The biggest productivity gains come from decisions you make once and then stop thinking about, such as writing your goal on a whiteboard, finding your peak hours, automating bills and saying no by default. It is the time of year when people look back at their progress and ahead at the road in front of them. These fifteen decisions are, by the creators’ account, what they use to make the next year the best one yet.
Each is a single choice with an effect that repeats every day. A bonus on purposeful rest closes the list.
Watch the full video here, or skip to the breakdown below.
The 15 decisions at a glance
- Get a whiteboard (0:30)
- Don’t try to remember anything (1:11)
- Find your peak hours (2:04)
- Prepare things the night before (2:57)
- Ten minutes of mind focus per day (3:32)
- Automate investments and bill payments (4:57)
- Put a cap on consumption (6:13)
- Quality over quantity (7:16)
- “No” is your new default (7:50)
- Have attainable, life-changing goals in place (8:46)
- One task to win the day (9:33)
- Work and study music (10:35)
- Food and cleanups (11:30)
- Remove temptations from your life (12:57)
- Clothes (13:44)
1. Get a whiteboard
There is a massive gap between what is inside your head and what you manifest in reality. One of the creators’ top productivity hacks is a whiteboard in the office with the next big goal written across the top, placed where it cannot be missed.
Something happens to your brain when you put things in writing. Taking an idea out of your mind and committing it to reality is essential to progress, and it lets you step back and see what you are building, like an architect or designer looking for what to improve.
2. Don’t try to remember anything
The main function of your brain is not to remember things but to generate ideas that bring value to your life. So write things down. The notes app on a phone works fine and is free, and if you prefer, carry a notepad.
For events and tasks, use a calendar. They prefer Google Calendar over Apple’s, and everything goes in it. One of the worst experiences is remembering you had a great idea and not what it was. If you do not have pages of ideas written down, the script says, you are doing it wrong.
3. Find your peak hours
Everyone has moments in the day when they are at the top of their game, called peak hours. For most people they fall in the morning. They thought they were night owls until they compared results and realized they only thought they were productive at night. Their real peak is 10:30 am to 2:30 pm.
Once you identify yours, block two to four hours a day to focus on what matters. Use them consistently and getting things done stops being a worry.
4. Prepare things the night before
This is one of the creators’ biggest productivity hacks. Whatever they prepare the night before gets done the next day, which they describe as a weird life cheat code.
If you put your trainers by the door and tell yourself you will run in the morning, you are four times more likely to do it. The fewer distractions between you and the goal, the more likely you are to put in the work.
5. Ten minutes of mind focus per day
The script calls this a true turning point. Each morning with your coffee, spend 10 to 15 minutes looking out the window and defragmenting your mind. It combines meditation and self-coaching: think about your goals, break them down and get motivated.
People rarely think productively about their lives. Their minds sit in a state of chaos and worry, so they never think with purpose.
A short daily window for thinking on purpose changes how the rest of the day goes.
6. Automate investments and bill payments
Bills annoy them, so they automate everything. Recurring payments cover utilities and subscriptions, and once a year they review a statement to check it all. They say the whole thing takes less than two hours a year, and it removes late fees and chasing calls.
Investments work the same way. Instead of timing a downturn, they set recurring buys with parameters: if a stock drops 10 percent, buy one amount, and if it drops 20 percent, buy another. They dollar-cost average consistently and no longer refresh charts. Unless saving for something specific like real estate, a percentage of their income goes straight into the S&P 500.
7. Put a cap on consumption
Given the chance, people overconsume, and the script says it was programmed into us long ago. Find berries in a tree and you ate them all, since you never knew when you would find more. That applies to food, drugs, entertainment and more, and it is why more people now die of obesity than of hunger, according to the script.
People binge meaningless shows they do not even enjoy, or lose a week of gym effort to one reckless night out. The point is not to skip the night out, the series or the tasty meal. They say put a cap on each: one glass, one 50-minute episode, one burger. The lifestyle gets results, not short bursts of focused effort.
8. Quality over quantity
An old saying the creators love goes: when you buy cheap, you buy twice. They say you cannot afford cheap stuff.
Install this mental model: if you cannot choose between two items, choose the one of higher quality. It applies to furniture, clothes and food, and the advice is to raise quality as high as you can afford.
9. “No” is your new default
Stop saying yes to everything and everyone, and stop taking on things that are not your responsibility or do not serve you. Your capacity for execution is limited. Each time you say yes to something you do not want to do, you say no to something you do.
That is why many people feel they are not pursuing what they really want: they keep saying yes to things that do not matter. Time is limited and passing faster, and agreeing to social gatherings or new projects creates unnecessary decisions later. The rule of thumb: unless it is a hell yeah, it is a no.
10. Have attainable, life-changing goals in place
Back to the whiteboard: the next big goal sits at the top. They break it down with their A.L.U.X. framework and pursue it strategically. Following a tested framework dramatically raises the chance of hitting goal after goal.
You need to know where you are going, how you will get there, what tools you have or need, and who will help. Most people only wish things were different and hold a vague plan about life improving by magic. Successful people have a clear path.
11. One task to win the day
You do not need to be superhuman to get what you want from life. Every day, set one task that moves your life forward. Not maintenance and not the regular stuff, which only keeps you afloat, but the thing that pushes you ahead a little.
Then do it. You have not won the day until that task is done. Some days it is the same thing and some days it is different, but there is always a specific task that leads to progress. Once it is finished, you can return to your regular life knowing you are closer to the big goal.
12. Work and study music
They can work without music but found they are more productive with it. The method: do not pick songs mid-work, since that wrecks focus, and avoid songs with lyrics. Build long playlists and put them on repeat.
Depending on the task they use hip hop instrumentals or lofi. Their line is that the best song for productivity is the one you never hear.
13. Food and cleanups
Cooking as an experience, especially for friends and family, is something they love. What they dislike is the time wasted on every meal, since people spend 45 minutes or more a day sourcing and preparing food.
Their fix is a weekly grocery delivery, plus meals delivered to the house on five days of the week, all arriving at 8 AM: three meals and two snacks. They do the same for cleaning, since professionals do it in a fraction of the time. If that is out of budget, the script suggests cooking in bulk on Sunday, eating the same meal daily, or using meal replacement shakes. Otherwise you eat what is easy, available and convenient.
14. Remove temptations from your life
Success depends on setting the right environment. Like plants, some environments help us grow and others keep us from our potential. If you are trying to lose weight, do not leave chocolate on the dining table.
Early on your willpower is weak, so remove the temptations. Design your life so the things that help you thrive come easy. Bad actions usually come from boredom, because the bad option is right there calling.
15. Clothes
“I don’t know what to wear” is an annoying problem, and the script traces it back to decision number 8: a closet full of low-quality items. With quality pieces, finding the right fit is easy.
There are two routes. Go full Steve Jobs and wear essentially the same outfit every day, or search for a capsule wardrobe and buy what you need to last years. A capsule wardrobe is a catalog of pieces that go together, giving hundreds of outfits from roughly 30 pieces. Either way, cut the decision-making out of getting dressed.
Bonus: rest purposefully
You are not meant to be productive every day of the year. Most people do not know how to rest. They live for the weekend and then cram it, and they treat holidays the same way, returning needing another week to recover.
The script compares highly successful people to lions. A lion hunts purposefully, gives its best performance when the time comes, then rests until the next hunt, and if it were exhausted all the time it would starve. Close the tabs open in your mind, rest your body, and you will be ready for the hunt.
FAQ
What is a one-time decision for productivity?
It is a choice you make once that keeps working every day, such as automating bill payments, setting up a goal whiteboard or blocking your peak hours. The video lists fifteen of them.
How do you find your peak hours?
Compare your results at different times of day to see when you actually do your best work. The creators found they only thought they were productive at night, and that their real peak was 10:30 am to 2:30 pm. Then block two to four hours there for what matters.
Why prepare things the night before?
The creators say whatever they prepare the night before gets done. They cite that putting trainers by the door makes you four times more likely to go for a run, because fewer distractions stand between you and the goal.
How do you decide what to say no to?
Make no your default. Each yes to something you do not want to do is a no to something you do, so unless a request is a hell yeah, say no.
What does it mean to rest purposefully?
It means resting deliberately to refill your batteries instead of cramming activities into weekends and holidays. The video compares it to a lion that hunts hard, then rests until the next hunt.
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