Certainly, you’ve found yourself getting distracted by your phone, checking apps at “inopportune” times, browsing and wandering through the internet, and especially spending hours on social media looking at random things.
These days, we are well aware of the importance of breaks during our daily routines. These “breather” breaks, so to speak, are precisely meant to give our minds a “restart.”
It has been proven that humans cannot be productive all day long. And these moments when we wander through social media and the internet do have their positive side in our personal and professional growth process.
Moreover, many productivity and performance gurus advocate for adopting Digital Minimalism, which involves using only what is necessary in technology so that you don’t “waste time” on trivial matters.
I have undergone some social media and internet detoxes, and working with media and digital marketing all this time, what I concluded is that YES, taking some time off from accessing social media and apps that consume a significant part of your day brings benefits to your life, your health, and consequently, your profession.
You learn to utilize your time better, manage your tasks more effectively, and be more productive at the right time without the internet’s distractions.
But there’s another side to it as well. For instance, I need social media to monitor trends for my projects.
An example here is the YouTube Channels I manage, which use only voiceovers and stock images and videos, the so-called dark channels. I like to watch competitors in the same niche and other niches to see how they structure their videos, from the introduction, content, CTAs, conclusion, thumbnails, and so on.
Another thing I noticed was in the fashion e-commerce businesses I worked with. I needed to see competitors’ ads, the collections being launched, clothing prices, advertising campaigns, the most requested products by customers (by reading comments on posts), and so forth.
So, I’m not here to tell everyone to adopt Digital Minimalism and do an internet detox. No.
On the contrary. I want to help you make the most of both worlds. That is, do not spend hours and hours on “useless” things and at the same time automate and increase your productivity in your routine so you have more idle time to watch some Reels, view content on TikTok, and watch your favorite series, if that’s your goal.
I want you to use the digital revolution to your advantage, not against it.
1) Plan and Prioritize
For a more productive routine and a balanced life, you need planning.
Planning will always be the easiest way to analyze your goals, your personal and professional objectives, the necessary actions to get there, and with all of this, have a “helicopter view” of your life.
Without this macro view, you won’t know what to prioritize, what will take up most of your time, and what will require greater effort to complete the task.
So, the first thing to do, in my opinion, is to use a tool like Notion (the most comprehensive of all), and perhaps a Habit Tracker. In my case, I use both every day.
In Notion, you can find templates for every aspect of life. Seriously.
If you like a Goals by Quarter view, for example, Notion has excellent templates to organize your goals for specific times of the year.
If you prefer Kanban views, like Trello, for instance, Notion also has that type of template.
If you want a view of the progression of your planning, Notion also has excellent templates that will certainly help you organize things in your own way.
Finally, Notion is nowadays the best productivity tool. This is because the platform has managed to bring together all the good things that have been created, unifying them in one place in a practical and easy-to-use way.
Moreover, Notion features a powerful AI. Here, there are various templates for you to explore. It’s worth taking a look.
As for the Habit Tracker, I use the mobile app version as a quick tool (I always keep it open on my phone) to see which habits I did or didn’t do during the day. For example, writing 1 blog post, taking my morning walk, going to the gym, attending an English class, and so on.
These tools for planning, prioritizing, and tracking your progress, in my opinion, are a game-changer for a more productive life.
2) Adopt Time Management Tools
Another tip to increase your efficiency is to use a time management tool.
After planning your goals and organizing your ideas, input them into a time management tool and see how much time you need for each task.
For example, I like to separate my goals into the projects I have in my life. I categorize myself as a project (taking care of myself more, studying more, training more, reading books, etc.), my personal brand work (my website, this content on Medium, my newsletter, my rich materials, etc.), I also include my YouTube channels, my work as a Paid Media Specialist, and so on.
These are some examples of my life projects. And within them, there are their to-do lists, whether daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
With this, I organize tasks for each project on Focus-To-Do, for example, and before starting a task, I hit Play. This way, I can track the time I spend on each action.
This allows me to better manage my work time, helps me have an overview of the projects each month, and helps me understand where I’m investing more time, where I need to invest less time, and so on.
I’ve used Clockify and other Pomodoro technique tools, but Focus-To-Do was the one I liked the most because it’s the simplest to use. Additionally, the tool has a mobile app and a Google Chrome extension that makes it easy to track and organize these tasks.
Remember, the goal here is to gain productivity, not to become dependent on another tool that requires time to organize and set up everything correctly.
3) Take Efficient Notes
Another tool that I keep open 24/7, whether on my computer or my phone, is Google Keep, a simple note-taking tool.
Who doesn’t like a notepad or a little notebook to jot down every idea that comes to mind?
Yes, I also have my notebook, and I use it every day. But Google Keep allows me to add links from the internet, copy images, and create titles, and tags that help me organize notes by projects.
It also has a Google Chrome extension, of course, making it even easier to save references, content, and relevant information for my projects.
In addition to Google Keep, I know there are several other note-taking tools. It’s up to you to test and analyze which makes more sense for your daily life.
4) Distraction-Blocking Tools
Once, a friend of mine bought a safe on AliExpress that served as a box locking anything placed inside, and after a programmed hour, it opened, “releasing” what was inside. The main purpose of this box was to place the phone inside to avoid distractions during the day.
A bit too much, don’t you think? 😅
No, you don’t have to spend the whole afternoon with your phone locked in a safe. You can use an app like Freedom, for example, which helps you “block” the apps that you spend most of your time on, distracting you easily.
And yes, this greatly facilitates your concentration and helps you finish what needs to be done today.
With this app, you can set up custom blocks for websites and apps for an unlimited time. A great way to avoid easy distractions without having to lock or hide your phone at home.
5) Mindfulness and Well-Being Apps
And as we talk about increasing focus during tasks, the best thing I learned in my life was to focus precisely on yourself.
Focus on taking better care of your physical, mental, and spiritual health, and you’ll find everything else becoming much easier to “execute.”
One thing many already know is the power that meditation brings to our lives. Not only in controlling feelings, thoughts, internal observation, and personal understanding but also precisely in your focus. One meditation technique is to pay attention to your natural breath. This will help you develop excellent focus because, during meditation, you really have to avoid other distractions to concentrate on the present moment and your breath.
The app I use daily for this is Calm. With Calm, you can do guided meditation sessions, which is great for beginners. It’s worth giving it a try.
Another app I use daily is MyFitnessPal, an app that helps you organize and control the macronutrients you need for your day-to-day. With it, you can log the foods you eat throughout the day, and it shows you how much Carbohydrate, Protein, Fat, and other nutrients you have consumed for the day and how much is left to meet your daily goal (whether to gain or lose weight).
I’ve been using these two apps for years, and I can tell you that they have indeed helped me and continue to help me stay productive during my weekdays.
6) Quick and Easy Content
Another factor that helps increase your efficiency is what you consume in terms of information and how you consume that content.
Whether it’s video, audio, or text content, nowadays, all formats are “easy” to access and consume.
For video content, nothing beats watching a video on YouTube. I like to watch content that I know will be relevant to my personal development when I’m preparing something to eat, cleaning, or simply lying down doing nothing.
For audio content, I enjoy listening to audiobooks during my morning walk. I really like Audible, it’s practical, has all the titles you can imagine, and is super accessible for everyone.
I also like listening to podcasts on Spotify.
And for text content, like this one, for example, I use the mobile apps Medium and Substack, usually when I’m waiting somewhere, like a doctor’s appointment, or when I’m in an Uber.
7) Other Tools
To conclude, there are other apps that help me daily in my performance and productivity.
I use a lot, for example, Grammarly for writing in English.
Since English is not my native language, I usually have some doubts when writing, and to avoid having to research or use Google Translate all the time, I use the Grammarly extension, which saves me hours of searching for the correct meanings.
It also works for other languages, and recently I’ve been using it to learn Spanish. It’s really easy and practical, as it serves both for a beginner in a language and for an advanced person who occasionally has a specific doubt.
Other tools that I use daily, but that I will bring examples of in another text, are AIs.
Nowadays, surely you don’t need to waste time with manual tasks knowing that an AI can do the same job for you in a few seconds.
And tools like Zapier, which also work perfectly for those in Marketing, as it automates all the repetitive tasks of your day-to-day.
Furthermore, if you want to achieve the utmost productivity, there are also apps like Sleep Cycle that track the quality of your sleep.
I used it a few times, more out of curiosity because I never had sleep problems. And honestly, I found it amazing for me, 😅.
Conclusion
Incorporating these tips and leveraging these tools not only helps you navigate the digital complexities but also boosts efficiency, collaboration, and personal well-being.
The idea here is not to turn all of us into robots. I don’t want that, and I know you don’t either. I also don’t want to become paranoid about productivity and performance, tracking everything I do, and counting seconds in each activity. No, I never wanted that.
But I’m always looking for ways to optimize my time, to improve the quality of my life, both personally and professionally, and these apps and tools I’ve used over the years have shown me that they can make a positive difference in people’s lives.
The key here will always be having the awareness of how to use each thing, be it the internet itself, social media, performance apps, and even distraction apps.
In the end, the real goal of all this is to make you feel good and happy with yourself.
Tell me what you like to do to improve your productivity, and which apps you use or have used that have brought positive changes to your life.
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Thank you for reading this far. See you next time.
