10 Productivity Hacks to 10x Your Output

Hey friends 👋🏼

It’s been a while since I last sent out an email as I’ve been studying hard for my exams, but I’m looking forward to coming back with a bang in a couple weeks with lots of exciting opportunities on the horizon.

Before we get started with this week’s exciting productivity-themed newsletter, I just wanted to drag your attention to a really amazing newsletter that I now follow pretty religiously.

It’s called ‘Creator Spotlight’ and it’s run by Francis Zierer at Beehiiv (the platform that brings you my newsletter). He’s a really passionate guy, and it clearly shows in the sheer quality of work he produces on a regular basis.

If you’re a creator or entrepreneur looking to learn how to start, scale, and eventually optimise your online business (from those already a few steps ahead of you) - this is an absolute must-read every week.

Check it out at the link above.

If you sign up I get a small kick-back so you’d be helping support the creation of more Mental Model Mail in the future too 😉

Now, onto the good stuff…

10 Productivity Hacks to 10x Your Output:

1. Pareto Principle:

80% of effects come from 20% of causes.

• High-Yield = 20% effort → 80% results
• Low-Yield = 80% effort → 20% results

Focus on the highest-yield work to get the most results for every unit of energy you put into any given task.

It’s worth taking the time to prioritise your tasks before you start, to avoid wasting time on low-yield work.

2. Eisenhower Matrix:

What is the best way to prioritise your tasks?

Former US President Dwight D. Eisenhower came up with a pretty elegant solution that is used by many of the world’s top professionals - known now as the ‘Eisenhower Matrix’.

It’s essentially a 2×2 grid split into 4 quadrants based on the level of urgency and importance of the task.

Based on this, tasks are assigned one of the following categories:

1. Do

2. Delay

3. Delegate

4. Delete

Use this to focus on higher-yield work.

3. Gretzky’s Razor:

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”
- Wayne Gretzky

If there’s no real downside, don’t be afraid to shoot your shot → you never know what opportunities might come from it.

If you one day decide to publish your work online:
• Worst case scenario, no-one sees it
• Best case scenario, it ignites a whole new career

The more you put yourself out there, the more you increase your ‘luck surface area’: the number of opportunities you have for a ‘random’ stroke of luck to come your way.

4. Bias Towards Action:

The best way to supercharge your productivity (particularly when tackling a new or unfamiliar challenge) is to have a ‘bias towards action’.

A useful heuristic I learned from productivity guru Ali Abdaal ↓

When starting something new, remember this (in this order):

1. Get going

2. Get good

3. Get smart

This emphasises the importance of just getting started, even if you don’t know anything yet. There’s nothing like learning from experience.

If you’re holding off on something, just get started.

5. Compounding Effect:

Too many people try to do too much, too fast.

If you improve just 1% every day, by the end of the year you will be more than 37x better than when you started.

Pretty crazy, right? That’s the power of compounding gains.

Instead of relying on large bursts of motivation to pull you through, just dedicate a small amount of time every day to making those tiny incremental improvements.

It’s far more sustainable and will actually leave you better off in future too.

6. Parkinson’s Law:

Work expands to fill the time allocated to it.

• Short deadlines → quicker work
• Long deadlines → slower work

Effort levels depend on outside pressure, so stress from a looming deadline can force you into action.

Break your task down into a series of sub-tasks and set mini-deadlines for yourself to make sure you get important work done on time.

7. Time-Blocking:

If it isn't in my calendar, it doesn't exist.

Schedule blocks of 'deep work' in your calendar to focus on one specific task for a set period of time.

This cuts out distraction and avoids the 'attention residue' from constant task-switching.

Use this alongside the 'Pomodoro Technique' (#8) to double down on deep work.

8. Pomodoro Technique:

Instead of spending hours constantly switching between tasks, break your work into 30 minute chunks of intense focus on one thing.

• 25 minutes → deep work
• 5 minutes → break

The output from 4x30 mins is greater than from 1x120 mins.

9. Creativity Faucet:

This is a technique used by award-winning songwriter Ed Sheeran to combat writer’s block…

Imagine your creativity as a backed-up pipe.

The first mile is packed with wastewater that needs emptied before the clear water can arrive.

When creating, write down all the bad ideas that inevitably come to mind.

Only then will good ideas start to flow.

10. Reitoff Principle:

Some days, the cosmic forces just won't let you get good work done.

It's okay to occasionally write a day off.

Put a pin in it and return with more energy tomorrow.

That’s all for today.

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Thanks for reading,

Lewis 🍻