5 Helpful Productivity Habits I’ve Been Doing For Years that ARE Keeping Me Sane

The following productivity habits help me function in my day to day life, whether it is for my work, financial activities, or just my daily activities.

I think building good habits takes a lot of discipline. It took me a while to maintain these habits but eventually, they stuck.

Just remember to be consistent and be mindful of your habits.

You can always change your habits, or create a new one.

I hope these productivity habits will help you too.

Productivity Habits You Can Try

1. Tracking Daily Finances

Tracking my finances was an on and off habit I did, but eventually, I am very happy that I’ve been doing it consistently now.

I did the whole manual recording in my notebook before during college and it didn’t work. I think it was too much work for me. Thankfully, we have apps now to record all our expenses and income.

I tried a lot of apps before and it took me a while to commit to one app that I like.

I am now using Monefy which is very easy to use. I paid for the pro version which is very cheap ($2.99) and I am very happy with it.

What I do is, I record all my expenses and income in Monefy. At the end of the month, I transfer all those details to my excel file. I compare all my finances each month in my excel file and it helps me see which months I was not doing good. Seeing all my finances helps me to be more mindful of my spending habits.

2. Calendar Blocking

Calendar blocking is a great way to visualize my daily schedule and tasks. I block my time of the day with each task and schedule them on my calendar.

I even put the time I do my morning routine, eating schedules, personal to-do lists, events to attend, and of course working hours.

I am working as a freelancer and most of the time, I underestimate my work or tasks. Before when I did not do Calendar blocking, I did not know how to visualize my day and I always ended up working too much and got exhausted.

I shared this habit with my friend and she loves it. It helps her a lot too!

Here is a helpful guide on how to do it.

3. Daily Journaling

I think, I already mentioned a lot of journaling here on my blog, but I couldn’t stop myself from sharing how amazing journaling is.

I’ve been journaling for 10 years now and I couldn’t imagine myself without it.

As a person who talks too much and who thinks random things a LOT, my mind is a place where everything is just too much. Journaling makes it more concrete. It helps me to be more self-aware as well.

Journaling should be part of your productivity habits too. It will help your thoughts to be more organized. And organize thoughts can lead to being more productive.

4. Taking Notes 

This is a habit I never thought would be so helpful.

When I learn about something new, or when I think about something important to do or random things I want to remember, I always take note of it.

It is a good habit because once you have already taken note of it, you can take it off your mind.

You do not need to think about it and most importantly, you will not forget it.

Here are some note-taking tools I like:

• Trello is a Kanban-style list-making application that is very flexible and easy to use.

I use Trello to store important and go to notes for my Blog and Youtube Channel.

It is where I add all my future travel plans as well. It has a checklist setting that can help me list all the things needed for my travel and important things to do before going to each specific destination.

• Evernote is a note-taking, organizing, task management, and archiving.

I use Evernote for my content creation for my blog. Basically, I use it for my writing tasks, all content ideas and lists. I also love that I can create a content calendar inside Evernote!

• Notes App on my phone – Notes on iPhone and All Note on Samsung.

I use my phone’s notes app to just take note of random things.

For example, if a friend mentioned something interesting that I want to check out, I will write it in my notes. If I remember some tasks I need to do next week, I will write it on my notes before adding it to my calendar. Basically, any random things I want to get off my mind right away.

5. Organizing my email

Being an adult means checking our emails is part of our social media everyday to-do list.

When I was in college, I did not care about my emails. I realized that I have thousands of email messages inside the inbox. It was a nasty sight so I deleted them one by one.

It was an exhausting thing to do that I do not want to deal with again. So now, I always check my emails and delete those I need to delete.

I also organize all of my emails. I created filters and categories so I can find each message more easily.

It helps me a lot to be more productive and keeping my headspace clear.

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I hope you find this article helpful! Kindly share in the comments what are the habits you do to be productive!