17 tips to be More productive

When it comes to studying and learning effectively, productivity plays a crucial role.

You could spend hours at your desk, reading and rereading the same material, underlining passages, flipping through pages, and rewriting notes—only to achieve minimal results. In contrast, some people may accomplish the same results in just 30 minutes. One of the reasons why some students find themselves spending entire evenings buried in their notebooks, only to feel disappointed by poor exam outcomes, while others achieve excellent results with far less effort, boils down to one word: productivity.

The encouraging news is that productivity is a skill you can develop. By learning how to study efficiently, you can save countless hours—time that could be better spent on other activities like socializing, relaxing, or pursuing hobbies. If you are reading this, you likely already have the desire to become more productive. That desire is an essential starting point—nurture it.

By following the tips outlined below, you will gain practical tools to turn your motivation into meaningful results. Each of these tips takes no more than 30 seconds to apply and will help you make better use of your time, and lead you to more satisfying outcomes, so make sure to give them a try.

1. Use Airplane Mode

This is perhaps the most useful reflex of all these lists. As soon as you start work, put your laptop in airplane mode.

That means no notifications, no text messages, no messages, no internet. Close your door, and mark the door “Do Not Disturb”. Do not let yourself be disturbed under any circumstances, neither by your family, nor by your friends, nor by yourself and your mobile. Use the airplane mode.

If you work on a computer, it is the same principle! For every browser, including Firefox and Chrome, there are applications that block websites. Use these extensions and be strict with yourself. Only allow Wikipedia and Encyclopedias, and even that is risky. Really, you know yourself better than anyone else, and you know how by clicking on a link, you can easily slide on another link and so on, and find yourself 20 minutes later reading on facebook or twitter an article about sheep breeding in New Caledonia.

The best thing to do is to store your laptops and computers as far away from you as possible, to bury them at the bottom of a drawer stuffed with cushions in the room furthest from your workplace. Your productivity will thank you 1,000 times over!

2. Use the Timer

Setting Airplane Mode takes less than 30 seconds, just as setting the timer will take you less than 30 seconds.

Watch a runner take a leisurely lap around the track, then notice how his stride suddenly quickens when he realizes he has only a minute left to take another lap. It is the same principle when you are working. And the good news is that this kind of challenge is very motivating, because it becomes like a game.

Enjoy this pleasure, and use your timer in all circumstances. For example, set your timer for 10 minutes, and tell yourself: at the end of the countdown, when I hear the bell, I must have finished learning this chapter. You will see that you will hurry up, and as you do, you will realize that learning is easier and faster than you thought, and that you can do even better! Next time, set your timer for 9 minutes, and you will get it done!

If you work on a computer, some people even advise you to sit in your corner without plugging in your power supply: you then have the maximum time to do all your work as the life of your battery: the battery is your timer.

3. Have breaks

Have you ever read a long book for many hours, and without realizing it at first, you read the sentences without really understanding them, without really printing them in your mind, and you think about something else at the same time? You read the same sentence once, twice, three times, and without even realizing what you just did, you continue.

The rule is simple: a sentence must be understandable in one go, if you read the same sentence again and again, it is not good.

However, this is a perfectly normal process, and there is nothing to worry about. On the contrary, accept serenely that your attention is not maximal, and that you need a rest. A 5 to 10-minute break is enough to refuel your attention.

Experts often recommend spending 45 to 50 minutes on a task, and then giving yourself a 5 to 10-minute break.

You can find the pace that suits you best: if you spend an hour and a half working without interruption and your attention span is at its maximum, there is no reason to disturb yourself with a break. Just find your own rhythm, and you will feel quite naturally when you need a little break (for example when you read the same sentence twice).

Every day applications for smartphones and computers were born on this principle. Associate “work”, “productivity”, “timer” with the word “pomodoro” (which means “tomato” in Italian, at the origin of the technique) and you will find hundreds of free sites to implement this.

4. Identify Your Favorite Way to Learn

As you know, humans have several types of memory. The advice here is to identify which type of memory gives the best results for you.

Some people learn best through visual aids like diagrams, charts, or videos, while others prefer auditory methods, such as listening to lectures or discussing topics aloud. Kinesthetic learners may benefit from hands-on activities or moving around while studying, while reading/writing learners might excel with detailed notes and written explanations. Reflect on past learning experiences where you felt most engaged and retained information easily. By recognizing your favorite way to learn, you can tailor your study methods to align with your strengths, making the process both more enjoyable and effective.

5. Create Your Own Memory Techniques

Each person’s thought process is shaped by their unique family history, environment, and cultural reference points. These individual factors influence the associations we form, which serve as the foundation for effective mnemonic strategies.

For instance, if you hear the word “dragon,” you might imagine a legendary creature guarding treasures and breathing fire. However, someone from Hong Kong might immediately picture the vibrant dragon dances of a Chinese New Year parade. These differences in mental imagery highlight how personal associations vary depending on cultural and experiential backgrounds.

While there are general mnemonic techniques that work well for most people, the most powerful memory aids are the ones you create yourself. Crafting your own mnemonics ensures they resonate deeply with your unique thought patterns, making them far more effective. Borrowing others’ techniques can still be helpful, but when you design a memory aid that feels intuitive to you, it becomes an even stronger tool for learning.

6. Use Mind Maps

Mind maps are becoming a more and more popular way to take notes that can work wonders, especially because it calls more on the visual memory we mentioned earlier (so it is especially useful if you have a visual memory). Since we were children, we have all been used to the very linear way of taking notes, which consists of writing line by line what we hear on a gridded, formatted page.

To create a mind map, start by writing your main topic in the center of a blank page. From there, let your ideas flow freely. Draw branches or arrows radiating outward, and jot down related ideas or subtopics as they come to mind. If a new idea emerges, simply add another branch. Incorporating colors, symbols, and drawings makes the map even more memorable, as research shows that visual elements are easier to recall than plain text.

The beauty of mind maps lies in their flexibility: they adapt to your thought process rather than forcing you to fit your ideas into rigid structures. Whether you are brainstorming, summarizing a lecture, or planning a project, mind maps can help you break free from monotonous note-taking while fostering deeper connections between ideas. If this approach intrigues you, explore it further—you may discover it transforms not only how you take notes but also how you learn.

If you are interested in this concept, which you can do some research by typing “mindmaps”, it can change a lifetime of work!

7. Listen to Creative Music

If you don’t like listening to music while working, then just try it. If you still do not like working to music even after trying, then skip it, it will not be useful for you.

If, on the other hand, you have always liked it or you have discovered that you like listening to music while you work, then GET IT! There are many benefits to listening to music, of all kinds, including these three benefits:

1. Music makes your time more enjoyable
2. Music creates rhythm in your studying
3. Music develops your creativity

Be careful not to let music take over your work. Especially with popular songs, you should not be more focused on the lyrics of the music, you should not feel like singing.

That is why it is better to listen to what we call creative music: that is, music that stays in the background, that does not get too active, not too present, and that simply pushes you. Some people will prefer instrumental music, or at least music with incomprehensible lyrics. The most important thing is to try all types of music: if there is one that you are particularly productive with whether it has lyrics or not, whether it is new or not, whether it is classical music or electro, it does not matter listen to music that makes you travel, that makes you forget time, listen to music that gives you wings to be effective.

8. List your gains before you start

Sure, results are usually what comes after the work. From now on, consider the gains you have made before you work!

Your subconscious mind will act, and you will leave with a winning spirit, as if the gains generate your motivation and your good work, and not the opposite.

Before starting anything, you must have a precise idea of what you want to do, in how much time, and the gain that corresponds to it! Always write down these 3 elements —goal, time and gains—, they are allimportant!

Scribble this list on the side, as in this example:

1. Goal: Learn 1 chapter of history Time: 10 minutes Gains: 20/20 on my next essay

You can even apply it to all your activities, like sports:

2. Goal: Run 20 times around the park Time: 40 minutes Gain: Better shape, stronger legs

The more specific you are, the better. It would not be very productive to do that for every task, so just do it when you need some more motivation, it works wonders.

9. Work In a Place Associated With Work

The problem with the bedroom is that you work in it, but you also sleep in it, play in it, watch movies in it, eat in it sometimes, etc.
Again, it is a subconscious thing: your brain associates each room with activities, and works by adapting to what it thinks you are going to do there.

This is the same reason why if you get into the habit of working or watching movies on your bed, you will have a much harder time falling asleep every time you get into bed. Simply because your brain will think, “Ah, it is movie time.”

So we recommend that you leave, and go somewhere else to work. The ideal place is, of course, the library. The atmosphere is usually work, you are surrounded by people who like you are trying to be productive, there is like a spirit of solidarity. Beware of the trap of the library among friends: if the library is the place where you meet your friends, even if they are only distant acquaintances to whom you only politely say hello, it will remain a distraction, and your friends would not understand that you do not take two minutes of your time to ask them how they are doing.

So it is your mission and your responsibility to find the perfect work space: outside of your usual living space, a place where you just do your work and nothing else, a place where you are as undisturbed as possible by others. It is quite a challenge, but once you find the perfect place, you will easily notice the importance of the place, and just walking to that place, your brain will get in condition to become productive, because it knows that is the place where you are productive every day.

10. The 80/20 Method

Even though he is not the direct author of this method, it is Pareto who inspired this work rule that is called the 80/20 rule.

If we had to describe the purpose of this rule in one line, we would say that it is excellent to thwart perfectionism. Rephrased positively, it is the rule that makes you the most productive by focusing on the essential, on the important, to save time.

The idea is simple: 20% of your work is responsible for 80% of the success and results of your work.

You must therefore concentrate on this 20% which is the heart of your task, and which must mobilize all your efforts. The rest loses a lot of importance, since you will spend a lot of time for a few results.

Still having trouble seeing how does it work? Let us say you have to learn a list of 100 words in Spanish.

Of those 100 words, you would better put all your effort into just the 20 most useful and common words. Because it is these 20 words that will earn you the highest grade, that will make you progress the most, that will allow you to speak most effectively with Spanish people.

This method is, of course, not an exact science, but it is important that you understand the idea behind it, because it will save you a lot of time by focusing your efforts on what is most important. For example, in this article, we give you a whole series of tips. Of course, we recommend that you follow all of them, which is ideal. If you try to apply them, you will have a hard time remembering everything for the first time (that is why we encourage you to bookmark this page ;)). If you want to increase your efficiency as quickly as possible, remember the 20% that will have the most impact on your revisions, which will be responsible for the 80% of your productivity gain.

Like many of the items on our productivity list, you can apply this method to all areas of your life, so try it and you will be surprised. You will appreciate this principle very much and it will follow you all your life and become your best reflex!

11. Drink Tea or Coffee

Of course, do not force yourself. There are many converging and diverging studies on the benefits of tea or coffee. But most of them praise the effects of tea and coffee for productivity. Here is what you need to know about the “coffee or no coffee” debate. First of all, you should know that theine and caffeine, responsible for the energy boost in your body, are in fact the same molecule. So it is all the same whether you talk about theine or caffeine!

The difference between tea and coffee is that the energy boost will be immediate, sudden and intense with coffee, while it will be gradual, diluted and weaker with tea.

The downside of coffee is that while you get a big energy boost, sometimes you will also have a drop in energy afterwards.

You also have to take into account the placebo psychological effects: some people, just by thinking about their drink next to them, will feel ready to be efficient and productive.

In any case, there are very big differences in effects depending on the person. Some people will even fall asleep while having their coffee. Some will have such a boost of energy that they will have trouble falling asleep: in this case it is better to drink it only when waking up in the morning. We therefore advise you to simply get to know yourself.

Do you feel better when you drink tea or coffee? Do you have backlashes that make you feel tired right after? Are you really more productive when you drink tea or coffee? Which is better for you?

• Do you prefer water? Drink water!
• You are super productive with coffee and you do not have any downside? Drink water and coffee!
• Do you enjoy your tea, and don’t spend more time making your tea than getting to work? Drink tea!

12. Be Obsessive about Tidiness and Cleanliness

You may find it hard to believe: a tidy workspace = a tidy mind!

But it is true! It is often the kind of saying that mom/dad harps on about but that we refuse to believe, because deep down we are a bit lazy about cleaning.

However, our tip, like all the tips here, does not take more than 30 seconds. How do you clean a desk in 30 seconds? It is very simple: you take your wastebasket, or if you are too scared a box: and you put in it EVERYTHING on your desk. In 15 seconds it is done.

You open the material you need a sheet of paper, a computer if it is absolutely necessary. Five seconds.

You need the pen that you reluctantly put in your box earlier? No problem, grab it, and not the whole kit: just the fountain pen. Five seconds.

Here is the result at the end of our demonstration: in 25 seconds, your desk is clean, using only the bare essentials: your paper and your fountain pen (or your computer).

At that moment, you will feel really free inside. That empty table in front of you is a reflection of your calm, peaceful mind, which is entirely available to get on with the work you have set out to do.

13. Break It Down

This is a principle that René Descartes, the illustrious philosopher you know well from the Discourse on Methodwas already applying.

If you have a big task to do, which seems abstract, obscure, difficult to accomplish, then break it down.

This technique will make even the most seemingly insurmountable objectives very manageable.

An example: you find that your essays in Spanish language are not satisfying because you lack vocabulary, so you want to increase your vocabulary. That is a pretty vague goal which can feel insurmountable. Well, break it down.

Vocabulary comes in two ways: by learning definitions and by reading a lot. You have already broken down your goal into 2 parts.

1. Learn the definitions

Learning 200 definitions at once seems out of reach? Then break it down. Make small lists. Learn one list per day. A list of 20 words is still insurmountable? Then break it down: you will learn 10 words in the morning at 8a.m. when you get up, and 10 words in the evening when you go to bed.

You start with a vague desire (“to enrich your vocabulary”), you end up with a small easy task that does not take much time (“to read 10 definitions”). Does it still seem insurmountable to you?

2. Same thing with reading.

Ten books in a month is a lot? Then break it down. Five books in 15 days. Still insurmountable? One book/3 days. Still huge? Then read only the introductions and conclusions of each chapter first, save the belly, the bulk of the content, for a second time.

It may seem surprising, but you will see that the book will always make sense. You will see the links, the articulations. Then reading what is between the introduction and the conclusion will take you no time at all. That is the power of breaking it down. It is also the Pareto rule (see point #10 of this list) that is at play: all these introductions and conclusions, which represent 20% of the book, will in fact give you an understanding of 80% of the book.

Again, you can apply this method to any field: sports, culture, arts, mathematics, physics, social relations. If you have a difficulty, overcome it in the most effective and gentle way: break it down.

14. Fall Asleep And Let Your Brain Do The Work

Have you ever, in the evening, been overwhelmed by the mountain of texts or formulas you have to learn, read your notes, just once, and said to yourself: I did my best, but I am too tired; now I am sleeping.

The next day when you wake up, it is like a miracle: you remember everything, even better than if you had spent 3 hours in the morning learning your document.

This miracle is not so much a miracle, and its other name is the human brain. When you fall asleep, your brain reviews everything you have done, your day, it sorts out everything it needs to learn, everything it needs to forget, etc. In short, if you have the time to learn, your brain will be able to do it. In short, if you have the impression that nothing happens when you sleep, think again: your brain works!

And there is always one thing that it chews over and over and over again to engrave in you, the last thing it heard and saw before you went to sleep. That is why what you do just before you go to sleep is so important.

Use this tip: just before you go to sleep, in less than 30 seconds – more if you want – learn what you want to be sure you know the next morning when you wake up. Trust yourself. You will be very pleasantly surprised the next morning, we guarantee it.

15. Invest In Quality

Remember what we said in our point #12: a clean and tidy workspace is a clean and tidy mind?

Well, it is not exactly the same here, but it is still the same idea that you need the most efficient environment and tools possible, to get the most effective work done.

Some financial advisors will always recommend anyone to invest at least 10% of your income in your training, in your work, in your education, in your tools.

The best example is the computer if you have to work with the computer. When you are not particularly well off, it is difficult to buy better than the first price mini-laptop, with only 2 GB of RAM (that is very little for a computer), which bugs as soon as you click on an icon or move the mouse. This cheap mini-laptop will waste hours and hours and hours of work. You do not realize it because it is your first day, because the time seems very short, only a few seconds. But clicking on an icon, when you have a computer, you do it hundreds of times a day. A few seconds x 500 times a day x 30 days × 12 months, at the end of the year, let us say it again, that is hours and hours and hours of lost time.

And again we are only talking about RAM, but if you have a computer that crashes in the middle of your 30-page memory and you forgot to back up – or you tried to back up, but the software detected an error – the damage is considerable.

So consider your hardware purchase carefully, and place a lot of emphasis on quality. This is, of course, the same as for such trivial things as the quality of the paper (how many milligrams?), the quality of the fountain pen (you will drink one less beer, but at least your ink will not make patches on every copy), or even the quality of your training.

16. Eat the Frog

“Eat That Frog” is the name of a productivity technique given by Brian Tracy, a renowned author and motivational speaker. It originates from a Mark Twain quote: “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” The concept is simple yet powerful: identify the most important and challenging task (the “frog”) and tackle it first thing in the morning.

By focusing on your most important and challenging task (the “frog”) first thing in the morning, you address it when your energy and willpower are at their peak, reducing the likelihood of procrastination. This approach also creates a sense of accomplishment early in the day, which boosts motivation and confidence for other tasks. Additionally, by dealing with the most demanding responsibility upfront, you free your mind from the stress of avoidance, allowing you to approach the rest of your day with greater focus and efficiency.

17. Day-Dreaming

When it comes to productivity, it is important to understand that the determining factor, which is just behind it, that will give you all the energy you want to mobilize effectively: it is motivation!

Maybe this image will help you: think of motivation as a huge stream, and productivity as all the walls and pipes that channel and guide that stream.

If these walls and pipes are well tuned, if they are solid, they will allow all the energy of the water to flow in the right direction, as quickly as possible, and in full.

But the energy of the water, the power of the stream, is still motivation. The more motivated you are, the more energy you have, the more extraordinary your results will be, especially if you have set them up properly with all the indications we have listed in this article.

How to constantly renew your motivation? Let us not hide it, we think we have a lot of motivation, and suddenly the next day everything is down like a puff: motivation is the most fragile of your resources. That is why you must preserve it and give it lots and lots of care.

Throughout this article, we have given you little tips on how to keep and increase your motivation – like point #8: List your wins before you start. Here our advice is somewhat similar, but on a larger scale: imagine what you want to be.

If you are doing something, it is because you have an appetite, because you want to achieve something. Are you hungry for an ice cream? It is because you are already imagining yourself enjoying your ice cream quietly by the beach with the sun beating down on your skin. Are you craving a chocolate cake? That is because you already imagine yourself at the table, with a spoon dipping into your cake.

Of course, not everyone dreams of being a respected policeman. You all have different dreams, and it is for these dreams that you work. If you do not have those dreams, you do not need to keep working on them, you are on the wrong track. But if you really do have those dreams, those ideals, that future, then think about them over and over again, until your imagination sticks with you, until it becomes real, and it will be an inexhaustible source of motivation.