Gone are the days of waiting for the beginning of the year to get the fresh start you need—in your personal life, at work, or in your fitness routine. Whether you’re going after new goals or simply want to make the most out of your time, understanding how to be more productive can help you get there. 

“To be productive is to accomplish what you set out to accomplish,” says Nchopia Nwokoma, an adjunct organizational psychology professor at Vanguard University. “You have a vision, you have a goal, you have established what you’re trying to do, and you’re taking intentional action to get there.”

Below, experts share practical insights on how to be more productive—and how to create a balance that doesn’t lead to burnout.

How Productivity Can Improve Your Life

“When you’re productive, you’re committed to yourself and show up for yourself on a day-to-day basis,” Nwokoma says. “You’re telling yourself, ‘I can do hard things,’ and then we see those patterns and that mindset show up in other areas.”

This domino effect could start at work or in your personal life. It could even start with your fitness routine—Nwokoma notes that there’s actually a correlation between people who work out and people who are productive.

But becoming more productive shouldn’t happen in silos, especially in the workplace. Rebecca Hinds, PhD, a future of work researcher and the head of Asana’s Work Innovation Lab, says goal-setting should start with individual productivity, and then extend to team- and organizational-level productivity. 

“There’s a concept in the research called ‘the tragedy of the commons,’ where people will maximize their own productivity and it can come at the cost of the team and organizational activity,” Hinds says. She witnessed this concept first-hand during her time as a competitive swimmer at Stanford University and a semifinalist at the Canadian Olympic Trials. “At the elite levels, it was way more important to contribute to the team than boost your individual performance, because you get those situations where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts,” she says.

How to Be More Productive

So balanced productivity can change our lives for the better—but how can you actually become more productive in your day-to-day life? Nwokoma and Hinds offer practical tips for getting started: 

1. Get Into the Right Headspace

Beginning at the individual level, Hinds says you’ll want to set yourself up for success by determining your chronotype, which is a reflection of your personal inner clock and when you feel most energized. For example, if you’re a morning person, you probably don’t want to save your most important tasks for the evening, experts say.

Designating one place in your home where you work or create can also help you get into the zone. “Just as you would as an athlete, tweaking your technique and performance regime, it’s important to figure out what works for you,” Hinds says.

2. Go Slow to Move Fast

Nwokoma says before starting a task, think about the end result and make a plan. “Get your tools, resources, and people together, and put a plan in place before you embark on the journey,” she says. After all, you probably wouldn’t cook a big meal without first gathering a recipe, a timer, ingredients, kitchen supplies, and even a friend to help—so why dive into an important project without any initial preparation?

“It’s about being strategic and planning and understanding what you need to accomplish and when you need to accomplish it,” Nwokoma says. 

3. Set Milestones and Celebrate Wins Along the Way

While acknowledging the final outcome is key to your success, you should also recognize your accomplishments throughout a project or training plan. As part of the “go slow to move fast” mantra, Nwokoma says establishing measurable milestones and quantifying them will allow you to have a clear end goal.

4. Reduce the Amount of Busy Work In Your Day

In her own research at the Work Innovation Lab, Hinds has found that 53 percent of workers’ time is spent on busy work. 

She argues that things like scheduling emails and organizing tasks eat up too much of our time at work. “We should be doing strategic and creative tasks, and building relationships with one another,” Hinds says. “Think carefully about how much of your work is busy work and how you can reduce that, because it not only boosts productivity, but it also makes us more engaged.”

5. Align on Objectives at Work

If your goal is to become more productive at work, speaking with your manager and aligning on your objectives is the start to a more transparent goals system throughout an organization, Hinds says. 

“The most important action you can take as an individual, a manager, or an executive is making sure there’s a clear connection between people’s work and company goals,” Hinds says. For example, your goals should feed into your manager’s goals, which then feed into the broader team’s goals, which eventually ladder up to the company’s goals. “Everyone should be able to wake up each day and know how their work contributes to their company objectives,” she says. 

6. Schedule Non-Negotiables Into Your Day

Your day should consist of routine elements you need to be more productive, and that includes what you do outside of work.

“For me, going to the gym every day is a non-negotiable because I know that’s going to get me in the right headspace, it’s going to get me out of the ‘office think,’ and thinking more creatively when I come back to work,” Hinds says. “It’s really important to set those guardrails and be vigilant about adhering to them and making sure you’re doing what’s best for you as a human.”

7. Inject Joy Into Your Routine

Sometimes, our responsibilities can feel a little monotonous, leaving you less excited about what you’re doing. That’s why you need to prioritize joy.

“Our coach at Stanford often said, ‘Happy swimmers are fast swimmers,’ and I believe that’s true at work too,” Hinds says. “We’re not injecting enough joy into the workplace, and we should celebrate our teammates, making it almost as if it’s an athletic team atmosphere. It makes people want to do the work and be excited about the work.”

This goes back to Nwokoma’s idea of celebrating each milestone or small win, whether that’s hitting an individual workout PR or checking off a team project to-do with a coworker. 

8. Build Flexibility Into Your Routine

Of course, not everything will go to plan, no matter how much you strategize. “Your intention may be to work out every day for 45 minutes, but perhaps you have challenges with your children or a meeting pops up,” Nwokoma says. “Give yourself grace, remember that we’re human, and stick with what you’re trying to accomplish—even if it doesn’t go exactly how you’d like for it to go in the midst of everything.” 

9. Step Away to Generate New Ideas

If you want to be more productive, you might think you need to maximize every minute—but both Nwokoma and Hinds agree that taking time away from responsibilities will actually boost productivity.

For example, “working out, going for a walk, or meditating allows us to be the best version of ourselves, so that we can go back and be the best worker or the best person that we want to be,” Nwokoma says. Plus, we’ll often have our greatest ideas when we step away from our responsibilities, she adds.

Hinds says this method is sometimes called “creative wandering,” because it draws connections across different fields. “Those lessons you learn from domains outside of the workplace translate so well into the workplace,” she explains, particularly for creativity and innovation. In addition to breaking a sweat or meditating, she says our best ideas can also come from taking a shower, listening to music, or looking at or creating art.

10. Understand the Connection Between Productivity and Rest

Beyond stepping away, there’s also plenty of reasons why hitting pause can make you more productive in the long run. 

“In order to actually be productive and achieve your goals in an efficient and effective way, you need rest,” Nwokoma says. “With rest, you’re able to think better, create new ideas, innovate, and retrieve information throughout your brain faster.” Without rest, it’s easier to make mistakes and fail to fully engage in critical thinking, she says. 

Hinds says you can liken the importance of this productivity-rest balance to marathon training, in which you train hard before tapering off before the big race.

“I think in both athletics and work, there are these rhythms that we need to go through in order to reach peak productivity,” she says. “In athletics, it’s working really hard and then taking your foot off the gas. In the work world, it’s needing to take time away from meetings to do deep work.”

Productivity vs. Toxic Productivity 

More isn’t always more. It’s important to make sure your productivity efforts don’t morph into toxic productivity, which is an unhealthy desire to be non-stop productive, no matter the effects on your wellbeing, relationships, or life, as defined by the Harvard Business Review. 

Hinds categorizes this area as “productivity theater” or “overload and overwhelm.” The former, she says, is pervasive in organizations and involves workers pretending to be productive. 

“They’re turning their Slack light on green to show they’re available, they’re packing their calendars with meetings, they’re pinging people at all hours, and they’re doing these very performative actions,” she says. “You’re putting on a show, rather than doing the real work.” 

Then, there’s burnout, which Hinds says is rampant in organizations. It can have ramifications from a productivity perspective, but may also impact your work-life balance.

Nwokoma notes that toxic productivity can occur if you throw yourself into work or another activity to distract from something else. This could manifest as neglecting your health and changing your routine or behavior. “If you used to go to the gym, you’re no longer going to the gym,” she says. “If you used to hang out with friends socially, you’re no longer hanging out with friends socially.” 

It’s not good to be totally consumed by your responsibilities, Nwokoma reiterates. “Take time to rest, to play, to frolic, in order to actually be effective and ultimately be productive,” she says. Remember: Stepping away, slowing down, and prioritizing time for joy and self-care is key for productivity and, much more importantly, for your wellbeing.