Many things in life always sound better in theory.

• “I’m going to save my money, buy real estate, and live off the rent money.”
• “I’m going to start a blog, sell courses, and live off the passive income.”
• “I’m going to open a yoga school and only work a few hours a day.”

Alright, that’s great. I’ve talked about putting in the work many times before. I’m not going to do that again. We know that by know.

So let’s assume you are putting in the work. And to be honest, I’m pretty sure you’re taking your career seriously. Why else would you read these types of articles, right?

However, we also want to live a good life. I believe that life is meant to be enjoyed. Richard Koch, the author of the seminal book The 80/20 Principle, said it best:

“Do the things that you like doing. Make them your job. Make your job them.”

Let’s be honest here. If you’re currently not enjoying your life, and you’re not waking up every morning with a sense of excitement, you need to do something about it.

You deserve to live a good life. The people in your life deserve that as well. In fact, we all deserve that. No one wants to live or work with a pessimist.

And in this article, I want to share one idea with you that has made a tremendous impact on the quality of my life. In his book, Richard Koch talks about how 20% of activities result in 80% of our happiness.

It’s a term, originated from the economist Vilfredo Pareto, that was coined by Joseph Juran. Pareto found that 80% of the land in most countries was owned by 20% of the population.

But that idea goes beyond wealth distribution. Richard Koch applied it to everything, from business to happiness. And not everything has to be distributed 80/20. Some things are distributed 90/10 or even 99/1. The point is that cause and effect is not a 50/50 relationship.

For example, 100% of my happiness comes from only one measure: My personal energy.

Understanding the impact of mood on happiness

I’ve been thinking about this concept for a long time. I always want to know how and why things happen. So I ask myself things like:

• Why am I in a good mood today?
• Why am I in a shitty mood today?
• Why am I happy in this moment?
• Why am I stressed right now?

To answer those questions, I keep a journal. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know I’m a big advocate of journaling. I also wrote an article about my journaling system.

And recently, I finally discovered a pattern. How I feel is determined by my personal energy.

• High energy? Good mood, feeling confident, looking forward to the future, chest up, smiling, enjoying myself, and doing whatever I like.
• Low energy? Bad mood, sad, afraid of the future, timid, shying away from eye contact, worrying, etc, etc.

Now, you might think that’s pretty obvious. But no one ever taught me to manage my energy. Not in school, not at work, and not in business. But managing it has made a big impact on the quality of my life.

“So how do you manage your personal energy?”

In practice, it looks like this. Ask yourself:

1. “What activities destroy my mood and drain my energy?”
2. ”What activities make me feel good and give energy?”

Before the childish folks go out and say, “I love partying and spending all my money,” I want to say that if you want to be smartass—go and do that somewhere else.

Here’s an example of what I mean. I think writing is a hard and tedious activity. I don’t enjoy it at all, to be honest.

However, after I do it, I feel good about myself, and it gives me a lot of energy. So that makes it worth it to me. So it’s not about avoiding hard things. It’s about looking at the results activities have on your mood.

Here are two other things I’ve learned about managing your personal energy.

• Identify 20% of the activities that bring you the most results for every aspect of your life.
  Look at your relationships, business, health, money. Then, focus on doing more of the activities that improve those aspects.
• Continuously re-evaluate.
  Get feedback. Journal. And always ask yourself whether you’re on the right track. Life is not static. You must adjust your course manually. There’s no autopilot. So always take time every day to reflect and look forward.
• You don’t have to be in a good mood all the time.
  That’s not realistic. I aim for being in a good mood 95% of the time. Also, you can be in a good mood and go through difficulty. Life is tough. So It’s better to be in a good mood to make it easier.

Look, life is long. And if you play it right, you can do most of the things you always wanted. You just need to have patience and manage your energy so you can ENJOY the things you do.

Start now by asking yourself: “What’s the one thing I can do today to improve my mood?”

Ask yourself the same question tomorrow.

And the day after that.

And so forth.

My general opinion about productivity apps, tools, and resources is this: It doesn’t matter. I say that because most people hide behind their apps. We’re always looking for the ONE app that will turn us into a productivity monster.

Or we believe that tools or other resources will help us do better work. YouTuber and filmmaker Casey Neistat makes this point very clear, he says:

“The gear never matters. Tell a great story really well, and people will forgive whatever gear you shoot it on.”

When it comes to writing, Stephen King has a similar approach. Whenever he’s asked about tools, he doesn’t even answer. If you want to become a better writer, he says:

“You learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot, and the most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself.”

I’m sure you know there’s only one way to get things done: Put your head down and work hard. But often, we still think these type of thoughts:

• “A new laptop makes me more productive.”
• “This app helps me to get more done.”
• “The newest DSLR camera makes me a better photographer.”

These are all reasons we procrastinate. Now, of course, tools matter. But they are not the determining factor. You are.

It’s not about the resources you have; it’s about what you do with them. Life is about resourcefulness. And that’s the point people like Casey Neistat and Stephen King want to make.

What you’ll find next is a list of 7 of my favorite apps and how I use them. When you use the tools in the right way, you can easily save 10 hours per week.

1. Grammarly

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a knowledge worker. And a knowledge worker’s primary weapon is her words.

I strongly believe that if you want to become a better communicator, it all starts on paper. Learn how to think and write well, and you will ultimately become better at speaking, sales, copywriting, programming, doing interviews, leading, etc.

The very words you use are EVERYTHING in how you conduct yourself. Especially in an increasingly digital world where people shy away from face-to-face contact.

And Grammarly is the best productivity app to help you with communicating. Most people think a grammar checker is only for writers.

But I mainly use Grammar’s browser extension for daily use. I use it for writing emails in Gmail, responding to comments, or any other site I have to write something.

I also edit my articles with Grammarly (they also have an MS Office add-on). It checks for passive voice, grammatical, spelling, and punctuation mistakes.

All in all, this app saves me about 30 minutes a day in sheer brainpower. With Grammarly, I can just focus on writing and communicating my message; they do the rest.

2. Blinkist

Reading improves focus, productivity, creativity, and it reduces stress. The benefits are so great that it makes you think everybody should be reading books like crazy.

Nope.

23% of Americans have not read a single book in the past year. And the number of books people read per year are also not pretty. Only 28% reads more than 11 books per year.

And I get it. Reading takes time. Plus, one of my main challenges is to select which books I’m going to read.

In the past, I’ve often bought books, and quit them half-way through because they were not useful or interesting. That costs me time and money. That’s frustrating, especially because you can only read so many books every year.

If you’re like me, your reading list grows faster than you cross off books, and that’s a problem. Why? You want to read the RIGHT books. You want to read books that make you grow; personally, professionally, financially.

And I’ve finally found a solution to the question of: “What book should I read next?”

Blinkist creates quality summaries of non-fiction books. Every day I read one book summary, and if I want to learn more, I get the actual book. If not, I just eliminate the book from my reading list.

You have to be realistic; you just can’t read all the books in the world. And it’s important to figure out how you decide which books you’re going to read.

Also, I don’t rely on reviews to select books because a book that’s useless to you can be valuable to me.

3. Trello

• “What should I do next?”
• “I’m bored.”

You should eliminate those two thoughts from your head. Why? Because they plant the seeds of something that’s called: WASTING TIME.

I use this productivity app as a backlog of tasks that I have to do. If you don’t know Trello; it’s a versatile project management tool that can be used in many ways.

With Trello you can create ‘boards’ for every project you have. And on every board, you can list all the actions you have to complete for that project.

Every week I take some time to update my projects. That helps me to improve my focus, so I know what I have to do.

Whenever I don’t know what to do, I open Trello: There’s ALWAYS something to do.

4. Feedly / Medium

Browsing blogs remains one of the main sources of wasting time for most of us. I have a simple tip for you: Stop clicking on articles you see in your social feeds.

Most people open Facebook, Twitter, or even news sites, and they click on anything thing that looks slightly interesting.

DON’T.

Instead, make a list of 5–10 blogs/authors you love to read. Then, add them to Feedly or follow the bloggers/publications on Medium. Every day, only read your articles through Feedly and Medium.

This saves at least 1 hour of mindless browsing per week.

5. Office 365 / Google Docs

I still meet a lot of entrepreneurs and freelancers who don’t work in the cloud. If you’re one of them, you’re wasting a lot of time.

Just the few minutes it takes to open files from folders, save them on external drives, or share your documents with others, adds up quickly.

A few minutes here and there become a few hours a week, and hundreds of hours per year.

I use Office 365 because I like to work offline too (plus, I’m a little old school — I’m used to Office). But Google Docs also works well.

Let’s keep this short: If you’re not working in the cloud, it’s time to move there.

I save about 1 hour per week by having easy access to all my documents (on all my devices) in the cloud. I only focus on working and sharing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

I don’t want to think about anything else that’s involved with productivity. And that’s what these productivity apps are great at.

6. The Free Calendar App On Your Phone

Forget about to-do lists, fancy productivity apps, or anything else that promises you to get shit done.

There’s only one thing that helps you to get things done: Your calendar.

It’s so obvious that most of us ignore it. We prefer fancy looking to-do lists with all colors of the rainbow, and that make sounds when you check off an item.

The research is clear: To-do lists don’t work. And yet, most people stick to them.

Ditch the to-do list and use your calendar as your number one productivity tool. Take some time to plan your week. Ask: When will I do what? Then, schedule it in your calendar. I do this exercise every day.

I promise that it will save you at least 15 minutes a day of updating your to-do list.

7. Tomighty

I love working with the Pomodoro method. Research shows that it improves focus and the quality of your output.

Whenever I don’t use an app like Tomighty, I just waste hours every day. This app can easily save you one hour per DAY.

How? When you work in intervals, you get more done in less time because of the improved focus.

In total, these 7 productivity apps will shave at least 10 hours off your week. And with practice, you can even double your time savings.

As you might have noticed, productivity is all about eliminating time-wasting activities, and improving your focus.

In that way you get the RIGHT things done, and you ultimately save a lot of hours every week.

Start living more consciously of your time and productivity: Save your time for other, more important, things.

If you do that, you can use those precious hours with your family, friends, spouse. Or you can spend the time to improve your skills.

Because at the end of the ride, when you’re on your deathbed, you won’t think about all apps, tools, or resources you used. No, you’ll reflect on all the great things you did with them.

So what are you waiting for? You have the tools you need to be successful. Only thing left is this: Go out and DO things with the resources you have.

People who claim that setting goals are a bad thing are out of their minds. They probably set some goals in the past, failed, and never set a goal again.

I know there’s a lot of confusion about goals and systems these days. I’ve contributed to the confusion as well.

A lot of us share the idea that you either have a system or set goals.

But thinking “this or that” is not helpful because it limits our beliefs. I know this because I used to think that way too. But then, I learned that many things in life could be this and that.

So in this article, I’ll explain why goals and systems complement each other, and why I have both.

But first, let’s start with the definitions.

• A goal tells you where you’re going tomorrow
• A system tells you what to do today

Makes sense? There is a clear difference. A system is a collection of tasks and strategies that help you to function. And setting goals can be part of that system.

1. Why you need goals

Every time I read about people who claim you shouldn’t set goals, I get upset. It’s possibly the worst advice one could receive.

When someone is telling you not to set goals, they are essentially saying you should stop moving forward.

Goals are inherent to human nature. We thrive on progress. We need something to strive for. If we don’t have a vision of what our future could look like, why would we do anything at all?

It’s the classic question that philosophers and scientists have examined since the start of modern civilization. Over and over again, we’ve learned that we need goals to grow.

Let’s stop and think about that for a second. Why are we alive? I say we’re here to live a useful life. That’s what makes us happy; as a result, it makes our life good.

However, setting goals is not an easy skill. In the past, I would set goals that I had zero control over.

“I want to make a million bucks,” you might think.

Alright, great. But here’s the thing, you don’t control the rewards you get. What do you control? Your effort. So, it’s better to set goals that are related to your effort.

• How many books are you going to read?
• What degrees will you get?
• How many potential mentors will you reach out to?
• How many articles/books/videos/songs will you create?
• How much of your money are you going to invest?

You see, these types of questions are related to goals that you can influence. That’s the way to go.

2. Why you need systems

Systems have different meanings to people. For example, Scott Adams, the author of How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, did a great job explaining how systems work for him. He doesn’t set goals and only has systems. That’s not how I look at it.

Once we set goals, we know that we have to put in the work to achieve them. That’s when systems come into play.

It comes down to this: What do I need to do EVERY DAY to achieve the goals I desire?

Let’s say you want to become financially independent by age 50. You might think:

• I need to save at least 30% of my income
• I need to increase my income yearly
• I need to be mentally strong so that I can do my job
• I need to be in good shape, so I don’t get ill and have high energy
• I need to learn every day, so I get better at my job
• I need to look at my goals every day to remind myself of where I’m going
• I need to reflect on the past to learn and be grateful for where I am

Alright, congratulations. You have created a system. When you do the above things, you will make progress, no matter what.

One thing we must be aware of is that we keep an open mind: Goals and systems change all the time. Don’t fixate on one thing for a long time. Change your goals and systems as your priorities change.

3. Why you need higher goals

We’ve established that we need both goals and systems to live a good life. Here’s what I’ve learned over the past few years.

Set higher goals!

No, you don’t need to make 10 million bucks. That’s just your superficial brain speaking for you.

Set the bar higher for yourself.

• Become the best at your job.
• Become stronger, fitter, and smarter than ever
• Have divine relationships

Go beyond where you currently are. I like how Jordan Peterson puts it in his immensely popular book, 12 Rules For Life:

“You should never give up the better that resides within for the security you already have.”

Yes, why would you deserve anything but the best? Because you’re afraid of losing what you have? That’s not a good reason to live a timid and mediocre life.

When we aim low, we deserve to receive low. When we aim high, we might fail, but we still have a better life than people who aim low. Because of the failure of someone who aims high is much more profound than the life of someone who aims low.

“Yeah, but I don’t need much.”

Well, that sounds like a pretty high aim for me. It’s funny to me that people pretend like “being content” is easy.

Being grateful and content is the highest aim in life.

You know what’s low? Complaining, being ungrateful, consumerism, anger, doing nothing, etc.

Aim high. Live a life of contribution. Dedicate yourself to knowledge and self-study. Help yourself, your family, and your community. That’s the highest goal one can set.

So, do yourself a favor, sit down for 10 minutes, and think about this:

• What are your goals for this week?
• What are your goals for this month?
• What are your goals for this year?
• What are your goals for next year?
• What are your 3-year goals?
• What are your 5-year goals?

I guarantee that you will feel ecstatic about life after you’ve done this little exercise. Go!

I’ve also published a podcast episode, where I talk about 2 books that I recommend reading about goals and systems.