Great productivity hacks from 15 creative genius

I’m sure you’ve seen this quote before:

It made me wonder, how do some people manage to consistently deliver good work?

Here you have productivity secrets from 15 of my favourite creative genius:

(If you don’t understand Spanish you can read them below).

-Beyoncé: Her mantra “Power’s not given to you. You have to take it” is perfect to stop procrastinating. Don’t wait for somebody to tell you that you have to put your idea into action. Just do it.

-Hemingway used this trick: when your working day is coming to an end, stop writing the minute you are in the middle of a good parragraph, in “the zone”. Knowing exactly how you are going to continue the next day will be easier than facing a white page in the morning.

-Anthony Trollope was of the same idea. He used to start the next book before finishing the one he was writing. It was a way to avoid “lazy periods”

-Ann Rice states that it is crucial that we find our “sacred time”. To each his own. For instance, whenever she is writing a book, she sleeps during the day and works only at nights.

-Arianna Huffington reveres siesta time. So much that she built nap rooms at the Huffington Post headquarters in New York.

-For Mark Twain accountability was the key. She used to read every night to his family whatever he had written during the day.

-Richard Branson is a list fanatic: “use your brain to think, not to remember” is his motto. Try Wunderlist, Evernote or any other app and see if organizing your work can help you produce more.

-Jonathan Franzen thinks that the key to increase productivity is to avoid external stimuli. He writes with an old computer that has no internet connection and sometimes he even uses earmuffs and a blindfold. Do you want to know if you are wasting too much time on the internet? Try Rescue Time and see where your time goes.

-If you are wasting time on too many meetings try Jeff Bezos‘s “two pizzas” team rule: teams shouldn’t be larger than what two pizzas can feed.

-Bobbi Brown‘s secret? Avoid multitasking. Focus on one thing at a time and you’ll work better and faster.

-David Allen has a 2 minute rule: if something new arrives on your schedule that can be don in under 2 minutes then you should do it right now. That way your to-do list won’t become super long.

-Adora Cheung invites you to use powerful images. Her first job was in a cleaning company. When she founded  Homejoy she hung her cleaning uniform in his office as a reminder of her past. She says that whenever she feels like procrastinating looking at the uniform gives her the “emotional push” she needs to keep going.

-J Crew CEO Mickey Drexler says that honesty is key. Once a month he takes a walk alone to asks himself: am I wasting my time? How?

-Farrell Williams thinks that it is important to surround yourself with experts. That way you can focus on your expertise and delegate other areas to your partners.

-Jerry Senfield productivity hack is “don’t break the chain”. Each January, he hangs a large calendar on his wall and, for every day he writes new material, he draws a big red “X” over that day. He says that when he has a long chain of Xs the idea of breaking it pushes him to write even if he doesn’t feel like it.

Do you know any other great productivity hack? Maybe your favourite creative genius has a secret you can share? I’d love to add more names to this list!