Working from home has become the new norm.

The Coronavirus pandemic has forced a lot of people to stay home as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the virus.

If you're not used to working from home, being stuck inside can make you feel less motivated.

It is possible to be productive and be efficient with your time while at home.

Do you want 7 productivity hacks that will help you achieve laser-like focus? If so, keep reading!

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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Are you working from home right now?

In the U.S. alone, more than 100 million Americans have been told to stay at home to protect themselves and others from spreading the Coronavirus. During times like these, the Internet has proven to be a critical tool for companies and business owners around the world.

If your company has forced you to work from home and it's a new experience from you, I want to help you stay productive. The same thing goes for business owners or students. I understand the challenges that come with working from home. Yes, it's great to have the freedom and comfort of working in an environment that you're familiar with. However, it can also be hard.

I've been working online for over 12 years now. As an entrepreneur, I know how easy it is to get distracted at home. Scrolling on social media, checking your phone, or turning on the TV only serve to take your focus away from important tasks at hand.

According to a University of California Irvine study, once you get distracted, it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task. Can you relate? If you spend time doing things that aren't moving the needle forward in your work and/or your online business, you will only stay stuck in one place.

Over the years I have learned how to master the art of setting boundaries and creating healthy habits. Doing so allows me to get the most out of myself and my days. Today, I have become a master of my time. I want to help you do the same. Let's explore 7 productivity hacks that will help you be productive while working from home.

1. Plan Your Day

Improving your productivity starts with planning. When you don't have a plan for your day, you fall into the trap of reacting to everyone else's demands. As a result, you end up missing out on the highest leverage actions that will make the biggest difference in your day.

This is why I'm a big believer in being proactive versus reactive. Before I even open my computer each day, I make sure that I do my morning ritual. I start by taking out a journal or Evernote and I create a plan for my day. I ask myself, “What do I want to accomplish today?”

Once I write that down, I get clear on why I want to accomplish this goal.

This gives me the emotional juice behind why I do what I do. After that I ask myself, “What is everything that I could do to achieve this outcome?” I don't create a to-do list. Rather, I create a could-do list. Usually, I come up with 3 important things that I want to accomplish on a given day. Once I have this list of actions, I prioritize the list.

It's important for you to understand that not all of the actions on your list need to be treated equally. Some will move the needle more than others. This is referred to as the 80/20 principle, meaning that 20% of what is on your list is going to equal 80% of your results. I take it one step further and I schedule my could-do list into my computer using Google Calendar.

2. Eat The Frog

You want to spend the first part of your morning working on your hardest and most important task. This is what is referred to as “your frog.” It is the task that you will procrastinate on the most if you don't make it a priority. Your willpower is at its highest early on in the day.

In the words of Mark Twain, “If the first thing you do in the morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the rest of the day knowing the worst is behind you.” If you leave something that's really important until the end of your day, you will be more distracted and have less energy.

Have you ever tried going to the gym after a long day of work? I don't know about you, but my motivation is at its highest when I exercise first thing in the morning. The longer I wait, the harder it gets. When it comes to your business or your career, make it a priority to execute your highest leverage task first, before doing anything else. I promise that it will make a huge difference in your productivity levels.

3. Eliminate Distractions

We live in an age of digital distraction. We are constantly “on” which means that our attention is being pulled in multiple different directions. When you work from home it’s very easy to get distracted. Distractions disrupt your focus and take you away from what you need to do. 

This is why it’s really important that you limit or switch off anything that will distract you from completing important tasks. If you have an overactive mind, I highly recommend starting a meditation practice. It helps to calm the mind so that you are less inclined to fall back into compulsive behaviors.

4. Set A Timer

This has been a game-changer for me. I like to work with a sense of urgency because I believe in the speed of implementation. A lot of people aren’t productive because they move too slow. If I’m working on a project, whether it’s writing a blog post, creating content, or crafting an email, I like to set a timer. I give myself a realistic amount of time to achieve an activity. 

When I set that timer I’ve created a deal with myself. If I don't get a task done in time, I have to live with that result and move onto my next task. Creating a sense of urgency will allow you to work faster and more efficiently. High standards are great. However, at a certain point, you just have to take messy action. Trust me… success loves speed.

5. Manage Your Emotional State 

Your emotional state is going to dictate your behaviors throughout the day. How you feel determines how you perform. If you want to be unstoppable, you need to be at your best. This is why I'm such a big believer in creating a morning ritual. Top athletes and performers always carry out a routine before they play a game or go on stage.

This could be in the form of stretching their bodies, listening to music or meditating. Rituals like these help them perform to their maximum potential. The same line of thinking applies to you in your business or your career. If you spend time every morning nourishing your mental and emotional state, you will be more productive in your job and you will feel more grounded. It's a win-win.

I have a very detailed morning ritual. No matter where I am or what is going on in my life, I never waver from it. Every morning I exercise to loosen up my body and turn on my mind, take supplements, practice gratitude, recite affirmations, read a book, and meditate. I believe that how you start the day is how you end the day.

Engaging in these rituals allows me to be in a peak state. As a result, I'm faster and more efficient throughout my day. If you are interested in creating a morning ritual, I encourage you to download my free morning ritual habits cheatsheet. Inside you will find 21 rituals that will help nourish your mind, body, and spirit. If you want to go deeper, I've also got a 30-day Morning Ritual Mastery program.

6. Have an Accountability Buddy

One of the biggest challenges that I had when I was building my business is that I lacked accountability. I didn't have a boss because I was my own boss. Hence, it was easy to slack off and waste away my days. The best solution that I found was to get an accountability buddy. This is someone who is also working from home and in a similar situation as yourself.

My accountability buddy and I did check-ins every morning at 9 am via Skype. Both of us shared 3 things that we were committing to achieving every day. We held one another accountable for accomplishing these tasks. At the end of every day, we touched base and debriefed about how our days went.

If we accomplished our 3 tasks, we congratulated one another. If we didn't, we troubleshot why this happened and how we could learn from it. The power of a debrief like this is far-reaching. It allows you to get better and be more productive in moving forward.

7. Reward Yourself

If you have a productive day, reward yourself. Whatever gets rewarded, gets repeated. When you reward yourself, you are more likely to build positive habits moving forward. If you don't have a productive day, don't beat yourself up. This will only cause you  pain, frustration, and anger.

It teaches your brain to give up. The line of thinking becomes, “Why even try if I keep experiencing pain?” Before you know it, you will fall into a mode of learned helplessness. You won't even want to try because you will link pain to taking action. Instead, acknowledge yourself for things that you do well. You deserve it.

These are my 7 productivity hacks for how to be productive.

I hope these strategies help you be more efficient while working at home. Keep in mind that it takes time to adapt to new habits. This is why I try to set up a different environment in my home that is designated solely for work. Play around with what works for you.

I have no doubt that if you implement these 7 productivity hacks into your daily life, you will be more productive than you've ever been. Which productivity hack will you experiment with?

Do you want to know the 7 online business models that made me an Internet millionaire in less than 3 years? CLICK HERE to get instant access to my FREE business course!

My fiancée, Tatiana and I want to talk about how we get so much done.

If you want to be successful in life, you have to become a master of your time.

In our work, we come across a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs who struggle with productivity. Everyone wants to get more done in less time, but don't necessarily know how to do it.

Are you ready to discover our productivity secrets for how we get so much done in so little time?

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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Tatiana and I pride ourselves on being productive.

As entrepreneurs, it is our responsibility to grow and develop our businesses. To do so, we need to be hyper-aware of how we are prioritizing our time. What we put into our businesses is what we get out of them. Hence, we don't have time for lazy days!

Time management is a challenge that every entrepreneur faces at some point in their journey. Both Tatiana and I can attest to the fact that running a business can be overwhelming at times. In the business world, “time is money.” How you manage your time determines how much money you will make.

However, it's important to realize that getting more done doesn't mean that you have to work harder on your goals. Rather, it's about learning how to work smarter with the time that you have. Our ability to master this concept has been integral to our business success.

Here are 3 productivity secrets that allow Tatiana and I to get so much done.

1. Get Clear On Your ‘Why'

Before I started an online business, I thought that I was a lazy person because I would only do the bare minimum in my 9-to-5 job. I would always be looking for ways to waste time. However, as soon as I created a solid vision for my future, the game changed. All of a sudden, my motivation skyrocketed. I started to access parts of myself that I never knew existed because I was finally building something that was mine. In short, I was living on purpose.

2. Believe In Yourself

If you want to create momentum towards the achievement of your goals, you must have a strong belief in yourself. Confidence is what turns thoughts into actions and it is this “action” side that relates to productivity. In the beginning stages of building an online business, you won't see results right away.

This can be extremely frustrating for a lot of people, to the point where they lose their motivation. Not surprisingly, this is when productivity takes a nosedive. Don't get attached to the outcome. Rather learn to fall in love with the process of becoming the best version of yourself and your business will thrive as a result.

3. Eliminate Distractions

You cannot mistake activity for achievement. A lot of people are very active in their daily lives, but they aren't necessarily doing things that are moving their lives forward. Tatiana and I are obsessed with focusing on the highest leverage tasks that will grow our businesses. We have been able to enhance our productivity by eliminating distractions that get in the way of our progress.

On our to-do lists we know what matters most, so we focus on those tasks before anything else. We still have fun and relax, but those are things that we schedule in during our week. Doing so ensures that we are continuously making progress in every area of our lives.

This is how we get so much done in a short amount of time.

If you aren't already, I encourage you to follow Tatiana on Instagram and subscribe to her YouTube channel. She publishes a lot of great content related to how to build a business on Amazon.

Everyone has the same amount of time every single day. What you do with your time is entirely up to you. In the words of Henry David Thoreau, “It is not enough to be busy… the question is: What are we busy about?”

Make it a priority to master your time, or else your time will master you.

Want to know which online business is best for you? CLICK HERE to get instant access to my FREE quiz!

I would like to share with you how to stay focused and productive, without getting overwhelmed or stressed.

No matter how successful you are, there will always be days when you don’t feel on top of your game. Have you ever had so much on your to-do list that no matter how well you prioritize your work, you have no idea where to start?

It’s normal to feel overwhelmed when you have endless deadlines to meet, a business to run, a family to provide for, or a staff that is relying on you. Given these circumstance, it’s nearly impossible to not experience stress.

Our ability to succeed at anything in life is directly linked to our ability to stay focused and productive, without getting overwhelmed or stressed.

Are you ready to master the quality of focus so that you can achieve more with greater ease and confidence?

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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Do you want to learn how to create a morning ritual that will inspire you to live every day with confidence, passion, and energy? CLICK HERE to join my Morning Ritual Mastery course!

Below are 3 ways for how to stay focused and productive, without getting overwhelmed or stressed:

1. Accomplish More By Doing Less

People get overwhelmed when they commit to too many things. The brain becomes frazzled and people lose focus when they feel that they have too much to do and too little time to do it.

According to psychologist Daniel Kahneman, “It is the mark of effortful activities that they interfere with each other, which is why it is difficult or impossible to conduct several at once.

Multitasking isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It doesn’t allow you to be more productive. Rather, it creates stress. The key to not getting overwhelmed and stressed is to work smart, not hard, which means narrowing your focus on the few things that matter the most.

Every day I ask myself, “What are the 3 highest leverage actions that I need to take in order to achieve success?” When you master those 3 things, you will find the motivation to do and achieve more.

2. Outsource Tasks

When you run a business, it can be tempting to do everything yourself. Nobody knows your business more than you, right? This way of thinking is what gets people into trouble.  The reality is that financial success occurs when you work ON your business, not IN your business.

Outsourcing some of your most simple business tasks can save you a lot of time and energy. More importantly, it will free up your time so that you can focus on what is most important and be more productive.

Make a list of everything that you are currently doing and ask yourself on a scale of 1-10 how important that task is. Then determine what you can outsource. In the words of Peter Drucker, “Do what you do best, and outsource the rest.”

3. Calm Your Mind

Meditation is one of the most effective ways to cope with stress and increase your ability to concentrate. A new study in the Journal of Neuroscience found that people who regularly practice meditation may improve their mental focus by altering brain function.

Meditation isn’t about emptying your mind. Rather, it’s about conditioning the mind to focus on one thing. It’s natural for the mind to wander, but if you commit to doing it every day, you will see a massive shift in your ability to focus on tasks over time.

In the words of Deepak Chopra, “Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet; it’s a way of entering into the quiet that is already there, buried under the 50,000 thoughts that the average person thinks every day.”

These are just a few ways of how to stay focused and productive, without getting overwhelmed or stressed. Are you ready to get back to a life of flow and ease? You don't have to live in a state of overwhelm. A worry-free life is yours for the taking. The choice is yours!

Do you want to learn how to create a morning ritual that will inspire you to live every day with confidence, passion, and energy? CLICK HERE to join my Morning Ritual Mastery course!

How do you stay organized in your life?  

We're all busy and trying to figure out how to manage the different areas of our lives.  Without a system to properly organize our lives, things can get stressful.  I know I've definitely been there before – running multiple businesses, competing in a fitness competition, growing a relationship, going out with friends and socializing, etc…

I was recently asked this question by a follower of PLM and created a video blog from it.  Check it out below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of them, I will receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). I only ever endorse products that I have personally used and benefitted from personally. Thank you for your support!

You Need A System For Your Life

In order to effectively manage and organize your life, you need a system.  I personally follow a system that Tony Robbins designed and teaches in his Time Of Your Life program, but essentially it's about developing the habit of planning and organizing your life.  In my life plan video, I talk about how I categorize life into different areas – health/fitness, emotions, relationships, finance, career/business, etc…  I believe that each area of life requires consistent focus each week and you must grow each area to be completely fulfilled.  Growing and focusing on each area of your life isn't an easy task, unless you have a system for it.

Weekly Planning

I go through a weekly planning process every Sunday or Monday to get organized for the week.  Here's what I do:

1. I take out a journal and I begin to write down everything that I want to get done this week.  I make a long list, and also include actions for the goals I have for each area of my life.

So for example, the list could look like:

• Reply to all emails.
• Buy groceries.
• Record video blog.
• Publish blog post.
• Coach John.
• Complete morning ritual 7x this week.
• Workout 5x this week.
• Go to church on Sunday.
• Plan out each day 5x this week.
• Read 10 pages of self-help book 5x this week.
• Update finances.
• Call mom.
• Go out for dinner with Jessica.

As you can see from this list, I have a variety of tasks I need to get done for the upcoming week.  They're all in different categories of life, but at least now I have a clear idea of what I want to get done.

2. Categorize each action item under the goals that I have for the month.

I always have a list of goals for each month, for each area of my life.  I again take out my journal and begin to categorize each action item for each goal.  So for example, if I have the goal of making $10,000 a month in my business, then I'd put the action items “reply to all emails”, “record video blog”, “coach John”, and anything else related to business under that goal.

If I have the goal of losing 5 pounds this month, then I'll put all health/fitness related actions under that goal, such as “workout 5x this week” and “buy groceries.”  The same goes for every other action item on this list and for every other goal that I have.

3. Schedule My Goals And Tasks

Next I begin to schedule each task during specific time blocks during the week.  When am I going to do my morning ritual everyday?  I write out in my calendar what time that I'll be doing it, let's say 8AM to 8:30AM.  When am I going to workout each day?  I schedule it in for 9AM to 10AM.  When am I going to go out for dinner with Jessica?  I schedule that for Friday at 7:00PM.

I make sure that EVERY GOAL and EVERY ACTION ITEM is scheduled and so each day I have a plan and know EXACTLY what I am doing.  You need to schedule the time you're going to be working on your business, attend school classes, do your homework, hangout with your friends, etc…  I recommend investing in a good quality planner.  I use Tony Robbins RPM Planner and sometimes just use a paperback journal.

By scheduling things in your life, it takes the stress and thinking out of it.  You wake up each day with a plan.  You are being PROACTIVE each week and designing your life, instead of reacting to things as they come up.  Planning is a vital part of success.  Things are going to come up to distract you from your plan, but you must not deviate.  If your friends invite you out tonight but you've scheduled tonight for working on your business, you must learn to say NO.

Learning To Say No!

Learning to say “no” is an important strategy that has helped me stay organized.  Distractions are inevitable.  The more successful you become, the more people want your time and want to hangout with you.  I can't tell you how many people e-mail me each day and message me on Facebook and want my time.  It wasn't like this years ago, but has been now that I am more public and transparent with my blog.  The more popular you become, the more people want to spend time with you!

The challenge is, if you just talk to everyone and give your time away, then you're left with no time for yourself and the things that are important in your life.  It can be a big drain and consume a lot of energy.  That's where the power of NO comes in.  I am very protective of my time and very selective about the people I spend time with.  I make sure I respond to all e-mails on my blog, but when people ask more from me, I usually have to decline.  I have people wanting to pitch me weekly on ideas or a MLM business, but I have to decline.  I have people asking me to go for coffee or want to pick my brain on things, and I just tell them to e-mail me as I don't have time right now to meet up.

I make sure I FOCUS MY TIME on the things that are important to me and things that are aligned with my goals.  I make sure I schedule the time to hangout with certain friends, or family, or my girlfriend, or to focus my time on my businesses.  There's times when I am focused on a big project and I'll turn off my phone and not reply to anyone for a full week so that I can give 100% of my focus towards the project.  I'll have people invite me out to parties or fun activities, but sometimes I have to say NO because I know that what I have planned for my life is more important.

Simplify Your Life

Being able to simplify your life is important.  I used to focus on too much at once and would often easily become overwhelmed.  It became more difficult to stay organized and I'd be very stressed.  I decided I needed to cut off some activities in my life so that I could focus more effectively on a fewer number of things that were more important.

For example, when I first started coaching people on PLM I would take on anyone that was interested in coaching.  The problem was that eventually it ended up consuming a lot of my time and was taking away the focus of my online businesses, which were important to me as they were creating passive income and freedom for my life.  I also had so many clients that I often couldn't remember things with some of them and important things we'd talk about on each of our sessions.  That's when I decided I needed to start saying NO to people and only taking on a limited number of people at a time.  I decided on a limit and focused on more quality coaching, rather than quantity.  It's been an important decision that has really helped me stay more organized.

I've also simplified my life by cutting out certain people that were wasting my time and activities that were too time consuming.  I learned how to AUTOMATE my life and use OUTSOURCING, which I'll discuss below.

Automation And Outsourcing

I first learned about automation and outsourcing through Tim Ferriss' book, The 4 Hour Work Week.  I was then introduced to outsourcing and virtual assistants.  I've learned that if there's something in my life that I could hire another person to do, it's worth doing it.  If there's something in my life that only I can do and I'm good at it, then that's something that I need to focus on doing consistently.  I eliminate all the mundane, simple tasks that can easily be outsourced and focus on the high leverage tasks that are important.

For example, when I first started an online business I did everything myself.  I did the web design, copywriting, graphics, content creation, search engine optimization, customer support, etc…  It was very time consuming and I'd end up spending 12+ hours a day doing this stuff.  It was also a waste of my time, as I wasn't strong in any of these areas and I'd have to learn how to do this stuff, whereas I could have easily hired someone inexpensively to do this stuff who's already an expert at it.

Many people object to outsourcing or hiring others to perform certain tasks that they say they can do themselves.  While you may be able to do the task yourself, you need to ask yourself if it's the right focus of your time and energy.  For example, I could write an article on my website myself which might take me an hour to do, or I could hire someone to write an article of near-equal quality for $5-$10.  If I could hire someone to do something for $5-$10, then why would I do it myself?  In fact, if I do that task myself then I'm basically saying that my time is worth $5-$10/hour!

The reality is that outsourcing is VERY INEXPENSIVE.  In fact, you'd be blown away by what you could get done for peanuts.  When I learned this, I hired a virtual assistant from the Philippines on Odesk.com that has now worked with me for over 2 years.  I pay her $2.47/hour and she handles the customer support for 6 websites that I run on Clickbank.  She also does many marketing tasks and research for me whenever I need it.  She's easy to communicate with, does a quality job, and is very reliable.  She's helped me grow my businesses and earn a lot of money, without me having to do much.

Today, I hire people to run my businesses and do many tasks including:

• Web design
• Graphic work
• Copywriting
• Customer support
• Article writing
• E-book writing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Research
• Formatting, editing and proofreading
• Video submissions
• Press releases
• Book keeping
• Accounting
• House cleaning

If you want to learn more about outsourcing and automating your life, here's some resources that I recommend:

Fiverr – Get tasks done for only $5.

Odesk – This is where I outsource specific tasks or work for my my blog or websites. You can get almost anything done very inexpensively and hire Virtual Assistants for under $3/hour.

The 4 Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss' book on automation and outsourcing.

I encourage you to take a look at some of these resources and think of ways that you can automate different areas of your own life – it'll make a huge difference in how productive and organized you are.