So, we are right at the tail end of December right now.

And what I wanted to do for the last video of 2017

on my channel is give you guys 10 ideas

for starting out 2018 more productively.

And, you know what, I don't think

we really need a whole lot more preamble than that,

so let's get started.

Tip number one, if you have not done this already,

try using a habit tracking app in 2018.

And, there are a ton of these out there.

My personal favorite is called Habitica

because it basically turns habit tracking

into an RPG-like video game where you get stat boosts

and weapons and gear and go on quests.

And, you can even partner up with people

who will keep you accountable.

But, there are also a bunch of decidedly less nerdy options

out there including Momentum and Today

which are both on iOS

and Loop, which is an Adroid exclusive.

I find that using a habit tracker is really useful for me

because the act of marking down when I actually do a habit

creates a streak.

And, when I look back on that streak,

I don't want to break it.

As Peter Drucker once may have said,

"What gets measured gets managed."

Tip number two, and this one is really, really simple,

try experimenting with pre-planned blocks

of uninterrupted single focus time on your calendar.

Now, we've talked a lot on this channel

about the power of focusing on one task

for a long, uninterrupted period of time,

but a lot of times it's really easy to convince yourself

that more urgent, but easier tasks or less important tasks

should be done right now.

So, if you start your week, or at least your day,

with a plan that I'm gonna, say, do my homework

from two to six pm, and do nothing else,

then you're more likely to do it,

and you're more likely to focus only on that task,

which is difficult.

All right, tip number three is to start

an accomplishment journal.

This is exactly what it sounds like.

You're keeping a simple record of everything

that you've done, either on a daily basis

or maybe on a weekly or longer basis

depending on how much effort you wanna put into it.

But, I find this practice to be really useful

because as you get older and as you get

into more of a schedule whether it be with school or work,

the days can start to blend together,

everything becomes a routine.

And, when this starts to happen, you can start to feel

like you haven't really accomplished anything in a while

because your brain has sort of filed it away.

And, that could demotivate you.

But, if you have an accomplishment journal to look back on,

you can see that, yes, you actually have accomplished

a good deal.

Now, My Impossible List that's over on my website,

College Info Geek, is a form of an accomplishment journal.

I basically mark off any time I achieve something

really big that I set out to do.

But, my suggestion here is actually

that you try doing an accomplishment journal

on a daily basis.

Essentially, as you finish tasks during the day,

write them down in a note on Evernote

or your note-taking app of choice

or on just a scrap of paper and then at the end of the day,

or possibly at the end of the week, review them

and see what you did.

And this can actually have benefits beyond just looking

at the checked-off items on your do-to list.

Because as you probably know pretty well,

a lot of times, tasks come up in the middle of the day

and interrupt you and things

that you didn't anticipate just happen.

So, by keeping a record of all these things,

you're gonna have more accurate picture

of what you were actually able to accomplish.

And, when you're going through your review sessions,

that more accurate picture is gonna enable you

to make better and more intelligent changes

to the way that you work.

Okay, so you probably saw this fourth tip coming,

but in 2018, you should make a lot more time

for sitting on the couch, eating Doritos,

drinking Mountain Dew and playing Halo.

(chuckles) Just kidding.

You should make a lot more time for exercise.

And, yes, this is a pretty cliche tip,

but a lot of people don't prioritize exercise

especially when they're ambitious.

Their work takes up all their hours

and they just don't make it a priority.

Now, it's also true that when a new year rolls around,

a lot of people get it into their heads

that they are finally going to exercise

consistently this year.

And, maybe you're thinking that.

My one recommendation here echoes

what I talked about last week.

Start small, restrict your time scale,

and don't bite off more than you can chew.

Because when you start the new year,

you have a lot of motivation and you might not have

a whole lot on your plate, so it's really easy

to stick with a goal.

But, later on down the line, when stuff starts to get

into your way, your schedule starts to get a bit more busy,

that's when your self-discipline is truly tested.

So, if you set a goal that stretches your capabilities

and challenges you a bit, but it's still doable

within your schedule, even at its most challenging points,

you're going to stick with it.

One additional thing that I'll mention here

is that if you wanna exercise more regularly,

it can be very helpful to sign up for a class

at your school or your rec center.

And, this could be a class that teaches you

a new sport you haven't tried before,

which can be really fun and which I did with ice skating,

or it can just be a workout class.

In either case, signing up for a class gives you,

one, a community of people who are doing the same thing

as you, which is a lot of fun, but, two, an obligation

that doesn't exist just in your head.

You're not relying only on your self-discipline.

You now have other people who are expecting you to be there.

Tip number five is something that you can take advantage of

while you're on winter break or you're not otherwise

overloaded with tons of classes and homework.

Take some time to redesign your living space,

or your room, to take advantage of the 20-second rule.

If you haven't seen it already, I did an entire video

a while back on the 20-second rule.

And, I'll have that linked in the description down below.

But, essentially, the 20-second rule

is all about increasing the difficulty

and the time that it takes to get into the things

that you don't wanna do so often, the bad habits,

and reducing the time and the friction that it takes

to do the things that you want to do more often.

So, if right now you play way too many video games,

maybe put your game controllers in a drawer somewhere

or maybe even take the cord out of your PlayStation

and put it in a closet.

That way, it's kind of a pain in the butt to set it up.

And, on the other hand, if you wanna read more often

or maybe practice an instrument, buy an instrument stand.

Put your guitar right where you can pick it up

and play it within five seconds.

Or put your book right on the table so you can walk in

from class, grab it, and start reading for a bit.

Anything you can do to reduce the friction between you

and a good habit is gonna reduce the willpower required

to remain consistent in doing it.

And, the same is true of avoiding bad habits.

Tip number six is to start looking for regular parts

of your work process that you could either automate

or make more efficient.

For example, I recently both of my credit cards

to autopay so every month I no longer have to log in

and pay them manually.

And, another thing that I've been doing on a regular basis

is that when I start noticing that I have to go to a folder

on my computer really, really often,

I will pin it to my quick access toolbar

so that way I can easily click it

instead of having to navigate through the entire tree.

Now, one word of warning here.

Not everything that you do is a candidate for automation

or even more efficiency.

And, actually there's a really good comment

over on xkcd called Is It Worth The Time

that essentially breaks down the threshold

at which you should actually start thinking

about spending time automating something

rather than just doing it.

Though, I'm gonna be honest,

sometimes I just like to automate things for fun.

And, if you find that fun, then do that.

Tip number eight is to go and disable all the notifications

and badges on your phone, or at least most of them.

In the past, I'd always unconsciously let apps

have notifications turned on

and they'd have badges turned on

and eventually my home screen would turn into this mess

of badges and little red numbers

up in the corners and distractions.

And, I really don't wanna be giving that much attention

to my phone.

It should be working for me, not sucking up

all of my time.

So, at one point during this year,

I went into my phone settings and I disabled

basically every notification, every little sound

and every little badge on the home screen that I could

other than the ones that were completely essential.

And, speaking of things that are essential,

or rather, non-essential, tip number nine

is to take the apps off of your phone that you don't need

or otherwise block access to them.

For example, my friend Martin actually

went into his ad blocker settings on his iPhone

and disabled basically every single site in the world

except for language translation sites.

And, doing this eventually changed

his brain's automatic response whenever he got the urge

to look something up.

Rather than getting distracted on Safari

and probably clicking a bunch of links

he never meant to click in the first place,

he just made a voice reminder of it.

And, then later on when he was at his computer,

if it was still important enough, and it often wasn't,

he could look it up.

For a less drastic example, I've often had email apps

taken off my phone, I've often had social media apps

taken off my phone.

In fact, there are certain apps that I only have on my phone

when I'm traveling.

Essentially, I don't wanna have access to those apps

on my phone, because access to them while I'm trying to work

represents a mental burden.

Tip number nine, again, because I realize

I accidentally skipped eight is to identify

the time at which you regularly consume media online

and replace it with reading.

I think it's pretty safe to say that most of you

are like me and you have certain times of the day

where you just automatically to Reddit

or you go to Facebook or you go to Twitter.

And, these times are probably not all that valudable.

Valudable (chuckles).

And, you also probably don't read as much as you'd like to.

So, by consciously identifying these times

and then maybe scheduling some reading time

during the exact same times, you'll start to avoid

this unconscious social media consumption.

And, finally, tip number 10, when you're setting your goals

for 2018, or whenever you set goals,

make sure that you prioritize them and understand