You don’t waste time thinking, worrying, or procrastinating about doing what you need to do you just do it. In other words, when a positive discipline or healthy activity becomes a true habit - something you do automatically - you become more productive. “Routine is the best life hack,” said bestselling author Carrie Wilkerson. All other todos go in my personal todo app ( ToodleDo) or my team todo app ( Basecamp).For the critical 1–5 things that I’ve decided are must-dos for today’s work, I put them in my Pomodoro-style focusing app ( FocusList).If it’s something I’d like to do every day (or a certain day each week), but it’s OK to skip and just let it renew for the next day or week, I put it in Productive.If I think it must be done on a certain day or time, and bad things will happen if I forget it, I put it in Reminders so that I get a notification that doesn’t disappear until I check it as done.Here is how I decide which activities to put on my app tracker, rather than on my todo list or on another tool like the iOS Reminders app. Momentum is another popular habit tracker that makes this the primary feature of its interface, but I prefer the way Productive makes it a secondary screen. In addition, with another click, I can see a visual “chain” for each habit - where each completed day is another link in the chain, for the extra motivation of not breaking the chain. Keeps track of how often I completed an activity and how many days in a row While you can add bells and whistles like these in the app’s preference, I simply want to skim my list so I don’t forget any habits that I’ve decided are important to me. I don’t want any notifications adding stress or distraction to my day, nor do I want guilt when I decide to skip an activity because I’m too busy that day. These make it quick to see at a glance, and they add a bit of fun (psychologically motivating) each time I complete an activity. The screen shots made it look simple, and it is! After reading some reviews, I selected the app Productive (iOS only) for these reasons: Easy interface You could take it a step further by organizing the activities into three lists - morning, afternoon, and evening - so you can quickly scan the list to remind yourself of any things you’d like to do during a certain portion of the day.Īnd of course, there’s an app for that - in fact, many apps you could choose from. These are “hard” disciplines where adding gamification such as a bit of fun or reward can help.Įnter a habit tracker, which is an idea I learned about from the ebook Work Smarter, Not Harder: 30+ Productivity Hacks To Get More And Better Work Done In Less Time by David Burkus.Ī habit tracker could be very simple, such as a paper list of activities that you want to remember to do every day: Brush teeth, use mouthwash, kiss wife (in that order, or else she’ll avoid your kiss next time).
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