Productivity

6 brilliant productivity hacks from 6 brilliant entrepreneurs

Written by Saadia Iqbal ·  3 min read >
Steve Jobs

I am sure you all know some basic productivity hacks to get started with your day like drinking coffee in the morning for getting an energy boost or planning your day the night before. But there must be something more, something that the brilliant and successful people like Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs follow. You are right, there are some productivity hacks these brilliant people used to follow and fortunately, we have a bunch of them gathered for you.

In this piece, we are going to reveal the productivity hacks of 6 brilliant entrepreneurs who found success by making them a part of their routine. Let’s have a look, shall we?

1. Elon Musk’s Productivity Formula

Ever wondered how Elon Musk, the founder, and CEO of Neuralink, SpaceX, and Tesla, handles all three companies without getting stressed every single day? He has set a routine for this. He starts his day at 7 A.M. dedicating 30 minutes to address the critical emails only. So, he filters out all emails that aren’t important and focuses on the ones that are. This helps him lay out his priorities for the day.

What lesson do we learn?

Start your day by listing your priorities and kill them one by one!

2. Jeff Bezos’s 2-Pizza Rule

Ever been in a meeting that ended up to be a total waste of time? I am sure it happens all the time, right? Meetings are important, I agree, but sometimes, they can turn into ordeals. Why? Because they weren’t properly planned, organized or executed.

Even if it was just a 15-minute meeting, it can be a major waste of time if they were 12 people in the room. That is exactly why Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, came up with the 2-pizza rule. He only invites that many people to a meeting who can eat 2 pizzas sufficiently. Since it takes a maximum of 6-8 people to eat 2 pizzas, his meetings always involve that many people.

What lesson do we learn?

With proper time management, you can organize and plan how to spend time on the activities or tasks in a day. It also helps you prioritize and maximize performance.

3. One meeting- free day in a week by Dustin Moskowitz

If you ever heard of Asana, then you definitely know who Dustin Moskowitz is. He is the CEO of Asana. He has a nice productivity hack too. There is at least one day in his work-week that is completely meeting-free. They call it ‘NO-Meeting Wednesday.’ It has no calendar events.

So, what’s the purpose behind this? According to Moskowitz, this eliminates the possibility of a bad or wasted meeting. At least there is one day in the week on which everyone keeps their heads down and focus on the day’s task.

What lesson do we learn?

Keeping one day blocked allows you to stay focused on the project at hand without losing sight of your goals.

4. Richard Branson’s List-making hack

Richard Branson is a famous English business magnate, an investor, and a philanthropist. I know, I know, you might already be making a list but before you judge, read further. Branson is famous for carrying a notebook everywhere he goes. He prefers making handwritten lists. It helps him transform his thoughts, goals and daily tasks into a digestible list, which he can cross out one by one. It helps him remember things, organize them and accomplish each task better.

What lesson do we learn?

You don’t really have to carry a notebook with you, all you have to do is jot down every idea or information that comes to your mind so that you can organize your thoughts and plan your day.

5. 100 ideas hack by Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is known for his amazing leadership and management skills. He was demanding of his employees and he was intolerant of bad ideas. His productivity hack was to filter out everything that was not a top-notch idea. He used to collect 100 ideas from his top executives on how Apple can improve in the coming year. He used to cross out any idea that was dumb. He kept crossing until he had a top 1O list. Wait, there is more filtering. Out of these 10 ideas, he only used to keep 3 best ones and the company’s focus for the next year used to be those 3 ideas. According to Jobs, only 3% of the ideas are worth spending your time on.

What lesson do we learn?

Everything you do in life should be meaningful. So, carefully plan out your goals, make a road map, and take steps towards achieving those goals.

6. Neil Patel’s work while travel hack

Neil Patel, the New York Times best-selling author, co-founder of Hello Bar and Crazy Egg has his own hack to be productive. He works while he is traveling. As this well-recognized entrepreneur is always on the move, he makes sure he is always connected whether he is in Uber or on the plane. Patel says that this way, he is always able to maximize his time and be productive even when he is on the move.

What lesson do we learn?

Moving around does not mean that your productivity should standstill.

If you just keep reading the routines of successful entrepreneurs, you will come up with more and more productivity hacks. Each one of these entrepreneurs may have their own mantra for productivity but they have one thing in common; they know how to make the best use of their time. Why not take some inspiration from their brilliant productivity hacks?