Top 10 Productivity Tips
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." -Ferris Bueller
One obsession that I have had over the years is to focus on my personal productivity. I have read multiple books, spent many hours in self reflection, tried a number of different tools, and adapted to different workflows with the goal of being successful and improving my life by leveraging great productivity. I have hard-wired good habits and stopped doing unproductive things.
Overall, I have found a number of things that have made my life very productive and improved the quality of my life. I am frequently complimented on my productivity, and while I live a very busy life as a medical school dean, I feel that I get a lot accomplished, and I am the happiest that I have ever been in my life.
I present this top 10 list of the things that I think are the habits that I have hardwired that I have found to be extremely helpful, and I am sharing in case they may be helpful to the reader:
1. To-Do Lists
By far, the most important productivity tool in my life is my to-do list. I use the Reminders App that is on my iPhone and my work and home MacBook Airs. I always have it with me, and it is always synced with each other, and I always know what I need to do. Whenever I discover a task that I can’t immediately take care of, someone asks me to do something, or I get an idea of something I want to do, I immediately add it to my to-do list. I also have great joy every time I accomplish a task, and my goal is to have zero on my to-do list each day (not always a possible feat, but one that I get to on most days). There are some tasks that I am waiting on someone else to do something that I can’t do at the time or weekly tasks (e.g. approving credit card expenses for my employees) - those are the rare exceptions that I may add to my calendar instead of my to-do list (I typically discourage folks from adding time to calendars for completing items as that can be a procrastination move and assumes that you will be in a focused state to accomplish that task then, which is not always true).
2. Live Your Life in Day-Tight Compartments
Sir William Osler is arguably one of the most famous physicians of all time and sometimes called the founder of modern medicine (he started the first residency program). He frequently would recommend that we “live in day-tight compartments” and not focus on the past or worry about the future, but concentrate on accomplishing the tasks that can be accomplished today. I have found this an indispensable approach to getting things done. I focus on actions that I can immediately take to make for a better future. I also try to get today’s work done today. For example, my goal is to take care of all of my email today, so I am not creating extra work for tomorrow, and start each day with a fresh start. I also focus on finishing each day with zero items on my to-do list. Having zero items on my to-do list gives me an incredible, liberating freedom and opens up creative possibilities.
3. Use AI Tools
AI has the opportunity to improve the efficiency of our lives significantly. I think that it is on a similar or greater scale than technologies born out of the Industrial Revolution (e.g., automobiles, washing machines, etc.) and the Internet Age (e.g., bill paying, shopping, entertainment, etc.). Dr. Minkes (our Medical Director of AI at OCOM) has used AI to calculate that he saves about 20% of his time each week using AI. I estimate that I probably save more time with it, and I am doing things using AI that I probably would not have done previously due to barriers (e.g., calculating correlations on data, sharing personal notes from meetings that have been organized and rewritten by AI, etc.). Complicated or delicate emails that used to take me 20 minutes to compile now take me 5 minutes or less using AI. Organizing data, creating infographics for slides, creating briefing documents, drafting policies and procedures are all examples of time-saving productivity tools that save me a ton of time each week.
4. Automate Everything
Automation is one of the keys to living a productive life. The Internet has enabled many of these. For example, I now have all of my bills on automatic payment, and I rarely even think about bill paying, and I receive notifications of payments on them all. I also have my pharmaceuticals on automation thanks to Amazon Pharmacy (and I save money in the process). There are a number of items that I use regularly and that I never even have to think about (e.g., daily sunscreen, morning facial cream, toothbrush refills for my Sonicare, refrigerator water filter, etc.) - I have all of these set up on Amazon automated refills, and it also saves me money without ever running out of them. There are also infrequent tasks that I need to do, such as putting vinegar down the drain of my AC systems. For these, I have a calendar reminder on the first of each month.
5. Give Reasons for Your Future Self to Thank Your Past Self
I love that feeling that I thank my past self for doing something that helped me out in the future, and I look for opportunities to have more of these situations in my life. One example is gasoline for my car. I almost never use more than a tank of gas during a week. My weekdays are pretty busy, and I try to avoid needing to do anything other than more work during the weekdays. I get gas each weekend right after I get my car washed. It is an enjoyable weekend ritual, and I always start each week with a clean car and a full tank of gas, and ready to take on the world. Another small thing that I do is to fill my pill box (blood pressure medicine, cholesterol treatment, and vitamins) each weekend. This saves a little bit of time each day during my morning rituals and helps ensure adherence to taking my medicine.
6. Expedite or Eliminate Repetitive Tasks
Nearly every office worker needs to answer common questions or requests. In my Notes App (synced on my iPhone and Macs), I have stored common questions and can easily copy and paste. There are a number of IT tools that can automate the same with just a few key strokes (our admissions team now uses those). Probably more important is to look to see if you can prevent common questions or requests. For example, having an FAQ on your website, posting links to certain resources on the Internet or Intranet, or proactively educating folks about things that will likely be asked or needed later, or providing things to people that you anticipate that they need or want. In medicine, we frequently call these types of things anticipatory guidance or providing patients with “if then” instructions that save everyone time and prevent frustrations or barriers.
7. Make Learning More Efficient
Learning things nowadays is so incredibly fun and easy. There are so many tools that can revolutionize your personal or professional knowledge and improve your life. My current obsession is with Notebook LM. It can research any topic that you want and create a collection of videos, articles, and websites. With a push of a button, you can have it create podcasts, videos, briefing documents, slides, infographics, and mind-mapping on the topic at hand. Podcasts are another great example that can turn any commute or exercise session into a great learning session. Signing up for Google News Alerts (or a new AI product like scrollon.com) can deliver daily news on the topics that are pertinent to you. While Google News Alerts gives you the news articles, scrollon.com, which costs $9.99/month, delivers items found on social media sites such as Reddit as well. There are also apps that you can watch on your TV, such as Masterclass, that can give you entertainment-style education (sometimes called “edutainment”). Online courses, such as Coursera, can give you quality streaming education on nearly every topic.
8. Make Giving More Efficient
Giving gifts can be incredibly time-consuming and sometimes frustrating, getting the right gift for people. It is also a thing that can fall of the radar (think about all of those people shopping on December 24th - sometimes due to procrastination or remembering late to buy for someone). I have automated many of my recurrent gifts. For example, I used to struggle with my mom’s birthday present each year. I then got her a subscription to Netflix about 15 years ago that I “renew” for another year on each birthday (I actually pay for it every month). She loves this gift and thinks about me every time she watches Netflix. For my immediate family, I have the Apple iPhone Annual Upgrade program that gives them a brand new iPhone each year, which I give at Christmas. It is probably a purchase that I would have made every couple of years or so at a random time of the year, but for less money (they give you AppleCare+ for free), I am the hero who gives a brand new iPhone each year. These are both gifts that I don’t even have to think about and consume little time, but create daily reminders in loved-ones’ lives about the relationships.
9. Save Time on Less Frequent Items in Your Life
There are a number of less frequent items in your life that take up time. One example is dry cleaning. I truly dislike both of those. I wear suits every day, and so I have about 15 suits (suitshop.com for about $200 for a basic black suit). These require dry cleaning (I have not had success with the washable suits). I have them split up into two sets. About every three weeks, I have an automated email to a mobile dry cleaning pick up service, and I leave the suits in a bag on the front porch, and they charge my credit card and drop off clean suits on that Friday, and they are ready for the next cycle. I also use non-iron dress shirts (all Hawes and Curtis French Cuff shirts that I buy during their winter sale). This saves money, and I do one load every couple of weeks, and I have clean wrinkle-free shirts every morning to put on.
10. Architect Your Life to be More Efficient
We are always making choices about our lives that determine our future productivity. One example is the care that you purchase. I drive a Lexus - it is one of the most reliable cars on the market, and I typically only need the routine oil changes every 5 months (they give me a loaner car and I pick it up at the end of the day). Transportation rarely impacts my life significantly. Also, my home is close to work - I typically only have a 7-minute commute to work, and I have tremendous empathy for some co-workers who need to drive an hour-plus each day. My primary care physician is a Telehealth physician - I never have to drive to appointments or spend time in a waiting room. Plus, she is available by messaging at my convenience.
I hope these productivity tips help you save time. While many of these may only shave off a minute of your time here and there, the time adds up and I hope that it gives you more time to follow Ferris’ advice and “look around once in a while”.
