How to 10x Your Productivity Overnight (10 Power Up Secrets)

Do you ever find yourself wishing you had more time?

Finding more time each day comes down to productivity. We’ve spoken about the impact of time management and the significant ways you can dial in your productivity in many previous videos. Today, we are sharing 10 simple hacks and tools that will skyrocket your productivity. These are all very simple techniques that myself and the team at Med School Insiders utilize to free up hours every week.

Stay tuned for one of my favorites toward the end.

1. Utilize Text Expanders

First, let’s start with one of my favorites. Use a text expander to quickly generate any text you frequently type. This was an absolute game-changer for me in medical school, and I continue to use it on a daily basis.

With a simple shortcut, you can pull up a fully-drafted message, email, address, phone number, or website. You can even use it for long, difficult to spell words or tough to retrieve symbols.

For example, I use @adr to pull up my mailing address or @em to fill in my email.

You can set up drafted emails as well, such as scheduling a meeting with a professor or if you run businesses like I do, responding to sponsor requests and customer questions.

In medical school, I used these quick shortcuts for any words I frequently typed. Any time I typed dz, it turned to disease. tx turned into treatment and dx turned into diagnosis. I set this up for commonly used symbols as well, such as ,a for alpha, ,b for beta, and ,d for delta.

It may only save you a fraction of a second to a few seconds each time, but long-term, these time savers all compound and add up. If you can save even 5 to 10 minutes by the end of each week utilizing simple shortcuts, it’s well worth the investment of time to set up.

These shortcuts also prevented typos and grammatical errors, as I was starting with fully polished and edited text.

There are dozens of different text expanders to choose from, including CapitalTextBlaze, TextExpander, Magical, and TypeIt4Me. Macs also have basic built-in text expansion available through the Keyboard section of System Settings.

2. Leverage Automation Apps

Second, leverage productivity tool automation.

Any action you repeat multiple times a day or week should have a keyboard shortcut or automation set up. There are countless different productivity apps that all assist with different areas of focus and automation.

I personally use Magnet, which allows me to resize windows and customize my desktop with the click of a button or single swipe. I also have Google Drive set up directly on my desktop so I don’t waste time navigating to the Drive website.

There’s also Alfred, your personal butler, or rather Spotlight on steroids. This tool allows you to customize the functionality of your Mac with powerful workflows, including pasting the most recent image from a folder, setting timers or alarms, switching to a specific window, manipulating file types, converting measurement units, and accessing synonyms.

As with so many of these hacks, it requires upfront effort to set up your processes, but once you have them, you’ll quickly begin to save far more time than your initial investment. Do whatever you can to reduce friction.

Once you have the workflows set up, review them on a regular basis. Continue to add to and improve your list.

3. Play Videos at Increased Speed

Third, play any audio or video at increased speed. This goes for educational YouTube videos, online lectures, podcasts, and audiobooks. By playing content at 2x speed, you’ll get through it in half the time.

I’ve set up Accelerate for Safari to automatically play all videos at 1.5x speed by default, and it allows me to increase or decrease the speed by 0.25 increments with a keyboard shortcut.

If this is new to you, understand that you’ll adjust and it will become easier with time. Start with 1.25 speed and work your way up.

Additionally, keep in mind that your preferred speed will vary based on the speaker and the complexity of the topic being discussed. For faster speakers and more complex topics, go slower, and for slower speakers and less complex topics, go faster.

However, never exceed your limits of comprehension. The sweet spot feels slightly challenging, but still allows for full comprehension. If you’ve ever lost focus from speakers going too slow, you’ll find that increasing the speed solves this problem. However, go too far and you won’t get much out of the recording. There’s a bell-shaped curved, and you want to find the point where you maximize your focus and save time simultaneously.

Don’t fall for the silly competitiveness where people brag about how fast they listen to something. They’re leaving gains on the table.

4. Type Faster

As I like to say, there’s a right and a wrong way to do most things in life. It’s important that you learn how to type properly. And no, hunting and pecking for the keys is not proper typing. Setting your fingers on the home row and touch typing, meaning typing without looking at the keys, will allow you to drastically improve your typing speed. I’ll cover the techniques I used to type at over 150WPM on my personal channel, Kevin Jubbal, M.D.

The reason this investment pays off is that you likely type on your computer or phone several dozens of times per day. By increasing the speed at which you type, you shave off substantial chunks of time at each one of these instances, which adds up fast.

That means typing notes, messaging friends, writing emails, completing online exams, and just about anything else writing text on a computer or phone becomes substantially faster. Certain tests, like Casper for medical school applicants, require free text responses within a strict time limit. That means if you’re a slow or inaccurate typer, you’re at a disadvantage.

If you type fewer than 100 words per minute, I recommend setting aside some time to intentionally practice your typing speed and accuracy. Our free Casper typing tool offered at casper.medschoolinsiders.com helps you improve your typing speed as you simultaneously master Casper vocabulary.

5. Pomodoro Technique for Deep Focus

The next productivity hack is one you’re likely familiar with. The Pomodoro Technique encourages deep focus through timed intervals.

The basic premise is that you set a 25 minute timer to zero in on a task for 25 minutes. When the 25 minutes are up, you get a five minute break to reset and recharge. Ideally, during this break time, you can stretch, grab a glass of water, or go to the bathroom. Do not use this time to turn to TikTok.

If you’re unfamiliar or need a refresher, check out these Pomodoro guides that outline how to get the most out of the Pomodoro Technique and the critical errors many people make using a tomato timer:

• How to Utilize the Pomodoro Technique for Efficiency
• 5 Mistakes You’re Making With Pomodoro

From a productivity standpoint, the Pomodoro Technique can save you hours every week. Stop wasting time half-working, casually studying, or multitasking; instead, give your work your complete focus so that you can get more done in less time.

There’s nothing magical about the starting time of 25 and 5. Continue to experiment to determine what works best for you. We recommend using a physical hourglass or timer rather than an app for fewer distractions and temptations.

6. Use Focus Mode

Next, use focus modes to create a distraction-free digital workspace. For Mac, Apple has a built-in focus feature that allows you to pause notifications or only allow certain ones to come through.

Simply go to the Apple menu, choose System Settings, and click Focus. Focus modes are customizable, so you can create a Study Focus, Exercise Focus, or Sleep Focus, for example. The same feature is available on iPhone. Android has its own version of Focus available in the Digital Wellbeing section on your device.

I have different Focus modes set up. One that ensures no personal messages distract me when I’m working, and another that ensures no work messages come through when I’m invested in my personal life.

Be ruthless with what notifications you allow so that you can give your task, studying, or downtime your complete focus. The notifications may seem harmless, but every small distraction pulls you out of deep focus. You waste time whenever you switch from one task to another.

This is why we’re so adamant about avoiding multitasking. Trying to do two things at once and task switching results in both activities being less effective or fulfilling. Work hard, then play hard. Don’t mix the two.

The exception to this rule is that non-automatic tasks can be paired with an automatic one, such as stretching while watching a lecture or watching this YouTube video while you fold laundry.

7. Email Snooze Feature

Number 7, utilize the email snooze feature. This saves time in the moment and ensures you never forget about or bury an important message.

When you send an email that’s dependent on receiving a reply, hit the snooze by a couple of days to remind yourself to follow up if the other person does not. You can also use the snooze feature to push forward tasks or emails you want to read but don’t have time to in the moment.

This clears your inbox and moves anything unnecessary in the moment out of sight and out of mind. Don’t waste your brain cycles on trying to remember things that a tool can remember for you. Relying on your own memory is taxing, and it’s also incredibly unreliable.

8. Journal to Offload Ideas

Next, keep a journal to offload ideas and keep a clear head. We all have so much buzzing around our brains at any given moment.

Instead of switching tasks or turning to your phone when you have a great idea or remember you need to phone your grandmother, write it on a notepad beside your desk or in a small pocket notebook. Later, when you’re not in the middle of a task, you can review these notes and follow through on any small chores.

I use an app called Things3 to keep track of any miscellaneous tasks that come up. Once a week, I review the list and assign due dates based on relevance and importance.

If you choose an app option to offload ideas, be mindful of your own discipline. Does turning to your phone result in looking at other distracting apps, or are you able to get back to work immediately? If it’s the former, opt for a physical notepad.

I also keep a small journal beside my bed at night so that if my mind’s racing or I think of something I don’t want to forget, I can quickly jot it down instead of getting up or turning to my backlit blue-light phone.

9. Batch Alike Tasks

We’re nearly at the end of our list. At number 9, batch similar tasks.

For example, schedule time for checking emails and messages. Emails are meant to be asynchronous communication, meaning they do not need responses in real time, like a phone call or meeting. Schedule one to two blocks of time to check your email each day.

If you’re waiting on an important email or watching for interview invites, you can check more frequently throughout the day. But still, set boundaries around when you check and reply.

Other tasks to batch include brainstorming and creative tasks, writing and editing, studying, and meetings. I like to batch meetings together on certain days of the week so that I’m not constantly switching back and forth between deeper, focused work, and communication.

10. Delegate

Lastly, understand how and when to delegate. You don’t have to do it all alone. Allow your group members to take on part of the burden of group projects. Let your family cook you some meals when you’re studying for important exams. Ask for help when you need it.

Consider how you can automate and delegate tasks to AI tools. The capabilities of AI are rapidly improving to make our lives easier. Leverage AI for repetitive tasks, brainstorming, simple messages, and initial research.

You can also pay for services that make your life easier. Of course, as students, budgets are tight, but so is your time. If getting groceries takes you two hours on the bus but it’s only an extra $10 to get them delivered, opt for delivery. If you struggle to make healthy meals and don’t enjoy it, consider a reasonably priced meal service. You can often get promotional offers by trying different services and using different email accounts.

Don’t only consider the financial cost of something; also consider the time cost. The true way to 10x your productivity is to leverage your time.

What did we miss? Share your favorite productivity hack in the comments and leave a guess as to which one you think is my favorite.

Now go check out How to Study Faster or How to Have 13 Months a Year.