Whenever you have a bunch of looming tasks—as many of us do at the start of the new year, when everyone actually "circles back" on the things we've been putting off—having a structured to-do list is an essential part of getting everything done. Determining what goes on that list and in what order, though, is a task all its own. I've covered a lot of ways to do that, but if you're stuck with a high volume of important responsibilities, you need an approach that matches the complexity of what you're trying to do—and that's where the RICE method comes into play.

What is the RICE method of prioritization?

RICE, as you probably guessed, is an acronym. Here's what it stands for:

• Reach: How many people or parts of your life or project this task will impact

• Impact: How meaningful that impact will be if and when it's done correctly

• Confidence: How sure you are about your estimates of the other three factors

• Effort: The time, energy, knowledge, and resources required

A unique combination of those factors is going to give you guidance on which tasks are the most crucial to prioritize, which is helpful when you're overloaded by information and dread, unable to think about when or where to get started.

How and when to use RICE

I won't lie to you: This method is more convoluted than some of the others I've covered in the past. I might even recommend trying a simpler prioritization technique, like the Eisenhower matrix, before you try this one and only whip this out if Eisenhower or its peers aren't given you solid results. RICE takes a little time—and that's because you need to do some math.

Start by writing down all your tasks. Under each, you're assigning numbers. The Reach score will be the number of people or parts of your life or project that the task will impact and the Impact score is a 3 (massive impact), 2 (high), 1 (medium), .5 (low), or .25 (minimal impact). Confidence should be a 100, 80, or 50, to represent the percentage of confidence you feel in your estimates and abilities. You can use any number between 0 and 100, but falling back on those three just makes it easier. Most adherents of this method use a complicated math equation (determining "person-months") for Effort, but I'm going to simplify that for you. Score it the same way you scored Impact, with a 3 for multiple days or resources, 2 for a day, 1 for half a day, .5 for an hour, and .25 for a half an hour or less. You can also score Reach that way if you're working on a personal project and your results won't necessarily reach a big number of people. In that case, think about the different areas of your life or personal goals it will affect and use that 3-to-.25 scale.

That part is all subjective, similar to using the ABCDE method to assign grades to your to-dos. It can't be avoided—you won't know the true resources required or reach of the project until it's done—but you can quantify it a bit.

Next, you do math. It's R x I x C divided by E. You'll end up with a numerical score for each task. Rank the tasks in descending order, with the biggest numbers first. Obviously, you may find that some can't be completed until others are done, so use your discretion there, but for the most part, you've just created a clear outline of which things will have the biggest impact and reach and you can at least know where to start. Add each into your calendar using time boxing and time blocking, then get after it. Knowing you have a plan of attack is half the motivational battle.

I write a lot about productivity, which means I also read a lot about it. Over the last few months, I've noticed an uptick in people discussing something called "cognitive overload," citing it as a potential reason for a decline in output. The phrase stuck out to me as one of those buzzy terms that has the potential to be overused until it's meaningless—but at its core, it certainly has a real, clear definition that can be helpful tool in maximizing productivity.

Basically, cognitive overload is what happens when you're inundated with more information than your brain can process, so your brain just gives up altogether, making hard to focus on anything at all. Here's what to know about it and what to do once you identify it.

What causes cognitive overload?

You know all those jokes on social media about how a single news item or food product from modern times would kill a person born just a few centuries ago? They're funny and hyperbolic, but they're grounded in the fact that while the ways in which we produce things and share information have advanced wildly, the human brain has basically remained the same. We say it all the time but it bears repeating: We're just not cut out to handle the onslaught of stimuli we get on a daily basis.

Think of how many times your phone lights up on a given day. I just checked my screentime app and discovered that though it's only early afternoon, I've gotten 150 notifications straight to my lock screen already today. It's only Wednesday, so I'm averaging 213 a day, which my phone assures me is down 20% from last week and I'm quite sure I'll pick back up by the time Sunday rolls around. Considering that a few months ago, I redid all my phone settings so not all of my notifications got blasted to my lock screen, this is concerning. That's just a lot of information to constantly see.

As it turns out, text-based info is the main cause of cognitive overload, at least according to one study. Emails, Slack and Teams messages, texts, calendar notifications—the never-ending stream of these bad boys is a major contributor to the overall feeling of being unable to process or do anything. If you think about an average day when you've felt too zapped to work, it probably included plenty of those. Audio-visual stimuli are less debilitating, according to the study, so a Zoom or phone call or a manager stopping by your desk may not trip you up as badly.

Beyond feeling like you can't even think straight or like you're too overwhelmed to take action on any one task, you may be able to recognize cognitive overload from other signs. If incoming messages make you feel frustrated or detached, for instance, no matter what they say, this could be happening to you. That's actually the symptom I experience most often, for what it's worth. When I'm overwhelmed by too much information, I find myself thinking, "What do you want?!" every time my phone lights up, before I even see who is reaching out. (Sorry, Mom.)

How I'm battling cognitive overload

As I was going through the study and thinking over cognitive overload, I realized I've already been implementing a few tricks that may have been helping me avoid it. As mentioned above, I banned my least-used apps from sending me notifications a few months ago. For years, I've also tinkered with my MacBook settings so I don't get any form of push notification on my computer. My phone is next to me at all times; there's no good reason for the top right corner of my laptop screen to be whacking me with the same notifications the phone is already showing me.

A few other tried-and-true productivity approaches came to mind for me once I got a good grasp of what cognitive overload actually is. The one-touch rule of inbox management could be useful for you if you find that messages get you worked up. With that, you open each message as you get it and make an instant decision about what to do with the contents. It might seem counterintuitive to face each incoming message head-on if you're trying to avoid feeling burned out by the sheer volume of them, but I've found that when I see a message preview at the top of my screen and do nothing about it, it nags at me all day. Addressing it instantly helps me clear my mind and keep working.

Otherwise, the way you go about battling this is going to be pretty subjective, although I do have one more recommendation: If you're not familiar with the Pomodoro technique, get familiar now. With it, you work for a set amount of time (usually 25 minutes) before taking a small break (usually five). When you're in those focus sessions, you should be completely distraction-free, putting your devices in Do Not Disturb mode or even using specialized apps to block other, distracting apps. Knowing you have to work seriously for a certain amount of time can help get you in the zone and push you away from information and decision paralysis while knowing you eventually get a break can help you stay relaxed as you go.

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Last year, one of my New Year's resolutions was to overhaul my apartment and turn it into a cleaner, more comfortable, more organized, and more efficient space. Knowing that a messy space can negatively impact your productivity and overall mental health, I reasoned that this would actually serve the purpose of making me a more efficient, peaceful person, so I took it seriously. One major issue was quickly apparent: My kitchen is tiny, which meant it was disorganized and more or less useless when it came to its primary function, which is to facilitate my cooking. It took some creativity (and money), but I figured out what to do—and now I'm learning to cook and bake better for one of this year's resolutions.

The improvements I made to the kitchen

My kitchen is a little over three feet wide and five feet long. (I live in NYC, where this is the norm.) There is no counter space; all there is along one side is a sink and an oven. The first thing I had to do was manufacture counter space, which I did by adding cubed storage shelving. (I did this years ago, but only truly organized the cubes last year. We're getting to that.) It looks like this:

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

The main things I thought of, besides organizing the cubed storage, were how I could better utilize what space I did have, which is why anything and everything possible is now hanging vertically on under-cabinet wine glass racks, utensil holders, or a towel rack, plus hooks all over. What I'm most excited for is the impending delivery of this big peg board, which is going to allow me to hang more utensils and cookware on the wall.

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Other, smaller improvements became more obvious to me as I worked through organizing the big stuff. Once I cleared out and designated a suitable spot for my Nespresso, I figured out I needed a vertical, adhesive-backed holder for the pods, since there wasn't enough room in the cubes to hold them in their retail boxes. I finally bought a big ladder so I could actually use my cupboards. I then set about organizing the cupboards with acrylic risers, the same way I organized my perfume and makeup. For the area under the sink, I bought a pull-out shelf to give me easy access to cleaning materials. The boxes containing my various grains and oats were too unwieldy to keep in my cupboards, which led me to a rotating rice dispenser. It went on that way for a while, with me paying tribute to the Amazon gods every few days, but it was all because I had a bigger plan.

The organizing rules that guided me (and can help you, too)

You may not want a giant peg board or need to hang all your spatulas upside-down. Maybe you have lots of drawers. That's cool. You still need a plan for organizing whatever you've got and a plan for figuring out what you, specifically, need.

Throughout the organizing process, I kept a key principle in mind. It's called the Organizational Triangle and it's a set of three rules: Everything needs a place, similar items must be stored together, and for every new thing that comes in, one should go out. I ignored the last rule, for the most part, because what I was bringing in was meant to store what was already there better, but those first two were crucial. Prior to using the OT, not everything had a place. Some bowls and mugs lived in the sink. Not everything was stored together, either, which made it a pain to attempt to cook. By grouping similar items and designating each of them a spot, I could assess the volume of each category, get rid of what I didn't need, and better organize everything. By organizing smaller batches of things that would fit into one cube or on one hanging rack, I ended up organizing the whole thing, big-picture-style.

Other cleaning and organizing techniques, like SIMPLE and Core 4, were also instrumental. Both of these advise that you need containers for your things. Again, this helps you assess actual volume and make sharper decluttering choices, but it also keeps everything neat. I got a little abstract in my interpretation, considering my hanging organizers "containers," but also used boxes and the aforementioned grain dispenser to meet those requirements.

By following strict, pre-identified cleaning and organizing rules, I was able to more effectively turn the space into something usable. The guidelines helped me make a plan, even if I was redoing and correcting it as I went along, so I wasn't just hanging myself out to dry. Now, when I need a spatula or whatever you call that special tool that breaks up ground beef, I know where they are, they're easy to reach, and I feel good about how everything looks before, during, and after a cook session.

There are a lot of ways I trick myself into meeting my goals, like coming up with various rewards and punishments for myself or outsourcing my progress tracking to apps. In general, I'm a deeply goal-oriented person and I am, for better or worse, obsessed with "winning"—which I always thought made me a perfect candidate for complicated productivity techniques like detailed to-do lists full of tasks in order of priority. While I do love a good technique, I decided to switch things up last year when I got worried that maybe I was spending so much time prioritizing and planning that I wasn't spending enough time doing. So I just focused on the doing—and it worked. Here's what I mean and how my bright idea helped me crush last year's resolutions.

Adopting a "do it now" mindset

I've covered a lot of productivity hacks for Lifehacker and the two I liked best, both in theory and practice, were the two- and 10-minute rules. The idea is that if a particular tasks takes less than two (or 10, depending on your preferred approach) minutes to complete, you should just get it out of the way early in the day. It's smart because it leaves little time for deliberation or over-planning, but even when I used it for the 10-minute tasks, I wasn't convinced it was effective enough. Some tasks take longer than 10 minutes. I felt like the "just do it" mentality was helpful for me, but could be more helpful. So I started thinking more in terms of simply "do it now," not in terms of time allotments.

Sitting down every morning to write out a to-do list and determine how long each responsibility will take, which are most important, and which will demand the most resources works well for some people, but it is too tedious for me. Since coming around on a "do it now" mindset, I don't do that anymore at all. When I think of something, I just do it, no matter what it is or how long it will take (within reason). If, for some reason, I can't fit it in at the moment I come up with it, I add it to a note on my phone, which I also count as doing it now, though the "it" is adding the task to the list.

How this has helped me

My goals for the last year have largely been about my health and fitness, as well as my living space. I wanted to become a healthier, better me, which involved more time in the gym and having a clean, organized home to relax in. My "do it now" mindset helped me with both, especially when I was starting out on my resolutions around this time last year. I didn't pressure myself to work out at a certain time or try to wedge exercise into a structured daily schedule. Instead, I just firmly told myself I'd go when it occurred to me and I wouldn't deliberate or make any excuses. I found myself at the gym on lunch breaks, Saturday mornings, and late week nights. As soon as I thought of it, I went (or worked out at home, usually riding my Peloton)—and it worked. The longer I did this, the more working out became a normal, expected part of my day. Notably, by the fall, I had developed such an affinity for my hour of physical activity each day that I did start scheduling it and have been able to wake up every day before the sun to simply knock it out. I don't think that would have happened if I hadn't tried my new motivation-first approach.

The same was true for cleaning. There are so many cleaning techniques and approaches out there and, to be clear, each one of those works well for a certain kind of person. I've tried them all and nothing was as useful to me as just cleaning something the moment I thought of it or saw it needed to be done. If I see a dirty baseboard, I don't file that information away for "living room cleaning" day; I hop off the couch and wipe it down. Building this habit was a challenge because it's easy to kick the can down the road and decide to complete these tasks during designated home-tidying times, but once I got the hang of it, I noticed something: I no longer needed to set aside a Saturday afternoon for cleaning. There was nothing to clean in bulk because it all got handled whenever an issue sprang up.

My goals for the new year this time around are to stick with the momentum I built up working out and cleaning, but also improve my finances and notch some professional accomplishments I've been putting off during the year I spent on self-improvement. As soon as I finish this, I'm going to call one of the companies overseeing one of my 401k accounts to check on my rollover status, which is something I would have procrastinated on before entering my "do it now" era.

Different things work for different people, but you can get caught up in thinking too much and doing too little. My technique doesn't come from a book and, I'll admit, does have to be abandoned sometimes when there are serious, large-scale projects that need to be broken down and handled systematically, but the beauty of it is that it leaves time and mental energy for doing that when I have to.

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If you actually want to stick to your healthy goals for the year, I'm warning you now, you need some kind of plan—something concrete to motivate you. Something that helped me stay on top of my workouts a ton over the last year was my Peloton Bike and subscription to the brand's app—they enabled me to work out from home, at the gym, or anywhere, basically. Right now, you can get both those (and other equipment, if you're so inclined) for a discount, so this might be the moment to consider an investment.

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If you head over to Peloton's website right now, you'll see some steep cuts on equipment pricing. In fact, the prices are similar to the Black Friday deals the brand ran in November, though not every piece is priced exactly the same as it was then. Some, like the Cross Training Bike, are a little pricier, but others, like the Cross Training Bike+, are even cheaper.

• The Cross Training Bike+ is $1,795 right now instead of $2,695. You could also get a Starter Package that includes the Cross Training Bike+, a water bottle, cleats, a mat, and hand weights will run you $1,950 instead of $2,900 (or $2,190 instead of $3,100 if you want even more: a foam roller and three more sets of weights).

• A refurbished original Bike+ is $1,595 instead of $1,995. Need a refresher on the older style of Bike+? I got you.

• The Cross Training Tread+ is $5,295 instead of $6,695 (or $5,485 instead of $6,935 or $5,605 instead of $7,105, depending on the upgrade bundle you want).

• The Cross Training Row+ is $3,345 instead of $3,495 (or $3,525 instead of $3,725 or $3,720 instead of $3,970 if you're getting a Starter Package).

• The Cross Training Bike is $1,445 instead of $1,695 (or $1,600 instead of $1,900 or $1,840 instead of $2,190, again depending on the bundle).

• A refurbished original Bike is only $695 instead of $1,145, which is about what you'd pay for a used one on Peloton's resale marketplace, except this one has been factory refurbished.

• A Cross Training Tread is $2,845 instead of $3,295 (or $3,035 instead of $3,535 or $3,155 instead of $3,705, depending on your bundle preference).

A new purchase of each of these also comes with a free month of Peloton's app—an app I happen to use every day. (I even track my non-Peloton workouts through it.) If all you want is the app and you don't need equipment, you can get a serious deal there, too, until Jan. 15: The company is offering three months for the price of one to new subscribers. App One is $12.99 and App+ is $28.99. If you have equipment, you'll need the All Access membership, which is $50 per month (that's what you get free for a month with a new bike, treadmill, or rower purchase), but these allow you to work out with the app only and are useful for people who don't have the brand's proprietary machines.

A note on the equipment

If you're wondering what the words "Cross Training" are referring to in the product list above, let me explain. Last fall, Peloton overhauled its fleet, rolling out the Cross Training and Cross Training+ series. If you want to know more about what that all includes, I wrote a guide for you here.

The gist is this: The new Cross Training series features some equipment adjustments, like a better Bike seat, phone holders, and swiveling touchscreens. The + series includes all that as well as an AI component, which powers a movement-tracking camera designed to help you with your workouts. The swiveling screens come in handy here, as you can move them around to keep the tracking camera on you, even as you move from a ride or row to a floor exercise.

What kind of New Year’s resolution you make depends on your unique goals—which means you need a way to track your progress that is just as unique. If your resolution is to cut back on social media use and your friend’s is to run a faster mile, you won’t measure success the same way. Even if you swear 2026 is the year you spend less time on your phone (which I've sworn every year), tap into the power of handheld tech and use these apps to keep yourself on track.

I like all the best general progress tracking apps, but when it comes to resolutions, you are looking at something time-bound and specific by its very nature, so you should try apps that are tailored more to what you're doing.

What are the most common New Year’s resolutions?

Per Statista, the top New Year’s resolutions among people who have made one or several for 2026 are as follows: 

• To exercise more (48%)

• To save more money (46%)

• To eat healthier (45%)

• To spend more time with family/friends (42%)

• To lose weight (31%)

• To improve job performance (24%)

• To do more for the environment (24%)

• To reduce job stress (22%)

This year's list was interesting to me when I compared it to last year's, where "save more money" led the way with a measly 21%. It was followed by eat healthier, exercise more, lose weight, spend time with family/friends, quit smoking, and spend less on living expenses. Obviously, health and fitness continue to rank high, but it's notable that this year's least-popular resolution—reduce job stress—outranked even last year's most popular. It seems, at least according to this source, that 2026 is the year for making resolutions. I'm fresh off a year of actually nailing all my resolutions for the first time ever and I'm looking forward to replicating my success. In addition to a few personal tricks, here are the apps I think you should use.

The best apps to track exercise frequency: Strong and Peloton

Credit: Strong/Lindsey Ellefson

If you want to work out more, it will help you to see your progress with each trip to the gym (or at-home session, or whatever). For that, try Strong, an app that lets you input the exercises you do and creates graphs showing your gradual improvement in weight, sets, body fat percentage, and more. In the past, I've only recommended this one, and it's great on its own, as it includes instructions on how to do a variety of exercises, which is nice if you aren’t really a fitness person (yet) and feeling nervous about trying new moves in front of other people keeps you away from the gym. The free version will save unlimited workouts, but you can only add three custom routines. For everything else, it’s $4.99 per month or $29.99 per year. For my full review, read more here.

Credit: Peloton/Lindsey Ellefson

This year, I have come around to recommending something else: The Peloton app, which I review here (but talk about here and here and here...). I can confidently say that for me, 2025 was the year of Peloton because I got so into working out on my Bike, using the brand's other class offerings, and even tracking my non-Peloton workouts through the app that I'm now on a 290-day in-app streak. And that's important, especially when we're talking about resolutions, because not only does this show you that all-important daily (or weekly or monthly) streak, but it offers so much variety, which will keep you going back.

The best app to eat healthier and/or lose weight: Lifesum

Credit: Lifesum/Lindsey Ellefson

Before, I used to recommend MyFitnessPal, which I used pretty consistently from sophomore year of college well into my 30s, but this year, I found (and reviewed) Lifesum, which changed the game for me. With its brighter colors, simpler interface, and updating "life scores," it's an all-around more positive experience than using MFP—plus you don't have to pay for an upgrade to access nutrient tracking. It just does all that with the regular subscription, which costs $99.99 per year, $29.99 every three months, or $7.49 per month. It has a helpful series of widgets you can put anywhere on your phone, so you're always reminded to stick with it, and it's never shame-y, which I think is crucial for actually sticking with a healthier eating plan. It even suggests meals and foods you should consider based on how often you do (well, don't) eat them and what nutrients you might be lacking.

My favorite part is that it's so easy to use that I don't skip it, even on my laziest day. Instead of manually inputting every ingredient into the tracker, I can describe or even photograph my meal and let its AI do the work of figuring out approximately how many calories and grams of protein are in it. It's not perfect, of course, but I appreciate that, too; when I've gotten too gung-ho about tracking every morsel and getting every gram accounted for, I've counterbalanced a little too hard and lost all motivation, which kept me swinging back and forth between obsession and complete disinterest. Lifesum turns tracking into a less stressful, more positive experience you can actually stick with.

The best app for prioritizing family and friend time: Cozi

Credit: Cozi/Lindsey Ellefson

If you want to spend more time with your loved ones, try Cozi, a simple organizer that gives you a clear visual representation of your whole family’s schedule. Not only can you see when everyone is free, but you can see how much time you devote (or don’t devote) to the people with whom you share the app—which can motivate you to schedule more time together. It’s also free, which is a plus. Use the money you saved to pay for a nice night out with the people you set a resolution to spend more time with. 

I've mentioned this app as a meal planner in the past and think it works great for that, too. Use it to loop together a series of your resolutions, from eating better to spending more time with loved ones. While you're at it, brush up on how important stacking your resolutions and habits is for their longevity.

The best app to improve job performance: Flora

Credit: Flora/Lindsey Ellefson

Normally, I'd suggest FocusPomo as the best productivity-boosting app, but I love Flora, too—and this one has the dual function of helping the environment while improving your work, which means it addresses two of the most popular resolutions for 2026.

As I explained in my review earlier this year, Flora is a focus timer that locks down your phone while you work and, if you don't mess with your device and instead settle into deep work, you grow a virtual tree to display in your virtual forest. Right there, you can see the value prop if you're trying to track your progress: You can see all the trees you "grow," which helps you visualize how you're doing. There's also an option to bet actual money on your ability to complete focus sessions, which works well for some people. (I am personally a big believer in forcing penalties on myself for failing to carry out a resolution, and though I don't usually bet money, I see the appeal of having financial stakes involved.)

Wondering what the app uses that money for? Great question! It's to fund the planting of real trees around the world. Your bet money or subscription fee (should you choose to pay between $2 and $12 per month, though it works fine in its free version) go toward paying for making the environment better, which is a win-win.

The best app to spend less time on social media: Steppin

Credit: Steppin/Lindsey Ellefson

Here's another one where I used to recommend a different app (in this case, One Sec) but now firmly recommend another that I've gotten more familiar with. To spend less time on social media (or any distracting apps, really) try Steppin, which I've reviewed and used for about a year now. Like other app-blocking apps, it locks down whichever applications you blacklist. Unlike those, you can earn time to access your blocklist by walking around in the real world. You can customize your settings so a certain number of steps unlocks a certain amount of minutes. I have mine set to 25 steps to earn a minute right now, which usually leaves me with 19 or so banked hours by the time my time resets at the end of the week. Since using Steppin, I've found that not only am I more willing to walk when I might otherwise Uber or take a bus, but I'm less interested in my blocked apps altogether. I just got used to not having unfettered access to them and found I don't need them as much as I thought I did. Who knew?

Steppin also uses "streaks" so you can see your progress over time, plus shows a graph every day of your walking time vs. your time on the blocked apps. Both of these visual elements are useful in keeping track of where you're at. You break your streak by resetting your customizations or overriding a Steppin block when you don't have any minutes banked.

Like everybody else, at the end of every December, I start thinking hard about what I want the next year to be like for me. You can chalk it up to all the Capricorn placements in my birth chart if you want (and I do!) or blame the cultural obsession with a "new year, new me" approach, but I take my New Year's resolutions seriously and generally try to come up with realistic, actionable plans to improve myself and my life. It's easy to identify the things I want to change and even easy to figure out how, exactly, I should do that, but that doesn't mean it's easy to stick to the new plan. Real life gets in the way no matter what year it is, but the degree to which it does that can be managed. When it comes to habit-forming, sometimes you have to play hardball. Coming off a wildly successful year of sticking to the resolutions I made 12 months ago, here's how I use penalties to succeed in my resolutions.

What do I mean by New Year's resolution "penalties?"

When you're trying to make a change, an intrinsic reward may not always cut it. Sure, you know that you'll boost your endorphins and strengthen your body if you go to the gym more often, but that takes time to play out and is easy to give up on if you're not seeing immediate results. I always recommend cleaning your home in bursts, bit by bit, too, so you won't get overwhelmed—but again, if you don't see fast progress, you can quickly lose motivation.

I've found that the solution here is to stop looking for intrinsic motivation at all and start motivating yourself with external stakes—but more elevated, urgent ones than you might think. My extrinsic motivator for the gym is, obviously, to look better in addition to feeling better, but that takes time. My extrinsic motivator for cleaning is to make my home nice in case people come over, but what if they don't for a few weeks? The stakes need to be higher and more immediate.

Sorry to say it, but you need to assign penalties to your goals, especially your New Year's resolutions. A resolution can't be as simple as, "I resolve to call my mom more often." You need an implementation strategy, like setting up a defined time for when you'll do that, plus a little extra motivation. Consider, then, "I resolve to call my mom three times per week or else I will send her a bouquet." It's easier to make three phone calls than spend over $80 on some flowers, and your mom would probably appreciate both, so the money-saving here should motivate you to get the calls done.

If you aren't already, become familiar with the concept of SMART goals, which are goals that are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound. "I resolve to work out more" is too vague. "I resolve to go to the gym for 30 or more minutes four times per week, every week, for the first six months of the year, or else I will buy a more expensive gym membership as both punishment and motivation," on the other hand...

Ideas for resolution penalties

I use penalties all the time in my daily life and have for years. I've always been a calorie counter and nutrient tracker, but a few years ago, I noticed if I ate a particularly calorie-dense meal (which is fine!) I would simply stop entering in all my nutrient totals for that day (which was less fine). I like turning all the details of my health into measurable data, so the fact that this would snowball into me getting lackadaisical about meal tracking for a few days wasn't doing much to serve my overall goals. I implemented a personal penalty system that involved getting a treat, like a pudding cup or hot chocolate, at the end of every day when I entered all my foods honestly. That worked fine for me, since I am pretty good at holding my own self accountable, but it may not be enough for you. Nothing is actually stopping you from just eating the pudding cup with no preamble. Here are some other ideas:

• Tell a few people about your resolutions and schedule periodic check-ins with them. You don't want to get asked by a friend how your money-saving resolution is going and have to tell them you forgot to stash any away this week. Choose a friend who is responsible and, ideally, one who will give you a little bit of a hard time if you don't follow through. I deputized one of my friends to bother me about my financial habits three years ago and, thanks to her commitment to being as incessantly annoying as possible, paid off a bunch of bills that were hanging over my head. It turns out that what I needed was to be a little embarrassed in front of someone I respect.

• Bet on it. There are apps out there like Forfeit that require you to put money out upfront, then prove that you're sticking to your goals. You can submit relevant materials, like proof of a workout, to stop them from holding onto your money at the end of your pre-defined timeline. It sounds intense because it is—but if you're truly struggling to stay on top of your goals, it can work.

• Set yourself up to win or fail. I'll explain: When I need to clean my apartment but just can't find the motivation, I invite a friend over for dinner a few days in advance. (To be clear: I make a concrete plan instead of hoping someone will come over in the near future.) Then, knowing someone is going to enter my home at a set time that I can't change, I suddenly find the motivation to make sure it's clean. I do this in the gym, too, planning a sick outfit for, say, an event a month in advance, then working out every day with the outfit in mind. Even if no one knows what I'm up to, I'd feel bad if I canceled the dinner or switched the outfit just because I personally failed my own mission. I don't like being disappointed in myself.

Recall my example of the pudding cup after a day of honest nutrient tracking, too. Not getting the pudding cup is a penalty when I fail, but getting it is a reward when I do well. Play around with the system because you might be more motivated by rewards than you are punishments. I'm motivated by daily streaks on apps, for instance, which is how I've come to be on a 288-day streak on the Peloton app. Losing that streak would be like a penalty to me now, so I stick with it, but I also incorporate other little rewards into my goal-setting. Whenever I complete a perfect two weeks of workouts, for instance, I buy myself one new activewear outfit from my favorite brand. The more I think of it, the more I realize almost all of my personal goals are tied, one way or another, to a reward or penalty. I motivate myself to sell my clothes on Poshmark by strictly upholding a one-in, one-out rule and only making clothing purchases with the money I earn from getting rid of something first, for instance.

Doing it this way might seem harsh or elementary at first, but it reinforces the fact that there are consequences for every action and inaction—although, when you manufacture the consequences, they're more urgent and immediate. The long-term consequence of failing to work out consistently is poorer physical and even mental health (which might be why you've named it a New Year's resolution), but that's not immediately evident and it's harder to keep in mind on unmotivated days. Losing my Peloton streak or failing to qualify for my self-imposed rules around buying a new gym outfit are silly in comparison to decreased longevity and strength, but they're more instant, so I avoid them—and, in so doing, avoid those more serious, longer-term consequences by default.

Thanks to my gig teaching spin classes, I have a front-row seat to a reliable annual phenomenon: My classes are packed for the first few weeks of the year as people make New Year's resolutions—but by mid-February, I'm back to teaching normal-sized groups of people who are grateful the "January joiners" have cleared out. I'm always sad to see the new faces go, though, because I do think it's possible to set a New Year's resolution and stick to it, even if it's not the norm.

There are plenty of self-betterment goals you can set as a new year approaches, both in and out of the gym, but no matter what you endeavor to do, it's important to have an implementation strategy that ensures you'll actually get it done. One way you can better situate yourself for success is by attaching "cues" to your resolutions. Here's why it works, and how to do it.

How to tie your New Year's resolutions to cues

The more specific your goals are, the better they'll turn out. This is true for pretty much everything, which is why I recommend SMART goals for everything from studying to mapping out your personal productivity roadmap. For the unfamiliar, a SMART goal is a well-defined goal that includes specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound elements, like, "I will meal prep four meals per week every week for the first three months of the year, then determine if I have the capacity to add more or should stay at four." Already, you can see how that's better than, "I will start meal prepping this year"—but SMART goals are just one option and we have more to explore.

If you wake up on a Saturday morning and want to tidy up your living space, you'll have more success defining a room you want to clean up than attempting to just generally "clean the house," right? When it comes to New Year's resolutions, that specificity is important, since you're planning for 12 months of change and you'll need some kind of road map. Instead of saying your resolution is to "eat healthier," you should define what your diet is missing, then drill down on it: "I want to eat 10 more grams of protein every day," for example.

This is where cues are going to become valuable. Research shows that adding a cue—literally, a set trigger for action—to your goals can help you implement them better. On a smaller scale, I've recommended this kind of approach through something called "habit stacking," which you can do when you attach a habit you want to build (like answering all of your outstanding emails every day) with one you already have down pat (like making and drinking your morning coffee). You carry out the new habit while doing the old one and, over time, the new habit becomes engrained, too.

We rely on automatic processes to do the standard stuff in our daily lives, like how we just automatically turn on the coffee pot after waking up or grab keys on the way out the door. In those cases, waking up and walking out the door are actually cues that signal to our brains it's time to fulfill the second half of the process. Building your resolutions around cues will help them become second-nature habits, too. Here are some examples:

• If your New Year's resolution is to save a certain amount of money by December, make it something like, "When I spend $X, I'll move $Y into savings."

• If you want to be more productive at work, try turning the Pomodoro technique into a resolution: "When I work for 25 minutes, I'll take a five-minute break."

• "When I sit down at my desk, I'll answer all new emails."

• "When my meetings end, I'll take five minutes for meditation."

• "When work is over, I'll put on my sneakers and head straight to the gym."

• "When the 6:00 news ends, I'll call my mom."

Doing it this way combines the specificity needed for realistic goal-setting with the tried-and-true method of habit stacking, setting you up for more success than a vague desire to "work out more" or "call home more" ever could.

Why cues work for New Year's resolutions

There are a few reasons tying your resolutions to existing cues will help you stick with them. First, you're creating those automatic processes in your brain, basically Pavlov-ing your subconscious self into taking action whenever your trigger occurs. It will take a few weeks of conscious effort, yes, but you will already know when you're supposed to act on your new habit, which is half the battle.

Operating this way also leaves less room for error. If you don't have a defined schedule and cues in place, you can easily forget to do your new task—or maybe even actively avoid it. Sticking reminders into your calendar can help here, too, since the push alert can further emphasize that it's time to get down to business—plus, seeing a visual reminder that you have something to do can stop you from double-booking. If your cue to go to the gym is clocking out at 5, it will take a few weeks for you to get into the habit of declining an invitation to go for after-work drinks, so having it blocked out on the calendar every day after work will keep you on track. You'll need to set yourself up for success by taking a few steps to make sure your cue and action are possible, though. In the example above—"When work is over, I'll put on my sneakers..."—you need to have your gym shoes packed in your commute bag for it to work. If you have to go home between the office and the gym, you might not be so easily roused into going back out to complete the workout. My goal over the past few months has been to be more of a morning exerciser. I did a lot of lifestyle restructuring to make that possible, but among the most crucial steps was laying out my activewear, sneakers, and gym accessories the night before so when I wake up, all I have to do is put them on and leave.

Stick with your cues, but give yourself some space those first few weeks. You might find that the timing you set up doesn't work well with your existing schedule. You just won't stick to the goal as well if you can't make it work. Research shows that if you're following the cue method, it will take about two months, on average, for the habit to form, so use that time to take note of what's working, what isn't, and what could be changed. If you have a goal of being more connected to friends and family, for instance, you might align your cue to call home with the time you spend doing the dishes every night, only to find you're too tired in the evening or eat out too frequently for that one to stick. Switching the cue to calling home when you get in the car to head to work in the morning might work better. Just make sure you stick to it once you figure out the best timing.

It’s well-established that physical clutter impairs your productivity and focus, going as far as to make you exhausted, stressed, and burnt out, which is why decluttering your workspace is key component in a lot of productivity techniques. In this day and age, though, your "workspace" isn't always (or, in some cases, even) an office or desk. Your phone and computer are your workspace. That's where you spend most of your work day looking and interacting—and when it's cluttered, you can feel discombobulated, the same as you might with a messy cubicle. It's time to stop thinking only about decluttering the physical world and make a better plan to keep the digital one in good shape.

Take stock of your desktop, your tabs, your inbox, and your home screen: How many different windows do you have open right now? They are not only bogging down your mental energy, but your device’s energy, too. Let's fix that—and find a solution that sticks.

When to declutter your devices

Aim to start each week with a digital decluttering. It doesn’t have to take more than 15 minutes, but you’ll be more productive when it’s done, so it’s a good investment of your time. Approaches like this work best when you actively take the time to schedule them out, so fall back on time boxing and time blocking, and consider using a specialized to-do list system like 3-3-3, then designating the weekly decluttering one of Monday's three small tasks.

How to digitally declutter (easily)

On your desktop, create folders that can store whatever you need, whether those are documents for work or screenshots for your side business. Each Monday, go through whatever docs or pics have accumulated on the desktop and stick them in their respective folders so the whole thing looks cleaner. Do the same thing with any new apps you’ve put on your phone. There’s no reason to scroll through pages and pages of apps to find the one you need when you can stash it in a folder and keep your home screen organized. Only keep the necessary, daily-use folders available on your desktop and home screen. The rest should be banished somewhere invisible, but searchable.

Close all open windows you’re not using—and all the tabs left over from your last browsing session. If you genuinely need something available, bookmark it. Get in the habit of closing tabs whenever you’re done with them. (Check for minimized browser windows, too; I always have at least two that need to be closed, but I rarely realize they're running in the background.)

Next up is email. I've recommended the “one-touch” method of inbox management before, and an adaptation of it works great here: Open every email you’ve gotten in the last week and either delete it or archive it, depending on whether you anticipate needing it later. Anything you archive, be sure to set aside time to respond to later in the day or week. (Again, time box and time block this, plus add it to your to-do list so it's a real, scheduled task, not just a good idea you may or may not get around to.)

Perhaps most importantly, delete as you go. This is the the one I struggle with most, but once you get in the habit, it's easy. If you downloaded an app for a single purpose and don’t use it anymore, delete it. If you have docs in your files from an old class or work project, delete them. Stick to doing this for the first 15 minutes every Monday (or whenever you start your week) to dramatically reduce your digital clutter and any related stress.

Inbox management, like so much else, is a necessary evil in our day-to-day lives. As such, it’s best handled with the use of a strict system, but those can be tricky to implement and stick to. Also like so much else, finding the right system is time-intensive and adds a new layer of stress onto an already annoying task. Here’s a system that’s simple, doesn’t take a lot of time to start using, and can actually help you get through your unreads without overwhelming you. It’s called “yesterbox.”

What is the yesterbox inbox management system?

This technique—and its funny name—both come from late Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who described yesterbox as a way of “relieving email guilt.” The concept is simple: Today, you only deal with yesterday’s emails. It's like a slightly stricter version of the first-in, first-out (FIFO) method, and while I don't always love FIFO, I recognize it has a place in a well-rounded productivity approach—and yesterbox is a great example.

Hsieh believed that “inbox zero” is not only an elusive goal, but a nearly impossible one. As soon as you start replying to emails, responses arrive. By its very nature, email is a form of correspondence, which means you’re sending and receiving—and for it to be effective, it has to be ongoing.

The thing is, though, that you don’t know how many emails you’ll get today. The only true, finite number you can count on is the number of emails you got yesterday, so that’s where your focus should be if you want to prevent yourself from getting caught up in the back-and-forth of immediate communication.

How to use yesterbox

Start by picking a time to deal with emails every day. Ideally, this should be in the morning, so nothing too urgent from yesterday slips through the cracks. Try using timeboxing to schedule your day and blocking out a dedicated time—a half an hour or so, depending on the volume of actionable emails you usually receive and how much of your work is actually done through them—for email management every morning. Hsieh was a proponent of dedicating three hours to this task, but he was the CEO of a giant company, so be realistic about how long it will actually take you. Spend some time trying different approaches to time management and to-do list creation, like the 3-3-3 list or 1-3-5 method. Figuring out how long email management should take you, as well as how much of a resource suck it actually is, will take a little effort, but those frameworks help.

Use that time to only look at and respond to emails you got the previous day. Next, filter out the emails from the previous day that will require more effort from you, whether it’s a lengthy response or the inclusion of attachments. You can star them or move them to a folder, but focus first on the ones that require simple responses—or no response at all. You're more or less using the two-touch email management technique here, but specifically scheduling yourself so you're only applying it to yesterday's messages. Go through each before returning to the ones that will take some more serious effort. Once that’s done, don’t look again until the next morning.

This creates a finite to-do list that doesn’t go on all day. By looking at each day’s previous emails systematically, you won’t miss any, either. The only real exception to this rule should be urgent, day-of emails about tasks that are taking place in the moment. If you’re expecting any like that, add the sender to your priority list to make sure you get the notifications and, if possible, ask them to make the subject line something easily identifiable. Resist the urge to look at any emails related to anything else but pressing, immediate issues.

The idea of declaring “email bankruptcy”—just deleting all the emails in your inbox past a certain date—is so popular, it has its own Wikipedia entry. I can see why it's tempting to just blow everything up and start over, and the temptation goes far beyond emails: Declaring a personal bankruptcy and mass-deleting games, movies, and e-books you fear you’ll never play, watch, or read is a practice with proponents far and wide (including some of us here at Lifehacker).

But declaring bankruptcy is such a drastic step. What if you tried inbox amnesty instead?

What is inbox amnesty?

The idea for inbox amnesty comes from Lifehacker’s health editor, Beth Skwarecki, who advocates for achieving inbox zero by selecting all your emails and archiving them, instead of deleting them. “BOOM,” she says. “You have inbox zero and will do better in the future.”

While there are tricks you can employ to manage your inbox in real time and keep the number of unread messages down (like the “one touch” rule), there will still be times when your inbox gets unruly. That doesn’t bother some people, but the ever-increasing number in the notifications badge makes others feel like they’re losing their minds. If that’s you, declare inbox amnesty and just start over.

Personally, I don't much care what the red badge on my email app says. I have maintained the same primary email address since I was in high school and have designated numerous other addresses for various needs in my life. I gave up on the idea of "inbox zero" long, long ago. But I still get the compulsion to go bankrupt in other spheres. A bit over a year ago, I did a major cleaning and organizing overhaul in my apartment. I began by going scorched-earth, throwing things away right and left. I came to regret that quickly, as I tossed things I ended up needing, or at least could have sold or donated. Eventually, I designated two different closets as liminal spaces where I could let things marinate while I figured out what to do with them. That was my version of amnesty, and now, months later, I've freed up enough space and time to dedicate myself to my resale business, and I'm glad I didn't just go the bankruptcy route.

Why inbox amnesty is better than inbox bankruptcy

While inbox amnesty and bankruptcy both rely on the same idea—nuking all the emails and starting again, determined not to let the unreads get out of hand this time—there is one key difference: Amnesty doesn’t destroy the emails forever, it just marks them as read and tucks them away, out of sight. Just as I learned the value of keeping unwanted things around when I did my big apartment decluttering, you might learn it when you accidentally delete an email you need back in the future. Email amnesty helps you avoid learning the hard way.

With amnesty, you can go back into that archive if you need to, finding contact information or threads that you might actually need to follow up on in the future. If you go bankrupt and destroy them all, you won’t be able to refer to anything from the past—and you just know something will come up that requires you to look at an older email you no longer have.

You can set a reminder for yourself to fully delete your archived messages after six months if they don’t become necessary, but as long as they’re not clogging up too much of your storage, feel free to hold onto them in case of emergency.

When you're wading through all the emails, Slack messages, and other notifications you get on an average day, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. When that happens, you can might yourself getting distracted and missing important messages—at least, that's what happens to me, unless I have some kind of plan in place.

There are a few different approaches you can consider to prevent this, but the "OHIO" technique is the one to try if you need extra help being decisive—though it's important to note that while it can ease your decision paralysis, it does have a few limitations worth considering.

What is the OHIO method of time management?

OHIO is an acronym for “Only Handle It Once” and you'll hear it crop up in a variety of productivity-based conversations, like ones around tidying up. Proponents say it helps you avoid unnecessary dawdling, delays, and indecision, as it calls for you to handle any task, email, message, or assignment just one time. It's definitely a habit you need to build up to, but it's one that pays off the longer you work at it.

You can broadly apply it to what you’re working by assessing your entire inbox, to-do list, or other group of tasks all at once. Prioritize the tasks in order of importance using a system like the Eisenhower Matrix or ABC method. (If the workload isn’t too complex, feel free to prioritize them quickly on your own without a fancy system, but I'm a big fan of customizing hyper-specific productivity techniques to meet my needs.) Then take immediate action on each, starting from the top. Either delete them, delegate them, do what they say, or defer them, using the 4D method.

The OHIO method and emails

The OHIO method works great for emails, too, but it can suck you into time-wasting if you’re not careful. Only handling each email once is a solid way not to spend too much time on it, but you have to plan what you’re going to do. Otherwise, you may end up clicking every new email that comes in and trying to manage it in real time.

Emails are harder to prioritize than a to-do list, so you may struggle to determine which one you should jump on first. Instead of implementing the OHIO method in the moment every moment, set aside time every morning and afternoon to go through your messages and, of course, only handle them once. (You can use time boxing and time blocking to make sure you do this at the same time every day, plus a 3-3-3 to-do list to make sure you have time to prioritize the task.) Try a half hour at the start of your workday, a half hour after lunch, and 15 minutes just before clocking out. If you base your approach on time, rather than a prioritized list, you’ll still be able to open each message and handle it, but won’t be swamped by having to do that every time you get a new alert.

If you are still using the same email address for everything, it’s time to diversify. Don’t make the mistake I made for too long, clogging up one inbox with absolute nonsense unrelated to the things you actually want to receive and read. You likely already have separate emails for your job, school, and personal life, and many of us also have a designated “spam” email to enter into pop-up boxes in a hurry—but you might even benefit from a couple more. Here are the email addresses I advise setting up.

You need an email for logging into apps

I have a special email address just for my streaming services and random apps, so when Peacock or Hulu mysteriously log out on my TV, I can just reset the passwords using the special email address without junking up my real one.

This is great because apps and services simply love to send you emails about deals, specials, or reminders to log in, and while you could waste a bunch of time unsubscribing from them, you could also just banish them to a Gmail account you only open occasionally for that fresh log-in email, leaving the rest of the junk to rot. I'm also just hesitant to unsubscribe from emails that come from a service I sometimes do need emails from, which is the case with streamers and apps, as most of my two-factor authentication goes down in my email inbox. Separating these just makes sense.

You need an email for newsletters

In case you haven’t noticed, all your favorite news sites and even individual writers are gung-ho about newsletters. It’s great to get the information you want in your inbox, but less great when it interferes with you seeing the messages you actually need to get more important daily tasks done.

Creating a separate email inbox just for newsletters gives you a sort of curated Apple News-like experience. When you want to read the news or the musings of some great intellectual, open that inbox and scroll. When you want to tackle actual correspondence, you can just click away.

You need an email for your side hustles

This is where I fall short: I don’t actually have this, at least not in a consistent way. I use my real email for all my little adventures and money-making projects, which has become my downfall. When I used to freelance a lot, my email got added to some kind of freelancer database and now my personal inbox is absolutely brimming with PR pitches I never open or read. These come in so often that real correspondence from family members or people I am trying to work with gets lost.

If you’re smart (unlike me), you’ll set up an email address that is just for your gigging, whatever it entails. Whether you’re trying to be an influencer, a freelancer, a photographer, or a volunteer, anything that’s sort-of serious but not actually your job should end up in one place.

Do this early on when you start a project, too. I'd love to set up separate email addresses for my resale business, my fitness class teaching, and my copywriting and freelancing, but getting all my contacts in those spheres to start emailing the new address instead of the old one would cause headaches. Setting it up early precludes that, but also helps you shift into a different headspace when you're corresponding with someone like a potential client. I do feel more assertive when I'm talking to someone as "Lindsey Ellefson, MPH" or "Lindsey Ellefson, award-winning journalist" instead of just "Lindsey Ellefson." Setting up something like [your name][your title]@gmail.com can help you step into that more self-assured mindset.

Some multi-email tips

Try to designate your app-only email for free trials, too. When a trial ends, a company will stop at nothing to remind you that you can still sign up and give them money. Do not let these endless emails bother you or waste your time. Day pass at a gym? App-only email address. Free trial of a PDF editor or resume builder? App-only email address. Need to log into a public wifi that demands an email address for some unholy reason? You already know. Just make sure that for this one, you toggle off notifications, so your phone’s home screen doesn’t become overwhelmed with garbage.

I recommend using Gmail for all of this, too, because the Gmail app makes it so easy to switch between different accounts right on your phone. That way, you can even assign the addresses to different Chrome profiles on your computer, which has been a lifesaver for me as I toggle between different parts of my life. The only downside to going Gmail-only is that it's hard, at first glance, to see which address is receiving a message when you get an alert on your phone's lock screen. It shouldn't be a major issue, though, because for a lot of these, like the one for streamers, you should toggle push notifications off entirely.

Spotify playlists are a surprisingly big part of my life. I make a handful of new, curated, choreographed ones for the spin classes I teach every week and otherwise meticulously maintain quarterly playlists designed to represent the overall vibe of specific, three-month periods in my life. I only edit those during the 12 weeks of the quarter, then leave them alone so I can revisit them and relive the era. This means I am constantly fiddling with the present playlist to make it just right, searching for songs that feel precisely aligned with however I'm feeling. It's actually a time-consuming hobby—but I stumbled across a feature the other day that has made creating spin playlists and soundtracking Q1 of 2026 easier than ever.

The new Spotify feature

The best way I can describe the feature I stumbled upon is that it's like Tinder for songs. If you're listening to a song within the app, scroll down. Go past the buttons for Play and Next, past the About the artist section, past the lyrics, and stop when you see Explore [artist name]. Then, you'll have three options like Similar to [artist name] and Similar to [song name], but these can differ slightly.

Tapping one of those opens up the new feature. Say you choose Similar to [song name]. You'll be given 30 seconds of a song that Spotify's algorithm considers "similar" to the one you were just listening to, plus the artist's name, how many Spotify followers they have, and a three-dot menu that will let you add the song to your likes, add it to a playlist, go to the artist's page, and more. If you like the 30-second clip, you can add the song to your playlists. If not, you can keep swiping downward to hear a new one.

See how it's like Tinder? You make fairly snap decisions based on the quick preview and few details you get, then swipe away if you don't like it. I found a community forum post on Spotify's website about it, but otherwise, not much chatter. All I can tell is that it's been out since about May.

Why I like the feature

I prefer this to the other music-discovery options on Spotify because it gives you a quick preview of the song and makes the finding process simple. I am, of course, a big fan of the pre-generated Discover Weekly playlist or New Releases playlist Spotify makes for me every week, but it's time-consuming to listen to all the songs in them and it's not intuitive to find other new songs based on the finite playlists themselves. The 30-second quick hits and easy, swipeable dismissal of the new feature help me figure out if a song is worth my time, either for spin class or personal use, add it to the appropriate playlist if so, and keep moving.

What I especially like is the three hashtags under the artist's name. They are genre descriptions that match up with whatever song you're previewing and I've found them helpful because I have a hard time describing what kind of music I even like. Apparently, per the new feature, I like something called "speed garage." Tapping the #speedgarage hashtag that appears in the song previews brings me to another scrollable preview pane full of, exclusively, more speed garage—whatever that actually is. I still can't define it, but I learned I like it, and that alone is more beneficial than a year's worth of Discover Weekly playlists.

I used this feature during my Uber ride to the airport the other day and, by the time I was through TSA, I had 29 new songs in my Q1 playlist. I listened to them on the plane, weeded out ones that didn't match the quarterly vibe well enough, then sent it to my friends, who all gave the collection rave reviews like, and I quote, "this slaps."

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A good productivity method can mean the difference between a disorganized, unfulfilling day and one during which you get a lot done and feel great about it. That tradeoff is why so many of these methods, techniques, and hacks exist. Some are over 100 years old, some were accidentally discovered by everyday people looking to improve their lives, and some come from self-styled gurus who publish entire books on their findings.

And some are better than others—though maybe not objectively. To find the one that works best for you, take a look through this guide to seven of my favorites. Notably, these are the ones I like, but there are plenty out there for you to consider, too. Try one that sounds like a strong match for how you think and work (or try to avoid work).

The "Power Hour" method

The idea of a "Power Hour" comes from Adrienne Herbert’s book, Power Hour: How to Focus on Your Goals and Create a Life You Love and asks you to devote an hour a day to working hard on your biggest task—or the thing you care about the most. Sometimes, this is a must-do task that will have major ramifications for your life, like filling out job applications or working on homework. In that case, what you care about most is your overall goal of improvement. Other times, it might be a personal project or passion that you want to carve out time to pursue, which will enhance your life, make you feel happier, and make you more productive that way. The trick is committing—truly committing—to taking that hour every day, upending your schedule if necessary.

Here's my fuller rundown of the approach, which I have started putting into practice in my own life with great results.

The 10-minute rule

Of all the techniques on the list, this might be the one I use (or adapt) most often. Essentially, when there's a small, mundane, or tedious task that doesn't excite you, but won't take more than 10 minutes to do, you just do it. Just do it. That's it. It sounds easy, but it's not, since these are also those tasks you're more likely to put off and ignore, like answering emails or doing the dishes. Fighting against that impulse, committing to just doing these things when you think of them, and then getting them done is hard at first, but becomes a habit over time—and it's one with a lot of benefits. I do this when I'm cleaning my apartment. Instead of laboring over some cleaning checklist or structured plan (which is helpful for a lot of people), I just take on a task when I notice it needs to be done. Then, not only does it simply get done, which is the point, but I feel a sense of motivation and contentment. Since I started doing this, my home has never been cleaner, even though I'm not following any strict guidelines besides "just do it."

I also couple this with another favorite—the "one more" trick, which involves asking yourself, "Can I do one more?" every time you finish a small task. The answer is usually yes and when it becomes no, you give yourself the grace to stop. Just knowing you don't have to, but you can do something can be motivating enough.

Here's a longer explainer on the 10-minute rule.

The “Action Method” of productivity

This method is one of my favorites for keeping on task when I’m juggling multiple projects. It calls on you to organize your tasks into three categories: Action steps, references, and back-burners. Once you’ve done that, you put it all into a spreadsheet with those three categories as the column headers. You slot tasks into each column alongside notes, supplemental material, and whatever else you need—and move them around as they change their designations, as what is a back-burner today might be an action step tomorrow. Organizing it all this way helps you keep on top of the most pressing needs.

Here’s a full explanation of how to employ the Action Method. (The “ABC” method is very similar, with “A” tasks being must-do and high-priority, “B” tasks being should-do activities, and “C” tasks being low-priority ones.)

The 3-3-3 productivity method

Using this technique, you aim to plan your day in threes: Spend your first three hours engaging in deep work on your most important project, then complete three other urgent tasks that require less time, and then do three “maintenance” tasks, like answering emails or scheduling other work. This method works because you do your deep, focused work up-front, which gets you in the zone and gives you a sense of accomplishment and makes tackling the stuff afterward easier. I like this one on days I need a touch of structure. I use a prioritization method—usually MIT, which forces me to think of my responsibilities in terms of the impact they'll have on my life, but sometimes one like the Eisenhower matrix—to figure out which category all of my to-dos belong in, then follow the guidelines to make sure they all get done. I typically pull this one out when I have a big project and am struggling to think of how I'll get it all done. Even breaking one large task down into three hours of hard work, three urgent components, and three "maintenance" tasks helps everything flow a little easier.

Here’s a guide to planning your day in threes.

The “Eat the Frog” productivity method

Similar to 3-3-3, the “Eat the Frog” method invites you to tackle work on your biggest, scariest, wartiest task first thing in the morning. Whatever time-intensive task that has kept you up at night is, that’s what you should do first. It's similar to Power Hour in that you're supposed to do it early in the day, but different in that this may not be your most important or passion-fueled project. After that, everything else should be easier. While most proponents argue you should “eat the frog” as soon as you wake up, this method can work on any schedule as long as you commit to jumping into the hard thing early, enthusiastically, and without hesitation, thus freeing up the rest of your day for other work and lowering your overall stress level. When I use this one, I specify it a little more. If cleaning my kitchen is the most demanding task of the day, that doesn't mean I should do it the second I wake up, but when I get home from work or errands. It wouldn't make sense to postpone leaving for the day to do that, but it does make sense to turn it into the "first thing" I do when I'm in the relevant space, as it makes the rest of my time in the home for the evening better.

Here’s a guide to eating your first frog, so to speak.

The Kanban productivity method

Kanban is similar to the Action Method but requires you to label your tasks as to-do, doing, and done. It works best when managed in a spreadsheet or even on a big board with sticky notes, but you need the three columns so you can move whatever is completed into your “done” pile and anything that still needs doing into “to-do.” If you’re a visual person, this is going to be a game-changer, as it helps you easily see what needs to be done, and gives you some satisfaction when you see what you’ve already accomplished piling up under “done.”

Here’s a guide to implementing the Kanban productivity method.

The timeboxing productivity method

Another trick for the visually inclined and motivated, timeboxing requires you to schedule your entire day. Every activity, from answering emails, to working on a big project, to eating a snack, should go on your calendar. It’s much easier to use a digital calendar, like Google Calendar, for this, since so much of the average day is subject to change and it’s simpler to move things around there than in a physical planner, but try not to deviate from the schedule too much just because deviation is a drag-and-drop away. The idea behind this method is that it allows you to plan to devote exactly as much time to each task as you need to complete it while still filling your entire day with activity. There are a lot of tricks that go along with this one, and once you start, you may go down the productivity technique rabbit hole. For instance, Parkinson's Law dictates that the more time you give yourself to work on something, the longer you'll naturally take—which makes you less productive by reducing the quality of your work over time and stopping you from working on other things. With timeboxing, you can and should practice cutting off time from all your boxes, giving yourself less time to work overall. In the gaps you ultimately create, don't forget to take a break. Those are also essential to productivity.

Here’s a guide to getting started with timeboxing.

The Pomodoro productivity technique

This is an old standby that has withstood the test of time because it works so well: Work for 25 minutes on a task, take a short break of about five minutes, and work for 25 minutes again. Every time you complete four 25-minute cycles, take a longer break. This gets you into the groove of working hard in those 25-minute bursts, since you know a little reprieve is coming. The break recharges you and you get back at it, over and over again, until your job is complete. To maximize the benefits of Pomodoro, get a specialized timer so you don't have to set alarms on your phone and can work without glancing at it and all its distracting apps. On the other hand, an app might be just what you need. I love Focus Pomo, a Pomodoro technique-specific app that blocks all your other ones during "focus sessions." If you're not finding this approach helpful after a few consistent attempts, don't be afraid to adapt it, either. The standard 25 minutes on and five off work well for a lot of people, but you might need shorter or longer work or break sessions. What matters most is that you time them out, commit to taking breaks, and then commit to getting back at it.

Here’s a guide to getting started with the Pomodoro method.

The Results Planning Method (RPM)

This technique comes from famed motivational speaker Tony Robbins, who designed it to be motivational, fast, and efficient. Not only does does the acronym stand for Rapid Planning Method, but it can also serve as a guide to what your day should look like: Results-oriented, purpose-driven, and built around a "massive action plan."

Consistently—every morning or week—ask yourself these three questions:

1. What do I want?

2. What is my purpose?

3. What do I need to do/What is my massive action plan?

By doing this, you connect more to your mission and get more energized about getting to work right away on the answer to the third question, rather than spending a bunch of time deliberating about what you should or shouldn't be doing with your time.

So many great productivity hacks come from the Japanese manufacturing industry. The 5S technique helps you keep your workspace clean so you can get more done, kaizen helps you improve the processes and workflow of your job, and kanban helps you schedule your tasks in the most efficient way. These are helpful even if you’re not working within the famed Toyota Production System; they’re adaptable to fit all kinds of work scenarios, which is similarly true for the 3 Ms that originated there, too. The 3 Ms are kinds of waste you should identify and eliminate to keep your work running smoothly. Once you learn how to identify and get rid of them, you can be even more productive, whether you're using kanban, kaizen, or anything else.

What are the 3 Ms?

Lean process thinking, or lean manufacturing, is a production method that seeks to save time within the production process. The 5S technique is en elemental part of lean thinking, as are the 3 Ms. They are "muda," "mura," and "muri," and they all refer to kinds of wasteful practices that slow you down and keep you from being productive.

By identifying and eliminating them, you can streamline everything you need to do. To get them to work in your daily life, you need to adapt them a little, but once you get in the habit of recognizing where things are getting held up and making the appropriate changes, you’ll be breezing through your work. 

Identifying and eliminating the 3 Ms

Here’s what each of the three Ms is all about:

• Muda translates from Japanese to mean “futility” or “uselessness.” It’s anything that doesn’t add value to the work you’re doing and it comes in two forms: Type 1 is non-value-added activities in your process that are still necessary for your end result, like safety checks, which don’t give the producers of physical goods any kind of financial reward, but do have a benefit for customers and eliminate financial risk for producers. You can’t really avoid Type 1, but you should focus on identifying and eliminating Type 2: Activities that add no value to the process or the end result. 

• Mura is any kind of unevenness in your operation. Anything that isn’t uniform, regular, or scheduled is mura. Too much mura will result in muda. For instance, if you’re working on a bunch of tasks for a project at your job and your coworker is only working on one or two, it’s actually wasteful because you’ll be waiting around on them to keep moving forward with yours. 

• Muri is any overburden on a tool or person. It can result from mura, as in the example above, but can also spring from overutilization. For your purposes, think of it referring to you. When you’re overwhelmed and overworked or lack resources, you’re not as productive. That’s muri. 

To eliminate muda, identify which unnecessary steps you’re taking in your work. Familiarize yourself with kaizen here, as it’s a process designed to get you to work efficiently. If you find that you’re often doing unnecessary tasks that don’t have much value in the end, like changing the colors and fonts on a presentation deck that’s already completed or constantly tweaking your emails before sending, consider that you might be giving yourself too much time to do them. Parkinson’s Law says that the more time you have to do something, the longer you’ll draw it out and complicate it. Reduce the amount of time you give yourself to complete certain tasks so the pressure of getting it done helps you focus only on the elements that are absolutely necessary. 

To eliminate mura, start tracking the process of your work and identify what’s holding you up. Is it waiting on client emails? Is it waiting for a coworker to finish their section of a project? Is it spending too much time in meetings and not enough time actually working? Is it a bad scheduling technique on your end? It might take a few weeks of diligent time tracking, but eventually, the pattern will emerge. If you’re spending too much time waiting on client emails, develop a system whereby you send emails with questions for the next day’s work during the afternoon, giving them time to respond by the time you need to do it, for instance. If it’s your own poor scheduling, start making better to-do lists using kanban or the 1-3-5 method, which reduces your daily tasks to just nine and has you focus on the most essential ones in order of importance.

Finally, to eliminate muri, assess your own burden at work. If you’re missing deadlines, feeling overwhelmed, not being given the right amount of resources, or having too much piled on you, you need to streamline what you’re working on so you don’t completely burn out. Try using the ABCDE method to give a ranking to all of your responsibilities. The A tasks are the most important, followed by the B tasks, but you’ll feel less overwhelmed once you realize the C tasks are optional, D stands for delegate, and E stands for eliminate. Delegate tasks to someone else if you’re overburdened—and don’t do unnecessary ones at all. Some burdens, like meetings, are unavoidable, but when possible, schedule yourself at least one day a week where you have no meetings. Remember to take regular breaks to stay productive, utilizing a method like the time-tested Pomodoro technique. If that method isn't working for you, try the MIT—or most important thing—technique, which helps you reframe your perception of your to-dos around the impact they'll have, not the amount of resources they'll take. Playing around with different approaches is a little time-consuming and might seem like its own kind of waste, but it's necessary to find a system that works for you.

Training yourself to recognize and eliminate these different kinds of waste will streamline your work, reduce your burden, and keep things running more smoothly so you can actually be productive, whether you’re building a Camry or a new investor spreadsheet.

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You hear people talk about working in a “flow state,” but what does that even mean? before you start thinking of it as one of those corporate jargon phrases that gets tossed around so much it loses any meaning it ever had, it's worth knowing that it's a "real" thing, backed up by a whole lot of psychological research. In essence, being in a flow state enables you to work more efficiently and effectively at whatever you're focused on.

What is flow theory?

Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi came up with this theory in 1970, suggesting a flow state is similar to when someone is floating along, being carried by water: Their brains are working so efficiently they’re moving straight ahead on a task with no issues, almost as if they are being propelled forward. 

He spent his time interviewing artists and athletes at the top of their game to understand when and how they performed optimally—and how everyday people can tap into a “flow” state, too. He wrote several books on the topic, but for our purposes here, you don't need to ingest all of them. What's most important is to understand the eight main traits of flow theory.

The basics of flow theory

Csíkszentmihályi’s work ultimately describes eight clear characteristics of being in flow:

1. You’re completely concentrated on your task.

2. You have clarity around goals in your mind and can get immediate feedback.

3. Time feels like it's transforming, either speeding up or slowing down.

4. The work is intrinsically rewarding.

5. There is a sense of effortlessness or ease.

6. The work is challenging, but you have the skills for it.

7. You are not self-conscious; actions and awareness are working together.

8. You feel you have control over the task.

This may remind you of the concept of “deep work,” which is author/professor Cal Newport’s definition of doing demanding tasks when you’re fully engrossed in them and not distracted. The two concepts are similar, but to achieve either, there are a few things you need to do. It’s clear from the list of flow characteristics above that mastery and resources play a big role in whether you'll feel you’re in a flow state when you're working. Obviously you’ll likely only hit this state if you’re doing something you’re completely prepared for, so don’t aim for it if you’re going to be doing something that requires contributions from other people, resources you don’t have, or skills you don’t possess. You can be ripped from it quickly if, say, you're waiting around for a colleague to email you something you need for the project, which can destabilize your whole day. (For a better understanding of that, it's worth familiarizing yourself with the difference between downtime and idle time.)

When you are trying to hit a flow state, plan around when you need to do a major, demanding task. For instance, when planning your 1-3-5 to-do list for the day, your one big task should be one you’re fully prepared and have all the resources for. Keep Carlson’s Law—the idea that any work you attempt to do while distracted will be suboptimal—in mind, too; you can’t work, let alone flow, if you’re being pulled in multiple directions, so schedule the time you’re going to take on your big task to coincide with a time when you have nothing else going on and can give it your full attention. Use timeboxing to allocate this time in your schedule, minute by minute, and, if you can, make your calendar publicly visible so people in your organization know you’re not available.

When I explored adopting this mindset in my own life, I found that my biggest blocker was dealing with distractions, especially from my phone (no surprise there). Almost counterintuitively, I found two apps to be helpful: Steppin, which blocks my access to distracting apps unless I trade time I've banked by walking around in the real world; and Focus Pomo, which blocks all other apps whenever I'm in a "focus session."

So, if you’re working hard on something but don’t feel like you’re achieving any kind of flow state, refer back to the list of characteristics to see what’s missing. Are you distracted? Do you not have the option to get immediate feedback? Are you lacking a necessary resource? Is the work too challenging for your skills or maybe even not challenging enough to keep your attention? Identifying which characteristic you’re lacking most will help you fix the problem and get you closer to flowing your way to major productivity.

I am not a morning person, and I never have been—well, unless I have to make money. For years, my start time at my old job was 5 a.m. and, against all odds, I made it in every day. Now, I teach a 6 a.m. spin class twice a week after being moved off the more-tolerable late morning shift. Until a few months ago, though, I was sleeping through every alarm on all the other days, even though I knew I should be getting up and going to the gym early as a solid way to start my day. It took me a long time, but I have managed to force myself into being the kind of person who is up before the sun and done with my daily exercise routine before my friends are even out of bed. Here's exactly what I did.

I concocted financial stakes

Since starting to teach the 6 a.m. spin classes, I've noticed two undeniable things: I can drag myself out of bed for the promise of money with no problem and my day is measurably better when I start it with a workout. I am just more alert, productive, and all-around pleasant when the morning begins with exercise than I am when it begins with sleeping in. It was obvious I needed to start every day that way, whether or not I was getting paid to do it, but tricking myself into exercising "for free" was my first challenge.

The solution was one you might not like: I had to tie a financial stake to what I wanted to do. Instead of getting money, like I do when I teach, I had to pay money so I would be motivated not to let my investment go to waste. This was a problem because one of the perks of my part-time teaching gig is a free membership at a luxury gym here in New York City. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but having free and unlimited access to a fancy gym didn't exactly motivate me; it would be there whenever I wanted to go and if I didn't happen to want to go at all, it wasn't like I was losing money on it. So, I started signing up for introductory offers at every studio in my area. Usually, these lasted one to two weeks and cost less than a regular membership at the studio in question would if I weren't on a trial offer. I had paid, but hadn't paid a relative bunch, and that was good enough to start. Up I got each morning, slowly but surely building a habit. The intro offers expired, though, and I'd find myself scrambling to find a new place to go, which upended my routine and wasn't conducive to consistency.

Next, I downloaded ClassPass and set up an autopay for every month, but since my unused credits roll over to the next month, that wasn't as motivating. I took note of how much more consistent I am in a use-it-or-lose it scenario, kept ClassPass because it still comes in handy, but looked for more options. Ultimately, through ClassPass, I found a studio in my area that offers a Pilates-inspired strength training class. I became obsessed with it—but an unlimited monthly membership was a few hundred dollars. I put off getting that because it seemed exorbitant, but in the end, I realized that might be the only way to get myself to stick to the routine that was slowly forming. Eventually, I pulled the trigger. I traded away a small fortune for access to a studio full of something known as "megaformers." I have been in that studio every single weekday morning at 6:30 (except on teaching days, when I run over at 7:30) for a month now. Sometimes, I go at 5:30 just because I can. Who the hell is she? I am not only prepared, but excited, to buy it again going into this next month.

Do you need to spend hundreds on this? Absolutely not. But for me, tying financial stakes to my mission was crucial and, also just from my perspective, they had to be intense. A low-cost, big-box gym membership has never motivated me. What's $25 slipping out of my checking account every month along with all the other subscriptions I've forgotten about? When I've paid a little more to go to gyms that offer free classes, even signing up for morning ones didn't always do it, since there was no fee associated with skipping them. (As a teacher now, I realize exactly how nasty that mindset is, but I'm just being honest.) My subconscious is stubborn, it deeply desires staying in bed, and I had to take an extreme measure to beat it.

For you, a lower-cost gym membership might work just fine, but I'll caution that what has to go along with the financial investment is a time-based commitment. It's not that I struggle to work out in general; I do it every day, but I wanted to start doing it in the morning, not cramming it in at night or whenever I thought of it throughout the day. That's why paid classes have been so crucial: They're strictly scheduled. I can't just go whenever I want, nor can I decide I don't feel like going when the time rolls around. The combination of paying a noticeable amount and having to be there at a set time is elemental to what I'm doing.

I reconfigured my schedule

That leads me to the next big thing I did. Buying classes, packages, a gym or app membership, or whatever else, isn't enough on its own if you don't make space in your life for using them. I had to take a hard look at my schedule. I fell back on a lot of scheduling tips I've written about here, like time blocking and time boxing, plus I started using prioritization techniques to figure out what could be rearranged. The MIT—or most important thing—method was helpful because it allowed me to calculate the impact my daily to-dos have on my larger goals, leaving space for me to acknowledge the positive impact morning workouts have on other parts of my day. With other kinds of prioritization approaches, working out didn't rank as high because it is something a little more optional than the work I have to do to keep a roof over my head, you know? But my goal here was to make more space for it and create a lifestyle that specifically positioned it as a morning activity, so the MIT method helped me center it.

Like the financial investment, this meant something undesirable: I initially tried to get more serious about going to bed early. That is not aligned with who I am in the deepest parts of my soul, and it never has been. To be completely transparent, more often than not, I simply didn't do it. Asleep at 1 a.m. and awake at 5, I have just been tired a lot. I give myself grace with things like this because if I'm too hard on myself about it, I'll demoralize myself and that won't help me with my overall goal. Eventually, if being tired starts to annoy me too much, I'll course-correct and be asleep at 10 p.m. like a smarter person. As it is now, I've been making space in my schedule for some naps (which isn't something I've ever done much of before). Breaks are an important part of overall productivity, as is leaving yourself space to be who you are without trying to make too many drastic changes at once, so the temporary nap-allowance system is just fine. I'm also trying to avoid strenuous activity at night. I can't force myself to go to sleep early, but I can at least stop starting new projects at 11 p.m., which will just make me sleepier the next day than if I am relaxed pre-bedtime.

I've noticed myself making small, subconscious changes even though I haven't become an early-bedtime gal yet. I'm calling it a night a lot sooner than I normally would when I'm out with friends, even though I'm not necessarily going home to sleep so much as I'm just going home not to be out. I also was struck by the inspiration to paint a piece of furniture last night at 11 p.m.. Normally, adherent to the 10-minute and one-more rules that I am, I would have jumped up and done this the moment I thought of it. Last night, I didn't do it, knowing I shouldn't get too involved in something tricky when I needed to be winding down ahead of this morning's Pilates class. These are baby steps, yes, but they're a lot more helpful to developing long-term, sustainable habits than complete personality overhauls are. Those rarely last, but little, incremental changes add up to longer-term success.

I sought out incentives

This part is fun, so there's the reprieve. For me, any meaningful life change has to come with little rewards, and I'm not talking about the mental health benefits of exercise, looking better, or feeling more productive after a workout. I'm talking about little treats. First of all, commitment to my new schedule opened up the opportunity to crush my goals with the various apps I use to track my workouts. I am serious about using my Peloton app to track all my workouts, even the ones I don't take through the app or using my Bike, largely because I think it gives me a better data breakdown than when I use the native workout-tracking function on my Apple Watch, but also because it contributes to my daily streak (as of today: 274 days). Getting a workout inputted into the app first thing in the morning secures my streak, which is literally just a number on a screen, but it motivates me.

I have also started using something similar to a SMART goal to track and reward progress. SMART goals are ones that are specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound. So, I tell myself things like, "If I go to class at 5:30 tomorrow morning, I will stop at Dunkin' for a donut on the way home," or, "If I work out every morning this week, I will get myself one new activewear outfit on Sunday."

Wearing silly little matchy outfits is also integral to my personal process, as it puts me in a good mood before I even leave the house and makes me feel more put-together and capable at the gym, but that might not be true for you. In fact, none of these things specifically need to be for you, but they can be a guideline. The general through line here is that I took the time to consider what I wanted (to wake up early and work out); and what I know about myself (I'm motivated by money, my schedule wasn't conducive to this activity, and I need constant mini-rewards to keep going); then combine those facts into a new, incremental strategy that worked for me. No matter what you want or what motivates you, you can do the same by relying on a few productivity tricks and your own self-awareness.

When you want to be more productive, it helps to have a role model. Financial blogs are forever interviewing contemporary CEOs about their work habits, but those aren’t that inspirational; they’re always claiming that meditation and not answering emails are the keys to success, which isn’t super helpful to the average person who doesn’t have the time or resources to meditate or the luxury of hiring an assistant. For real inspo, you might want to try looking back in history to a time before tech founders preached about a #grindset: Ivy Lee, the founder of modern public relations, came up with a productivity method so good that it’s lived on for 100 years—and it still bears his name.

How do you use the Ivy Lee method?

Ivy Lee came up with his productivity method in an effort to help big businesses in the 1920s get more done. It’s all about creating manageable, prioritized to-do lists and sticking with them until they’re complete. 

The method itself is simple. At the end of every work day, write down six tasks you have to complete tomorrow. (If it’s Friday, write down what you need to do Monday. Don’t forget that taking breaks over the weekend is important for productivity, too.) Do not write down more than six. The goal here is for the list to be manageable, not never-ending, so use your judgment to determine which six things are most important for the next day. If you're struggling to select just six, use the pickle jar theory to narrow it down; or try considering not only the resources they'll take, but the impact they'll have, by using the MIT method.

Next, prioritize them. You can do this however you see fit, but consider using a method like the Eisenhower Matrix to figure out which tasks are the timeliest and most urgent. Used in conjunction with the MIT method, this will ensure you're tackling your responsibilities in exactly the right order to produce maximum results.

Hand-writing the to-do list is beneficial. You can do this in a digital note or doc, but writing by hand sticks it in your brain, so you might consider using an old-fashioned planner.

The next day, it’s time to start on the list—no second-guessing or negotiations. Begin with the first task in the morning and see it all the way through before jumping to the second one. Keep going until the end of the workday, tapping into your capacity for doing deep work by focusing on just one task or project at a time. When your day is over, anything that is incomplete should be moved to tomorrow’s list and new tasks should be added to it until you reach six. 

By rolling the tasks over, you ensure they’ll get done, but by being aware that you have the option to roll them over at all, you won’t feel overwhelmed. Do try to keep the tasks as granular as possible, though. Instead of writing “end-of-quarter report” as one list item, break it down. If pulling and analyzing the data is a step to writing the report, make it one task. If inputting it into a presentation is another, that’s one task, too. 

As mentioned, you can do this in a planner, a digital note, or even your calendar, but the most important elements are maintaining that low number of tasks, prioritizing them, and not abandoning them if they are unfinished.

Be sure to prioritize whatever you roll over to the next day above any new tasks, so everything gets done, and always use those prioritization methods to make sure you're addressing things in the most efficient order. An unimportant task Monday can turn into an urgent one by Thursday if you keep rolling it over without thinking about it.