Do you feel like you didn’t do as much as you should have in 2024? It happens to the best of us. We made our mistakes and hopefully learned from them, and now it’s time to work on making 2025 a better year.
As we prepare to head into a new year, it’s time to learn what we can do differently and better so we can achieve all we set out to do. I have my own goals for next year, and I know how much it would mean to me if everything on my list is ticked out or scratched off as I pack up to spend the end of the year with family.
I’m not here as someone who doesn’t have his unproductive days. I’m here as someone who has made his fair share of changes and experienced the miracles they brought. I have learned and practiced some productivity hacks, and I’m certain these things will make you more productive in 2025.
I’ll share them with you eleven points. Read, learn, and practice, and I bet 2025 will be one of your most productive years. Let’s go!
Embrace Tech (AI and Automation) Tools
I’m quite young, but I behave like I’m my dad’s age. How? I’m often slow to accept new tech tools. However, every time I indulged in them, things always got easier and better, and I found myself doing more. In one of my old jobs, using AI tools (including copy.ai, nichesss, and ChatGPT), I moved from writing one article every three days to writing one daily.
I’m basically saying, be like me, or, if possible, open your arms more than I do to these tech tools. They promise ease. There’s a tool for almost every task, if not everyone. You can schedule all your posts for the next few days on Instagram and focus on responding to comments instead of trying to always post at the right time. Plus, you’ll escape the trap of poor network conditions that can strike at any time and ruin your post schedule.
There are more. You can use voice typing instead of tapping on your screen all the time; Google Gemini and Siri are here to assist you with little tasks, like setting alarms, and they can even answer questions quickly for you. Zapier and IFTTT can work with your set rules across several apps. For example, you can set a post to go on Facebook if you send it to X app on IFTTT.
Some phones come with focus tools that block distracting apps. My Redmi phone is one of such. When I turn it on, selected apps—usually social media apps—become inaccessible. When I force myself into these blocked apps, I have 5 minutes before they automatically close again. That way, even when I lose track of time, I am sent back to attend to more pressing issues.
You just need to find the tool that’s making what you do more efficient and run with it. With these tools, you can focus on the primary issues or those that require more effort from you and let the other matters handle themselves.
Tap into Deep Work
Deep work is quite an interesting concept; to me, it doubles as a wordplay. Check this out: It’s this thing where you pick the hardest and most important tasks and get deep into working on them. You spend time doing them without distractions. Then, you can get to the simpler and less important ones before or after that.
Let’s say you’re me, working on an article. The most important part could be research and writing. I’ll cut off distractions and get into the Googling and initial penning and refining. Maybe a little more time on editing. The easier parts, like image finding, can be done while I’m watching reaction videos on YouTube later.
If you have a hard time focusing for a long period, you can use focus apps to keep distracting sites and apps away. At the end of your work stretch, you’ll find that what’s left to do isn’t so scary, and you can easily take it down.
Be a Habits and Routines Person
People would tell you that routines are boring. As someone who’s had my fair share of them, I’ll say they aren’t totally wrong. However, if showing up by 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. gets the job done, and the job needs to be done, then the person who has to get the job done should do the work at this time.
Routine isn’t only about the work itself. It could be pre- or post-work. For example, if watching movies before work helps you relax more during work, then try to stick to that. If taking an hour break halfway into work is doing it for you, try to keep to it.
Besides routine, there are some habits you can adopt to get more productive. One of them is not procrastinating easy and less time-consuming tasks. For example, if an email will take you less than a minute to send, it’s better to send it right away than to keep it for work time. This way, work doesn’t pile up, and it feels easier.
Work with To-do Lists
When you have a to-do list or a checklist for your work, you won’t underrate or overrate your achievements or pending tasks. You can track them. A to-do list is a list of things to do where you can scratch them off or tick them as you make progress.
With such a list to guide you, you won’t be lazying around because you think you have little left to do, only to find out later it is a lot. Neither will you feel overwhelmed thinking there are a million things left to do when there aren’t that many. You will not forget to do some tasks when you work with a to-do list as it will remind you, and it can help you do your work in the right order—if that’s applicable to what you’re doing.
When you see how much you’re accomplishing on your list, you know when to speed up work or when to slow down to rest. You can feel proud of your progress and motivated to keep going. And let’s not lie to ourselves: it’s pretty cool scratching off things on paper or your screen version of it.
Make Your Workspace Comfortable
It’s been about a year since I moved to my new house, and one part of me that was affected when I moved was my productivity. Why? I’ll explain. I moved from a one-bedroom apartment to a studio apartment, which meant I had to move things from two rooms into one room, and that made the place feel cluttered.
As someone who loves free and emptier spaces—something I enjoyed in my former house—this clutter made the place feel uncomfortable. And since I wasn’t comfortable in my space, it made work stressful. What was the solution? Making the place comfortable by decluttering.
Keep your office tidy and arranged. Put things where they belong and get rid of stuff you don’t need. I see no point in having something on your table that you know you won’t be touching in days. See the effort you’ll put into taking such things to their proper places as the little physical exercise your body needs.
Today, your workspace is not only a physical location but also your work device and apps. Keep the files and apps on your laptop and tablet organized and delete unnecessary ones. Unsubscribe from unnecessary emails and delete those that are already making it look cluttered.
As you free up and organize your offline and online workspaces, you’ll find that things are easier to find, that the place feels more comfortable to work in, and that you’re meeting deadlines quicker.
Master the Art of Prioritization
Before you start doing a bunch of tasks, first prioritize. Prioritization will help you stay more productive by ensuring you do the most important and urgent things first and getting to the non- or less important and non-urgent ones later.
Painting a picture may help. Let’s say we are making a video, and we’ve taken all the shots we need. What is the most important and urgent part? One could say it’s cutting. Now imagine adding subtitles before cutting.
Two things can happen: one, we may end up subtitling parts we will eventually cut out, which will be time wasted, and two, we may end up editing the video and discovering that it’s better off without subtitles. However, if we add the subtitle after cutting the video, we will add it only to the parts that are left, which will be more efficient.
Prioritizing is a skill, and the more you master it—the better you can tell which tasks are more urgent and important and which are likely not important or urgent—the more you crush your goals, the more time you’ll have on your hands and the more productive you’ll be.
Take Care of Your Health
How about you learn the art of prioritizing by starting with your health? Your health is important, and in some situations, it becomes urgent to focus on it.
Your health is a key factor in your productivity. The healthier you are, the more you can do, and vice versa. And this isn’t just about short-term productivity but long-term productivity.
You can start by staying hydrated and eating healthy. Always have a bottle of water with you, especially in the hotter parts of the year, and ensure what you’re eating has the necessary nutrients to match your health needs.
Remember to do regular medical checkups so issues can be caught and handled early. Sleep is also important. Ensure you get a lot of it, and if you don’t get enough at night, try to catch a nap in the daytime.
Finally, exercise. If you want to use a gym, that’s fine. If you don’t, it’s alright. You can exercise from home. Exercise isn’t only about weightlifting and pushups. It also includes walking, jogging, stretches, and other simpler activities.
Never Stop Learning
2025 will bring many changes. The only way to keep up with the demands of the changing world is to update yourself with new knowledge.
The good thing about learning is that there is not only one way to go about it. There is something for you, whether you prefer to learn by reading, listening, or watching. For almost everything you want to know, you’ll find videos, audio, books, and blog posts.
Another good thing is that not all knowledge has a price tag. Many are given for free, especially on platforms that may reward sharers, like YouTube.
Prepare your mind to grow, and you don’t even need to wait until 2025 to start learning. You can start now. Just go online and Google what you want to know. You’ll likely find something in a recent article or video pointing you to it.
Collaborate and Delegate
Whoever said two good heads are better than one did not lie. Working with someone else opens you up to new ideas, and when there are multiple ideas, the better one can shine. It’s better than having only one limited idea and only working with that.
There’s another side to collaboration besides the presence of multiple ideas: it’s accountability and motivation. With someone else on your team, you know you have to do your part because their progress depends on yours. Also, having another person around can motivate you to keep working, unlike when you’re alone.
These days, you don’t need to be together to collaborate. Many apps allow you to work with others no matter how far from you they are. Some tools I use are Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Trello, and ClickUp, and they’ve helped me tremendously.
You also need to delegate. Trust others to do some things so you don’t get overwhelmed doing everything. This is something I still struggle with. What others may do may not be exactly like yours, but it’s a chance to allow their uniqueness and creativity to also shine. When there is less work on you, you feel less overwhelmed and you can do more.
Stay Flexible and Adapt
Change always happens, and what works for you today may not work for you tomorrow. How do you stay productive with inevitable changes? By adapting to new situations and tools, you can avoid being stuck in the past.
Also, be willing to try new things. That’s how you find what works better. I understand it’s not always comfortable to do what you’re not used to, but if you do, you’ll either find a way that works better, an equal alternative you can rely on sometimes, or a way that doesn’t work.
A few months ago, I was bored with working at home, so I began to take my work devices to an open workspace near my house. One thing it did for me was that it made it impossible for me to consider lying on the bed to work—something I did at home a lot, and which slowed me down. Sitting to work made me do more work. On the plus side, I made a few new friends, and who knows what opportunities they’ll bring to me in the future?
Limit Multitasking
Doing multiple things at the same time feels like you’re getting more done, but that’s not always the case. When your focus is shared, it can lead to mistakes, and that itself harms productivity. It’s better to give enough attention to one thing and get it done. That way, you can do it with fewer mistakes and even quicker. Then, you move on to the next thing and give it sufficient attention.
Now, I’m not saying you should never multitask. Some tasks are so closely related that doing them together may be the way to go. However, it’s up to you to find out when multitasking is efficient and when it is problematic and act accordingly.
With these tips, you’ll find yourself doing more in 2025. Now, all that’s left for you to do is go into the year and show it who’s boss. If you found these tips helpful, please drop a comment so I can feel good about myself for writing this piece.
Do you think someone else needs to read this? Please share, and I’ll be thankful to you for life.