Your Complete Guide on How to Become More Productive
By: Danny Forest
Tags: Education, Self Improvement, Productivity, Life Lessons, Learning

Expectations

In your first 100 hours of learning Productivity, you should be able to:

✅ Formulate your “why” in a single, clear sentence

✅ Journal for clarity

✅ Do your Ikigai and Map of Life

✅ Delegate the urgent but not important tasks

✅ Say no to the wrong things

✅ Get better at SMART goal-setting

✅ Plan your work and life effectively

✅ Improve in using the 80/20 rule

✅ Do proper time blocking and auditing

✅ Improve your sleep hygiene further

✅ Improve on your ability to power nap

✅ Establish productive workout routines

✅ Track your habits

✅ Learn about nutrition and eat the right ingredients

✅ Increase your positivity

✅ Understand the science of timing

How to go from good to great in Productivity

Prepare

There’s a lot going on in this phase. Like you did during the first phase, start by reading the material provided in the above skill tree. There are many new concepts you should understand at this point. The order you start with doesn’t really matter. You’ll practice everything right after anyway.

You should spend about 15 minutes reading material for the first four weeks. Review what you read after one week and one month after first reading it. This will help you retain the information for longer.

Overall, you will spend about 7–10 hours reading and understanding the concepts proposed in this phase.

Practice

There is so much to practice during this phase. The most important aspect of productivity is doing the right things. For that, nothing beats having a clear life goal — your “why”. We’ve included many resources on the topic in the skill tree above. My two favourite activities are doing your Map of Life and Ikigai. Your Map of Life should be revisited monthly, and take up to one hour to do. Ikigai can be revisited less frequently. I do it about once every year. It takes longer to do; usually around 3–4 hours for me. Once you’ve done both, it’s much easier to formula your why.

I like to use the 5 whys method for that. Basically, start by asking yourself: “why do I do what I do?” To your answer, ask why again. Do that at least 5 times to get a proper answer.

All the above exercises should be done in a journal. It doesn’t matter if it’s electronic or paper, as long as you write your thoughts. The paper version has the added benefit of involving more senses, and for most people, is slower than typing. This allows you more time to think before writing.

There are also many other ways journaling can help you be more productive. Make sure to review the resources we’ve included on this page and in the skill tree above.

One of the most underrated aspects of productivity is delegation. You should have learned more about that when you read about the Eisenhower Matrix and practiced it. We’re talking about quadrant III activities; the urgent but not important tasks. Note the “not important” here just refers to you. It doesn’t mean the task isn’t important to do. Your goal is to find who would find it important and also has the capacity to do it. If you find someone like that, they’re the ideal candidate to delegate to.

So, during this phase, figure out what you can effectively delegate and how you’re going to go about it. Create a plan for this. Hire an assistant if it makes sense. Involve colleagues, friends or family otherwise. Once the plan is done, put it into practice right away. Reflect on your experience, refine your process, and improve.

Another thing that’s crucial to great productivity is saying no to things. You only have so much time, so if you’re too nice to others with it, you’re sacrificing your productivity. Check out the resources we’ve included for that, try to find a way to make it impossible for you to say yes to the wrong things. This could mean printing a list and keep it in front of your work environment (or your fridge at home), so you’re always reminded what isn’t that important to do. Get creative here and you’ll be rewarded with a lot more focus, time, and energy.

During this phase, it’s also important to improve upon what you learned during the last phase, including SMART goals, the Eisenhower Matrix, improving sleep hygiene, and more. Make sure to spend at least one hour per week refining the techniques you learned.

To your routine, as much as you can, include power napping. When you combine walking breaks and power napping during your day, you will be fully energized the whole day. One walking break and one power nap are usually all I need. If you need more, that’s fine too.

During this phase, you also want to start building routines and habits. My suggestion is to start with atomic/micro habits you can do in less than 5 minutes. You may also want to look into compound habits. For example, after you’re done brushing your teeth, do 5 push-ups. When you combine atomic and compound habits, you start doing a lot more while not feeling like you need to block time for them. That’s really powerful.

At some point during the first few weeks, start looking at nutrients that promote good health and provide energy. You’d be surprised how much of what you eat affects your mood and overall energy levels. We’ve included resources that show you exactly what you should be eating to increase your energy. If you can start eating them during this phase, it will help you perform the rest.

And last but not least, read the books we’ve included in the “when” section of the skill tree. You’ll understand so much more about why you perform doing certain things at certain times. This will help you plan better, meaning, plan things at the right times of the day.

Ponder

With every week and month of practice, reflect on the usual questions:

What went right?

What went wrong?

How can I improve?

In addition, near the end of your 100 hours, reflect on the following questions: