How to Double Your Productivity

You’ve probably heard someone (maybe me) say something like, “You don’t need more storage; you need less clutter.” Well, you also don’t need more time; you need to double your productivity.

So, tell me, how many times a day do you say, “I’m busy” or “I don’t have time for that”? (Cue a chorus of “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”). No time to rest, read, grab coffee with a friend, meditate, or go to the gym. Even though all of these activities actually increase productivity and stamina in the long run.

My real purpose with this article is to get you to a place where you can enjoy all of that newfound sweet, sweet free time. I want you to message me next week after you wake up from the best nap of your life or finish that book that changes you forever.

Focus on the things that produce a result.

There are really only two reasons we consistently feel busy and short on time. One is that we’re allowing too many things to have pieces of our time—letting too much in. The other is that we’re allowing the things that DO have our time to take too much of it.

Think of it like balls in a glass jar. The glass jar can't expand beyond what it can currently hold. The two reasons for the glass being overly full are that there are too many damn balls or that the balls themselves are too big. We’re going to talk about the latter in a minute.

Right now, I want to focus on the “too many balls” scenario. Chances are, you’re trying to do a lot more than you need to. You’re taking on too much. We have this false belief that ‘busy’ equals ‘productive.’ That’s not the case.

There are many things that we can do to fill our time that have no actual impact and don’t bear fruit. If the limb isn’t producing some mighty fine fruit, then that limb needs to be cut so that the nutrients- i.e., your time and energy- can go to other things that are actually producing. Removing the unnecessary will not only double your productivity but improve your sanity!

Learn how to set the right kind of goals. Actions are only productive if they're producing something. If it isn’t producing, then it’s just time-sucking busy work. Think of yourself as a ruthless gardener immediately chopping away nutrient-wasting limbs as they present.

Set a time limit.

There are many tools available to help you with this (here's one of my favorites). Now, let’s talk about the second scenario: allowing the things that have our time to take up too much of it (or, as the analogy states, the balls are too big).

“Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” -Parkinson’s Law.

If you give yourself a week to complete a task, then it’s going to take a week. And it’s going to end up being an addition to the other tasks that pop up later on throughout the week. Think of the essay that you had a semester to write that you waited until the night before to complete. We have all done this in some area of our lives.

Procrastination is absolutely a habit. After you give into it that first time, it’s twice as easy to give into it the next time, and so on. It’s a type of resistance that grows stronger with each victory. And as it grows stronger, the balls grow larger (i.e., the tasks take up more and more of your time). 

Think of your life as a bubble-popping game. If all of your tasks are floating around you like bubbles, and these bubbles expand over time, your goal is to pop the bubbles (or finish the task) before they reach a certain size.

Now, what size that is is up to you. You’re the one who will inevitably be responsible for the time limit you set for your tasks. But keep in mind that the shorter, the better if you want to double your productivity. If you could complete all of your work in a 3-hour-per-day time frame, think of how many hours would be left for you to enjoy life.

Stop trying to be a perfectionist.

When I tell you to fit your productive tasks and activities into a short time frame (like 3 hours), your mind probably immediately thinks, “It takes longer than that to produce good quality.”

First of all, your quality within this time frame will definitely increase over time with practice. But the real issue here is that in trying to be a perfectionist, you’re not only sucking up your own time, but you’re also delaying the benefits of the thing that you’re producing.

Done is better than perfect.

Author Brooke Castillo talks about the power of B-work and says that if we ever want to produce big results, we have to start being okay with B-work instead of holding out for perfection. Am I asking you to double your productivity by decreasing your standards? Maybe. If your current standards are for perfection, then absolutely.

Perfectionism as a lifestyle has many psychological, social, and productive drawbacks. A simpler approach will definitely take you further.

Most big projects will never be perfect enough. You might be able to improve on it over time and make it better (depending on what you’re producing or accomplishing). But if you’re waiting for perfection, then you’ll never reach your goals.

I love the way James Clear puts it in his book Atomic Habits, where he says, "Just get your reps in." I love the simplicity of that. Just do the thing that needs to be done and do it enough that the habit sticks. 

Hebb's Law says: "Neurons that fire together wire together." You build your brain to match the things you do consistently. You develop those habits and neural pathways so that you not only double your productivity but also make the process significantly easier.