Work both hard and smart, ideally. While working smart is difficult to quantify, working hard is more straightforward — it’s about consistently putting in hours every week.
But what constitutes working hard exactly? I think 48 hours a week is a good target. If you work a full-time job or work with clients Monday through Friday, this still leaves you an extra day for personal projects or just for learning new skills. And it’s reasonable enough to avoid the risk of burnout.
However, it can be hard to maintain this level of productivity and in this article, I will share 10 productivity tips that I found through trial and error over the years.
1. Use coffee strategically
Cutting out caffeine normalized my sleep and after the initial withdrawal period, I realized my productivity is the same as when I was drinking coffee daily. I was basically relying on coffee to maintain the same productivity level I would have without it.
Now I only drink coffee twice a week. This keeps my caffeine tolerance low but on days I do drink coffee, I feel ultra-focused and get a lot done. And because I like coffee, I actually look forward to these days.
Note that caffeine’s half-life is around 5 hours, this means that even after 10 hours there is still some left in your system. Drink your last coffee before noon so it doesn’t disrupt your sleep.
2. Go with your natural flow
Productivity is not linear and if your working hours are flexible at all, structure your workweek to accommodate your natural productivity highs and lows.
I tracked how many hours I worked each day for a year and found a clear trend: Monday is the slowest day, Tuesday is much better, productivity peaks on Wednesday-Thursday and then dips on Friday.
Then I structured my workweek like this and it became much easier:
Mon: 6 hours
Tue: 9 hours
Wed: 10 hours (coffee boost)
Thu: 9 hours
Fri: 6 hours
Sat: 10 hours (coffee boost)
This is a 50-hour work week that feels very manageable.
Mondays and Fridays are like half days off, Wednesdays and Saturdays are coffee days, Tuesdays and Thursdays are the 2 days that can be difficult but once I get through them, I know the week is a success.
3. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day
It is so much easier to have a good day when you start it right and it is easier to start it right when you follow the same routine every morning. For example, wake up, take a shower, brush your teeth, pour coffee (decaf/regular) and start working.
But a good day starts the evening before. Realistically you can’t stay productive if you don’t get a good night’s sleep and maintaining a consistent sleep schedule may be the single most important factor when it comes to productivity.
4. The importance of physical activity cannot be understated
Work for 4–5 hours then go to the gym / do cardio / just take a long walk. You’ll come back feeling refreshed. I find this resets mental fatigue and I start the second half of the day feeling just as productive as I was in the morning.
5. Utilize a modified pomodoro technique (or similar) and take regular breaks
Find what works for you. Here’s my example:
– Focused work for around 25 minutes
– Close and rest my eyes for 20 seconds
– Focused work for around 25 minutes
– Step away from the screen for 5–10 minutes.
If I stare at the screen non-stop, I just can’t put in long hours and eye strain can absolutely kill my productivity, so taking regular breaks is a must. While you might not be actively working during these breaks, you’re still consciously or subconsciously thinking about the problems you’re working on.
Stepping away from the screen is often the time when you’ll look at a task from a different perspective and come up with a solution you didn’t consider before. In psychology this is called Incubation.
6. Make every 5th week a shorter one
If you work at 100% effort every week, you’re likely to burn out eventually, so give yourself an easier week from time to time.
One approach I can recommend is working in 5-week segments: four 50-hour weeks followed by a 40-hour week. This keeps the average at 48hr/week.
7. Keep a work journal
Write down what you accomplished every day and how many hours you worked. This keeps you accountable and also gives you data to analyze later.
Bonus tip: if you struggle with procrastination and often find yourself at the end of the day wondering where the time went, download any time tracker app and track all your non-work related activities. Every single one. You need to know where your time is going and the act of tracking itself helps combat procrastination.
8. Constantly review, adjust and learn from mistakes
At the end of each week, review how the week went, what mistakes were made and how you can improve. What works for one person may not necessarily work for someone else and the goal is to find a system that works for you specifically.
9. Understand your limit
Push yourself while still maintaining a good work-life balance. For example, I know I should not work more than 50 hours on any given week and I should not average more than 48 hours per week, otherwise it’s not sustainable long-term.
10. Your workspace needs to be comfortable
Ideally, you should have an ergonomic chair and a comfortable desk. Minimize clutter. You spend a large portion of your waking hours at your desk and you’re not going to be able to do it if you get a neck strain after an hour.
This sums it up. The overall message is to find a system that works for you and makes it easy to stay productive. Experiment with different approaches and analyze the results. Productivity is not really as simple as “just work N hours every day”, you need a system that goes with your natural tendencies instead of fighting them.