The Best Productivity Hack In The Whole World... Is This One.

7/15/2015

We all want to live a happy, productive and successful life. Thousands of books have been written on the topic. But it turns out that the best possible productivity hack in the world -- is one of the easiest. And I wanted to share it with all my readers!

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Make weekend plans.

Seriously. The best way to stay focused is to have a deadline. If you know that the project you're working on has to be done by Friday, because you're going to a frisbee tournament/camping trip/wine country tour on Saturday, you will get your work done by Friday.

You have no idea how many people have declined invitations to do amazing, incredible weekend trips with me "because I have work..." Only to spend most of Saturday morning watching Netflix, then making breakfast, then doing the dishes, then running an errand, then going out for drinks with friends because they still have all day Sunday to work on the project... and, before they know it, it's Sunday night and they're only just starting on the work.

I'm not the only one who thinks so. Popular convention states that "work expands to fill the time allotted."

LifeHacker states that you should avoid Monday deadlines for a more productive work week.

Hische is a "procrastiworker"—someone who waits till the last minute to finish a project, but keeps working in bits and pieces until the deadline. In the end, she wasn't getting the time off she needs every week. Her solution was to eliminate project deadlines on Monday:

"If there is a deadline on Monday, and you are prone to procrastinating / procrastiworking like me, you are most definitely working on the weekend."

The Time Management Ninja writes that setting tight deadlines ignites creativity, reduces wasted time, encourages teamwork, builds confidence and makes the impossible possible. Plus, when you give yourself some extra time, it allows you to edit and revise the work before you submit it.

Fortune writes that if you're missing deadlines, you're probably not busy enough -- and that a long to-do list can help you beat procrastination.

What this all adds up to... is making weekend (and evening) plans. Not only will they force you to have tighter deadlines and make you more productive... they will also help improve your mental health by giving you a break from work and making your life an adventure. Remember: everything's always worth it.

Case in point: here's one photo from each of my last five weekends:

Surfing Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz

River hike to God's Bath in Stanislaus National Forest

Whitewater kayaking in The Gorge, South Fork of the American River

Scuba diving and spear fishing at Butterfly House, Carmel, CA

Abalone diving in Fort Brag, CA

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8 Comments

Paul

8/16/2015 06:41:16 am

Wonderful! I have begun to use this in college, and am now doing things I most definitely would have put of if I had not scheduled them. Thank you so much!

Eva Glasrud link

8/17/2015 12:33:45 am

Yay!! That's great news! Thanks for sharing -- it's comments like these that keep me blogging :)

Avinash

8/19/2015 02:19:08 pm

Hi Eva ,
I am big prcostinater ,so i am brainstromer guy not a finisher guy , i can well relate to your friend "I have to work,saturday netflix,.....",i am really that guy ,thanks for the tip ,i would like to add more when there is pressure can we have creativity? , creativity comes out when we are in our extreme mental state of no pressure and linking all the ideas with no deadline in mind , like here in India the best movies which are produced like PK ( it took 5 years to make the movie ) it is the highest grossing movie of Indian cinema , same like with Noble prize physics winner Richard Feynman said that "The director at California Institute of technology told me not to bother about usefulness of the ideas,projects you would deliver for us , we want you to think without the pressure of thinking wether your idea will be useful or not " .Of course while dividing our big project into short term deliverable for a week ,we can do planning of our week.! Thanks for the tip!

9/22/2015 12:45:42 pm

Couldn't agree more. Which is why, when you look at the best, most creative companies who brainstorm right, you notice a pattern:

1) During initial brainstorming, there are no bad ideas. People get together in a room, eat pizza, jot down ideas. No one says "no," and no one says, "It won't work." It's a no-negativity zone. It's just fun, just ideas, with no specific deadlines.

2) You move from idea to execution. People are given tasks to help complete a project. With a far-off deadline, people can approach problems with an open, flexible mind. This is a great way to begin approaching problems and obstacles.

3) However, eventually, you need to zero in, focus, and get things done. That's what deadlines are for. Heck, that's what ALARMS are for. They are DESIGNED to take us out of our creative, open, happy mental state of mo pressure, and FORCE us to focus on one specific problem. Which, sometimes, is exactly what people need to complete finishing touches and publish/launch/release their project.

Thanks for the feedback -- if you even want to guest post about it, let me know :)

Zeph

3/6/2017 01:41:28 pm

Hmm. I'm not sure I can endorse quite that 3 step process. Unfortunately, I've seen too many meetings where essentially stupid ideas which actually are not feasible cause damage by not being filtered with reality. In the steps you describe, it sounds like there's no room for reality filtering until you are facing a deadline.

I really believe there needs to be a step inserted between your first two steps. It's great to have a first brainstorming step where there is no criticism of any idea, no matter how ill advised it may initially appear to be; sometimes we are too quick to dismiss things. But before you decide on a course of action and begin implementing, there needs to be a step where we explore the implications of different approaches and apply some critical thinking in choosing among them. Some ideas which initially appear to be bad or infeasible do indeed turn out to be just that, and need to be filtered out before committing resources to a known folly. I've seen the messes that can result if you skip that step.

Fishing with an initially wide open net can be effective - but only if you do remember to close it before hauling it up.

jenna link

5/4/2017 12:36:51 pm

cool and proven idea

Tom

3/23/2023 09:09:11 am

Hey,

I found this article really helpful and I think weekend plans make life more joyful. It's much better than spending your weekend only watching Netflix and YouTube.
Do you have any tips for activities in COLDER COUNTRIES? It seems like the weather is always good where you live, but I would not dare swimming in a lake or go kayaking at 40° D:
It seems kind of hard to me to "escape" this typical weekends most people have nowadays, any tips to "get started" ?

Thanks :)

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The Best Productivity Hack In The Whole World... Is This One.

Make weekend plans.

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