Status Quo
There has been a lot of work in my daily life, and it’s been tough for me to deal with it. However, I constantly have a gut feeling that the past Antony could handle it. So I decided to write down some productivity tips that the past me and I use, especially those that have helped us boost productivity a lot.
Productivity Tips
Most of these tips can be practiced without the help of any electronic devices or apps, but I would still highly recommend an app called TickTick, which has helped me a LOT with my productivity and time management. The screenshots provided below are also from TickTick.
Pomodoro
A Pomodoro is a set of countdown clocks dividing your time into working blocks (usually 25 or 30 minutes) and resting blocks (usually 5 and 15 minutes).
Typically, a Pomodoro starts with 25 minutes of work, followed by 5 minutes of rest. You repeat this cycle until you have completed four 25-minute working blocks. After the fourth block, instead of a 5-minute break, you take a longer 15-minute break to fully reset.
Why it works: Instead of working continuously until you are completely drained, this method ensures you rest while you are still relatively sharp. By taking a 5-minute break just as your focus begins to dip (say, to 90%), you quickly restore your mind back to 100%. This allows you to maintain peak cognition and keep your productivity constantly at its best status. As a result, you can sustain hours of high-output work with less than an hour of total rest.
During the breaks, it is highly recommended that you step away from your workspace, touch some grass, and enjoy some fresh air. Move around and drink some water—these activities refresh you physically and mentally, breaking the cycle of screen fatigue.
Eisenhower Matrix
Eisenhower Matrix is a framework consisting of four quadrants. As you can see, each quadrant categorizes tasks based on different levels of priority and importance.
For a typical day, I personally write down about 6 tasks and then arrange them into this matrix.
Why it works: Without this matrix, humans naturally gravitate toward tasks that are urgent but unimportant (like answering random emails or doing busywork) simply because they feel easy to cross off a list. The matrix forces you to bypass this trap and prioritize the deep work that actually moves your life forward.
Once your tasks are arranged, execute them in this order:
- Important & Urgent
- Important & Not Urgent
- Urgent & Unimportant
- Not Urgent & Unimportant
The Impact: It is completely okay if you leave some tasks undone because you ran out of time or energy. Because the matrix ensures that the leftover tasks fall into the “Not Urgent & Unimportant” category, it gives you an actual, safe buffer space to absorb mistakes or slower-than-expected progress. You can simply postpone these low-priority items to the next day without missing any deadlines or feeling guilty.
Plan the night before: I highly recommend arranging all your tasks the night before. This eliminates morning decision fatigue and saves you from wasting your peak morning energy on planning. More importantly, it removes the classic procrastination excuse of “I’ll make a plan later, and then I’ll start working later.” You wake up with a clear goal, which forces you to make full, immediate use of the entire day.
Something Else
When you can’t focus
When your body or mind cannot focus on a task, it might be a sign that you need to give them some rest. Sufficient rest is the fundamental baseline for productivity.
If you simply can’t get into the zone, persuade yourself to focus for just 2 minutes. If you still absolutely cannot focus after that, allow yourself to quit. In most scenarios, however, overcoming that initial friction is all you need, and you will find yourself easily finishing the 25-minute Pomodoro.
When you are struggling to even start, count down from 5 to 1 and then immediately begin. This psychological trick doesn’t give your brain the time to react to its own negative emotions or unwillingness to work.
Rest
Even with the best productivity tips in the world, sufficient rest is essential for your body to execute them. Adequate sleep and proper rest between days allow your brain to process what you have learned, strengthen your memories, and wash away the metabolic waste chemicals that stop your brain from focusing effectively.
A tip for knowledge workers
If you rely heavily on your brain to finish your work like I do, try incorporating physical sports into your routine. Physical activity forces your brain to temporarily shift its focus away from work and activates the areas responsible for body balance and coordination. It is one of the most effective ways to truly unplug and recharge your mental engine.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, true productivity isn’t about working like a machine until you burn out—it is about working smart, protecting your energy, and knowing when to step away. By combining structured focus (Pomodoro), ruthless prioritization (Eisenhower Matrix), and a healthy dose of self-forgiveness when things don’t go perfectly, I am finding my way back to the efficiency of the “past Antony.”
We all face overwhelming days, but having a system in place gives us the control to navigate them. I hope these tips help you tackle your own heavy workloads with a little more ease, better focus, and a lot less stress.
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