Building New Habits And Staying Productive Isn't Easy...
…but these 20 experts from the productivity, venture capital, personal development, health, beauty, and business spaces have gotten it down to a science.
So I asked them two questions:
1. What one thing has had the biggest impact on your productivity personally?
2. What is the most important thing people should know about building new habits?
The Experts Are:
Read on to see what they had to say!
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Antonio Centeno
Antonio is a US Marine Veteran, husband, father of 4, and the founder of Real Men Real Style which gets over 1M monthly page views, and has 2.5M subscribers on YouTube. He’s also co-owner of Vitaman, a natural men’s grooming company!
He had this to say:
The Eisenhower Matrix has had the biggest impact on my personal and professional life.
It forces me to divide my tasks into the 4 quadrants which allow me to prioritize things that need to be done urgently, to schedule the things which are important but are not urgent, to delegate other things and finally to just not do some things that don’t need to be done.
Each member of my team has a Key Performance Indicator table and their own priority matrix and it helps us keep focused on the tasks at hand.
Building a new habit is not easy; it’s like building muscle or learning a new skill. Be consistent in doing something whether you like it or not.
If you say you want to go for a run every single day, you keep at it whether rain or shine and eventually it will develop into a habit.
With that said, don’t be too hard on yourself when things don’t follow through. You’re human and as long as you pick yourself up after you fall down, you will form new habits and surprise yourself.
Corey Fradin
Corey Fradin is the Founder of QuickBooost – a blog that helps you do more with your time (productivity, goal setting, that kind of thing). His passion for goal setting has led to him helping countless individuals finally achieve their goals.
He had this to say:
For productivity reading is key. I’ve learned so much from the books that I’ve read over the years. From methods on planning, to goal setting, to even running a business, so much of my productivity has been a result of reading great books.
For habits you need to start easy, start small. Years ago when I was first interested in meditation, I would practice for just one minute a day. Then the next week, I’d do two minutes a day. And the week after that, three minutes a day. As I got more comfortable and confident in what I was doing, I eventually worked my way up to 20 minutes, twice a day.
Daniel Friedman
Daniel is a Los Angeles blogger at Modern Teen with a goal to provide insights for teens, college students, and young adults. Some of his blog’s advice includes college hacks, style, fitness, and more!
He had this to say:
The one thing that has had the biggest impact on my productivity is definitely my workspace. For me, a clear desk is a clear head. Without an organized environment, I can’t be at my max productivity.
The most important thing people should know about building new habits is that it takes time and effort. You should try to make that process as easy as possible by doing things such as setting reminders, writing things down, and rewarding yourself for those efforts.
Dani
Dani is the face behind Thisvillagegirl.com and virtualbesties.com. For This Village Girl, she writes about her personal development journey, the struggles of living abroad and how it changed herperspective being born and raised in a developing country’s village.
She had this to say:
Productivity is about making a list. I make a list of everything. My daily to-do and not-to-do list, weekly and monthly goals. I even make self-care list.
Habits are about the little things and the life that you promised yourself.
Emma
Emma has been blogging full time for a few years now; it was a goal of hers for the longest time and she couldn’t have achieved it without strong self-discipline and personal productivity!
She had this to say:
On productivity: I’d say the environment I work in. I cannot work in a dark room or on a cluttered desk for my life, I need to be in a nice working environment!
On habits: It takes time, and it’s hard. It can be very tempting to give this new habit up on some days, but it’s important not to give up!
Holly Hartley
Holly is the founder of The Rediscovery of Me, the place where you can learn to better understand yourself so that you can change your life. Holly is an ICF accredited coach and an award-winning educationalist.
She had this to say:
The most important thing for my productivity is finding a system that works for me. I am an avid list maker and I love apps like Trello and Todoist. I love the instant psychological gratification that comes with checking or moving something off my list and both of these apps do this brilliantly. You can also use them with groups of people so that you can keep an eye on the progress of a team project.
I’m a creative thinker and need a way of capturing my thoughts so that I can link ideas together and store things for later. I’ve found that I can do this in Trello using different boards but recently I was struggling as my writing repertoire has widened.
I’ve just discovered Niklas Luhmann’s Slip Box Method and it’s changed my life! I now see, capture and link ideas everywhere I go!
For habits it’s about one foot in front of the other. I think it’s a personal preference whether people prefer cognitive change (change your thinking first in order to change your behaviour) or behavioural change (change your behaviour first in order to change your thinking). Either of these approaches require small steps.
Personally, I prefer to approach things from a behaviouralist perspective. I choose to embed small, regular habits on a daily basis that gradually build up over time and compound much greater change. I use a daily habit tracker to bring about incremental change. Before you know it you’ve achieved something incredible. Earlier this year I developed a new habit of not taking my mobile phone up to bed with me at night. The impact this has had on my life has been remarkable and it’s now so well embedded that I no longer need to track it.
Jessica Shields
Jessica is a university professor and founder of College Study Smarts. Her goal is to take the mystery out of higher education by helping students to be productive with their study time and stay motivated to keep working to earn their degree.
She had this to say:
I have always been a productive person, but I remember after having my daughter I tried to keep my normal pace and strategies. As you may imagine, it made me miserable! I would beat myself up about failing my goals each day, which made me less productive the next day.
When I realized the months of limited sleep and a new role to learn should have new goals, it was a relief! Productivity for a new mom should look different than someone without kids. Sounds easy, but it is sometimes hard to recognize in our own lives. When we have times of increased stress or major life changes, we need to redefine what productivity realistically looks like for each life season.
Adjusting our personal expectations sets us up for success and keeps us motivated.
Small consistencies is key when it comes to habits! We tend to think of the end result we want and aim for it immediately. For students, this often looks like hours of study each day.
That’s not a realistic place to begin with a new habit.
Instead, focus on maintaining consistency each day, even if it’s 10 minutes of study. Build the small habit first and then grow it along the way.
Jessica Zulps
Jessica created Zigzags&Zebras as a writing outlet. She talks about all things personal planning and organization, including productivity, digital planners, bullet journals, and time management. She’s grown her audience to almost 2,000, and loves helping people find planner peace.
She had this to say:
My productivity is dependent on planning. I’m a huge believer in to-do lists and writing everything down. While I keep a digital to-do list, I owe my ability to get things done to keeping a paper planner.
I like to take time every morning with a cup of coffee and a pencil to write out my plan of attack for the day, a brain dump, and then I create a top 3 of my most urgent tasks for the day. Being able to lay out my day and prioritize my tasks helps me be the most productive, and the act of physically crossing out tasks as they’re accomplished really motivates me.
Building new habits takes time. It can be hard if you thrive off instant gratification (like me!), but building a new habit won’t happen overnight.
For example if you have a goal to get into shape, telling yourself that you’ll go to the gym for 2 hours a day starting tomorrow is a recipe for burnout. Break down the desired habit into baby steps (i.e. go to the gym for 30 minutes 2 days a week), and slowly incorporate them into your routine.
John Xie
He had this to say:
Jordy van Bennekom
Jordy is the founder of MindMasters – an online platform promoting online mentors. On the MindMasters Blog, Jordy shares his personal insights on the topics of psychology, philosophy, sociology, and neuroscience.
Jordy is also part of The Personal Growth Lab, which is a platform founded by a good friend of his, Jari Roomer, to help people elevate their lives through productivity and self-improvement advice.
He had this to say:
Productivity is about having a clear plan for the day. So, knowing exactly WHEN I am going to do WHAT. For me, this creates a lot of mental clarity and ease of mind, as I remove the effects of decision fatigue. Personal tip: start with the work you like the least.
For habits do them first thing in the morning! If I skip my morning run, for example, it just doesn’t happen that day. Other things just seem to take priority. Also, starting my day with a positive habit creates this sense of accomplishment, which fuels my motivation for getting through the rest of my daily to-do list.
Keith
Keith runs a fitness blog and training program where he helps people lose weight in a sustainable way while still eating whatever they want.
He had this to say:
My productivity secret is doing the hardest thing in the morning. Everything about the day just flows better when you accomplish something meaningful early in the morning. If I wait until 3pm to start getting what I need done, I feel like the day is already wasted and it’s hard to start being productive.
In terms of habits, your environment needs to match your goals. For example, If you’re trying to lose weight and have a habit of eating potato chips, it’s 100x harder to keep them in the kitchen and use sheer willpower to not eat them. Sooner or later you’re going to cave and binge. It’s much easier if you just eliminate the chips from your kitchen altogether.
Kyra
Kyra is a university student in the UK studying human biology as she hopes to be a doctor in the future. Blogging is something she loves and has been doing for almost 2 years now. Her focus is on beauty, lifestyle, and personal development.
She had this to say:
Self discipline is definitely important for productivity and not letting yourself become distracted. I always have my phone either out of site or on an app that doesn’t let you leave that screen! It’s so helpful as it means I can’t use my phone and become distracted. Ultimately, if you’re not distracted then you’ll get more work done!
The most important thing to building new habits is to stick to them! I once read that it takes 90 days for something to become a habit so make sure you stick to it for 90 days! When lockdown started, I wanted to work out more. At first, it was a chore, now I get up and do it without thinking much of it!
Leah Pardee
Leah Pardee is the go to Confidence Coach for online entrepreneurs. She helps women believe in themselves and their businesses, so that they can drop the shame and fear around selling. It’s her biggest passion to help others create businesses that are both profitable and purpose filled; it’s her life’s work and she enjoys every minute of it!
She had this to say:
The best thing I have done for my productivity is continuously going back to my “why”. For me, the reason behind everything I do is to help women to become confident in themselves so that they can thrive in their business. I believe my work is life changing, so it is bigger than me. My belief is that this is the best way to motivate yourself to be more productive! By constantly reminding yourself why your work is so important and what your mission is, it becomes bigger than you.
The most important thing people should know about building new habits is the power of believing it WILL work. When we begin something new and are trying to create a habit, the most common reason we stop is because we don’t truly deep down believe it is working. We want instant gratification, so if we don’t see results right away we give up. We have to convince ourselves that we are fully capable of getting the results we want from the habit, in order to keep ourselves consistent.
Maxim
Maxim specializes in improving personal productivity and time management and is always experimenting. Sometimes his ideas fail, sometimes they succeed. He shares what he has learned on productivity, overcoming procrastination, improving focus, and overcoming fear. His approach is to never run a sprint but take small baby steps like a marathon while enjoying the journey.
He had this to say:
On productivity: I have managed to get a lot more things done after I started using time blocking. I had a habit of working 14 hours but still failed to make progress on the right things.
After I started setting aside time blocks for different activities, I was not only able to cut down my working hours, but also make steady progress to the goals that matter. I recommend every person to at least use a few time blocks every day to chase their real goals.
Habits are influenced not only by the decisions we make but also by external factors. We ignore those elements because their impact isn’t very clear.
For example, the bad habit of checking the phone every time it beeps isn’t entirely because the person wanted to. The notification creates a disturbance in focus for any person. Instead of trying to resist checking the phone after it beeps, a better idea is to put the phone on DND to avoid any distraction at all.
People tend to focus on themselves to change habits, but in many cases, changing something on the environment makes it easier to build good habits and break the bad ones.
Nadalie Bardo
Nadalie Bardo is here to help you slay your goals, so you can pursue your boss life with confidence + action. As the Founder of It’s All You Boo, a personal development blog, she curates the very best content to keep you motivated and inspired to slay your goals in life and business. Nadalie is the creator of the Slay Your Goals Planner, the only planner dedicated to helping you actually achieve your goals.
She had this to say:
Having a plan for the day is one of the best ways I’ve found to set my productivity up for success. A lot of productivity is mindset and readiness. When you don’t know what you should be doing, you loose a lot of time each day and you’re more likely to procrastinate.
The best part is creating a simple plan for your day, is that it only takes a few minutes to write down the 2 or 3 tasks you want to take on. I recommend doing this the night before, or even once a week making a rough plan for how you’ll spend the week.
And yes, I know that plans change, but having that initial plan gives you confidence and you can build on it. Wake up with a mission, wake up with clarity by creating a plan and productivity will come easier, that’s one the best productivity tips and tricks.
Habits take time. 21 days is common advice, but it’s actually way longer than that. That being said you really have to just be patient with yourself and take it one day at a time, no matter how many days it takes. If you miss a day, or fall off your habit after a few weeks, don’t feel guilty or bad about it. Just get right back to it.
I would also encourage you to only work on one new habit at a time. It’s tempting to try and makeover your entire day by building some fancy morning or evening routines you read about in a magazine, but you’re really just overwhelming yourself.
The very best way to make a habit stick is to focus on one habit at a time, and taking it day by day until it becomes automatic. Don’t give up, if you keep at it eventually you won’t even have to remind yourself or think about, you’ll just do it.
Rachel
Rachel is a full-time blogger of DoctorForLove and InsideOfHappiness. She lives in Eastern Europe, and loves reading, writing, and talking about the best ways to make our dreams come true. To her, nothing matters more than living a life of joy and self-realization.
She had this to say:
I run two successful blogs by myself, and the one thing that has had the biggest impact on my productivity is clarity.
Having clarity of the end result helps me prioritise my tasks, schedule them and organise my time according to what needs to be done next.
If I don’t have a clear vision of what I need to achieve, I wouldn’t know where to start.
I’ve got a few big goals for this year, and I like to think of them as projects. I’ve written down every little step I need to make toward completing these projects.
Every evening, after I finish my work, I plan the next day. That’s the time when I include one, two or more of the steps from the big projects, depending on how busy I am.
I think many people fail to complete their projects or achieve their goals because they aren’t sure how much work they should do. Having written down every small step would help you know how much time, energy, effort and sweat, you need to put into whatever your project is.
By nature, we are lazy creatures. We always go for the easiest, the shortest, the cheapest, the less time-consuming option in front of us.
On top of that, we are slaves of our habits. Once something becomes a habit, it means it’s easy to perform, and it doesn’t require too much effort, thinking or energy. We do it on autopilot.
Therefore, implementing a new habit is a struggle.
And also, that’s the reason we often give up on that new habit we tried to stick to for the last three weeks.
But there’s one simple tweak in our mindset that needs to be done, and it will make things way easier.
If you can’t stick to that habit this week, try next week as well. And then the week after too.
No matter how hard a habit is, if you never give up on trying to make it stick, it will eventually become part of your life.
We often get so disappointed by ourselves for not making a habit stick that we refuse to try again. And that’s why it never happens.
However, every time you try to implement that new habit, you will be able to make it stick for longer and longer. In the end, you will feel more comfortable performing it than not performing it.
Riana
Riana is a travel blogger and adventure lover. When she’s not traveling or blogging, she can be found reading, writing, and trying new baking recipes in the kitchen.
She had this to say:
The one thing that has had the biggest impact on my productivity, especially as I work from home, has been having a dedicated workspace. I find it very helpful to have a physical area where I can go to work and know that when I am there, it’s time to work. If you don’t have a home office, you can set up a desk in your bedroom or even dedicate a part of the kitchen table to be your space. Set it up with whatever you need to be successful and only use it for working.
Habits take time to form and if you fall off the wagon, your progress isn’t lost. You won’t be incredibly productive all day every day – and that’s okay.
Samantha Warren
Samantha is a personal development and wellness blogger. Her mission is to help you achieve your self-improvement goals and become the star of your own show! She writes several articles per week and has an amazing collection of free printables available on her site.
She had this to say:
Sticking to a routine has improved my productivity tremendously. Within my daily routine, I use time blocking to keep myself on track throughout the day. By assigning a specific task to each hour, I boost productivity during my “work time” so I can have more time to relax later in the day.
It takes time to build habits that stick. When forming a new habit, many people get impatient and struggle with consistency. Especially if you’re aiming for dramatic results, it’s important to realize that change takes time. Be kind to yourself, be patient with yourself, and remember not to give up!
Scott Young
Scott is the author of Ultralearning. He has maintained a blog for 14 years on productivity, learning and living better. He’s also the host of the Scott Young Podcast.
He had this to say:
Having a system. A system is a set of rules that organize when you work, what you work on and when you stop. Most of us have a system, it’s just that system is guilt and stress. A better system allows you to get work done without the burnout.
Most habits are meta-stable. That means they can last for a long time, but if they’re disturbed they’ll “settle down” to an easier behavior. Not exercising is more stable than exercising, so even if you go everyday for a year, you can fall off the wagon.
This is disappointing to hear, as people want permanent changes. But a better way of thinking about it is like keeping your house tidy—if you clean it up and then do a little work to keep it clean, you can keep things orderly. If you live in chaos then it’s very hard to keep it clean. Habits are behavioral hygiene.
Sophie
Sophie coaches women how to improve their mental health and make life more manageable.
She had this to say:
My biggest productivity breakthrough would have to be either learning how to plan things out properly, time blocking,OR figuring out how to stop procrastinating.
For habits you have to start small!
It’s really tempting to try and start something massive but then you can’t sustain it. Start as tiny as possible so it’s really easy to do and then build on that!