24 productivity hacks from the pros

Have you ever wondered how famous entrepreneurs, business builders, and other successful people managed to accomplish so much while balancing work, life and family.

There's always too many things to do. Especially when your starting out. There's cold calls, follow ups filling orders, hiring, firing, setting up ways of working, exploring new products, on-boarding materials, dealing with customers, dealing with problems, dealing with problem customers, paying the bills, and working with suppliers.

And thats before you know what hits the fan.

So how does everyone do it? Are they simply smarter, more productive, or better equipped? Is there a magical formula that everyone got and you just missed out on.

Well we’ve collected 24 of the best productivity tips from people at the top of their professions, representing a wealth of advice that can help you be more productive and more successful. From Facebook co-founders and CEOs to shark tank advisors. You'll realize you don't need more hours in the day and there is a better way to accomplish everything you have to.

Alok Bhardwaj, the founder of Hidden Reflex - Start your day be doing the worst thing first. You'll get over your big hump early on, everything else seems easier, and at the very least you got something important off your 'to-do' list.

Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder Facebook and Asana  - Setup a no meeting Wednesday. It'll allow spontaneity, casual conversation, catch-up, and enable employees to drive their own success.

Auren Hoffman, former CEO of LiveRamp - Do fewer things and no multi-tasking. Multi-tasking seems like its increasing productivity but its just splitting your focus and most people are better off focusing on one thing at a time. 

Tim Westegren, founder of Pandora - Ask yourself what your highest best use is. Tim found that it’s easy to feel busy and productive in an organization, so it’s important for leaders to constantly remind themselves to focus on the most important tasks.

Ivan Mazour, CEO of Ometria - Put your phone on silent. Always. It removes distractions, lets you prioritize, removes the non critical immediacy and lets you focus on the important.

Gadi Shamia, CEO of Mangesto - Few meetings as possible and plan on Friday.  There's an on going joke that if you don't want to do any work, have a meeting. Unless your running your meetings like Amazon, its probably true. So when it doubt, dont have a meeting.

Kari Beaulieu, Content Marketing for Appfluence - Use the EisenHower Method of prioritizing. Divide everything into 4 parts, Urgent, Not Urgent, Important, Not Important. Drop, Focus, and Do accordingly.

Remco Mook, cofounder of Virtu - Get to the office 90 minutes before everyone else. It gives you a solid hour and a half to clear your head, get things done, and watch everyone else scramble as you've already accomplished the most important tasks.

Christian Sutardi, cofounder of LolaBox - If it takes less than 2 minutes, do it now. Washing your dishes right after your meal, tossing the laundry in the washing machine, calling your customers, cleaning up clutter, sending that email. These are all 2 minute tasks if you do them right away. 

Beth Doane, founder of Raintees - All non-scheduled calls go to voicemail. This avoids opening your schedule and distraction based on someone else's. Besides it helps you focus on your task now and filter out unneeded  distraction.

Eric Casaburi, founder of Retro Fitness - Divide tasks into brainless and brain required. If your working on a brainless task, your free to bring a brain required task into the fold. Walking on a treadmill, lunch, or driving as brainless. Thats the right time for a conference call. 

Barbara Corcoran, founder of Corcoran group - Take photos of your projects, "After I sign a deal, I have everybody send me a photo of themselves," she says. "I frame it and I put it on my wall.  The minute I realize they're not a great entrepreneur, I flip the frame over. I keep the frame on the wall, but this way every time I look up, it's my symbol: Don't spend any time on this. I put all my focus on my good ones."

Jamie Wong, founder of Vayable - Schedule 3 weekly Create, Love, and Grow events. She commits to one activity in each of the categories "Create," "Love," and "Grow." Right now, for example, she's learning how to play songs on her guitar (Create), keeping Thursday and Saturday nights reserved for friends (Love), and taking boxing lessons (Grow).

Robert Kirkman, creator of Walking Dead - Create a false sense of urgency. Everyone works their best the day before their vacation. Its the sense of urgency with unmovable deadlines and the drive to get things done. Create that sense of urgency everyday and get more done for tomorrow.

Doug Quint, founder of Big Gay Ice Cream - Book flights only with Wifi. "There's usually no guarantee at the time of booking that I'll need Internet access — but if I can't sleep and there's work to be done that hinges on connectivity, it seems like a week's worth of work can be done during those hours at 24,000 feet," he says.

Kate McKeon, founder of PrepWide - Use assistant for hire. She use's a website called Fancy Hands and says "I have them do preliminary research on market segments so I can make a high-level decision very quickly. Or I'll break up projects into small tasks and assign them out. I had them sort through a 15,000 word glossary for wrong words, and it only took two days."

Joe Silverman, founder of New York Computer Help - Create rewards for hitting goals. Call a number of customers, take a break. Write a blog article, have a candy. Solve 3 problems, get lunch. It helps drive a stronger connection between the tasks, solving it quickly and correctly, and a reward for it.

Sallie Krawcheck, founder of Ellevate Network - Get up before dawn. Lots of business leaders and successful entrepreneurs get up before dawn. It clears your head, is the most productive time, and gives you get a head start. 

Roger Hamilton, founder of XL Group - Every task is a project or a process. "That’s why he and his team members categorize every task as either a project or a process, and he then automates or outsources as many processes as possible so that he can focus on growing his brand."

Tracey DiNunzio, CEO of Tradesy - Work from home one day a week. "I try to work from home at least one day a week, and carve out time blocks throughout the day in the office to focus on whatever is at the top of my to-do list without interruption," she says. "It's better to do three things well than try and do 10 things when your attention is divided."

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple - Create a list of everything the company should do. Cross off the list until its a top 10. Then cross off the list until its a top 3. Everyone has something they want everyone else to work on. But when its on a list in front of everyone, you realize whats really important. Then by cutting that list to the top 3, everyone knows the priorities and how their work support them.

Bobb Harris, founder of BlueGrace Logistics - Keep meetings as short as possible. Long meetings are usually a result of poor planning. Use an agenda, assign responsibilities, and let the smart, driven, and motivated people work towards that goal.

Priscila Barros, founder of Babiekins - Make sure your desk is always clean. The side effect is you either deal with something, move it to its right place, or throw it away. You avoid the effect of stacked projects, keep the momentum, and can focus on what your supposed to be focused on.

Carlo Ruggiero, founder of Kono Pizza - Work when your family goes back to sleep. 
"At night when my family is asleep, I work uninterrupted for at least two to three hours," he says. "These few extra hours have been extra productive because I sleep better knowing I’ve done all I can that day, but more importantly, it decreases my 'to do' list for the next morning."

James Borow, CEO of SHIFT - Set aside all emails not related to your to-do list.  Borow uses the Mailbox app (now defunct) to isolate emails that are relevant to tasks he must accomplish. "The key is to snooze all of the emails that are not part of weekly goals," he says. "If you do this, you can start to treat your email as a to-do list as opposed to just reacting all of the time. This has completely changed my ability to get bigger tasks done."