When, like me, you read too many self-help books or productivity books, as they are called these days, you face a couple of issues:

  1. You get contradictory advice that paralyzes you, like “Don’t tell your goals to anyone” vs. “Announce your goals as publicly as you can”. And research backs both, as research can prove anything by designing the experiment according to the desired outcome. Or they can outright lie.

    Or “The first thing you should do after waking up is ________”. Some correct-looking answers include journaling, morning pages, exercise, reading, and drinking a glass of water, etc. And then there are multiple techniques to journal, exercise, etc. Now you can’t figure out what you should do first.

  2. You are required to do a lot of things in preparation to do the actual work you wanted to do. And the time/effort overhead of doing them becomes too much that the actual work does not get enough time. You lose a lot of steam before reaching the actual work. Or you just give up before even starting it.

So, keep doing what works for you. Because consistency is the most important feature of a routine. That makes a routine, routine. And try to add, remove, or change parts of it incrementally and experimentally. Keep what works for you and makes you feel and work better. Discard what does not, even if all the research in the world supports it. Because a person working at 50% potential every day will run circles around someone who works at 100% for a week every couple of months and then does not work at all the rest of the time.

So, I will try to simplify the whole thing with the limited knowledge and understanding that I have. Also, I have not done all of them together for a long period, but I have done each one of them for a fairly long period to know what I am talking about.

  1. Have a work/time management system, aka productivity system. BuJo and GTD are good options. BuJo is more holistic, has a little more soul, feels more personal and is a little more flexible than GTD. You might like GTD more if you are a nerd and like proper, exact systems.
  2. Wake up without an alarm if your life allows it. Add an afternoon nap if your body needs it and you can afford it. Click for details.
  3. Try to sleep early if your efficiency decreases at night.
  4. Go for a run. Run for as long as you can. And a little more. Your brain tells you to stop way before your body is fully exhausted. It tries to maximise body reserves. It is the survival mechanism from way back when we did not have food at our fingertips and needed to keep ourselves alive until the next hunt. This was before agriculture, which was a little before Swiggy, Zomato, etc. PS - You can switch running with your favorite exercise. Also, this is not required if you move your body enough during the day.
  5. Write whatever is going on in your head and check the plan for the day (which will be made the night before) before starting work for the day.
  6. Take a bath daily, preferably in the morning.
  7. Work till the end of your workday without any distractions. No WhatsApp or social media. Have a dedicated break time for them. Even turn off the notifications for your workplace communication systems — chats, emails, Slack, etc. And then detach yourself completely from work till the start of your next workday. No emails, no work chores, nothing. All these are for the workday.
  8. Pomodoro is a decent work/break technique to follow if you struggle to find a rhythm. Or if you get lost in the breaks, and resuming work after a break seems difficult.
  9. Spend some time with family and/or friends every day. Or do something that makes you happy, like singing, dancing or playing an instrument. Spend some time with yourself - without any agenda, without any gadget or other escape mechanism. Switch off the internet on your phone once you finish your workday. There are enough ways to reach you even when your internet is off. Normal calls and SMS still work. Turn off the work apps. Have separate work and personal phones, if possible, and if you can handle it.
  10. Plan the next day.
  11. Time block the next day before sleeping. Among the tasks for the next day, schedule the task that you dislike the most as the first one.
  12. Review your day. Write a highlight of the day.
  13. Write two things you are grateful for.