One Simple Trick That Skyrockets Your Productivity 10x

Productivity is a very important thing. It doesn’t matter what we do productivity is going to play a role. Regardless if we are writing a book, hitting the gym, or even picking up women. Doing things efficiently and effectively is important, especially if we value our most precious resource. I have tried many different systems and apps for maximum efficiency but keeping coming back to this one time and time again. Nothing else no matter how fancy has given me back the ROI that this one has.

It’s simple and effective. It costs less than a penny a day yet ensures that you are always on track and striving towards your goals. Instead of muddling around going from here to there and ending up getting nowhere like the vast majority of the population. Remember life is about rising to the challenges and overcoming them, which makes goal setting and achieving an incredibly important part of your life.

The One Simple Trick

All you need for this is a simple pad of paper and a pen or pencil. What you do is the night before you write out a checklist of everything that you want to get done the next day. It’s as simple as that. So Sunday night you would sit down and you would write out all that you want to get accomplished on Monday. My recommendation would always be to stretch yourself a little bit as opposed to going to light to make sure you finish it all.

I know this seems incredibly simple and that’s because it is but nothing has done more for my productivity than this. I’ve done meditation, the fancy apps, complex planners, and such but always come back to this because of its effectiveness as well as its simplicity. I never forget to do it, it takes less than ten minutes and it always keeps me on track for the next day. Looking back I don’t know why I haven’t done this one little trick since the beginning.

Why Is It So Effective?

Writing things done has an effect on your brain unlike just thinking about something or even saying it. When you write something down your brain gives it more priority and it helps to cement it. For example think about when you are watching a presenter give a talk. Say it is about marketing. What the presenter says for the most part you are going to forget the second you walk out the door. Maybe you’ll remember a funny story and the relevant moral of it but other than that you’ll be lucky if you remember anything more than a tidbit here and there.

However write something down and you have a much higher chance of remembering it (even without reviewing it). For example if I don’t want to forget something I write it down. I started doing this so I could review it later to remember what I wanted to remember but it got to the point where I didn’t need to because once I had written down I didn’t forget it. The act of writing something down helps to center and focus your mind power on a particular thing or group of things. It also gets your subconscious working on your plan for the next day (always a good thing).

Expanding On The Trick

So what else can we do with this simple hack for productivity? In addition to writing out what I want to accomplish the next day I have also began writing out all I want accomplished for the week on Sunday nights (this is in addition to planning Monday). So say I want to get five articles written, a course completed, a book finished, three freelancing jobs completed, ten applications sent out, and so on and so forth I write it down on the weekly list. The weekly list changes much more than the daily list and by change I mean is added too.

It’s a good feeling to check things off your list. The simple act of checking also reinforces the use of the list and the good feelings that will be associated with it. The act of conquering one more thing feels good to a man. Especially when you look back over your old lists and see all that you have accomplished and want to accomplish even more and more. Now that I have organized myself with a checklist I can accomplish more in two days than I used to in a week.

Summary

Perhaps you were expecting something a little sexier or more out there. I know writing out a checklist isn’t the most revolutionary thing however it has been in my experience the most effective, and isn’t that what truly matters. For example walking up to a girl and telling her she’s hot isn’t revolutionary but it’s a hell lot more effective than dressing like a clown and doing cart wheels in front of her (or whatever the newest PUA advocates). Simple is usually better.

If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.

-Charles Sledge