics as I strategically delineated plans to raise my grades, limit lollygagging with some of my knucklehead chums, and setting quotas at home for assigned chores.
I kept that notepad on me all the time and at the end of the semester, I had a 3.8 grade point average. My room and bathroom stayed clean. I wasn’t getting into as much trouble or mischief as the elders called it. I also lead my basketball team to an undefeated city championship as the captain. I was sold on the goal thing. For years. In college, I got away from setting clear goals, but years after college, I found myself creating a vision board with my goals now illustrated and placed in plain sight were that same old accountability was rekindled. Like the past, productivity took off as if I was waking up every morning on an airport runway.
With habits of establishing a routine and setting clear goals, I’ve learned that prioritizing tasks, taking breaks, and minimizing distractions formulate an efficacious quintuple that can boast productivity. One habit that allows you to prioritize a task is by simply making your bed. This gives you the potential to get into a habit of establishing a sense of accomplishment first thing in the morning which can create momentum throughout the day. This task is easily dismissed as inconsequential, but it holds paramount power. I asked a friend who had overcome a long period of depression how they managed to surmount a despondency they felt mired in for so long. Prioritizing the task of making their bed gave them an outlet to match their mental state with their environment, creating more production in the space of well-being (Nature’s first law revisited).
As an ambitious person, I’ve also learned that taking breaks paradoxically authorizes more production. You can only produce until you burn out. Taking breaks are analogous to the pit stop— rest, sustenance, and doing nothing become the rotation of tires, brake fluid, and engine rejuvenation your vessel needs to perform at its optimum. The most obvious habit that boasts productivity is minimizing distractions and as a writer, I can exemplify this habit’s benefit best by saying that it would have taken much less time to finish writing about productivity— by turning off my phone to offset the text message and social media alert pings that proved to present manifold. Turning off my phone will should inevitably minimize distractions next time.
—
This Post is republished on Medium.
—
Photo credit: iStock