7 Powerful Productivity Hacks Every Leader Should Know

Are you looking for ways to stop procrastinating? It’s no secret that even the most successful people procrastinate sometimes. Leaders with the highest level of performance and effectiveness all face an ongoing battle with procrastination. However, they have strategies to prevent it. Here are seven powerful productivity habits to adopt right now. 

1. Remove temptation. 

When you’re doing work you don’t enjoy, you’ll often try to entertain yourself by doing something else—checking email, social media, going on random internet rabbit holes, or just daydreaming. Cut out unnecessary distractions and temptations, and you’ll have more energy for the tasks you need to do. Here are few ways to remove distractions: 

• Use apps to block distracting sites 
• Silence unnecessary notifications 
• Make a commitment to yourself: No fun stuff until the work is finished 

2. Break your work into smaller pieces. 

Planning things out and breaking projects into pieces is one of the most important leadership skills you can adopt. If you are looking to increase your productivity, divide your work into chunks and set small deadlines. Larger projects seem more daunting, and that’s where people tend to procrastinate. Chunk it up and create artificial deadlines for smaller bits so you don’t have to think about that big deadline until it’s closer. 

3. Know when to say, “It’s not my job.” 

Leadership is not the same as doing every single little thing on your own. If you have a team, know when to say no to doing the task yourself and let them step in. If they can do something as well or better, that’s an opportunity to free up your time. The same goes for your network. Find people who have the skills you don’t. You can trade help or barter services to take on those tasks where you have complementary skills. 

4. Schedule breaks and know when to stop. 

Working nonstop is an energy and performance killer. If you work until you “can’t take it anymore” or until it’s late, you’ll never feel a sense of satisfaction. Set a clear period of work time followed by a scheduled break, and you’ve got something to work toward in the short term, but also a stopping point to look forward to in the long term. 

5. Don’t be a multitasker. 

Multitasking looks busy, but it’s usually a sign of procrastination or avoidance. Juggling several tasks that need to be finished usually leads to lower quality of work and more time spent fixing things. Finish one thing at a time, and you’ll be surprised how quickly your task list gets shorter. 

6. Put a time limit on email. 

Email is the productivity death of most of us. If you check your email constantly, you lose your flow. This makes it difficult for you to focus on one thing for more than a few minutes at a time. Schedule 30 to 90 minutes a day to clear your inbox, and you’ll have time and place for all that email distraction and less of it the rest of the day. 

7. Set clear expectations about “done.” 

Procrastination comes from not being clear about what you want or need to finish. Statements like “I want to finish this” leave it open-ended. They may also cause you to do the minimum or sometimes nothing at all. Instead of saying “finish this” or “complete that,” say “finish 500 words of this article,” “finish this report,” or “finish one meeting on this issue.” 

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