These are some of the methods I personally have found help to facilitate a "distraction free zone": 1) Put my phone on airplane mode 2) Disable all app notifications on your phone 3) Log out of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. (this one is admittedly so much easier said than done) 4) Use apps like Freedom that will turn off certain websites or internet 5) Set the mood: listen to music that gets you in the flow! I know that there are conflicting opinions on listening to mus

The way you write down your task can impact your ability to get it done. When I write a task down, I try to ask myself, "Is this concrete? is it clearly actionable?" I've found that a good rule of thumb is that if there's an uncertainty on how to begin a given task, I probably need to flesh it out more. People (myself included) procrastinate often times because they envision a given task being more complicated than it is in actuality. I'm frequently astounded at how little ti

"If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!" -Benjamin Franklin One of the biggest pitfalls that we're all prone to fall into if we're not careful is rationalizing with ourselves that things on our to do list don't actually need to be done. For example, it can be tempting to think, "Why do I need to write down a to do list or a shopping list? I'll just remember it in my head!" However, there is quite a bit of empirical evidence indicating that people are substantially m

On days when I have a clear deadline or urgent task, figuring out the most important task is easy. On other days when I have several things I need to do without a hard deadline, this can become a grey area. However, I've found a simple way to figure this out, borrowed from Tim Ferris. It essentially boils down to the formula: "most important usually=most uncomfortable/most procrastinated upon" with some chance of rejection or conflict. According to Tim Ferris, the key is to a

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." -Stephen Covey I have to confess something: I sometimes feel frustrated by the lack of crossover between concepts of maximizing one's time and life hacking and creative living. For example, I was once on tour with an actor who was deeply offended by the Mark Zuckerberg/Steve Jobs approach to fashion of wearing the same thing every day. While I don't think this approach to fashion makes sense for most artists, I do bel

First, for context, the "Ivy Lee" method involves the following: 1) Write down 3-5 things you plan to get done the next day 2) Rank them from highest to lowest priority 3) In the morning, start working on the task of highest priority 4) Only move on to task #2 when you've completed #1 5) Repeat One of the things that makes this method unique is that Ivy Lee emphasized the importance of doing tasks in order of priority and resisting the urge to go to the next task before compl