We often blame our lack of productivity on outside distractions.

Even when we manage to remove all distractions, even when nobody is calling us, when everyone in the world is sleeping, the environment is most conducive to being productive – our monkey brain does not let us focus and be productive.

If we want to be productive, then we still need to fight our greatest enemy — ourselves.

Here are three ways you can do it.

Productivity Hacks You Can Put to Use Right Now

#1 Get Actual Work Done With Pomodoro Technique

Pomodoro Technique is a simple system, in which you set a timer for 25 minutes and focus on one task for those 25 minutes. Then you take a five-minute break and work for another 25 minutes. One 25 minute session is one Pomodoro.

You can do multiple pomodoros. After 4 pomodoros take a longer 15-20 minutes break.

#2 Save Time on Email Triage

Create four email folders. Once that you check once a year, another than you check once a quarter, one monthly folder, and one that you check once a week.

Anything that you are not going to tackle, move to one of these folders, and come back on a designated day, date to look at when it is needed later.

After you do it a couple of times, you’ll know how much time it takes to go through each folder. So, you can plan and schedule a time to go through them when you do it next.

 #3 Use an Outcome-Based Approach

Outcomes over tasks.

Be intentional about what you do daily, weekly, and monthly.

Focus on daily outcomes, and until you’ve achieved your outcome for the day, don’t stop. 

Leverage pomodoros as shared above to focus.

For weekly outcome-focused action, do a middle of the week check.

And monthly outcomes, do a weekly to make sure that you are on track.

Hope you’ll use these to supercharge your productivity.