The Most Important Productivity Habit

Which one habit has the biggest impact on your productivity?

What makes the difference between staying organized and perpetually feeling overwhelmed?

Which one thing, if you did it consistently, would make a world of difference for you?

Since 2019, I’ve helped countless people become more organized and more productive. People from all kinds of backgrounds, people in wildly different industries, and people with very different personalities. And I’ve found that whether they adopt one particular habit—more so than any other habit—determines whether they will see positive changes.

It’s not having a periodic goal-setting process setting. That’s a very important habit, to be sure, and it’s #3 on my list of most important productivity habits. It’s also very relevant, right here at the edge of 2023, when we’re about to leap into 2024. Clarifying your high-level goals is a huge help for spending your time well. In fact, if you don’t really know what your goals and dreams are, figuring that out should be a top priority!

It’s also not the habit of intentionally planning each day. This, too, is incredibly important—in fact I’d rank it #2 on my productivity-habit list. Whether you react to what’s coming at you or, by contrast, proactively choose what deserves your attention today can mean the difference between being a passenger and a driver. Look, how you spend your days is how you spend your life. And if you want to live a meaningful life, you should deliberately choose what you spend your limited time, energy, and attention on. In fact, that’s how what you attend to acquires meaning.

But if it’s not those, then which habit is it? What is the number one most important productivity habit?

The #1 habit that determines productivity and organizational success is the weekly review.

Are you taking the time, once a week, to process your various inboxes? Your email inbox. Your physical inbox. Your task manager inbox. Your notes inbox.

Are you, each week, reviewing the status of your outstanding projects and to-dos? Are you performing some quick maintenance on your task management system?

Are you looking ahead, so you can anticipate deadlines and complete work ahead of time? Are you making sure nothing slips through the cracks? And do you have a good understanding of what you could be working on in the coming days?

If not, start there.

Take a little time, once a week, to step back and review the status of things. It doesn’t take much time. Once you’re in the habit of it, 30 minutes should be plenty. 30 minutes once a week can be absolutely life-changing.

This habit is so important that I told the participants in my recent four-week live program (Organize Your Life), “if you take only one thing from this course, keep doing weekly reviews”. Forget about the goal setting, the task manager structuring, the planning ahead—do your weekly reviews. This half an hour a week is that powerful.

The weekly review is so powerful because it helps you reflect, because it ensures nothing slips through the cracks, and because it builds your belief in your system. When you review weekly, your can rely on your system. You can trust it. And trusting your system means you’ll use it. That’s when you get all of the productivity and organizational benefits!

So, as we’re about to walk, run, leap, hurdle, or fall into 2024, make those weekly reviews your top priority, if you’re not doing them yet. Any of my task management courses or my course Big-Picture Productivity will teach you how to do this.

In the meantime go on, go forth, and have a wonderful New Year’s Eve. See you next year!