Productivity Tips and Hacks: How to change you'r life completely in the next year or two

What can you do to change?

Optimize everything about your life.

That means literally everything: how you think about your life, which steps are the most important for achieving your personal goals, what you eat, how you get (and stay) fit, how you study. Everything!

How can you do it?

You can do it with super small habits you can practice every day.

What’s the benefit?

It makes everything much easier. It’s not intimidating. It’s not impossible. It’s not something only other people can do - YOU can do it! And the best part? It gets you much closer to the best version of yourself - the one you will proud of becoming!

When should you start?

TODAY.

What are the habits you can practice every day?

Here are 7 habits that can make a really big impact on your future life.

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ONE. Be laser-focused on making progress: Start your day with this question: What is the one thing I am committed to completing today?

• Why this habit matters: it encourages you to think strategically about your life, it keeps you focused on your goals, it forces you to prioritize, and it serves as a personal promise to yourself.
• How you can incorporate this habit into your day: put it in writing. Write it in big bold letters on a sheet of paper and hang it on your bedroom or bathroom wall. Read it out loud as you start your day, and come up with an answer on the spot. Then, as you go through the day, make sure you’re working on completing what you’ve identified as your one thing.

TWO. Create your unique morning routine.

Why is a routine important? Because it helps you become the master of your own time, you can start working on things that are important to you, and you can be more calm knowing in advance what your day will look like. Here’s what your morning can include:

• A short workout (15–20 minutes): a morning yoga routine, a 15 minute bootcamp session, a set of sun salutation poses or a 20-minute power walk.
• A balanced breakfast to give you energy: a combination of protein, fruits, and healthy fats such as oatmeal or a parfait with fresh fruit.
• More brain boosting food to fuel you through the day that includes seafood, spinach, kale and quinoa.

THREE. Be smart about the way you study.

• When should you study? EARLY in the day. Why? Because the early hours of the day are the optimal time for your analytical brain to perform the most complex tasks (in the case of studying, these can be reading, comprehension, application, repetition). Some scientists call this time of day the brain’s peak performance time, and it's roughly 2-4 hours after we wake up. So, for example, if you wake up at 6, your peak times for review are between 8 and 10 a.m. You can extend this time until midday so that you cover the most important concepts by lunchtime.
• How should you study? With a timer. Why? Reviewing for hours at a stretch is not the best way to study. Using a timer is beneficial because (a) you divide up your day into manageable increments which helps your brain to focus in a more targeted and effective way, (b) you can use it to practice exam questions in an exam mock-up session, and (c) you have time for some physical exercise to give your brain time to process new information. For example:
• For reviewing, set the timer to 30 or 60 minute blocks. When you're done with one segment, step away from your desk, and do something completely unrelated to work to give your brain a chance to rest: take a 5 minute walk, look out the window, stretch your body, grab a cup of coffee or tea.
• For practicing exam questions, use the review questions provided either in your textbook or other course materials (and if you have neither, create your own questions based on the most important concepts from each chapter). Write the questions down on a sheet of paper. Then, use thePomodoro technique to give yourself only a short time to answer each question. This technique consists of 25 minute blocks of time, followed by 5 minute breaks.
• Use each 25-minute block of time to cover several questions, and go down the list until you’ve covered them all.
• Say your answers out loud. Write an outline of the basic points you want to make in your answer, then talk it through out loud. This technique helps you review, recall, and retain what you’ve learned in a much better way than just silently looking over the material.
• How can you boost your memory and focus? Take a walk. Performing some form of physical exercise, even if it is targeted and short, improves your brain's cognitive performance, problem solving ability, and even boosts long-term memory. Step away from your desk and walk for 30 minutes. If your neighborhood or college campus is noisy, take your headphones with you and listen to some relaxing instrumental music.

FOUR. Tackle procrastination head on: Replace saying “I can’t do this right now” with “why not?”

Procrastinating may sound like the easy way out. Why? Because it doesn’t require a lot of effort to procrastinate. In fact, it’s almost a default reaction to something challenging that’s in front of you. Consider this:

• Think carefully if there is something else hiding behind procrastination. Maybe it is fear of not being able to do something successfully.
• Next time you feel like procrastinating, rather than immediately saying “I can’t”ask yourself where the resistance is coming from. Be honest with yourself. Find out what it is so you can do something about it.
• The biggest benefit to making this change is this: whenever you say “why not?” you win over fear. There is something really powerful when we leave a little space open for possibilities, instead of shutting the door in our own face. It’s a subtle change in attitude towards ourselves than can have a tremendous impact in our lives.

FIVE. Think at least two steps ahead: Develop your life strategy.

Focus on the work you’ve planned to complete today, but always keep your eye on at least two steps ahead. When you have a strategy in place, everything you do each day will have more purpose. How?

• Rethink your daily actions and how you react to what’s happening around you. Is your behavior geared towards achieving a one-time effect, or will you feel benefits in the long run?
• Are you merely reacting to events or being proactive about them?
• Is what you’re doing today going to help you become who you want to be in 10 years? Become strategic so that you can achieve long term results that your future self can benefit from.

SIX. Set long-term goals for yourself.

• Identify your top 3 goals. For example: graduate from college, get an advanced degree, find a job that is the best fit for your skill set, develop a skill that you've always wanted, get physically fit, relocate to a city or country where you would like to live and work, etc.
• Then, under each goal, write down 3 things you will need to do on a regular basis to make progress. For example: if your goal is to get physically fit, then the things you should focus on can be creating a meal plan for the week to eat healthier, working out regularly, and doing research on YouTube for fun workouts that don't take up too much time and can be incorporated easily into your day.
• Finally, create a weekly schedule to fit in the activities you've identified as important to achieving your goal. Divide each day into hourly increments, then block off time for your activities. You should still be able to find a couple of hours where you can do what you set out to do.

SEVEN. Use your evenings for dreaming big.

Evenings (or anywhere after 6 p.m.) can be scheduled for strategic thinking. This is when the brain eases into a different tempo when it can be more creative. If you're setting goals and strategizing where you want to be in 6 months' time or a year with your personal development, this is when you can outline your next steps. It's a great time for creating and contemplating the big picture. Here’s what you can contemplate:

• Ask yourself: Where do you see yourself in the future, who do you want to become, what would be an ideal lifestyle for you?
• Map out your dreams: Write down in detail what this ideal lifestyle would be like. Cover all areas of your life: what is that dream job, the daily schedule, the people you’d be working with? What does the city look like, the apartment or house you’d be living in, the commute to work? Do you see yourself with a partner, a family, children, with pets? Dedicate some time to describing every little aspect in detail.
• Make it visual: Get a large sheet of paper, then find photographs (from magazines, for example) that look like a visual representation of what you’d like your ideal lifestyle to be. Add pictures and write down phrases that are powerful and meaningful to you, and that pertain to your goals: your college degree, the perfect job, your ideal and fit self, your dream home, the dog you’d like to have one day, etc.
• Incorporate it into your day: Put your vision map somewhere where you can see it first thing in the morning: in the bathroom as you’re brushing your teeth or in the bedroom when you’re getting dressed. Look at it often, absorb the pictures, read the words. Make it a daily habit to spend time observing everything you’ve put on your vision map.
• Make the connection: As you’re dreaming big, ask yourself what can you do every single day to get you closer to your dreams. It is only when we are proactive about our life that we can truly make dreams come alive, make them real, make them part of who we want to become.