17 Productivity Hacks TikTok Swears By

If you prefer listening to reading, turning text into speech might be your new favorite productivity tool. Podcastle AI is a Chrome extension that will turn all the articles you have to read into a podcast-style audio narrative. This TikTok hack explains exactly how it works.

If you’re a visual person, you’ll love this TikTok productivity hack with over 350K likes. Create a four-column sheet on a physical sheet of paper with status trackers for tasks — the TikTok suggests “To Do,” “In Progress,” “Done,” and “Blocker,” but you can swap in whatever goalposts you need. Assign each color sticky tab a category — blue can mean tasks related to home, while orange can signify work to-do items. Move the tabs over to their respective columns as you work on them, and enjoy the satisfaction of seeing a rainbow of tabs over in the “Done” column.

It's probably your instinct to tune into your favorite comfort albums when you're stressed and have a load of work to plow through. But according to this TikTok — and science — flipping on some instrumental or classical music can help you focus.

Even if you're not the type to have an app for everything, you may want to give the Bakery app a try. Free to download, Bakery lets you select a pastry to bake. However long it takes to cook is the amount of time you're supposed to stay off your phone and work on your task. As this TikTok explains, the app will get upset with you — your pastries will burn! — if you try to click out of it and abandon your task

We've all been there — you've proofread your email, but somehow missed that you addressed it to the wrong person. Or you spelled their name wrong. Or you forgot the attachment. The possibilities are endless, but hope is not lost. Set your Gmail to let you unsend your emails, and thank this TikTok every time you do.

If you absolutely hate your never-ending stream of disposable Post-It to-do lists, this vid will help you rank your tasks by date and priority in Microsoft Excel so you can have everything you need in neat tabs on your computer.

If you’re a candy fiend, line up a row of Sour Patch Kids on your desk and tell yourself that you get one when you finish sending that email. If candy doesn't do it for you, try an episode of Selling Sunset as a reward for your next big task. Setting up a system of little treats each time you complete a work quest can make your to-do list more fun than stressful, according to this TikTok.

For those days when you don't want to put on hard pants, let alone get any work done, try hiding your to-do list — sort of. Write out everything you have to do on your medium of choice, then write your top priority task on a Post-it. Put the rest of your to-do list away (X out of your tab, toss it in a drawer, whatever works). Focus only on your Post-it until it's done, then rinse and repeat with your second priority.

Too many emails in your inbox? When subscription messages are preventing you from actually tackling the emails you really do have to respond to, this TikTok recommends trying unroll.me. It's designed to scan your inbox and help you unsubscribe from all those newsletters and updates you never actually open anyway — without having to click through and find the unsubscribe button in every single email.

Sometimes writing out the things you've got to do just doesn't help because it still feels disorganized. But if you separate your daily tasks into blocks of time, per this TikTok hack, you'll be able to clearly see that yes, you've got enough time to do all your work and rewatch Euphoria.

Writing out what you've got to do today might not feel sustainable during those weeks that seem endless. To spare yourself the overwhelm (and the crushing sensation that you have more tasks than time), take your to-do list a step further and scaffold your entire week out in time blocks. That way, you'll be able to visualize your whole week and realize that you can have your work cake and relax, too.

That awkward moment when you to scan something, but don’t own a printer thanks to being a Millennial, doesn't have to be awkward anymore. This TikTok will guide you through using the Notes app on your iPhone to scan documents so you can upload the darn thing and get on with your day.

Having trouble getting going in the morning? Don't start with a list of things you have to do that you're probably not going to like doing. Instead, start your day by tackling a list of things you love doing. That way, you'll get off to an inspired start and feel much better prepared to dive into everything else.

Having trouble getting going in the morning? Don't start with a list of things you have to do that you're probably not going to like doing. Instead, start your day by tackling a list of things you love doing. That way, you'll get off to an inspired start and feel much better prepared to dive into everything else.

This TikTok recommends beating the don’t-wanna-do-its with make-believe. “Pretend you’re in a movie and your character is an expert in whatever it is you need to do. Like it’s their life passion,” the poster says. What would the main character do when faced with, say, emptying the dishwasher?

A to-do list isn’t the only way to keep track of what needs to get done. This TikTok suggests using a priority matrix to rank your tasks in order of urgency and importance. Seeing your tasks broken down like that can help you more efficiently manage your time.

If you're perhaps a little too excited by productivity hacks, you might need this reminder from TikTok: Close your laptop at the end of the workday and go do something you love. Having hobbies is linked with mental health benefits in study after study, and the increase in emotional well-being in turn increases productivity, according to a 2019 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. In other words, be off when you’re off, so you can be more on when you’re on.