If you knew of someone  brand new to personal development that was looking to begin by making one  and only one change to improve themselves what would it be? What is the ultimate productivity tip?

I’ve gathered 50 of the most popular and most influential productivity tips from around the web, in order to put them to a reader vote.  Wherever possible I’ve included the person that first introduced the concept or first introduced me to the concept.  Some of the tips are so widely used that it is almost impossible to figure out their original source.Please cast your vote for only ONE tip in the comments section and tell why you think this tip is the ultimate place to begin. The 50 tips are not in any particular order or should indicate any preference on my part, nor that I necessarily follow or agree with all of them.

The Contenders

1. Capture Everything from Getting Things Done.  David Allen suggests that you write down all thoughts and actions in order to free up your mental focus on actions rather than on trying to remember what needs to get done.
   
2. Work out of Quadrant Two from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Steven Covey suggests that you identify those goals that are most important to you.  These are often goals that are important but not urgent and usually set aside to take care of unimportant but urgent  needs.  He recommends scheduling the important but not urgent goals every day.
   
3. Do Less from The Power of Less.  Leo Babuata suggests single tasking.  Pick just one goal and break down the goal into simple achievable tasks that move you closer to completion.
   
4. Set Smart Goals this is one of those tips that is every where.  Smart goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.
   
5. Visualization is the concept that if we visualize our actions and outcomes we will be mentally prepared to recognize actions that move us towards a desired outcome.  It also effective in sports, to help train the body to follow certain movements automatically.
   
6. Positive Thinking from The Power of Positive Thinking. Norman Vincent Peale suggested the strategy of controlling the types of thoughts you have.  He suggests that positive thinking will lead to positive results.
   
7. Self Awareness is taking time to get to know yourself, figuring out what you truly want, how you got to where you are and where are you going from here.
   
8. Meditation is the practice of focusing on the present.  By bringing your attention to this very moment, you are neither concerned about the past nor the future.  When you are focused on the present you can give a more concentrated emphasis on any project at hand.
   
9. Waking Up Early I first saw this idea on Steve Pavlina’s site and Leo Babauta also is a big proponent of waking up early.  The idea is that by waking up earlier we gain uninterrupted time to complete those actions that are often neglected if we try to fit them in to our normal daily activity.
   
10. Overwhelming Force Steve Pavlina borrowed this concept from the military. The concept is that if you need to make a big change in your life, throw as many resources at the challenge as needed to guarantee success.
    
11. Daily Goals this common tip suggests identifying a handful of small goals to complete for the day that move you towards a larger goal.
    
12. Batching suggests doing like tasks at the same time.  For example, rather than returning a phone call right in the middle of another project, save it and return it later in the day while you are at the phone making other phone calls.
    
13. Disconnecting suggests unplugging your computer from the Internet and turning off your phone, so that you can get work without the disruption of phone calls, email alerts, and any other number of distractions that the Internet provides.
    
14. Deadlines Remember when you put off writing that paper? It wasn’t until the deadline was upon you that you finished it.  Giving yourself a deadline for a project makes it more likely that it doesn’t keep getting put off until someday.
    
15. Pareto Principal Tim Ferris is a big proponent of this idea.  The idea is that 80% of X comes from 20% of Y. In business this might mean that 80% of your income comes from 20% of your customers.  In personal growth this might mean that 80% of your success comes from 20% of your of your actions.  Identify what those are and focus on them.
    
16. Outsourcing Another one of Tim Ferris’ favorites.  The idea is to let someone else do the mundane work that prevents you from doing the profound work that would really propel you towards your goals.
    
17. Rewarding This idea is at least as old as Pavlov and his dogs.  Provide yourself with a suitable and enticing reward for the completion of a particular goal.  For example, want to stop smoking.  Promise yourself a vacation with all the money you save from not buying cigarettes.
    
18. Accountability Does anyone really like to be recognized as a failure?  How about getting recognized as a success?  Making your goals public makes it emotionally difficult to fail at them, because you don’t want people to know you didn’t succeed and conversly it propels you toward success as you want people to see that you did succeed.
    
19. Focus/Single Tasking Leo Babauta is a big proponent of this concept.  The idea is to eliminate all distractions and obligations and focus entirely on one task until it is completed.
    
20. 30 Day Trials Steve Pavlina introduced this idea.  His reasoning is that the idea of sticking with something indefinitely is often too difficult for us to be comfortable with and will lead to failure.  However, if you commit to trying something for 30 days, it is short enough to be attainable and long enough to develop a habit if that is what you choose to do.  At the end of 30 days if you don’t like the results of the trial you are free to stop it and still feel like a success because you achieved what you set out to do.
    
21. Worst First Pick the least desirable task for the day an d get it done and out of the way.
    
22. Intention Manifestation Similar to visualization and recently made popular by The Secret.  The idea is that if one focuses strongly enough on what they want, the universe will accommodate a person’s desire.
    
23. Create Routines This habit suggests to do the same thing at the same time every day.  The idea is that the brain will become hardwired to routine and be ready for those functions at this time.  In schools this concept is used in schools during standardized testings.  Students tend to test better if they test in a particular subject at the same time that they would normally have that class.  For example, a child taking a state math test tends to score higher if they take the test during their math period.
    
24. Weekly Reviews This is a a vital process in Getting Things Done. The weekly review is an analysis of both the past week’s performance and looking into what goals would be most effective to accomplish for the upcoming week.
    
25. Work When Your Most Productive Not always the easiest tip to implement as many employers still haven’t caught on to this idea.  But most people’s energy levels fluctuate during the day.  It makes sense to work on the most demanding tasks when you are most alert and energetic.
    
26. Use Timers When looking at completing a task, especially large tasks, and having a hard time getting motivated. Its often handy to set a timer and work as fast as you can for length of the timer.  This helps you to relax knowing a break is in the future. When the timer goes off, you can take a break if you wish, however you’ll often find you’re in the mood to keep working.
    
27. Keep All Messages Short Many people’s job requires lots of responses, especially by email.  If you can get in the habit of writing brief, to-the-point messages, you can save lots of time.
    
28. Say “No” Sometimes you have to say, “no’ to commitments.  Want to make time for your kids ball game, but your local PTA needs help on a project and your buddy wants you to help him launch his boat, and your boss wants you to take on a new client?  It’s not easy, but knowing what your priority is, helps you say, “no” to the other requests.  Also, getting in the habit of saying “no” more often than not, can help keep your schedule free for those commitments you really want to keep.
    
29. Work in short bursts Have a marathon job to do, or something you find unpleasant?  Try a sprint instead.  Work out it as fast and hard as you can for as long as you can and then take a break.  Set a stop watch at see how quickly you can knock it out.  If it is a task you often have to do, see if you can set a record time.
    
30. Make “To-do” lists A very, very common suggestion.  Put down everything you want to get done on a to-do list and start with the top item on your list and keep plugging away at them until you get to the bottom.
    
31. Make “To-stop” lists I saw Jonathan Meade suggest this tip.  The idea is to create a list of all the things you are doing that making your day hectic.  Write these down, and see to it that you don’t do them anymore.  Spend too much time, checking your email?  Put that on your “to-stop” list and then take actions to stop it.  Perhaps, by disconnecting.
    
32. Create Tickler Files another suggest from Get Things Done. If you have a list of projects to do and can’t get to them all or you need to do something in the future, create a 30 day tickler file and place the task or reminder for the day you need it and when that day arrives your information is there and waiting.
    
33. Listen to music Find music that can help you keep focused and drown out distractions.  Some people need music that is energetic and keeps you excited.  Other like instrumental music that is relaxing and doesn’t distract them with words.
    
34. Eliminate unnecessary tasks Similar to the Pareto Principal and the “To -stop” list.  Eliminating unnecessary tasks requires you to find exam every day tasks that you can avoid. For example, have too many meetings?  How much of those meetings could be accomplished with a memo?  Or, are you making unnecessary trips to stores or other areas of the office?  Find one time a day or week to make those trips.
    
35. Micro Naps or Power Naps are just like what the name suggests.  Naps of less than ten minutes.  Often a short ten minute nap when you’re sluggish is enough to refresh you and get you moving. Napping for longer than ten minutes and you risk getting into a REM cycle that is hard to come out of and could make you even sleepier than when you started.
    
36. Use Calendars Some people hate to-do lists and prefer making appointments in their calendar.  Those tasks that make it onto the calendar are the most important items that need to get done.
    
37. Go paperless In today’s digital world this tip is becoming easier and easier to implement.  Instead of filing all of your information in clunky hanging folders, it is possible now to keep most of that information in digital form.  Digital filing, makes for less clutter in an office, it is easier to change, and backups can be made to help protect important information from getting lost.
    
38. Use Desktop Searches instead of filing Similar to going paperless.  Desktop searches help you take another step out of the process by eliminating the need to file your information on the computer.  Just type a few key words and let your computer find the file you need.
    
39. Do What You Like This is the opposite of Worst First.  The idea is to pick a task you know you will enjoy and start with that.  Once your moving and getting things done, it sometimes enough to get you going on the less enjoyable tasks.
    
40. Eliminate Waste This is similar to eliminating unnecessary tasks, but it more of a systems approach.  It means taking a look at your over all day or system of operations and finding out if there is wasted time, actions or materials.  For example, you may find that batching your phone calls at the end of the day is more efficient, because you can have a contact list pulled up and input all information in at once and you don’t have to continuously got to the phone. However, if you find that you have many clients that are on a schedule where they are unable to take phone calls at that time and it results in phone tag over several days, you are wasting time.  Or, if those phone calls are for product defects from your manufacturing plant and you have to wait for someone to get back into the office to research the defect before you can let you client know when they can expect an answer you are creating an extra step.  Maybe you need to change your batch calling to a different time of day.
    
41. Seek Continuous Improvement Make small changes for the better every day and  continuously look for new ways to improve. Want a nicer house?  Start by fixing one small thing in it–perhaps grease a squeaky door today and tomorrow hang that picture on the wall that you’ve been meaning to hang up.
    
42. Practice Gratitude Sometimes we forget how fortunate we are and we take a negative view on things.  Maybe, getting up and going into work has become a chore. Remembering, how fortunate you are to have a job, looking at the house it provides you, looking at your children that are sleeping soundly because they aren’t hungry and aren’t sick, and enjoying the cup of coffee you were able to purchase because you have a job, might just make it easier to face the day.
    
43. Just do it or Ready-Fire-Aim Nike first introduced us to the slogan, Steve Pavlina is where I first learned about Read-Fire-Aim.  The concept is the same.  We are often prone to putting things off because we are afraid.  We are afraid we won’t look good doing something.   We are afraid we won’t be perfect at it.  We are afraid to try something, because we’re not 100% sure how to do it.  If we wait until we are perfect at doing something before we try it, we never will. It is better to just go ahead and do it and then find out what you need to do to improve later.
    
44. Ask 5 Why’s This is a handy tip for when we are trying to eliminate waste.   The concept is to keep asking “why” something is until you get to the real reason behind something.  Sometimes, you have to ask “why” more than five times, sometimes less.  For example, I’m finding it hard to become an early riser.  Why?  Because, I’m going to bed too late?  Why am I going to bed too late?  Because, my favorite TV show ends at midnight?  Why don’t you record it and watch it earlier?  Because, I don’t have anyway to record it.  Why don’t you get a DVR?  Good idea.   Problem solved, get a DVR and you can record your favorite show and watch it at an earlier time and go to bed at an earlier time and achieve your goal of getting up earlier.
    
45. Ditch The TV Pretty self explanatory.  If you spend hours watching television and you get rid of it, you now have hours of time for self improvement.
    
46. Triage is an idea Steve Pavlina borrowed from the medical community. The idea is to separate projects and goals into three categories. 1. Projects that will fail to have a significant impact whether you do them or not. 2. Projects that will succeed anyway whether you do them or not. 3. Projects that will have a significant impact if you complete them in a timely manner. And then work on those projects that fall into category three.
47. Lock yourself away Close the door, turn off the phone, put up a do-not disturb sign or go somewhere where you can’t be distracted and work on a project until it is finished.
    
48. Find Your Awesomeness Find that thing that makes you awesome, that talent that you truly enjoy and become the master of it.
    
49. Declutter This is a big one for Leo Babauta. Get rid of junk, get rid of extra devices, get rid of anything taking up space and not providing value.  When your office is clean ,it is easier to stay focused and get things done.  When your house is clean, it takes less time to find what you need.  When you get rid of the unnecessary items in your house, there is less to clean up and less to make it a mess.
    
50. Theme of the day Karl Staib introduced this idea to pick a theme, such as find ways to enjoy a meeting.  Then during the meeting his concentration is not on how boring a meeting is.  Instead he is looking for little things that make it enjoyable.  This is kind of  a spin on positive thinking, but it can be used with other themes as well.  I had a professor once that constantly cleared his throat.  Several off us in class, made bets on how many times he would clear his throat during a lecture. Not one of us, missed a second of his lecture that day.  It was fun and we were engaged.

Did I miss any?

Feel free to add any super tips that I might have missed.  But remember, only pick one tip for your vote.