TL;DR:

There are a lot of life hacks I have tried over the years. Here are quick summaries of some of the ones that have worked for me. If any of them sound interesting, I encourage you to do some research on them to see if they are right for you.

Habit Stacking

Combine a new habit with an existing habit. For example, if you want to start flossing, do it right after you brush your teeth.

I leverage using ChatGPT while I write my daily journal. Image generation takes a while to complete, so I can write my journal while I wait.

Domino Habits

Stacking habits is great if you already have a habit that you can stack against. When you don’t it can be really helpful to create an arbitrary habit that you can stack other habits against. What works for me is setting a number of alarms throughout the day. This keeps me on track. The best one I have found is the nighttime alarm to remind me to go to bed. That positions me well to wake up at a good time and start my day off right. You can set other alarms throughout the day to remind you to do other things. For example, you can remind yourself to eat dinner at a regular time.

Habit Tracker

I wrote an article about this here.

Daily Reset

Many people find January 1st to be a good time to start new habits. I would do that and find that sometime in February my motivation begins to wane. Obviously January 1st is arbitrary, and nothing is stopping you from resetting more often than once a year. I started resetting once a month and that has worked well for me. You can however do this as frequently as you like, even as often as each day. I have found that the more frequently I reset, the more likely I am to stick to my habits. There is a balance between doing it too often and not often enough. Find your sweet spot.

Weekly and Monthly Review

In combination with the daily reset, I like to review how I did over the past week and month. I do this as part of my journal practice so that I do it consistently. I find that this helps me to stay on track and to make sure that I am making progress towards my goals.

Single goal for the day

I used to have an ever growing list of todos that I would pile on myself each day. This was fine initially, but became overwhelming over time. I have found that I am much more productive when I focus on a single goal for the day. I can still have a list of todos, but I make sure that I get the single goal done first. This has helped me to make progress on my goals and to feel less overwhelmed.

My current process is that I make the growing list, then pick 3 important goals from that list. Then I pick the most important goal from those 3. I make sure that I get that done first. If I have time, I will work on the other 2 goals. If not, I will work on them the next day.

Just spend 10 minutes on a task

Getting started is often the most difficult part of the task. It is easy to talk yourself out of doing anything. Rather than prevent yourself starting, commit to spending just 10 minutes on the task. But, there is something important you have to do. You have to give yourself the permission to actually stop after 10 minutes. If you don’t do that, then you are just tricking yourself and you will figure that out eventually and stop doing it.

Inbox zero

Getting the number of emails in your inbox down to zero is a constant challenge. There are many people that pride themselves in just how large the number next to their inbox is. Those people will suggest that having thousands of emails isn’t an issue because you can search them whenever you need information. I have found that to be a terrible way to manage my email.

Having zero emails clears that clutter from my mind. I can focus on the emails that are important to me. When I get a new email, I can address it immediately. Email is not a todo list. I move emails that I need to process to my todo list if needed.

Email subscriptions

Over time I accrue lost of email subscriptions. This habit obviously flies in the face of Inbox Zero. So, each year at Christmas I unsubscribe from subscriptions that I no longer find valuable. I am ruthless and figure that I can always resubscribe if I find I am missing out.

Daily Journal

I don’t really write a lot in my journal, but I do find it a good anchor for other habits. I have started to write more on my website and on LinkedIn. I combine this writing with my journal and find that I am more consistent with my writing.

Summary

Take a look at these habits and explore any that sound interesting. I have found that these habits have helped me to be more productive and to make progress towards my goals. I hope that they can help you too.