I often write long and detailed posts which go deep down the rabbit hole of the given topic to ensure I have covered it sufficiently. I do this because this is the way my brain works – I’m an analytical person and find I need to dig down as far down as possible to convey a topic and my views on it fully. This post will be different; it will be short and sweet (relatively!). This is because the beauty of this concept is its simplicity and I don’t want to complicate things. Today I am sharing what I believe to be the simplest productivity hack there is:

Do the difficult, most brain engaging and urgent thing first, everyday

That is it. If you want to be more effective, efficient and productive this is all you need to do. This isn’t even a new phenomenon, Ivy Lee famously got paid $25,000 in 1918 for sharing this wisdom with Bethlehem Steel executives. Lee’s method is slightly more complex than what I’ve detailed above but the fundamental premise is the same, it is as follows:

1. At the end of each workday, write down the 6 most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than 6
2. Prioritize those 6 items in order of their true importance
3. When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task
4. Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of 6 tasks for the following day
5. Repeat this process every working day

Why do the hardest, most important thing first? 

• It is well known that you feel like you have a fixed amount of brain power each day, so it makes sense to do the hardest, most brain power consuming activity first and leave the easier grunt work until last.
• The human mind spends a lot of time and effort subconsciously worrying and thinking about things you consciously don’t want to think about. If you know you’ve got a horribly difficult but urgent item hanging over you, you are unlikely to be as good or efficient at what you are currently working on. Therefore like a plaster, you’ve just got to rip it off, and get it done.
• Doing this forces you to prioritise and think about the work you are doing. Spending a few minutes at the end of the previous day thinking and prioritising tomorrows work does the following:
  • It stops you worrying – as highlighted above
  • It makes you really think about what the most important and challenging thing is –  instead of simply following ‘first in, first out’ or ‘total random’ approach to really consider each item on its own merit and categorise it as so
  • It helps your brain subconsciously start solving the problem/task now – The brain is a very clever machine, and one of the things it can do is subconsciously start thinking about or solving things without your conscious being aware. This method also stops the conscious worrying cycle I detailed above because you’ve thought it through and given it a dedicated time slot tomorrow to finish or resolve it.  This means when you sit down the next day to start the task you’ll find you’ve already got a rough idea how to best tackle it and completing it will be easier than expected.

Tips for a dynamic world  

• One potential retort for this approach is that a lot has changed since 1918, that we live in a far more connected and dynamic world therefore priorities are ever-changing. I think this is a fair challenge on first thought, but if you really think about it, there are actually very few jobs where on a regular basis your biggest priority is constantly changing. Occasionally there will be a diary buster and you have to work around these but for 95% of jobs, 95% of the time this works.
• If you find yourself in the 5% there is another tip you can deploy that I’ve learnt from my own experience. Build into your day a maximum of 3×5 minute breaks and use these as your ‘re-assessment moments’. In these ‘moments’ take a breath and really think about if there is anything in the last few hours which has fundamentally changed your top priority. If it hasn’t (most of the time) then carry on following the priority list you wrote last night, if it has re-juggle according. I wouldn’t suggest doing this any more than 2 or 3 times a day otherwise you lose the benefits detailed in the ‘why’ section earlier in the blog.

Concluding Remarks 

• One final thing before I sign-off (this one might sound really stupid, but stick with me!). Writing a to-do list of activities you need to complete at work is not always easy, certainly not a talent you are born with, therefore don’t be disappointed if you struggle on the first few evenings to get your maximum of 6 items down quickly and concisely, it takes some getting used to and practice.
• But stick with it, because it works and very few things so easy to understand and explain are as effective, hence why I believe it to be the simplest productivity hack.

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