There are hundreds of productivity tips out there, whether they’re about time management, energy management, specific tools, methods and even software, there’s a huge community dedicated to showing you the best ways to maximize your output, the quality of your work and the efficiency of your schedule. I've created more than 300 videos about productivity, spread across 10 years of content creation and today I'd love to guide you through the biggest lessons I’ve learned about productivity! I’ve learned so much about these topics, both from my own self-learning experience, having experimented so many of these methods and also because I had the amazing opportunity of taking with so many different people, a lot of you watching, actually, so the combination of my experience so far and your experience too made my perspective on productivity shift a lot.

Besides guiding you through those 10 lessons I’ll also provide you with some tips to help you implement the things I’ve learned into your own schedule, so let’s get started with number one:

1. A daily routine shouldn’t be your main focus

A lot of people focus too much on establishing several habits to focus on every single day. The most traditional approach is to try and incorporate routines that allow you to touch base on different topics on a daily basis — whether it’s daily workouts, daily language-learning session, daily journaling, daily walks, and so on. But a daily routine shouldn’t be your main focus. Keeping a string of habits on the backburner every single day is really hard to do on the long term and only a few people have a profile and lifestyle that adapts to a routine like that.

Being a bit more dynamic with your routine can be more important than committing to structured and strict daily habits.

So the tip here is thinking about weekly habits instead of daily ones. Dividing your year into chunks, and dedicating certain months for specific projects, even if that only means increasing the intensity of work and focus on certain projects and reducing said intensity and focus in other projects, without eliminating them from the back burner, is a good idea. You’ll still be able to divide your attention and energy between different things without compromising any of them because your daily life isn’t grounded in a rigid set of habits.

Speaking of weekly routines rather than daily ones, reading has always been a difficult habit for me to build—especially when it comes to non-fiction. That’s why I highly recommend Shortform, the ultimate way to get the key ideas from the world’s best non-fiction books. Shortform’s guides go beyond simple summaries—they break down every major idea, provide smart commentary, and include interactive exercises so you actually remember and apply what you learn. I use Shortform to sample books before I buy them, so I can decide what’s worth diving into while also supporting the authors I love. From business and self-improvement to psychology, science, and society, Shortform makes exploring ideas fast, fun, and meaningful.

It’s been a game-changer for staying on top of new books and revisiting favorites without losing time. You can try it yourself with a free trial and $50 OFF at shortform.com/vieira. Sample, explore, and discover your next favorite book—and support the authors behind the ideas while you do it!

2. Productivity systems are supposed to change often

We aren’t slaves to the methods we use. The methods we use should be tailored to our lives, and the specific circumstances of our work. As those circumstances change, it’s normal that our productivity methods, our planners, and the way we manage our time change as well. For instance, it’s perfectly normal to change the way you organize yourself after switching jobs, when you change from college life to a work life, when you start a business after years of working a typical 9-5 job, and even if there are new things coming up in your personal life, like having children, getting married or even starting new personal projects.

So here’s the tip — When thinking about switching any kind of tool or method you use for productivity, time management and so forth, ask yourself: Why are you dropping it? Is it because there was a life change that motivated that switch? Is it because you’re using your productivity system incorrectly? Is it because you just want novelty? If you’re switching your productivity system because you’re bored with it, remember — don’t try to change something that is working just because you want to shiny, new thing. Switch what doesn’t work, but keep what makes sense to your lifestyle.

3. Working more hours actually decreases productivity

The four-day work week is being so discussed right now, and with good reason. The five-day workweek is a cultural norm which results from an early union advocacy to reduce the six-day workweek. Several studies have been made recently, with New Zealand, Japan and Iceland all finding a major increase in staff satisfaction, productivity, improved work-life balance and decreased stress levels with a four day work-week.

Personally, I noticed drastic changes in my productivity when I decided to reduce the amount of hours I was working, both on my business and my day job. As I compressed my working hours, I developed a sense of urgency, eliminating all distractions and focusing only on the task at hand; I learned to delegate more, which increased the quality of my work and gave me time and space to work better and more on the things that represent the highest value for my work; and finally, it also forced me to eliminate any kind of useless, shallow task that were irrelevant to my work.

So do a compression experiment. Work one hour less, or half an hour less, every day, for a week. Push the boundaries of what society says you should be doing and try to think about what you should be doing instead. And if you can’t dictate your own work schedule, do the same thing for something you control like chores — sometimes we think we need the whole saturday morning to clean our house, but have you really tried to compress all of that in a couple of hours and see what you can actually get done? You’ll be surprised.

4. Most productivity techniques don’t take neurodiversity into account

Let’s use the Pomodoro method as an example.

The Pomodoro method comes in the welcome package of anyone entering the productivity community. It’s featured in all blogs, YouTube channels, books and discussion threads regarding productivity and for me, the reality is the pomodoro method doesn’t work for almost anyone.

It’s not the principle that is wrong — alternating blocks of deep work with breaks is definitely a fantastic habit to incorporate into your work schedule. The problem with the Pomodoro technique is that it’s very rigid in the specific amount of time it tells you to work and to break. 25 minutes of work and a 5-minute break.

The problem with the pomodoro method is that it really doesn’t take into account neurodiversity. A lot of people aren’t able to focus immediately at the start of a study or deep work session. It may get you from 5 to 15 minutes to get into the mindset of the task you have at hands, and then you only get a few minutes left to actually work on that task. After the break, you’ll then have to do realign yourself again with your work and that takes a lot of time, too.

So don’t be afraid to adapt the “rules” you hear. The reality is — no one is able to tell you how you can be more productive and that happens because individual productivity can be impacted by thousands of different factors that are impossible to predict from an external perspective. In the end of the day, although exposure to information is great, you’re the one who knows how you work best. Stay true to that intuition and don’t be afraid to adapt accordingly.

5. Taking longer breaks should be the rule and not the exception

This one is particularly tough to implement especially in a traditional work environment, but whenever you have the power to create longer breaks, please do, especially if you know from experience that a 5-minute break isn’t enough to let you recharge.

My rule of thumb for breaks is 15-minutes after a 45-minute chunk of work, a 30-minute break between each 2 hours of work and an 1-hour break to divide my workday.

6. Complexity is your enemy

The amount of productivity tools, products and techniques that exist nowadays can be really enticing. You may suffer from fear of missing out, asking yourself things like — if I use this system, am I missing out on a better productivity app? — or thinking that none of the methods you employ right now are the right methods for you. Another thing that happens a lot is overcomplicating the systems you already use — like the crazy aesthetic bullet journal trend, or overcomplicating your notion workspace so much you can’t even find the information you have there.

In general, all of your life can be summed up and organized in two different types of app or system — you just need a calendar and a knowledge base. Even if you have multiple jobs or many areas of interest, it’s almost a given that all of the things you need to organize will be perfectly organized with those two tools only. Everytime you overuse productivity apps you’re wasting valuable time you could be spending actually working towards your goals.

Migrating information from place to place, managing multiple planners, or feeling lost and overwhelmed because you can’t remember where you stored certain data is such a major waste of your energy.

7. Manipulating your brain can work wonders

Our brain is wired to procrastinate. That’s the kind of inevitable truth you should start accepting ASAP. You’ll never truly not procrastinate — even if you go through a time in your life where you feel more motivated to work, that kind of motivation comes in cycles and will eventually go. Unfortunately, life and society aren’t prepared to wait for your productivity cycle to reset, so a bit of manipulation goes a long way. There are ridiculous things you can do — hide your phone somewhere when you need to wake up early so you can get out of the bed quickly; cross things off your calendar or inserting check emojis just to create a feeling of accomplishment; having your calendar open in a tab in your computer so you can always keep track of your tasks; having your water bottle nearby so you never forget to drink water; setting alarms in your phone to remember you have to take breaks or switch tasks. These micro-management tricks may sound almost absurd because it’s like you gamifying your life, but they work because they manipulate your brain into reducing resistance.

8. Enjoyment is at the core of all the things you do in life

No matter what you do in life, the methods you use, or the amount of habits you try to keep track of, in the end of the day, enjoyment is at the core of everything you do, and is responsible for more than 60% of the quality of your work. It’s incredibly hard to do a fantastic job in something you truly despite; it’s incredibly hard to wake up in the morning to a routine you hate, or to feel motivated to do a workout that only brings you pain and suffering.

I feel like we live in a society where enjoyment or leisure are basically synonyms of laziness. I think that’s ridiculous. Enjoyment is there to help us push ourselves beyond the boundaries of reasonable and acceptable. If you want to start waking up at 5-am, it’s absolutely acceptable to wake up at that time and play videogames for 20-minutes just so you feel motivated to jump out of bed. It’s acceptable to decorate your office desk in a way that makes you feel happy while you’re working. It’s acceptable to use emojis in your calendar. It’s acceptable to watch anime in your breaks between your very serious, respectable work. I think breaking this taboo is one of the most important things that you should strive to do to avoid making work another burden you have to live through.

9. Your “New Year” can start in a different month

I’ve been saying this for a while now but there’s no logical reason to start new habits, new routines or any other type of self-development change on January 1st. There’s a lot of tradition attached to this specific day of the year but mostly it’s a terrible day to start something new, as it’s right after the holidays, during one of the coldest months of the year if you live in the northern hemisphere and usually there isn’t even any kind of natural or social ties to that particular day, like starting a new school year for instance.

I encourage you to create your own deadlines to start something new, no matter whether it’s in March, June or September. Just feel free to think of the year as something flexible that you can adapt to your own personal circumstances.

10. Productivity is cyclical

Some days you’ll feel unstoppable, like you’re able to accomplish so much, feel so motivated and inspired to pursue your passions and do some great work. And then, there will be day where you’ll feel like getting out of bed is already a victory.

Productivity comes in a cycle — we start with a buildup of motivation and inspiration, where we usually enjoy planning and organizing, as that makes us feel like we’re on top of our lives; then there is the production process, where we pick up all the work created in the first phase and start working really hard and then it starts dying of naturally. Sometimes it’s because there’s an external factor that really breaks the cycle and makes us feel disappointed in our work or simply unfocused and after we spend some time in that place (sometimes a long time) we start rebuilding our focus and our motivation slowly, one habit at a time. Sometimes this requires help from a loved one, a therapist, maybe it happens through a lot of self-reflection, but it will happen. So wherever you are right now, accepting this process is important — you’ll learn to recognize it, live with it and enjoy each stage as its supposed to be enjoyed.

xxx

Mariana