23 Micro Habits and Tools to Boost Your Productivity
How to accomplish more with less effort.
Struggling to get more done without feeling overwhelmed? These 7 tiny habits and tools will lower the amount of fuel needed to run things.
I chose the things that give the greatest possible results with the least possible effort.
1. Screen Zen
I have tested many apps that are supposed to prevent me from getting distracted by the funny little screen in my pocket and this one is the best for me. How it works? By increasing the friction in using your phone:
It gives a few seconds to reflect before you open a distracting app.
The setup is very simple, it will ask you for some permissions but don’t worry about that. The desktop equivalent for it is the “With Intention” Chrome extension.
Combine it with Grayscale mode! The idea is—putting your phone in grayscale will make the screen less appealing. I covered it in detail in the post linked below.
2. Use a clock instead of your phone
Your day won’t be productive after scrolling TikTok for an hour first thing in the morning. If your first reflex after waking up is reaching for the phone, get a traditional alarm clock and put the phone in a different room. You won’t waste time on your phone if it’s not there—so simple, yet effective.
3. Bag for essentials
Sometimes you have too much stuff for your pockets but not enough to carry a backpack. That's why I got a small bag for essentials, turned out to be a great idea. I don’t unpack it—it’s always ready, waiting by the door with everything I typically need inside.
I got the one from Carhartt and so far I have no complaints. Here (affiliate).
4. Switch to traditional books
If you read on Kindle or any form other than physical books, switch. There are two reasons for that:
Tangible physical object: This means 2 things: easy to just pick up and read, and more accountability—the physical cover staring at you is not the same as just a text file on your device.
The collecting aspect serves as a motivator: I often recommend creating visual indicators of progress, and books on the shelf are a great form of this.
And I’m talking only about reading here, audiobooks are great.
5. Two-Minute Rule
If a task takes less than two minutes, do it immediately. It prevents small tasks from piling up and gives you a quick sense of accomplishment.
6. Small tasks session
If a task takes longer than 2 minutes but is still relatively small—batch those and set aside a dedicated hour to do as many of them as possible in this time frame.
7. Goals in sight
Put your goals in sight, that’s basically it. I keep my short-term goals stuck up right above my monitor. The piece of paper with them is always in my peripheral vision. I like thinking of it as a direction sign—if I feel lost, I just look up to see where to go.
Write short-term goals and put them as your wallpaper, stick them on a piece of paper, or use this—my latest find:
Whiteboard wallpaper! It’s exactly what the name says, great stuff. You can buy this from this link so I get a small cut (affiliate).
8. 8-minute meditation
Find 8 minutes in your day for meditation. There are tons of meditation benefits including stress reduction, better focus and patience, lower anxiety and the list goes on. More here:
9. Rearrange your room
Your environment has the shape of you. Make it nice, clean, organized, and pleasant to look at. Changing something in your room also has that refreshment feeling to it + visible effects give you a quick motivation boost.
10. Combine stuff
I feel stupid saying this because of how obvious this is but apparently, it’s not so clear to everyone. Do 2 things at once! This doesn’t mean multitasking, this means listening to an audiobook while you drive, brushing your teeth while showering, doing Duolingo as you die in a multiplayer game, and… I don’t know, you come up with more examples.
11. Simple habit tracker
Log your daily habits to clearly see the path of your progress! I created a minimalistic habit tracker that includes everything for tracking habits effectively and nothing more. That is basically a checklist for your dream life! Get it here! (Or become a premium subscriber and get it for free in digital!)
12. 15 Minutes to keep up
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