4 Steps to Supercharge Your Weekly Productivity 🚀
Issue #87: The 4-Step Productivity Plan That Will Change Your Work Week. How To Overcome Writer's Block. Be Devoted To Your Craft.
💡 Here are 3-tips to help you learn, grow, and be inspired this week!
🎓 Learn
In today's newsletter, I want to share a 4-step process that helps me boost my productivity every week.
One of our core values at the company—and a personal focus for me— is to get 1% better every day.
I focus on finding (and using) the right tools and apps to speed up and enhance my work efficiency, not just the tools themselves but also the right features in these tools.
However, to truly maximize productivity, we must also optimize our daily and weekly workflow.
Here’s the 4-step process I use and teach my team to improve both our personal and work productivity:
Step #1: Eliminate
Do you know the biggest productivity killer? It’s trying to optimize a task that you didn’t even have to do.
It's reaching the top of the mountain after days of hard work only to realize you climbed the wrong mountain—such a waste of time, right?
Ask yourself three key questions to decide if you can eliminate this task:
Does this move me closer to my most important goals? If not it’s most likely a distraction.
Is this task going to drain my energy? Even if it’s important, is it worth my time and energy?
Is it a shiny object? Beware of shiny objects; they are your biggest time waster.
To cut out unnecessary tasks, you can:
Check your calendar for recurring meetings that aren’t necessary. Change their frequency from daily to weekly, or weekly to monthly, or even less often.
Conduct an energy audit: Color code repetitive tasks—green for those that energize you and red for those that drain you. Try to eliminate (or automate/delegate) the red tasks.
Use my guide to deal with shiny object syndrome.
Step #2: Simplify
After eliminating unnecessary tasks from step #1, simplify the ones that remain. Focus especially on tasks you do repeatedly.
How to simplify:
Create a streamlined process.
Cut out unnecessary steps.
Here’s how I simplified my newsletter publishing process, reducing the time from 8-10 hours to just 3-5 hours per week.
Once you simplify your workflow: it’s easy to automate it using step #3, or delegate to someone in step #4. Also, a simple process is faster and less taxing on your energy.
Here are a few more simplification tips:
Think about how you can simplify your daily meal planning. Example: my morning breakfast.
How can you simplify your daily outfit? Example: Wearing the same colored t-shirt for work every day.
How can you simplify the process of taking notes for your meeting? Example: Try this YouTube tutorial and template.
Step #3: Automate
For tasks you’ve simplified, or even those you couldn’t simplify, consider how you can automate them.
Here are a few examples of the tasks that I have automated:
#1 Sending emails newsletter to Readwise: Using gmail’s auto-forwarder feature, I forward all the email newsletters that I have subscribed to the Readwise app (which I use to read blogs and email newsletter). That way, all the blog articles or newsletters I’m interested in are in one place.
#2 Uploading Zoom call recordings to Google Drive: I use the Google Drive app for Mac, and all my Zoom call recordings are automatically uploaded to Google Drive so I can easily and quickly share them with my team members.
Tools you can use to automate your tasks:
Apple's Shortcut app is excellent for a simple (and free) automation tool for iPhone or Mac users.
Platforms like Zapier or IFTTT are great for more advanced automation.
Step #4: Delegate
Delegation is not only for managers and executives. You can (and should) leverage delegation at both personal and professional levels, even if you are starting your career. let me explain how!
First, calculate your hourly rate → Annual Income / 1920 hours in a year.
Let’s say your hourly rate is $40.
Now, ask this question: Can someone else do the task you are doing on Fiverr, Task Rabbit, or a virtual assistant for $10 (a quarter of your hourly rate)?
If the answer is Yes! then, Delegate.
Ideal tasks for delegation:
Something that you do repeatedly for more than 10 times in a year.
Tasks you don't enjoy (are in red), as identified in your energy audit (step #1).
Tasks outside your skillset that others can do, 2x faster or 4x cheaper than you.
Summary
I hope these tips help you streamline your day, boost your weekly productivity, and inspire you to focus on what’s truly important. Here’s a recap of my productivity framework:
🚀 Growth Tip
One of my LinkedIn connections recently asked me for advice on overcoming writer's block.
While I'm not a professional writer, I enjoy writing and believe it's a valuable skill for personal and professional development. I shared 4 tips with Sunidhi, and I thought I'd pass them along here too, hoping they might help you as well.
🤩 Inspiration
Here are a few inspiring words to play our best in life and work, from the book I’m reading currently:
... be devoted to your hopes, ideals, and mighty mission.
... be devoted to consistency, mastery, and only what is good.
... be devoted to having a clean character and a rich heart.
… be devoted to the winning habits of champions and the daily routines of excellence.
… be devoted to increasing your connection with others and making them feel bigger in your presence.
… be devoted to doing whatever it takes to becoming supremely good at what you do for a living.
... be devoted to leaving the Earth better than you found it.
Anil
May the Peaceful Growth be with you! 🪴
P.S. Some of you asked for my favorite short (10-20 min) yoga practices. Here is the YouTube playlist of short yoga practices that I do every day.