The 9 productivity hacks I wish I knew when I was 20:
1. The Daily Highlight

I learned this from the book “Make Time”.

Basically, choose ONE IMPORTANT THING each day that is a non-negotiable task.

Ignore everything else until it's finished.

Working hard is important.
—But it's wasted if you don't work on the right things.
Check out the summary of "Make Time" on Shortform:
(It's packed with tips like this)

shortform.com/colby

Shortform makes the world's best guides to non-fiction books.
2. The Pomodoro Technique

I've seen some pushback on this lately which surprises me.

Yes, it's simple.
But the power is in the INTENTION.

99% of people sit down to “work” and totally half-ass it.

Why?

Because they never set an intention to lock-in and get shit done.
3. Consume content on 1.5x speed

I finally caved and started doing this.

—Took about 2 minutes to adjust.

Comprehension rate seems almost exactly the same.

Highly recommend.
4. Time Blocking

Block out your entire day—hour by hour.

Assigning a task to each block.

This takes wicked discipline—but the results are transformative if you stick with it.
5. Do Not Disturb Mode

Notifications are the nemesis of productivity.

Imagine working in an office.
And putting a sign on your desk that says "PLEASE BOTHER ME".

That's what you're doing when you keep notifications on.
6. Batch similar tasks together

Each time you start a new style of task—your brain needs to boot up a different operating system.

Admin tasks.
Creative tasks.
Knowledge tasks.

Keep similar tasks together to avoid task-switching.
7. 2-Minute Rule

If you have a task that take less than 2 minutes to finish.
—DO IT NOW

This goes hand in hand with batching.

Clear out your queue of tiny tasks, so you can focus on the big, important tasks.
8. 5-Minute Rule (Procrastination buster)

The hardest part of any task is getting started.

Try this:

1. Set a timer for 5 minutes
2. Work on a task you've put off
3. After 5 minutes, you can stop (if you want)

90% of the time—you won't want to stop once you've started.
9. Make it enjoyable

Most of us don't have Jocko Willink level discipline.

And we never will.

A key part of making productivity sustainable is to make it enjoyable.

Small things go a long way:
- Good cup of coffee
- A playlist you love
- Nice workspace
That's a wrap!

If you enjoyed this thread:

1. Follow me @growwithcolby for more of these
2. RT the tweet below to share this thread with your audience
Want to get 1% better every day?

Sign up for my free newsletter.

I'll send you the 5 best tips, hacks, and resources I find each week.

Join here: colbynewsletter.ck.page

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Colby Kultgen

Colby Kultgen Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @thecolbykultgen

Feb 4
How to fix your sleep (once and for all):
My sleep was SHIT for the longest time.

I kept expecting it to get better without taking actual steps to fix it.

One morning—after sleeping through my alarm for the second time that week.

I decided it was time for a change.

Here's what I did:
Let's break it down like this:

🔴 6 hours before bed
🟠 3 hours before bed
🟡 1 hour before bed
🟢 In bed
🔵 One-time changes

There are important steps to take at each of these intervals, which can have a huge impact on our sleep.
Read 11 tweets
Feb 1
Hard pills you need to swallow (if you want to unfuck yourself):
If you can't start today—you won't start tomorrow either.
There's someone out there who's way less qualified than you—living the life you want.

Simply because they took action.
Read 14 tweets
Jan 30
5 reasons to start before you feel ready:
1. You will suck in the beginning

No amount of preparation will allow you to skip the inevitable "I suck" phase.

Get started now, be terrible for a while, and get it over with.

There is no avoiding it.
2. Your plan will change as you go

Amazon started as a bookstore.
Netflix mailed people DVDs.

It's impossible to know the exact path your plan will take.

The sooner you get started—the sooner you can start overcoming the inevitable bumps in the road that you will encounter.
Read 8 tweets
Jan 28
How to achieve your biggest goals.

The 90/90/1 Rule:
“Life’s too short to play small with your talents”

—Robin Sharma (@RobinSharma)
In Robin Sharma's book—The 5AM Club.

He lays out a number of techniques to cut through distraction and achieve massive success in life.

My favorite is the 90/90/1 Rule:
Read 11 tweets
Jan 27
7 habits that are making you dumb:
🍕 Poor diet

"Junk" food doesn't just hurt your body.

Diets high in fat and refined sugar have been shown to shrink the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory.

How to fix:
- Eat whole, nutrient-dense foods
- Reduce intake of highly-processed food
👀 Task Switching AKA Multitasking

Multitasking can be ok.

But only if one of the tasks requires little to no brain power.

Good multitasking:
Cleaning and listening to a podcast at the same time.

Bad multitasking:
Switching between 9 different tabs and 5 different tasks.
Read 10 tweets
Jan 26
7 apps I use every day to become smarter (install them ASAP):
✅ Todoist - Task manager (FREE)

todoist.com

This app is my second brain.

I use it to:

- Collect ideas
- Manage my schedule
- Remind me about important events

Todoist takes care of the menial tasks, so my actual brain has space to do creative work.
📚 Shortform - Book summaries
(5 days FREE with my link)

shortform.com/colby

Shortform makes the world’s best guides to non-fiction books.

Like book summaries on steroids.

I use it to:
- Get content ideas
- Preview books
- Revisit books
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(