Plan Your Day the Night Before

If you are really serious about getting things done, take a couple minutes the night before and plan out your day. It works wonders, especially when you stick to the plan. Try it out for a few weeks or a month and see how much more you get done throughout the course of your day.

Prioritize the More Important First

We all have numerous things that we need to get done in the course of our day. Start by tackling the most important things first. Prioritizing everything that you need to do allows you to get the stuff done that is more important first, then focus on the issues that aren’t quite as important.

Don’t Leave Emails Sitting in Your Inbox

We all do it, and to be honest, it’s pretty stupid when you think about it. We take the time to log on to our email account, read an email that is in our inbox, and then close our email without responding. From now on act on all those emails you read. Save yourself the time of coming back and re-reading an email and having to respond. Plus, this will eliminate that email that gets lost in the shuffle for a few days that we forget to act on.

Get Started

This seems so obvious but it needs mentioning. The only way to get things done is to start. Stop procrastinating and start getting things done.

Avoid Disruptions

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Get off them and get stuff done. You’d be shocked how much time we actually spend messing around on social media and the internet in general. Stay off these sites until you get your actual work done.

No Multi-Tasking

We all think we can do it, none of us do it well. When we try to get 3 things done at once we either get nothing accomplished or we get half assed results from all the things we are trying to get done. Stick to one task, complete it, and repeat.

Be Slow and Make Sure You Get Things Done Right the First Time

To piggyback off the no multi-tasking thought, get things done and get them done right the first time. Spend the time to do things correctly. If you don’t have a ton of time to do things, having to do things over and over again because you never do things right the first is a simple way to make sure your productivity is terrible.

Set and Respect Deadlines

I think it’s safe to say we all set deadlines. I think it’s also safe to say many of us don’t respect those deadlines. Keep setting deadlines but make them realistic – then hold yourself accountable and respect meeting those deadlines.

Keep a Notebook and Write Things Down

This is one of my favorites and something I learned from Mike Boyle, someone who has a ton of stuff going on in his life yet gets everything done and then some more. Simply get some type of notebook and write things down. Ideas pop into our head at the most random times – write things down immediately and stay on top of everything that you need to get done.