Okay, okay listen. I know what you’re going to ask:
QUORA???
And I get it, the last time I opened Quora, it was no better than Ao3 and Fanfiction.net, with international teenagers and adult Indian men venting a particular type of frustration, in a scary and concerning bid to receive satisfaction of a particular nature.
Um so why are you there?
Cause I picked up a book by Nicolas Cole (No, not the guy from National Treasure, that’s Nicolai Kage), he’s one of the first people to start writing and selling stuff on the internet. If you follow any creators on Twitter, then you may have seen them joining a course called ‘Ship 30 for 30’, that’s a course offered by Nicolas.
He swears that platforms like Quora, and Medium are better to start of writing on as compared to things like an individual blog or newsletter (which you might realize, is all I have been doing lol).
So that’s why I’m on Quora, go follow me if you’re one of those sickos that has an account there:
I’ve also decided that every once in a while, I’ll share a few answers that I write over there with you guys because I think they might be valuable.
In today’s edition:
What are 20 things that will make you more productive than ever?
Why am I only able to focus and be productive at night?
What are 20 things that will make you more productive than ever?
This is the kind of question that I first set out to answer when I started my productivity blog and consulting service in my second year of college. I set up a professional looking website and everything, and started writing about different problems that people faced while trying to be productive, and their possible solutions.
The problem that I ran into very quickly was that a single solution would not work for two different clients that had the exact same problem. For example, two of my clients were having trouble focusing on their course work during the day because they felt extremely sleepy during the afternoon - since they were college students, they had the freedom to take small naps during the day but so many times they would wake up 5–6 hours later - the whole day being wasted. I gave the best advice I could give them, which was backed by research, proven to work for a lot of people, but in this case, it only helped one of the two clients.
This experience along with many others helped me realize so much about the value of specific advice, which is not what this question is asking for. So be aware that all twenty things might not be of value to everyone that reads them.
Get better sleep: More sleep at night will help you be energized and focused throughout the day.
Make a morning routine: A lot of our energy is spent in making decisions, if we can establish a set of fixed steps or rules that need to be followed every morning, then we can save energy and use it elsewhere.
Decide variables the night before: In line with saving energy in the morning, make all the decisions for the next day before going to bed the night before. What am I gonna wear? What am I gonna eat? How am I gonna travel? Decide everything.
Meditate: You can either do this as part of your morning routine or at any other time throughout the day. Meditation will help you calm your nerves and charge your mental energy levels.
Greet everyone positively: Create a positive environment around you, negative environments hamper productivity.
Be comfortable: Try to remove all clutter, distractions and uncomfortable aspects from your workspace, is your desk lamp too bright? remove it or get a better bulb. Dealing with discomfort costs a lot of energy.
Check your inbox before you start working: Check alllllll the places where you get tasks from before you start working on them.
Always ask for a deadline: If your boss/client has not provided you with a deadline, then ask for one. This helps set expectations on both sides and lets you gauge the priority of different tasks.
Have a ‘task bank’: Have one single place where you store all your pending tasks, and their associated information. It can be an excel sheet or a to do list (on paper or digital, it doesn’t matter). Keep it up to date.
Have a realistic ‘daily worklist’: This is just a list of things from your task bank that you will endeavor to finish today. Make sure the list is realistic and understand that you might not be able to finish the list every day, and that’s okay.
Do a daily wrap up: Once you’re done working for the day, have a wrap up ritual, this will help you switch off your ‘work mode’ start the recharge process. This is an integral part of Author Cal Newport’s ‘Deep Work’ philosophy. My wrap up routine consists of writing down everything that I accomplished during that day and cleaning my desk.
Have a task archive: Move all completed tasks to a separate space. This is basically a ‘completed task bank’. This is important because maybe you will need to access information from a previous task later on. You may also be able to re-use work done for an old task for a new task.
Limit social media use: Productivity in 2023 highly depends on our ability to focus, and social media has been proved to diminish that power. Set screen timers or uninstall it altogether.
Take short mindful breaks: These are breaking that help replenish energy. An example can be listening to music, taking a small nap, taking a shower, or anything that helps you feel refreshed.
Take long leisure breaks: These are longer breaks from work that can be taken on weekends, holidays etc. Usually, they can be in the form of new skills or hobbies that you want to learn. My leisure break is to go play pool every weekend. I go to a club that fits my budget and has a nice community that is always ready to teach me.
Braindump: Work can be difficult and overwhelming. Sometimes that only thing preventing us from working is anxiety about the work itself. Brain dumping can help solve this problem. This is simply writing down everything you’re thinking about into a document or piece of paper and then taking a few minutes to go over it and deal with those anxious thoughts.
Track your wins: Make a document that is accessible to you wherever you are, it should be list of all your ‘wins’ i.e. moments when you’ve felt like your discipline and efforts have paid off. This can help motivate you when you don’t feel like working. It’s a quick reminder of what you have accomplished so far and what you stand to gain.
Use a pomodoro timer: If you are trying to learn or work on something that seems incredibly boring or unexciting, use a pomodoro timer. I use Pomofocus.com for things like this.
Ask for feedback: If you are a student or are not working independently, then ask for feedback from your teachers and superiors. Ask them how you can be more productive in your specific industry and with your skill sets.
Exercise, groom and be proud of yourself: Manage yourself like a company, keep yourself presentable, healthy and happy. All of these things have been shown to contribute to your productivity, whether you realize it or not.
Bonus - Join a community: "No road is long with good company." Doing things with friends or like-minded people can help you do a lot more and stay on track.
Why am I only able to focus and be productive at night?
As a fellow night owl, I completely understand your frustration. I struggled with this throughout college - I would get home early in the day and promise myself that I would spend a few hours studying, but I just couldn't focus. I would do everything from meditation to power naps (that seldom turned out to be naps). Eventually, the sun would go down and I something would change. Suddenly, I felt drawn to the desk that had shunned me for hours, and attached to the assignments that I was struggling to write a single word for moments before. What would follow was focus and concentration so intense that the tasks I spent hours on would be finished in less than half the time I wasted in the morning. I was the definition of a 'night owl' in the true sense - I could only be mindful and do mentally challenging tasks at night - and I feel like you are one of those people too.
Unfortunately, most workspaces and the modern world in general have not caught up to our work style, while remote and asynchronous work has created an environment where 'working on our time' may actually be possible - it's not a privilege available to many people (including me).
So, I had to learn how to work like normal the other side - the early birds or morning larks, or whatever you want to call them. To do this I implemented 3 key strategies:
Body doubling: I could not work alone at home during the day, so I put myself in a location where all I could see was people working. I would either go to a library or a café or anywhere I could find a charging port and where a bunch of other people were working. This is a proven technique that works for a lot of people that suffer from attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and might work for you too. However, please remember that just because it works for you doesn't mean that you necessarily have ADHD.
Work in a darker environment: Part of the reason you might not be able to work during the day could be over simulation brought about by bright light, outside sounds, etc. Try working after switching off the lights, closing the windows, drawing the curtains, putting on some noise cancelling headphones or playing some white noise and switching on a desk lamp. This actually works wonders for me.
Create a fixed work routine during the day: Repetition is the key to adaptation and habit building. If you keep doing something then you'll probably be able to stick with it for a longer time, and if you set out a specific time to do it every day, you'll be able to build it easier too. Use as many crutches as you need in the initial stages, like the two points mentioned above. Eventually, you will need to rely on them less.
While there are several reasons why people like you and I are this way, what matters is how we deal with it and make the most of the cards we have been dealt, it may take some time to adapt ourselves to the mournful reality that is reigned over by the dreadful early birds, but we are no less, it is merely a matter of time.