from the minute you wake up the decisions you make really affect your entire day
deciding on how you really want to start your morning what time you are going to get up at
really will trickle down to affect your entire day this is something i have learned the hard
way today i want to share with you how i really set myself up for a productive day
and this is through a lot of trial and error as someone who i would say is pretty busy between
running my tiffin tech business to working full-time as a software developer to continuing to
learn about new technologies as you know i spend a lot of my free time learning about blockchain
development it can be kind of overwhelming to where to put your energy where to put your time
on top of that of course trying to have a personal life and hang out with my friends my dogs my
boyfriend it's a lot and honestly i don't think i could do it all if i didn't have really a routine
or process set up to ensure that my days are as productive as possible now don't get me wrong some
days are not productive at all and that's okay too it's all about balance and being kind to yourself
today i'm going to share with you some of my tips and tricks on how i ensure to have the
most productive day possible before we get into it though make sure to hit that subscribe button for
more tech and coding related content leave in the comments other video topics you want me to cover
and if you haven't already make sure to give this video a like okay let's dive into it
okay there's no secret in today's society a lot of us have a lot on the go and ensuring that we are
able to get different parts of our life completed or different things in our life completed on time
means that you have to have a productive day and i understand that i'm really not about the
hustle culture or work 24 7 culture so when i say productive what i really mean is efficient and
effective i want to when i think about the life that i want to lead i want to lead a life where i
can start work at eight or nine in the morning and be done by five or six and this includes you know
between my day job obviously that's eight hours a day and then trying to balance my tiffin tech job
our business as well now obviously because i have two very big things on my plate running a business
and then also to working for a business it can be a little tricky and i definitely don't use my work
hours for software development to do tiffin tech but what i do do is before work or after work i
very strategically make content ahead of time i also have a team of people who help me on tiffin
tech so they can continue working throughout the day while i'm doing my day job okay i wanted to
give you a little synopsis of where i'm currently at uh for balancing everything out to really show
you how i ensure my day can be as effective as possible as i mentioned in the intro the number
one tip i have is you need to start your morning off right your day will start the minute you
wake up and i think it really sets the tone for the day for myself once i wake up i always take
the dogs out even though paul's here to take them out as well it's something that i've asked him to
always say for me to do because i am not a morning person i hate getting up in the morning i'm not a
morning person but i'm also not a night person is there such thing as like a midday person because
that's that's where i fit in that's who i am but i need to be a morning person because i need to
get things done so by starting my day by taking the dogs out for a walk it really wakes me up
by getting outside seeing the sunshine and just starting my day off on that note when i come back
inside the next thing i typically do is go for a workout now if you are located in toronto you
will know that everything right now is shut down because of the virus so i'm typically currently
working from home or working out from home so what i will do is either a peloton ride or i will also
do a class a peloton class and just get in a body workout i try and work out between five to six
days a week and what i do and i know that sounds like a lot but my secret is i just keep it short
i do 20 minutes every day and that makes it feel more maintainable or that i can actually do it
even if i don't feel like working out i just think about how good i will feel afterwards and
just kind of it's such a huge thing for me to set the tone for my day next up i always love to have
a smoothie i really love having a protein smoothie in the morning because i feel like it's a good way
to no matter how my day goes with eating at least i have some nutrients first thing in the morning
my next big tip i have that i always follow is after i've done my morning workout and had
my morning smoothie the next thing i will do is check out what's on my schedule for today
how is my day structured i absolutely maybe this is just my type of personality i love
structuring out my days ahead of time because it makes me feel a sense of relief knowing that
i know what i need to get done as you know i'm a huge fan of time blocking also so i definitely
incorporate that and for organizing my day i always use sun sama i've been using them for quite
a while now and i absolutely love it because they organize my to-do list they organize my meetings
by day by day so i can kind of reflect on the past day and also to what is coming up for today i'm
going to pull them up on screen here so you can kind of get an idea of how i usually use it for
my workflow so as you can see on my screen here i have what do you want to work on today and this is
a great way to kind of reflect on okay what are my main priorities that i need to do today for
me one of my main priorities at work is i really need to finish a coding ticket so i'm going to put
finish coding feature
ensure you finish the back end for the code feature and then i usually put in
what the future number is but in this case just for example i'm going to use 1-1-1
and then task description i am going to do oops one second here
and then the second description for it i'm going to say i'm sure you finish testing before
making sure i test the code before i do a pr for it okay let's go next so i really like this
part of it too because you can actually time block so as i mentioned i'm a huge time block
person so for finished coding feature this is going to take me about one hour of my day
and you can see underneath these are the two areas that i need to do so then at this point i can
add another task as well which is really nice so for example another thing that i will need to do
later today is go pick up some of the dog treats so i'm going to actually do that on my lunch
break so i'll say it will take about 30 minutes so go get dog food and i know this isn't a work
related task but i like to add in every single thing i need to do throughout the day otherwise
you don't take into account some of the small things you need to do and in turn they add up
as well and you never get anything done i've linked some sama down in the description so if
you are looking for ways to really increase your productivity and make the most out of your days
go check them out i've been using them for quite a while and i'm kind of obsessed with them so i was
really excited to share about it with you my next tip is to have a clean office space as i'm working
from home it can be very easy to allow myself to kind of get messy with my office and as i'm in the
office every day just kind of let things pile up and trust me they do at times but i find taking
i usually do it on sundays a few minutes every week to just really tidy up my office and ensure
it is clean and organized really will set the tone for the week and the day to ensure i can
have a really productive day i think if you are in a clean space your mind is less cluttered as well
i don't know if that's already a saying but if it is if it is not a saying let's make it one
it's a good one so for me i'll take a few minutes and uh ensure that the office is ready to go it's
clean and tidy because then i just feel like i can totally focus on work for the day versus wandering
or getting upset with myself oh this is so messy or i need to clean this up after work but rather
just focus on the task at hand my number four tip to having the most productive and effective day
is get rid of your phone it's so hard to do trust me i have been there but if i actually put my
phone away i'll put it in a drawer it really helps me not be able to look at it to go on social media
or see if someone's calling or texting me so i will literally put it out of sight out of sight
out of mind and i'll also turn it on airplane mode for a while so no matter what no one can get
a hold of me which maybe isn't a good thing but it's a really great way so i find when i get into
a zone for coding especially or writing an email or anything work related i really need to be in
the zone and i can't just get midway interrupted it really takes me out of my flow so i will put my
phone away put it on airplane mode so i can fully focus at the task at the task on the task at hand
okay my last tip and one of my biggest tips to live by is using the pomodoro method and i'm sure
many of you have heard about this it's essentially where you work for a specific period of time and
then you give yourself a short break now usually people work in increments of 20 or 30 minutes
i do increments of up to an hour right now and then i'll take five minutes off to just
stretch my legs or go walk to the kitchen and get a coffee or tea and why i work in hour increments
is once again because of coding it can be once i'm in my zone i don't want to get out of my zone
and 20 minutes or 30 minutes is just not enough time now this does two things one it means that
i'm already in the mindset of i know in an hour's time i will get a break i'll get a reward but it
also does that for this specific hour i am kind of telling myself put my phone away no distractions
because after this hour i can do all of that for five minutes and it's a great way to really
reward yourself for working hard and focusing okay those are my main tips on how i stay productive
and really have an effective or efficient day i think the biggest thing though is none of these
tips are new and i'm sure you've all heard these tips before from various people in various degrees
but what the biggest takeaway of this is is you need to be consistent you need to do your same
kind of routine your same kind of pattern every single day to really start seeing it come into
action and work for you it's easy to say oh i'm going to work out in the morning or oh i'm going
to put my phone away those are easy to say but to actually do it that's a whole other ball game to
actually put what you are saying into action it's tough and it's a whole other thing and for that
it comes the piece the missing piece we haven't spoke of yet which is discipline
it's not motivation it's not hustle it's not work as hard as possible it's discipline it's
recognizing that these eight hours or nine hours that i'm working i'm going to be as efficient
as possible so once it's done i can completely enjoy my night and for me discipline comes from
many different areas but one of the biggest things for me is thinking about my future self so for
example when i am doing some work or solving some coding problems at work i'll think okay i really
want to work as hard as possible today or be as focused as possible today because i don't want
my future tiff like tomorrow tip to have to worry about this and if i get this done today tomorrow i
will feel so good and so relieved that i actually did it versus if you push it off and just continue
to push it off then the next day you wake up and you feel like crap because you know you need to
get it done and you didn't get it done and then the work just piles up so that's my biggest tip
is think about your future self and how you can help that person out okay i hope you enjoyed all
of these tips and they will help you have the most productive and efficient days possible
also make sure to check out some sama who i linked down below they are incredible platform for
planning out your day and being as organized as possible if you haven't already hit that subscribe
button for more tech encoding related content and i will see you all soon thanks everyone
you