25 Habits of Highly Productive People

What are the habits of highly productive people? How can I be more productive and see growth in life? If you are wondering about these questions and have been wanting to increase your productivity, then this post is for you!

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure here.

Table of Contents

Why can’t I be productive at all?

If you have been feeling and asking yourself the same question, why can’t I be productive at all, then? The chances are you have been practicing habits that kill productivity or not implementing habits that boost your productivity!

Or maybe you are being productive, but the toxic culture of getting more than no tasks done in a day – is making you feel less.

Productivity is about getting the essential and most effective tasks done that yield growth and not getting more smaller tasks, that may not contribute too much growth together.

Now Let’s Learn the Habits of Highly Productive People.

What do productive people do every day?

But first!

1. Focus on one thing at a time

One of the main reasons People struggle with being productive is that they get productivity all wrong. Doing multiple things at a time and getting more and more work done makes you feel that you did something.

But if you noticed, it has hardly contributed to growth in the area you wanted.

When you focus on one thing at a time and give it your full attention, you will start to see growth in the area. But, if you divide your focus on too many things, then the growth in all of them will be slow or stagnant.

2. Make Minimal To-do lists

Making to-do lists every-day is effective and helps you be productive, but do you know what is even better?

Making a minimal list of only 3 tasks a day! Writing from my own experience, Back in school, I would make to-do lists every day and write 10 lists, wanting to feel productive.

Out of the 10 tasks, I would get the easiest and not-so-important tasks first, and since I got plenty of easy tasks done, I would feel Productive.

But the most important task- That was studying for an exam or completing the assignment, I would never reach there because all the other easy things took my entire day and energy.

I ended up with more things to study and more assignments that were pending.

Now, my to-do list contains only 1-3 Important tasks, and focus on them getting them done! I will be talking about the 80/20 rule below that is related to this.

3. Surrounded in Work Environment

Being in the right environment plays a massive role in helping you focus and concentrate on the work. Whenever I am working from home, I never seem to get my things done. It is hard to focus and full of distractions and work.

That’s why Creating a work environment, either at home or going outside, where you can sit and focus on work, is Important.

4. Follow a Daily routine

One of the Habits of Highly Productive People is that they all have a Productive daily routine. Morning and evening routines that they follow religiously!

The Scientific reason behind this is that our body gets used to daily tasks and automatically gets into the zone.

If you sleep at the same time every day, then try staying awake next time, and you will find your body is naturally making you sleepy during that time. You will feel lazy, and your eyes will start shutting down.

Similarly, if you work at a particular time every day, eventually, your body will prepare itself in that zone for work.

5. Make time and Space for Rest

Every time you rest, do you feel unproductive and that you are wasting time when you should be doing something.

It is common, and even I go through it at times. We feel the need to work all the time even though our body doesn’t want to.

Resting is important to recover from feeling burned out, and I have seen the most productive or successful people Talk about resting and giving your health priority.

6. Get the most Important task First

You will start to see immediate growth once you shift your focus to doing the most essential task first and prioritizing tasks effectively.

The shift from wanting to get more tasks to just One Important task at a time.

The most important task is the one that will give you major results or progress, right? So getting it done first is what you need. Please do not waste time on smaller and easier activities, just for the sake of “feeling productive or working.”

Another reason is that the task that is usually the most important, might also be hard or time-consuming.

So you give all your time and energy to tackle it first and then move to others.

How to Prioritize Your Tasks

1. Do the important and urgent – first

2. Then urgent but not important – second

3. Important but not Urgent, Third

4. Not important nor Urgent, Last

7. Keep tools/Systems to simplify tasks

I swear by tools because they help you simplify tasks. Our mind can only remember a few things. That is why making lists is important

Tools like planners and apps that simplify your tasks are a great Investment! They ease your tasks and help you stay on Track.

I have a Post sharing 14 Best Planners that will help you organize your life

8. Plan Ahead

Whatever that is you need to do, Plan ahead. It not only saves your time but actually skyrockets your growth.

If, on the day of doing THE WORK, you are sitting, and thinking about how to and what to do,
Then Very unlikely you will actually get your task done on time or see progress.

9. Eliminate Distractions

We live in a world of the most Easiest and consuming Distractions. Most of us are distracted from the internet or social media as it is what we widely consume.

Mindlessly Scroll from Instagram or one youtube to another, and you lose track of time.

If you can, find ways to eliminate distractions and change things up.

Sometimes, When I find myself being extremely Distracted by any social media app, I tend to delete it for a while. Once my work is done, I download it back.

10. Multitasking is the enemy

In the First Point, I shared a similar thing. That was more towards sharing the power of focus and how, if you give your focus to one thing, The growth is Magical.

However, It is also important to realize now that, Multi-tasking is the enemy. It may make you feel as if you are being productive but it is doing quite the opposite.

It has been Scientifically proven that multi-tasking is bad for us and can cause stress and many other problems – read the source here

11. Automating or Delegating tasks

Some tasks can be done without you and do not require your presence. Automating those tasks can help you shift your energy and focus to what needs your attention will boost your productivity.

Especially, for self-employed or entrepreneurs that are doing all the work. It is time that you start automating your work!

12. Observe Your Energy

Apart from distraction, Another reason we tend to procrastinate is when our energy is low. If you find it happening multiple times, There is a pattern that you must observe.

Maybe at a particular time, you will be low? Maybe after eating something, you tend to feel sleepy or talk to someone, and you end up feeling drained.

Observe your energy and find triggers that are causing you to feel this way.

13. Learn from the best

Have you spent so much time trying to figure something out, learning, and failed multiple times?

What if you could go to someone who has done all of it, and knows exactly how it is done?
Imagine, How much time and energy you will save!

I am grateful for this time, where we have evolved so much, and have so many tools available, to get Knowledge at a click of a button.

There are so many people, sharing how they did what they do and sharing their exact strategy.

You can watch free youtube videos full of tutorials sharing the correct steps, which saves you time and can faster your growth.

Use this Opportunity and Learn from the best! Whether it is buying courses or reading books, 101 consultation, or anything!

14. Patience is Key

Understand that everything requires time. You might be doing everything right, and all you need to do is be patient for your work to come into reality.

A lot of times, just when we are about to see results, we give up because of impatience. Only if you hold on to it a little longer and do the work, you will start seeing growth.

15. Take Breaks In between

Taking Breaks Between work refreshes you and increases your focus. That leads to an increase in productivity, and you feel good mentally too!

Do not stress yourself with working nonstop and take 15-20 minutes of break after every 40 minutes of work.

16. Using the right Strategies

Whatever you are working towards and want to achieve, Maybe studies or a business idea.

Even if you are consistent and putting in the hours every day. Many times, you do not see much growth due to a lack of strategy or wrong strategies.

You may need to get the right way of studying so you can prepare better. You may need to reevaluate your strategies in business to see what you are doing wrong or not correctly.

That’s why using the right strategy is crucial.

17. Follow 80/20 rule

There is a Very Famous principle called The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule. It states that 80% of the outcome or result comes from 20% of the work. Read more here

What is the 80/20 rule for productivity?

In Productivity, It means that you need to find the 20% of work that is bringing you the 80% of growth or result in your work. Once you know the causes, you prioritize them and give them more attention to see much bigger results.

18. Set a Deadline

Remember as a kid, we used to delay all our holiday homework/assignments thinking we had so much time we would do them later?

And as the end date of submission came near, we would automatically get under the pressure of working and getting our work done.

That’s the power of setting a Deadline.

Our mind naturally starts feeling the pressure and constant reminder to complete a task when we have a deadline.

Hence, Set a deadline for each of your tasks, and you are more likely to finish it.

19. Good Peace of Mind

When you are going through something mentally, It gets hard to focus on work. You are surrounded by so many negative thoughts and feelings. Your mind will be distracted all the time.

Take a moment to journal and let your feeling and thoughts out and reach a calm mental space. Then you will able to give your focus to work.

20. Eating Mindfully

Our Food Choices affect our work and productivity. Unhealthy Foods can lower your productivity and make you feel lazy, whereas healthy foods help you increase productivity.

There are so many foods, that are good for the brain and are proven to Increase focus, energy, and concentration!

Some of these foods are

Almonds
Dark Chocolate
Banana
Green tea

21. Learn to say No

Do you also feel bad or difficult saying no to people? When your friends, family, or colleagues approach for help.

Even though you do not feel in your heart to help them and want to focus on your work, You still end up saying yes and pushing your own Boundaries?

Saying no and setting a clear boundary has been the toughest, yet most beautiful thing I did this year.

Understand that even you may want to help your loved ones but not at the cost of compromising your own growth.

You need to set a clear boundary and say when needed.
So much of our time gets wasted focusing on other people’s work than ours.

22. Cultivate Deep Work

There is a famous Book called Deep Work by Cal Newport That explains How you can cultivate deep work to increase your focus and get better results. I highly recommend reading the book. This has been one of the most seen Habits of Highly Productive People so far!

BUY ON AMAZON

23. Stay Consistent

When you start something new or create a new strategy, It is essential to stay consistent and stick to it. Staying Consistent with your goals works magically and is one of the habits I swear by! Read Here the Importance of Being Consistent with Goals – Here is Exactly How to

24. Don’t be Afraid of Failure

Being scared of failing has been the biggest de-motivator, and the reason many people never even try what they want.

Failures are truly the reason why we even succeed in life. It helps us know what went wrong, and it helps us change our mindset habits and patterns.

We failed and failed multiple times when learning how to walk as a kid or learning how to ride a bicycle.

It is what helps us achieve true Success. Failing Multiple times only improves our practice

25. Done is Better than perfect

I used to be one of those people who wanted things to be perfect from the start. If I want to do something, I would plan out and keep planning.

I used to say this all the time ” Once I reach this and Once I get that, then I will do this work.

But that day never came. And clearly, I never even executed What I wanted because I was busy trying to make it perfect.

Over time it cost me a lot. I was behind, and all the dreams, that I wanted never came true, and I learned it the hard way.

Since then, I have learned that Getting your Work DONE ( IMPERFECTLY) is Better than Having PERFECT work that never got DONE on time.

I shifted my focus to completing a task and improving as I go, and in fact, the more I practiced, the more I was getting better and seeing growth.

If you focus on Perfection more then, you will spend months making changes and tweaking your work, trying to perfect it when Perfection is just an illusion.

In reality, nothing is perfect. There will always be someone doing it better, and there will always be something more to improve.

End note on Habits of Highly Productive People

If you look above at all the habits of the productive people I mentioned, You will find that all of them are connected. Once you start implementing one habit, you will automatically get into the grove of another. Implement these in your life and see for yourself!

This Post was All about Habits of Highly Productive People

Pin for Later

If you like this, You’ll Love-

Follow me On Pinterest

Why can’t I be productive at all?