What do experts in efficiency say are the best ways to be productive?

Journalist Emily Laurence reached out to productivity coaches to learn what they recommend to their clients. She summed up her findings in a recent article in GQ magazine titled 6 Ways to Be More Productive and Actually Get Stuff Done. The first piece of advice was to prioritize what needs to be done.

Productivity coach Juli Shulem says that there’s one word she repeatedly hears from all her clients: overwhelmed. When it comes to being more productive, she says that the biggest roadblock is that most people have no idea where to start. So instead of doing anything, they’re paralyzed and do nothing. Can you relate?

So how does one decide where to start? The coach offered this advice.

Shulem says the first step to being productive is getting on paper everything you need to do. This includes both tasks that are immediate and need to be done that day as well as what eventually needs to be done. For big “to-dos” that are farther out, Shulem recommends breaking it down into smaller micro tasks. For example, if you have a big work presentation in three weeks, the micro-tasks could be research, building your deck, and doing a run-through of exactly what you’re going to say.

To learn the other five ways to be more productive, please read the rest of the article.