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Welcome back to The Leap! A newsletter to help individuals and businesses take their productivity to the next level.
I’ve been seeing some interesting and unique productivity tips lately. I thought it’d be fun to share a few of them.
Let’s jump into it!
1. Grayscale Mode
Research shows that putting your phone in grayscale mode can reduce screen time by 50+ minutes daily. This is more effective than “app limits” and “downtime” features.
Dulling all the bright colors makes your phone less addicting and fun to be on.
Pro tips:
1. Set it up as automation. Have your phone automatically go to grayscale during work hours, around bedtime, etc. Tutorial video here.
2. Set up a shortcut to quickly turn on and off.
2. Router Shut Off
Plug your wifi router into one of those timed outlets. Then set a time when the router automatically shuts off every night.
My wife and I have been watching Survivor, and we stay up much later than we should. But if the router automatically got shut off at 10pm, we’d be much more likely to head to bed!
Many of routers have built-in shut off features that you can enable. So you may not need a timed outlet.
3. Password Change
I learned about this one in Atomic Habits. At the beginning of the week, have someone change the password on all your social media accounts. This will log you out on all your devices.
The idea is to have fewer distractions. This would be an ideal strategy if you had a big project you were working on. James Clear did this while he was writing Atomic Habits.
Then on Friday, you get the password to all your accounts, and you can enjoy social media over the weekend.
4. Clean Workspace
A study by the University of Arizona found that people who work in a clean and organized environment are up to 15% more productive than those who work in a cluttered and messy environment.
When we’re busy, it can seem like we don’t have the time to tidy up our workspace. But 15% more productive in an 8-hour day is over an hour. Most the time tidying up may only take 5-10 minutes.
5. Take Breaks
Once again, this seems counterintuitive when we are busy and trying to maximize what we get done. However, when you work too long with no breaks, your performance tanks.
Studies have proved that we have a maximum attention span in work intervals from 20-45 minutes.
The most popular way to work with breaks is the Pomodoro Technique. You work for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. After four work intervals, you take a longer 15-30 minute break.
Over an 8-hour day, this adds up to around 2 hours of break time. On the surface, it’s easy to think that you’d be better off with no breaks and be able to get two extra hours of work done.
But working for 6 hours at 90-100% efficiency is much better than working 8 hours at 20% efficiency.
Summary
The cool thing about becoming more productive is that there are many ways to do it. It’s not a one size fits all solution.
Putting your phone in grayscale may work for one person but do nothing for the next person.
The key is to take action, gather feedback, and iterate.
Think → Do → Feedback → Iterate
That’s it for this week.
Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:
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