Productivity

Just about everyone wants to save time and become more productive. But how can you do this realistically?

Entrepreneurs who spend a lot of time online, like I do, are always looking for ways to improve their work flow and optimize their time.

One way this can be achieved is by learning how to navigate the web and work on documents and spreadsheets more efficiently. So what I want to talk to you about today are keyboard shortcuts.

For example, instead of highlighting an entire document from start to finish, just use the command “Ctrl + a” to achieve the same result much more efficiently.

Below, I go through a big list of keyboard shortcuts (for both PC and Mac) that you can use to make your digital operations way faster and easier (I also had an infographic created).

To make things even simpler, I have a Table of Contents at the top. Click the category you’d like to learn about and you’ll be taken there directly.

Here we go!

Table of Contents

PC and Mac
Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox
Gmail
YouTube
Microsoft Word
Excel
Extra Mac shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts for PC and Mac 

Select all

PC: Ctrl + a

Mac: Command + a

Copy 

PC: Ctrl + c

Mac: Command + c

Paste

PC: Ctrl + v

Mac: Command + v

Cut

PC: Ctrl + x

Mac: Command + x

Bold text 

PC: Ctrl + b

Mac: Command + b

Underline text

PC: Ctrl + u

Mac: Command + u

Italicize text PC

PC: Ctrl + i

Mac: Command + i

Undo 

PC: Ctrl + z

Mac: Command + z

Redo

PC: Ctrl + y

Mac: Command + y

Find items in a document or open a find window

PC: Ctrl + f

Mac: Command + f

Print

PC: Ctrl + p

Mac: Command + p

Save 

PC: Ctrl + s

Mac: Command + s

Close the front window 

PC: Ctrl + w

Mac: Command + w

Minimize a window

PC: Alt + Spacebar + n

Mac: Option + Command + m

Shortcuts for Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox

(Unless specifically stated, the commands are the same for each browser.)

Close current tab 

Chrome: Ctrl + w

IE: Ctrl + F4 key

Firefox: Ctrl + F4 key

Or…

Ctrl + w

Open a new window 

Ctrl + n

Open a new tab 

Ctrl + t

Move through currently open tabs to the right 

Ctrl + Tab

Move through currently open tabs to the left

Ctrl + Shift + Tab

Close active window 

Alt + F4 key

Reopen the last closed tab 

Ctrl + Shift + t

Reload current page

Ctrl + r

Go back a page 

Alt + Left arrow

Open browser history in a new tab 

Ctrl + h

Zoom in

Ctrl and +

Zoom out 

Ctrl and –

Reset the default size of your webpage after zooming

Ctrl + 0

(Zero, not the letter o)

Show the downloads window 

Ctrl + j

Quickly finish a website address 

[Basic website name] Ctrl + Enter

For example, if you wanted to visit http://www.rachelrofe.com, you can type rachelrofe Ctrl + Enter instead.

Open the clear data window

Ctrl + Shift + Delete

Move down a page at a time

Spacebar

Move up a page at a time 

Shift + Spacebar

Save current page as a bookmark 

Ctrl + d

View a webpage’s source code

Ctrl + u

Go forward a page 

Alt + Right arrow key

Go back a page

Alt + Left arrow key

Go to the top of a page 

Home key

Go to the bottom of a page 

End key

Highlight text on a webpage 

Click the point where you want the highlighting to start. Then, press Shift + Click on the end point.

Open a new window in incognito mode

Ctrl + Shift + n

Toggle between browser windows

Alt + Tab

Show the current webpage in full-screen mode

F11 key

(Press it again to exit this mode.)

Highlight the text in the address bar

Alt + d

Open your homepage

Alt + Home key

Open the find option and search for specific text on the current webpage

Ctrl + f

Move the cursor to the search box

Ctrl + e

Move cursor to the address box

Ctrl + l

(The letter l, not the number 1)

Open the bookmarks bar/window 

Ctrl + Shift + b

Troubleshoot an unresponsive script error by opening the browser console

Ctrl + Shift + j

And one more Chrome specific shortcut…

Open Chrome’s built-in task manager

Shift + Esc

(This is helpful when Chrome freezes.)

Shortcuts for Gmail

Compose new message

Shift + c

Reply

Shift + r

Reply all

Shift + a

Forward

Shift + f

Delete

#

Label as

l

(The letter l, not the number 1)

Mark as read

Shift + i

Mark as unread

Shift + u

Go to sent mail

g then t

Go to contacts

g then c

Put your cursor in the search box

/

Report spam

!

Shortcuts for YouTube

Pause a video 

k

(Press k again to resume playing the video.)

Jump to the beginning of a video 

0

(Zero key)

Jump to the end of a video or go to the next video on a playlist

End key

Make the video full screen 

f

Turn the volume up and down

Up arrow key (to turn the volume  up)

Down arrow key (to turn the volume down)

Mute the volume

m

Skip 10 seconds forward

l

(Lowercase l, not the number 1)

Skip 10 seconds back  

j

Speed up a video

>

Which is actually…

Shift + ,

(Comma key)

Slow down a video

<

Which is actually…

Shift + .

(Period key)

Shortcuts for Microsoft Word

Capitalize the first letter of each highlighted word

For example, to capitalize the R in Rachel here…

“My name is rachel”

…highlight rachel and hit Shift + F3 key to make it read…

“My name is Rachel”

Capitalize each letter of the highlighted text

In the same example, to capitalize every letter in rachel…

“My name is rachel”

…highlight rachel and hit Shift + F3 key twice to have it read…

“My name is RACHEL”

(NOTE: to return text to how it was originally ((My name is rachel)), hit Shift + F3 key three times.)

Open the thesaurus function 

Shift + F7 key

Launch spellcheck 

F7 key

Refresh

F9 key

Open save as 

F12 key

Save document

Shift + F12 key

Or…

Ctrl + s

Create a hyperlink 

Ctrl + k

Create a new document

Ctrl + n

Redo the last section 

Ctrl + y

Undo the last section 

Ctrl + z

Insert a page break 

Ctrl + Enter

Select print preview

Ctrl + F2 key

Open the font preferences window 

Ctrl + d

Change the font 

Ctrl + Shift + f

Center align 

Ctrl + e

Right align 

Ctrl + r

Left align 

Ctrl + j

Create a hanging indent

Ctrl + t

Open the find box

Ctrl + f

Indent a paragraph 

Ctrl + m

Close the currently open document 

Ctrl + w

Create a bullet point

Ctrl + Shift + l

(The letter l, not the number 1)

Single-space lines 

Ctrl + 1

1.5 line spacing 

Ctrl + 5

Double-space lines

Ctrl + 2

Change text to heading 1

Ctrl + Alt + 1

Change text to heading 2

Ctrl + Alt + 2

Change text to heading 3

Ctrl + Alt + 3

Increase the selected text by one font size

Ctrl + Shift + >

Decrease the selected text by one font size

Ctrl + Shift + <

Print a document

Ctrl + Shift + F12 key

Open the find, replace, and go to window 

F5 key

Insert the current Date

Shift + Alt + d

Insert the current time

Shift + Alt + t

Delete one word at a time

Ctrl + Backspace

Shortcuts for Microsoft Excel 

Fill down 

Ctrl + d

Fill right 

Ctrl + r

Save the current workbook 

Ctrl + s

Close the current workbook 

Ctrl +

Search current sheet

Ctrl + f

Go to a specific area

Ctrl + g

Find and replace

Ctrl + h

Insert a hyperlink 

Ctrl + k

Create a new workbook 

Ctrl + n

Open a workbook 

Ctrl + o

Print the current sheet 

Ctrl + p

Repeat the last entry 

Ctrl + y

Undo the last action 

Ctrl + z

Change the format of the highlighted section

Ctrl + 1

Bold all cells in the highlighted section 

Ctrl + 2

Italicize all cells in the highlighted section 

Ctrl + 3

Underline all cells in the highlighted section 

Ctrl + 4

Put a strikethrough all cells in the highlighted section 

Ctrl + 5

Show or hide objects

Ctrl + 6

Show or hide the toolbar

Ctrl + 7

Toggle the outline symbols 

Ctrl + 8

Hide rows

Ctrl + 9

Hide columns

Ctrl + 0

(Zero, not the letter o)

Enter the current time

Ctrl + Shift + :

(Colon key)

Enter the current date

Ctrl + ;

(Semi colon key)

Apply time formatting

Ctrl + Shift + @

Apply date formatting 

Ctrl + Shift + #

Apply comma formatting 

Ctrl + Shift + !

Apply currency formatting 

Ctrl + Shift + $

Apply percentage formatting

Ctrl + Shift + %

Insert a new row or column 

Ctrl + Shift + =

Add a border to the selected cells

Ctrl + Shift + &

Remove a border

Ctrl + Shift + _

Select the entire column 

Ctrl + Spacebar

Select the entire worksheet

Ctrl + Shift + Spacebar

Move to cell A1

Ctrl + Home key

Move to the last cell on the worksheet

Ctrl + End key

Move between two or more open Excel files

Ctrl + Tab

Open the font drop-down menu 

Ctrl + Shift + f

Select all of the cell with comments

Ctrl + Shift + o

(The letter o, not zero)

Extend the highlighted text up one cell 

Shift + Up arrow

Extend the highlighted text down one cell 

Shift + Down arrow

Extend the highlighted area left one character

Shift + Left arrow

Extend the highlighted area right one character

Shift + Right arrow

Undo 

Alt + Backspace

Move to the next line when typing text in a cell, allowing for multiple lines in one cell 

Alt + Enter

Open the help menu 

F1 key

Edit the selected cell 

F2 key

Repeat the last action 

F4 key

Go to a specific cell (e.g. A24) 

F5 key

Go to the next pane

F6 key

Spellcheck 

F7 key

Recalculate every workbook 

F9 key

Activate the menu bar 

F10 key

Save as 

F12 key

Edit a cell comment 

Shift + F2 key

Open the find the replace box 

Shift + F5 key

Perform the calculate function on the active sheet

Shift + F9 key

Close the current window 

Ctrl + F4 key

Restore window size

Ctrl + F5 key

Move to the next workbook 

Ctrl + F6 key

Go to the previous workbook 

Ctrl + Shift + F6 key

Resize the window 

Ctrl + F8 key

Minimize the current window

Ctrl + F9 key

Maximize the current window

Ctrl + F10 key

Open a file 

Ctrl + F12

Print the current worksheet

Ctrl + Shift + F12 key

Save as

Alt + F2 key

Exit Excel 

Alt + F4 key

Create a new worksheet

Alt + Shift + F1

Save the current worksheet

Alt + Shift + F2

More shortcuts for Mac

Minimize the front window to the dock 

Command + m

Open the selected item 

Command + o

(The letter o, not zero)

Force quit an app 

Option + Command + Escape

Show or hide the Spotlight search field

Command + Spacebar

Bring up the character viewer

Control + Command + Spacebar

Use the app in full-screen mode

Control + Command + f

Take a screenshot of the whole screen 

Shift + Command + 3

Create a new folder in the finder

Shift + Command + n 

(NOTE: You may need to hold the following general sleep, logout, and shutdown Mac commands down for longer than other shortcuts.)

Put the Mac to sleep

Option + Command + Power button

Put your displays to sleep 

Control + Shift + Power button

Quit all apps and force your Mac to restart while being prompted to save any unsaved documents

Control + Option + Command + Power button

Or…

Control + Command + Media Eject

Logout of your macOS user account while being asked to confirm 

Shift + Command + Q

Finder and system Mac shortcuts

Duplicate the selected files

Command + d

Eject a disk

Command + e

Open the home folder of the current user

Shift + Command + h

Open iCloud Drive

Shift + Command + i

Open the network window 

Shift + Command + k

Open the download folder

Shift + Command + l

(The letter l, not the number 1)

Create a new folder

Shift + Command + n

Open the documents folder

Shift + Command + o

(The letter o, not zero)

Open the AirDrop window

Shift + Command + r

Open the utilities folder

Shift + Command + u

Show or hide the Dock

Option + Command + d

Show view options

Command + j

Open the connect to server window

Command + k

Create a new smart folder

Option + Command + n

Open the selected item

Command + Down arrow key

Open the selected folder

(This only works in list view.)

Right arrow key

Close the selected folder

(This only works in list view.)

Left arrow key

Move an item into the trash.

Command + Delete

Empty the trash 

Shift + Command + Delete

Show the desktop

Command + Mission Control

Open sound preferences

Any volume key

Adjust the volume

Option + Shift + Volume up

Or…

Option + Shift + Volume down

Documents shortcuts for Mac

Bold the text

Command + b

Underline the text

Command + u

Italicize the text

Command + i

Add a weblink

Command + k

Show or hide the fonts window

Command + t

Show or hide the definition of the selected word

Control + Command + d

Show the spelling an grammar window

Shift + Command + :

(Colon key)

Find misspelled words

Command + ;

(Semi colon key)

Scroll up one page

Fn key + Up arrow

Scroll down one page

Fn key + Down arrow

Scroll to the beginning

Fn key + Left arrow

Scroll to the end

Fn key + Right arrow

Move the insertion point to the beginning

Command + Up arrow

Move the insertion point to the end

Command + Down arrow

Extend text selection one character to the left

Shift + Left arrow

Extend text selection one character to the right

Shift + Right arrow

Go to the beginning of the line or paragraph

Control + a

Go to the end of a line or paragraph

Control + e

Jump one character forward

Control + f

Jump one character backward

Control + b

Go up one line

Control + p

Go down one line

Control + n

Left align

Command + {

Right align

Command + }

Center align

Shift + Command + |

(Vertical bar, not the letter l or the number 1)

Move to the search field

Option + Command + f

Show or hide the toolbar

Option + Command + t

Paste and match style

Option + Shift + Command + V

Show the save as box or duplicate the current document

Shift + Command + s

Decrease the selected item’s size

Shift + Command + –

(Minus sign)

Increase the selected item’s size

Shift + Command + +

(Plus sign)

Below, you’ll find the infographic I mentioned earlier. 

What do you think of this big list of keyboard shortcuts? Do you think you’ll use them to save time and increase your web productivity? Leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts!

Maintaining motivation and productivity levels is an evergreen topic I like to write about from time to time, especially since this is something that many of us struggle with on a fairly regular basis.

With the constant hustle and bustle of everyday life, it is SO easy to get distracted or off-track. That’s why I thought that pointing you to some resources like the 15 TED talks you’ll learn about below can be a really helpful to develop lasting habits that help you become more effective.

Below you’ll learn about 15 excellent TED Talks that, in one way or another provide useful tips, information, and mindset shifts so you can enhance your productivity and motivation levels and start living your goal life.

That said, let’s take a look at the first talk…

Why you should define your fears instead of your goals

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Tim Ferris

Run-time: 13:22

About the talk:

In this TED Talk, Tim Ferris shares his recipes for avoiding self-destructive and self-paralysis using stoicism, a means of mental toughness training aimed at helping people to thrive in high-stress environments and make better decisions.

The basic principle behind stoicism, according to Tim, is training yourself to separate that which you can control from that which you cannot control and then doing exercises that focus on what you can control. This decreases emotional reactivity, which can cause a lot of harm depending on the circumstances.

The specific exercise that changed Tim’s life was fear-setting, or defining your fears, which occurs as follows:

• Practice visualizing, or writing down, the worst-case scenarios that you fear most, in as much detail as possible.
• Next, figure out how you could prevent or decrease the likelihood of those scenarios happening.
• Then, think about how you could repair the damage if the worst-case scenarios actually do happen.
• The next phase is to think about what the benefits might be of attempting what you’re considering but are too afraid to do.
• The last thing you should figure out is the cost of not taking action on whatever decision or action you are considering. If you avoid a certain action or decision, how might your life look in 6 months, 1 year, 5 years?

After completing this exercise, you might just realize that inaction is no longer an option because the positive impact greatly outweighs the negative impact.

The happy secret to better work

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Shawn Achor

Run-time: 12:14

About the talk:

In this talk, Shawn talks about how if we study what is just average, we will remain average. But if we study that which is not average, maybe we can move what is “average” up, to something better, to something more positive.

Because it’s not necessarily our realities that shape us, but rather, it’s the lens that our brains use to view the world that shapes our realities. So if we can change the lens, we can change our happiness along with our business outcomes.

Many people assume that our external worlds predict our happiness levels. This isn’t necessarily true, though. The reality is that, if we know everything about someone’s external world, we can only predict about 10% of their long-term happiness.

Ninety percent of your long-term happiness is predicted not by your external world (for example, your job, your relationship status, etc.) but by the way your brain processes that world. So if you change your brain’s formula for happiness and success, you can change the way that your brain affects your reality.

For example, 75% of job success is predicted not by your IQ but by your optimism level, your social support, and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of as a threat. However, most people operate according to the following formula for success: If I work harder, I’ll be more successful. And if I’m more successful, then I’ll be happier.

This is backward, though, because every time you achieve a success, your brain changes the line of where your marker for success lies. So you’re always in a state of striving for bigger and better. But the result of that is the goal of happiness gets pushed over the “cognitive horizon,” meaning happiness is never actually achieved.

So in order for you to be happier, you don’t need to first become more successful. Instead, you need to learn how to feel more positive in the present. Because when you feel more positive in the present, you experience a “happiness advantage,” involving a more positive-minded brain, which actually performs better than a brain that’s more negative or stressed.

A more positive-minded brain becomes better at…

• Securing jobs
• Keeping jobs
• Being productive
• Being resilient
• Not burning out
• Getting more sales.

So the formula for success should be reversed. When you make yourself happier in the present, you become more successful, as all of the learning centers in your brain get turned on and you become an overall better version of yourself.

Here’s how you can train your brain to think more positively (do everything on this list for 21 days in a row):

• Write down three new things you’re grateful for each day
• Journal about one positive experience that happened to you each day
• Exercise each day
• Meditate each day
• Perform at least one random act of kindness each day, especially by sending one positive email praising or thanking someone in your social network.

How to save the world (or at least yourself) from bad meetings

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: David Grady

Run-time: 6:41

About the talk:

David says each and every day, our co-workers and other people in our lives steal from us… they steal our time. And we are all suffering from MAS (Mindless Accept Syndrome). For example, we might accept an invitation to a meeting that we know nothing about and that won’t benefit us at all. But we accept nonetheless because we were invited.

We need to stop doing this, though. We are not powerless, even if we think we are. So the takeaway here is to be more intentional about our time because we only have so much of it. So we need to start asking questions to make sure thing are good uses of our time before we mindlessly agree.

Inside the mind of a master procrastinator

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Tim Urban

Run-time: 14:04

About the talk:  

When it comes to people who procrastinate, there are three characters at work in their brains…

1. The rational decision-maker
2. The instant gratification monkey
3. And the panic monster (who comes out, scaring the monkey, very close to looming deadlines).

And as long as there are deadlines, the panic monster generally can kick a person who procrastinates into gear. However, there are two kinds of procrastination. When there are deadlines and when there are no deadlines. And when there are no deadlines, it’s another story. The procrastinator’s system doesn’t work as well because the panic monster doesn’t really come out anymore.

When there aren’t any deadlines, it’s totally up to you to be a self-starter, and the effects of procrastination are not contained and extend outward forever.

The effects of procrastination in this sense are that people become spectators at times in their own lives. They haven’t even been able to start chasing their dreams, never mind achieve them.

In reality, there really might not be such a thing as non-procrastinators, because we all do this to a certain extent in one way or another.

Everyone is procrastinating about something in life. So we all need to be aware of the instant gratification monkey in our lives.

How to gain control of your free time

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Laura Vanderkam 

Run-time: 11:55

About the talk:

Laura opens with this quote, “We don’t build the lives we want by saving time.  We build the lives we want and then time saves itself.”

The things is, when you have to find time to do something (especially something unexpected), you can. Time is actually elastic. You can’t make more time. You can stretch time to accommodate what your priorities are.

You have to remember that every minute you spend is your choice. When people say they don’t have time, what they are pretty much always saying is it’s not a priority.

The way we spend our time is our choice (to an extent).

Try these exercises…

Pretend it’s the end of next year and you’re giving yourself a performance review and it’s been a really good year. What 3-5 things did you do that made the year so amazing professionally?

Then, write a holiday letter describing what 3-5 things you did that made the year so amazing personally?

Now, you have a list of 6-10 goals you have for the following year. Then, you need to break those goals down into actionable steps.

Then, you put everything that’s a priority to you into your schedule first. You do this by thinking about your week before you’re in it. A really time to do this is Friday afternoon.

Make yourself a three-category priority list…

1. Career
2. Relationships
3. Self

There should be something in all three of these categories. And you should plan something for all three categories during each week. And if you do the math, you actually probably have a lot of spare time that you’re just not using—for example, breaks at work when you can meditate, bus commutes when you can read a good book.

You have to look at the whole of your time and see where you can fit in the good stuff that matters to you. Even if you’re super busy, you can make time for what matters as long as that’s what you’re focusing on.

How to make work-life balance work

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Nigel Marsh 

Run-time: 9:58

About the talk:

In this talk, Nigel shares four observations about work-life balance:

One – You need an honest debate about this. Certain job and career choices are, at their core, incompatible with meaningfully engaging with your family and friends on a day-to-day basis. You need to be honest about the situation you’re in and find solutions that are realistic.

Two – You need to get to the truth. Governments and corporations aren’t going to take responsibility for your work-life balance. You need to keep the quality of your own life in your own hands. And you need to be responsible for setting and enforcing boundaries.

Three – You need to be careful about the timeframe that we use to judge our work-life balance. We need to elongate the timeframe so that you aren’t aspiring to have the perfect day each and every day, but you can’t elongate it so far that you’re saying things like, “I’ll get more balance once I retire,” because, at that point, it’s too late.

Four – You need to approach balance in a balanced way.  There are multiple parts to your life: physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. And in order to be truly balanced, you have to tend to all of those areas. You need to remember that the small things matter. Being balanced doesn’t take a radical transformation.

The surprising habits of original thinkers

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Adam Grant

Run-time: 15:25

About the talk:

Original thinkers are non-conformists. They have new ideas and they take action to bring those ideas to life. And what Adam discovered is there’s a sweet spot in between procrastination and precrastination where original thinking happens.

Moderate procrastinators tend to be more creative than both people who procrastinate heavily and people who consistently get things done ahead of schedule.

Because with the right amount of procrastination, you have time to consider alternate ideas and take creative risks. And sometimes, when you delay a task, you leave yourself open to new ideas flowing in and you’re freer to improvise. Procrastination can actually be a virtue for creativity.

Also, the concept of the first people to move on an idea having they advantage is actually a myth. It’s the people who improve on existing ideas who are actually less likely to fail. To be original, you don’t have to be first. You just have to be different and better.

Originals aren’t that different from the rest of us. They…

• Feel fear
• Feel doubt
• Procrastinate
• Have bad ideas

They just manage these things differently.

Original thinkers feel fear, but the key difference is they are more afraid of failing to try. Original thinkers feel doubt, but here are two different kinds of doubt:

1. Self doubt – this is paralyzing and makes you freeze.
2. Idea doubt – this is more energizing and motivates you to test and refine.

And the key to being original is changing your self-doubt to idea doubt. So instead of thinking things like “I am crap,” you instead think, “The first few tries are crap; I’m just not there yet.

You won’t get judged on your bad ideas. You need to speak up. Originals have lots of bad ideas. But they still try. The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most because that means they are trying the most. The more things you try, the more likely you are to come up with a winner. And sometimes, being quick to start but slow to finish can make you more creative in the end. You can also end up feeling more motivated when you doubt yourself sometimes.

How to succeed? Get more sleep

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Arianna Huffington 

Run-time: 4:04

About the talk:

Basically, the simple answer to achieving a more productive and a more joyful life is sleep. She says, “The essence of leadership is being able to see the iceberg before it hits the Titanic.” In other words, you need to be able to see the bigger picture of your goals and personal lives. And if you aren’t getting enough sleep, this isn’t going to be possible.

Smart failure for a fast-changing world

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Eddie Obeng

Run-time: 12:30

About the talk:

We solve many of the mistakes we made last year or whenever in the past without necessarily thinking about the future and what new challenges or problems may occur.

There are two ways you can fail in the today’s culture:

1. You do something differently when you should have been following the proper protocol.
2. You do something that’s never been done before and you get it completely wrong.

But failure shouldn’t necessarily automatically warrant a punishment. Sometimes, failure is “smart failure.” And it serves as a way of trying to adapt to an ever-evolving and ever-changing world.

So before just kind of blindly following protocol or established procedures, you need to ask yourself whether or not it really and truly makes sense for what you’re trying to achieve in your current and future circumstances.

The puzzle of motivation

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Dan Pink 

Run-time: 18:33

About the talk:

This TED Talk reveals that providing external incentives, like monetary rewards, to complete tasks or work harder actually doesn’t really work in the modern age of business.

You would think that if want people to perform better, you would reward them. But that’s actually often not the case.
Incentivizing tasks can actually dull thinking and block creativity.

“There’s a mismatch between what business does and what science knows,” Dan says.

Rewards often narrow our focus and concentrate our minds. And while rewards can work well for tasks that have a simple set of rules and a fairly obvious solution, when it comes to tasks that require more creativity and outside-of-the-box thinking, rewards can actually make people focus too much so that it actually hinders their progress.

A much better approach for people in today’s business world is nurturing intrinsic motivation, which revolves around three elements:

1. Autonomy – The urge to be independent
2. Mastery – The urge to get better and better at something that matters to you
3. Purpose – The urge to do what you’re doing in service of something bigger and more powerful than you

These three elements consistently work as much better motivators for people by increasing both productivity and creativity.

Why you will fail to have a great career

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Larry Smith   

Run-time: 13:54

About the talk:

You need passion in your life, not just interests. You have to find the highest expression of your talent.

However, even if you find your passion, you are still likely to fail. And this is the reason why…

People often use human relations — their family and friends — as excuses, for example, saying something like they don’t have time to pursue their ideal job or career because they want to spend time with their friends or family.

And while spending time with friends and family is super important, you don’t want to use that as an excuse or as a way to mask the underlying issue, being that you are just too afraid to go for it.

You can have the whole package — being a great spouse, a great parent, a great friend and have a great career. You just have to not be afraid anymore and stop saying the phrase “If only I had…”

How to make stress your friend

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Kelly McGonigal 

Run-time: 14:25

About the talk:

In this talk, the following question is posed: Can changing how you feel about stress change actually make you healthier in terms of changing how your body copes with stress?

According to Kelley, changing the way you view stress absolutely can make you healthier and thus better able to cope with your work-related and personal challenges.

Typical symptoms of stress often include elevated heart rate, sweating, anxiety, and feelings of pressure. But what if we reframed those symptoms and viewed them instead as ways that our bodies are energizing us and preparing us to face challenges.

When you start to rethink your stress responses as helpful to you, you can actually decrease your anxiety levels and make you feel more confident about handling tough situations. And when you start to think of stress in new ways, your body also believes you and starts responding to stress in a healthier way.

Moreover, stress makes you social, and being social and showing care and support can make you live longer by making you more resilient.

During stressful situations, oxytocin, which is also known as the cuddle hormone, gets released as a way of motivating you to seek support. “Your stress response has a built-in mechanism for stress resilience. And that mechanism is human connection,” Kelly says. But one of the best parts is that the release of oxytocin also helps your heart heal faster from stress-induced damage.

So, in sum, learning to think about stress in a new, positive way and showing care and support for the people in your life can actually help you live a longer, healthier life.

How great leaders inspire action

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Simon Sinek 

Run-time: 16:43

About the talk:

In this Ted talk, Simon discusses the concept of the golden circle, which contains the following rings: why, how, and what, and he explains why some businesses and leaders are so inspirational while others are not.

Why – This is the reason your business exists and why people should care about it.
How – This is your business’ unique selling proposition.
What – This is what your business does or what you have to offer.

Your business’ “why” is what is most important and what is going to inspire people to actually want to do business with you.

Simon says, “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it…The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe…And what you do serves as the proof of what you believe.”

As a business, you have to start with your “why” and lead with that. That’s the only way you’ll ever truly be inspirational and attract people who believe the same thing you believe, thus inciting a chain reaction of people who become interested in doing business with you.

Forget multitasking, try monotasking

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Paolo Cardini

Run-time: 2:46

About the talk:

So many people multi-task. But the reality is, multi-tasking makes you less productive and it makes you miss out on just enjoying the moment you’re having. Switching back and forth from task to task takes up mental bandwidth.

So while you might feel like you’re being more productive by juggling multiple things, it’s actually taking you more time to complete each task as opposed to doing one thing at a time. So Paulo suggests mono-tasking over multi-tasking. You’ll save time and you’ll be able to enjoy the moment more.

Success is a continuous journey

Watch the TED Talk here. 

Presenter: Richard St. John 

Run-time: 3:48

About the talk:

Success isn’t a one-way street. For a lot of people, once they reach their goal, they think they can sit back and relax. But that’s not the case. You have to keep growing and learning and pushing yourself. Otherwise, you’ll fall back down the hill. Or, you might be outwardly successful, but on the inside, you may not feel as happy as you think you should.

You have to continuously do the things that brought you success and made you feel happy in the first place. Things like…

• Having passion
• Working hard
• Focusing
• Pushing
• Generating new ideas
• Improving
• Serving
• And persisting.

Don’t think of success as a linear progression. Think of it as being a circular and ongoing pursuit.

What do you think of these TED Talks? Are there any other talks on the subject that you particularly like that I in’t mention? If so, please leave a comment below and let me know.

When you have a lot going on, staying productive can be a real challenge. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, burnt out, or like you want to just give up.

I definitely have this happen. There are days when I feel like there are 1000+things on my to-do list and all I want to do is curl up on the couch with a cup of tea.

On days when I’m feeling unmotivated – or even just as a general practice – having some “productivity hacks” on hand is VERY helpful. It helps get more things done in less time and creates more time for the things that bring you non-work happiness.

Because of that, I thought I’d share 20 things that you can do as well to improve your productivity, focus, and momentum towards your goals. As always, I’ve included practical tools and resources wherever possible.

If you start doing even a handful of things from the list below, you should be able to see a near-immediate improvement in what you can accomplish every day.

Let’s dive in…

How to be productive each and every (work)day, in no particular order:

Break up bigger projects into mini-tasks

If you’re faced with a big and challenging project, you can start to feel overwhelmed and avoid making progress as a result.

To help with this, it makes sense to break your big tasks into smaller bite-sized pieces and then proceed to tackle one small piece at a time.

For example, if you know you want to make a new blog post, you might actually have 4 action steps that you do either in one day or throughout a couple days. You could include “outline the post’s main points”, “come up with a title”, “write a rough draft”, and “proofread”.

None of those individual items are overwhelming and they end up taking you to exactly where you want to go.

I talk about breaking down goals in a lot more depth in my book Take Control of Your Life so check it out if you’re interested. It’s free if you have Kindle Unlimited.

Batch your work

By “batching”, I mean, work on similar tasks all at once.

For example, if you have a couple things you need to take care of on Facebook, such as responding to messages and posting a few promotions, then try to pair those tasks together and do them one right after another.

If you have a few tasks that involve writing, do them back-to-back since they use a similar skill set.

This will help you stay in a flow state versus jumping from unrelated task to unrelated task which takes up a lot more mental bandwidth.

Set a schedule for your tasks

It’s amazing how much more productive you can be when there’s a schedule or a deadline (even if it’s self-imposed) that you have to meet. This is especially true of the more time-consuming tasks or those involving multiple parts and steps.

For the blog post example again, another way you might schedule that could be as follows:

9:00am – 9:45am – Research and take notes.

9:45am – 11:00am – Write first draft.

11:00am – 11:20am – Take a break.

11:20am – 11:45am – Proofread and edit.

11:45am – 12:00pm – Read through once more and publish.

I’ve found it VERY helpful to use a simple kitchen timer when working. It feels like I’m racing against the clock to get things done according to my timelines and makes it far less likely for me to get distracted.

Look for shortcuts

There are often ways that you can shortcut your work to make things more efficient.

For example, if you’re emailed the same customer service questions over and over, create a document with scripts that you can copy and paste so you reduce the amount of time you have to spend answering emails. Here’s a link to a blog post I made last year with a series of customer service templates and Etsy snippets.

As another example, there are many shortcuts you can use for Google research. Here’s a post I’d made about Google search operators.

There are other things you can do with automation (blog post coming up on that soon!), with outsourcing, templates, or so on.

If there’s anything you’d like me to blog about around shortcuts, leave a comment and let me know. I’d love your thoughts.

Find an accountability partner

Having a good partner can be VERY helpful.

I actually used to run an accountability program in which my assistant and I would communicate with participants about what their goals were and then we could check in with them every day to make sure they were moving forward and staying on task. I’d since closed the program but one of the participants, 5 or so years later, still emails my assistant every day because she finds it so helpful.

When you have someone holding you accountable for your work, slacking off feels a lot more uncomfortable because you don’t want to let that person down.

A friend and I do this thing called “Power Hours” (not to be confused with this, although that works, ha!). We’ll tell each other what we plan to accomplish in the next hour and then check in at the end to see what we did.

We also have something where we’ll tell each other our big 3 goals for each day. If we don’t reach those goals, we have to pay the other person $10. We both trash talk each other a lot which is very helpful, haha, because it makes us not want to pay the other person.

To find an accountability partner, you can join relevant Facebook groups and try to form connections with other group members. You can also try joining a group on MeetUp.com if you’re looking for something more face-to-face.

Erase items from your to-do list

Look at each item on your to-do list and think, “Do I REALLY need to do this? Is it driving me closer to my main goal?”

Of course there are some items you will need to do. You’ll likely also find a bunch of busy-work that is nonessential. Maybe it got there because it was a quick win of crossing something off your list, or maybe it’s something you thought would be cool to try. Remember your end goals though, and stick to the tasks that make the most sense for your overall goals.

Remove your phone from your workspace

Most people check their phones a lot throughout the day.  And when you keep yours within arm’s reach, the temptation to pick it up is typically too great – especially if you hear a message come in.

Even if you only check your phone and respond to texts and calls once in a while, it can still hinder your productivity. The conversations you have don’t immediately leave your brain once you put your phone down.  The content of those interactions can stay with you throughout the day and impact your progress.

To help with this, it’s best to keep your devices out of sight and mind until you have a scheduled break-time.

Do a 5-10 minute workout before starting your workday

Exercise gets your blood flowing and has been proven to increase productivity and make you feel better thanks to endorphins that get released. If you search online, there are tons of quick exercise videos you can follow along to from the comfort of your home.

Even if you just have a few minutes to spare, five minutes of exercise is still worthwhile. My trainer tells me that 5 minutes is pretty much the time equivalent of a Facebook news feed scroll. So skip that and and opt to get your blood flowing instead – it’s a much better use of your time. :)

Disable messages from your computer

Some people have it so that whenever they get a message on their phones they get an alert on their computers too. If you have this feature enabled, turn it off. The messages only distract you.

Focus on your “Big 3” tasks

Being productive isn’t only about getting a lot of things done. It’s about getting the most important things done.

While you may have a ton of things to accomplish, have 1-3 things listed out each day that, if finished by the end of the day, you’ll know you can go to bed feeling proud and productive.

Not only does this keep you focused on what will take you closest to your goals, but completing the items also gives you a way to “win” each day.

Take multiple small breaks instead of one big break

While you might think working multiple hours straight would yield higher productivity rates than taking a 10-minute break every hour, the opposite is actually true.

Studies show that more frequent breaks actually increase productivity and helps you avoid the super-burn-out feeling you can get after spending too much time focusing on something intense.

Change your location

Routines can be helpful, but if you never change your patterns, you can start to feel stuck.

If you work from a home office for example, maybe move to the kitchen or go to a local coffee shop in the afternoons.

Personally, I usually spend 90 minutes on my treadmill desk, then another 90 downstairs to the kitchen table. I have both places pre-stocked with a huge jug of water. It helps keep me motivated.

If you have a traditional job and are able to switch locations, take advantage of that.

Schedule an end to your day – and stick to it

Set a time for when you’re going to stop working and be truly done for the day. You need downtime so you can unwind and feel good about what you’ve accomplished.

Once you trust your “stop” time, you’ll be more productive because you’ll have that deadline to work against.

And by giving yourself times to NOT work, you’ll feel less overwhelmed and have less of the hamster-wheel-of-work-work-work feeling that’s so easy to acquire.

Get comfortable saying no

Things come up – extra projects at work, friends who want to get together, little favors that people may ask of you, etc…

But you can’t say yes to everything.

Obviously you need to balance and not say no ALL the time, but if you’re like most people, you could stand to say no more often.

Learn how to set boundaries and don’t be shy about saying no to non-urgent activities. You can kindly explain to people that your goals are important to you and you need to spend time working on them.

Discover your “peak performance” hours

Not everyone works best during the hours between 9 and 5. Some people work better super early in the morning, while other people are night owls and experience heightened levels of creativity and productivity bursts late at night.

Peak performance hours vary from person to person, so figure out when you work best and then structure your work day around those times.

And if you’d like to try to become a morning person, you might like this Huffington Post article I wrote back in 2015 – How to become a morning person.

Use site blockers

If you’re like most people, you spend too much time scrolling social media or watching YouTube videos than you should during the workday. It can be very hard not to just pop over to Instagram to see what your friends have been posting, but then POOF — somehow a whole hour goes by.

Using site blockers can help a lot with this problem. These will let you “block” sites from yourself so you can focus your time on being productive.

Here are a few that you can try:

• Freedom
• LeechBlock
• RescueTime
• SelfControlApp

Hide your email inbox

Checking your inbox and responding to non-urgent emails is one of the biggest time-sucks and can seriously take a toll on your productivity.

There’s a Chrome extension that can help with this. It’s called Inbox When Ready. The way it works is it hides your inbox along with your unread emails, but you can still search, write, and send emails if you want. This way, you stay more focused and don’t feel as compelled to check or respond to every single unread email right away.

Save menial work for the end of the day

Sometimes we have repetitive yet essential tasks that need to get done, like filling out a spreadsheet or uploading items to UseGearBubble.

Save those types of items for the end of the day.

The beginning of your workday is when you have the most brainpower to get things done. Use that time to do your creative or big-thinking tasks.

As your creativity and discipline wane, then do the menial tasks that you don’t need much intelligence for.

Prep ahead by writing out your top 3 goals for the next day

At the end of each workday spend 10-15 minutes jotting down a list of the 2-3 most important things you need/want to do the following day.

This helps your subconscious can start “working” on those items while you sleep, plus it helps you hit the ground running the next day.

Give yourself a “score” at the end of each day

At the end of each day, think about how your day went. Ask yourself what 1-3 things could have made your day better.

You may even want to give yourself a “score” for the day.

Having this as a routine will help you identify the ways you can flow more consistently and have more efficient days. And since the answers will be custom tailored to you personally, they’ll be very practical and easier to implement.

I hope you find this list of productivity hacks useful! Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think!