No apps, no hacks. A guide to optimizing productivity
By Upasna Gautam, CNN
(CNN) — I used to be a productivity app junkie.
If an app promised to make me smarter, faster or more efficient, I downloaded it. Time trackers, digital planners, habit trackers — you name it. I spent hours setting them up, convinced this one would fix my time management problems.
Spoiler alert: None of them did.
After five years of working remotely in a demanding industry, launching major products and having a baby, I’ve learned the hard truth: No app can fix your focus. Productivity isn’t about software or someone else’s “perfect” routine. It’s about mindset — nailing the basics and figuring out what works for you. That’s where mindful productivity comes in.
What is mindful productivity?
Mindful productivity isn’t about hustling from dawn till dusk or checking off 100 tasks just to collapse at the end of the day. It’s about knowing what you want to accomplish and working with intention toward those accomplishments — all while paying attention to what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. It’s staying focused on your goals and not being overwhelmed.
For me, it shows up in the agenda I set the night before my next morning. It’s in the pause before I send a snarky email I’ll regret later. It’s the deep breath when I see my calendar looks like chaos and I realize, “This can wait.”
Mindful productivity is about focusing on what matters so you can crush your work goals and have a life outside of them. In my case, it includes chasing a goofy, rambunctious 16-month-old around my home.
The way I do it works for me with the life I have. At every stage, whether it was getting married, jumping into a new industry, working remotely and having a baby, I had to reevaluate my priorities and update my strategies. Tweak or overhaul these ideas so they work for you.
If you’re game to try these hacks and forget apps in the new year, here’s how I do it:
I schedule my time intentionally
If you don’t protect your time, no one else will. That’s why I block focused work sessions and treat them as sacred. Mondays and Fridays are my deep workdays — three-hour blocks dedicated to high-priority projects with zero interruptions.
Midweek, I squeeze in smaller blocks — an hour here, two hours there — to keep momentum on critical tasks. And remember it’s OK if your blocks look different. Not everyone can protect three hours of time.
Fridays are my go-to day for recapping the week. I summarize progress, key wins and upcoming milestones tailored for teammates, customers and other stakeholders. This habit not only keeps my team aligned but also builds trust across the board.
The key is to communicate and protect your time. I set an away message during these blocks, so my team knows exactly what I’m doing and why it matters. This results in no interruptions and no chaos — just focused, meaningful work. Here’s the bottom line: The way you treat your time is how others will treat it, too.
I dropped multitasking
When I have tried to work on more than one thing at a time, I accomplish less and get frustrated more often. That’s because multitasking isn’t possible, according to science.
“Your brain is wired to do one thing at a time,” Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, an internal medicine physician and lecturer on global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, told me. “When you multitask, what you are doing is ‘task switching,’ doing two separate tasks in rapid succession.”
Task switching ironically weakens your productivity over time by affecting your prefrontal cortex, the area of your brain responsible for complex problem-solving, strategic thinking and organization.
So Nerurkar, author of “The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress and More Resilience,” advised me to “monotask instead to maintain your productivity while preserving your prefrontal cortex.”
I added an end-of-day ritual
You know what you’ve done (or not done) by day’s end. I anchor the end of my day with a simple yet powerful ritual: I write down the three priorities I need to tackle for the next morning. Just three. This is my secret to ending the day on a high note. No lingering “What am I forgetting?” stress. No waking up to chaos. I leave a sticky note on my monitor, so when I sit down the next morning, I will know exactly where to start.
On a recent Thursday morning, my sticky note read: Finalize a product requirements document, prep for a meeting with engineering on a new feature we’re building and complete the first draft of first quarter objectives and key results. By 11 a.m., I felt like I was already winning the day.
I ditched the to-do list
Each morning, I first ensure that those top three priorities I defined the day before are scheduled into my calendar. It is my way of forcing myself to prioritize and make sure that what needs to get done gets done efficiently. It’s a daily practice of acknowledging that while I can do anything, I can’t do everything (at least not all at once).
The real hack here is using your calendar as your to-do list. If it doesn’t fit into your calendar, it’s not getting done. An hour in the morning for research. Ninety minutes after lunch to write. Thirty minutes before signing off to clear my inbox. This process isn’t just about scheduling — it’s a forcing function for prioritization.
When your day is limited to 24 hours, not everything makes the cut, and that’s the point. Why does this work? Because when a task is on your calendar, it’s real. You’ve committed to it. And when you commit, you execute. Don’t hide behind your to-do list. Own your time by turning it into a plan that delivers.
Fridays are my secret weapon
Every Friday before I log off for the weekend, I plan the next week. It’s a quiet moment of reflection and foresight, identifying my top three priorities and setting the stage for a week in which I can hit the ground running. I block time next week for big projects while anticipating potential challenges and making space for deep work.
It’s a simple routine that allows me to head into the weekend with a clear mind and begin at full speed on Monday. Oh, and the best part: no more Sunday night worries about what I’ve forgotten for the week ahead.
Living an intentional life
Mindful productivity isn’t about squeezing every second out of your day. It’s about being fully present and intentional with the time you have. It’s about creating a harmony that doesn’t just make you more productive but also more at peace.
And it’s not just a way to work — it applies to my personal life, too. Whether it’s an afternoon outing with my husband or a coffee date with a friend, these practices help me stay grounded in the present moment and align my time with what I value the most.
The goal isn’t to get more done. The goal is to get things done so that you can satisfy your work appetite, pay attention to your surroundings and be as emotionally present to yourself and your loved ones in off-work times as you are during work hours.
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