5 Insanely Productive Things To Do Starting Today

Do you want to know things you can do starting today so that you are more productive in no time?

Read on to know what are some productive things to do starting today and every day!

1. Read a Book

Reading a book is by far the most effective thing you can do in order to improve any aspect of your life, be it your physical health, your knowledge in a subject matter, improving your social skills among many other things.

Every successful person you can think of learned the vast majority of what they know from books and experience in life.

However, books allowed them to understand how to apply the knowledge they were receiving into the experiences they were having.

We can go on and on with the list of successful people who did this, but let me give you insight into 2 famous examples of men who read books and got results from applying information from them into the real world.

You probably know Bill Gates and Elon Musk, two of the most successful men in our generation.

There is one habit that they shared when they were young that they both credit to their success.

This one habit is reading.

Both read books starting at a very young age and this continued on into adulthood.

For Gates, it was primarily books about coding and practicing coding 4.5 hours per day after school.

For Musk, it was a variety of things including rockets and science fiction.

In this process, they got a lot of ideas about how they could do things from different perspectives and they received the fundamental knowledge on how they can do the things they wanted to do.

As a result, they could take action and know why certain things were failing and certain things were succeeding.

Books allowed them to adapt to what was going on and since they caught onto this habit early, they got ahead of their peers and became extraordinary at what they did.

This is the hallmark of greatness.

Books can help you become greater if you put in the time to absorb what you are reading.

There is a quote by Henry David Thoreau that goes like this which is really true if you put your mind to it:

“Books are the treasured wealth of the world.”

It is true if you take action on this advice (and your books are good books; a lot of them are bad so be careful and investigate before diving in).

For your own good, please do yourself a favor and look into what topics you want to learn more about and find the best books in those areas and dive right into them.

You will go from there.

I promise you that.

2. Make a To-Do List

A to do list is one of the most important aspects of getting things achieved on a consistent basis.

Why is this you might ask?

Well, not only does it list out everything you need to do, it helps your memory free up energy it could be using to make sure it actually does things it needs to do.

Let me explain.

There is a famous phenomenon called “multitasking” (cliché, I know) and it involves people doing multiple things at once.

In this instance, if you didn’t write a task list, you would divide your attention amongst remembering what you are supposed to do and trying to do your tasks all at the same time.

What will eventually happen is your work will suffer and you will not get anything you are supposed to accomplish done.

The reason is because your mind is built to focus on one task at a time and if you try to multitask, not only will you be less efficient in what you do, you will get less done.

A to do list solves this problem.

The reason is because your tasks will be laid out in front of you so you can see quickly and with no effort.

This way, your brain doesn’t have to think about what it needs to do next; it can just move on to the next thing without exerting unnecessary effort.

Hence, you will complete your task more efficiently with better results and with greater speed.

If you are at a job, you will please your boss because when you do this, your results will improve and you will make a better impression.

This can compound itself to a promotion or any other benefit you might not even think is possible.

Why?

Because a to do list allows you to provide more value.

Your value to the company is the reason they hired you in the first place.

You shouldn’t do anything to compromise this when you are working for them.

You can see testimonials from a few executives and managers alike here on the effectiveness of to do lists.

However, there is one famous example that hammers this point down extremely well.

You might know of an entrepreneur named Richard Branson, correct?

Well, he made an interesting comment one time on his blog.

He said that the secret behind Virgin’s success was from having a to do list.

Now think about that for a second.

A world-renowned billionaire entrepreneur suggests that we should all be using a to do list in order to achieve things throughout the day.

That’s fascinating, right?

However, it completely makes sense and goes back to not having to multitask your brain and focus on what needs to be achieved instead of spending time in lala land retrieving information that is now lost thanks to the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve.

Now you really want to make a to-do list, don’t you?

If you said yes, terrific.

I suggest you read this post on how to make a to-do list the easy way.

It will help you organize your day efficiently and help you get things done quicker!

Now here is another productive thing you can do starting today that you might’ve wished you started sooner if you haven’t already!

3. Walk Outside

A Stanford University study in 2014 concluded that walking inside or outside yielded equal benefits when attempting to stimulate creativity.

In fact, walking was so beneficial that it increased a person’s creativity by 60% compared to sitting down, both indoors.

Particularly, walking stimulated a type of thinking known as “divergent thinking,” which is another name for thinking outside of the box that a lot of the great innovators of our day use to come up with their ideas.

In another finding in that study, researchers had a group of people walk outside and another group of people sit inside and compared their abilities to categorize phrases when they saw them.

The study concluded that everyone who walked outside categorized every phrase they saw versus 50% who stayed inside sitting down.

Clearly from this evidence, walking generates your creativity tenfold.

However, there is a danger towards solely walking inside.

Additional research has been done on the consequences of going outside versus staying indoors.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came out with findings where they said that staying inside for too long would result in a condition called atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is a condition where plaque goes into your arteries and slows down blood flow.

As a result, less oxygen is transferred throughout your body (particularly your brain) and your heart rate slows down.

The research indicates that plaque comes from pollution, which was much more common in indoor environments versus outdoor environments.

As a result of these findings, you could expect to live longer if you walked outside because you would have less pollution entering your body and the plaque accumulating in your arteries would be lower than that if you stayed inside.

Hence, your blood flow will be where it should be for healthy body function if you go outside constantly.

Now notice that I say consistently.

Your life is a long term thing.

Everything you do builds up and eventually, you will notice the consequences of your actions.

If you consistently stay inside, the evidence suggests that not only will your creativity go down, but your risk for heart disease increases considerably.

In other words, your long term well-being and your professional life will both be affected if you stay inside.

If you sit, your creativity (outside the box ability) will decline, regardless of whether you sit outside or sit inside.

If you stay inside, your risk for heart disease will go up, regardless of whether you walk or sit inside.

So what should you be doing?

Walk outside.

Do so for at least 20 minutes per day.

It is a number according to additional research that suggests going outside for at least 120 minutes per week (preferably between 120-179 minutes per week) to receive the maximum benefits from it including improved mental well being, concentration and reduced risk for heart disease.

So take the time to go outside starting today!

You’ll be glad you did!

4. Learn a New Skill

As the saying goes, skills pay the bills 🙂

No really, there is such a skills shortage that you can get ahead not just in the job market, but at your job if you just master a few skills deemed necessary for growth at your job.

Barely anyone (at least in America) takes the time to improve their skill set on the side, let alone what’s required for their job.

That’s why you can have a competitive advantage if you take some time (or all of it perhaps) to simply develop the skills required for advancement in your profession or in another one if you so desire.

It’ll show that you are resourceful and it’ll also give you a basis to which you can sell yourself on.

Remember, people want to buy what they want to buy.

If you can find out what that is and simply give it to them, you will have an insider’s advantage that your competitors will not even realize themselves because they are focused on their smartphones.

Also remember this:

More skills = More results.

Make a note of that when you plan on what you need to work on.

Now here is what is going to separate you from the rest of the crowd in the long run.

5. Make a 5 Year Plan

This is what you need to do regardless if you are a job seeker or a Fortune 500 executive.

Let me explain.

For the job seeker, do you know the question “What are your career goals?” or “What’s your 5 year plan?”

This is a question to test your commitment to what you want to do so they can see if you can develop a positive ROI for them.

Remember, their questions are never about you.

They don’t care about you.

They care about themselves and themselves only.

You are an asset which produces revenue for them.

So you need to make sure you have a 5 year plan (aka: your long term plan) so you can tackle this question and so you can make sure it aligns with what the company prefers and expects out of an employee to justify their investment in you.

That is a critical need since most likely than not, they will ask you this question.

You don’t want to stumble on this question or you’ll be 20000 leagues under the sea.

Now, if you are an entrepreneur, you need a 5 year plan because this is what is going to propel you to take action on what you want and it will give you a reason to put your heart into what you do.

In essence, a 5 year plan gives you vision and you can take targeted steps towards making that vision a reality.

That’s the power of planning.

You can chart out where you want to go instead of letting the wind take you wherever it wants to take you.

This is what will happen to most people because they fail to plan.

And if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

It’s that simple.

If you want some proof of this, consider this research here:

A study from Virginia Tech took a sample of people who wrote down their goals and didn’t write down their goals and measured their ability to accumulate wealth over their lifetimes.

The results they found were mind-blowing.

They found that those who write down a 5 year plan earn 9 times as much over their life times over those who did not write down a 5 year plan.

I challenge you to tell me that this isn’t mind-blowing information.

Simply writing down your goals is responsible for helping you achieve 9 times more wealth in your life?!

This should light a fire in you to get after it because, hey, more money = more power = more experiences in life.

Why wouldn’t you want that?

So if there is only one thing you do from this blog post, it’s to make a 5 year plan.

Why?

Because it’ll motivate you to do everything else.

You will have a reason to execute this post.

You’ll have that vision.

You’ll have that determination.

You will be driven to accomplish what’s on your mind.

And eventually, you will achieve that goal you set for yourself.

And there is nothing more gratifying in life than achieving something you set your mind to.

Trust me on that one.

If you got a lot out of this post and you want more content guaranteed to increase your productivity and help you reach your full potential so you can take over your own world, definitely subscribe to Join the Island, the world’s greatest blog, to receive new posts every time they are published!

Until next time,

This is Evan signing off.

PS: Comment below with how you’ll use this post to supercharge your productivity starting today. It’d be great to know the results you got out of this post!