Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening my axe.

—Abe Lincoln[1]

If you are a productive person, you get things done. You work on projects, finish tasks, create results, and reach goals. In that sense, we are all productive in some capacity. However, many of us want to be more productive or manage our task overload more effectively so we have more time for our loved ones and hobbies. Perhaps we want to achieve larger, more complex goals or have fewer distractions or obstacles.. Read More

Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening my axe.

—Abe Lincoln[1]

If you are a productive person, you get things done. You work on projects, finish tasks, create results, and reach goals. In that sense, we are all productive in some capacity. However, many of us want to be more productive or manage our task overload more effectively so we have more time for our loved ones and hobbies. Perhaps we want to achieve larger, more complex goals or have fewer distractions or obstacles in our way while going through the motions of our day-to-day lives, being “in the zone” more. To that end, we need better time management skills, more organized thought processes, increased efficiency, and even improved decision-making processes. For help in all those areas and more, here you’ll find seventeen productivity tools.

These tools can help you not only do more in less time but also help you do more in the right direction, meaning more in alignment with your values and life goals. Thus, these productivity tools can also lead you to a more purposeful and fulfilling life.

Some of these tools may seem so small that you might be tempted to brush them off, thinking they can’t possibly make a big difference in your life. However, each one can make a powerful impact on your life if used over time. For example, think about the notifications on your phone. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with someone over coffee when their (or your) phone was on the table? Even if all the beeps, dings, and visual messages are ignored, every time those small disturbances happen, they occupy some space and processing power in your brain, resources that could otherwise be used to stay focused and engage in a situation, have an innovative idea, or remember what you wanted to ask the person standing in front of you.

We may think those small distractions have no power over us, but according to research by Florida State University,[2] those notifications disrupt our attention even when we seemingly ignore them. They cause us to lose focus, and when they come while we’re completing a task, they make us more prone to mistakes. If you get several in the course of an hour, then think how much that could be impacting your focus, creativity, work performance, or your ability to have a meaningful conversation.

In turn, your productivity is decreased because one of the side effects of your fragmented focus is lost time—and for no good reason! What you seem to gain by being “always available,” you could make up for in other ways that don’t interrupt your attention. How much extra time will you need to repeat actions, repair errors, and try to understand or explain yourself? If you extrapolate all that over a decade, it’s easy to see how if you could eliminate the micro-distractions from your phone, you would gain time, possibly even more stress-free time.

Gaining focused time, having less stress, and doing more with ease in less time and with less effort is the ultimate goal of improved productivity. So, let us look at some tools that will help us do just that.