No apps, no hacks. A guide to optimizing productivity

Editor’s note: Upasna Gautam is a senior product manager on the Platforms team at CNN, where she develops and builds the content management technology that delivers news to the world. It’s the deep breath when I see my calendar looks like chaos and I realize, “This can wait.” Mindful productivity is about focusing on what matters so you can crush your work goals and have a life outside of them. “When you multitask, what you are doing is ‘task switching,’ doing two separate tasks in rapid succession.” Task switching ironically weakens your productivity over time by affecting your prefrontal cortex, the area of your brain responsible for complex problem-solving, strategic thinking and organization. So Nerurkar, author of “The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress and More Resilience,” advised me to “monotask instead to maintain your productivity while preserving your prefrontal cortex.” I added an end-of-day ritual You know what you’ve done by day’s end. Living an intentional life Mindful productivity isn’t about squeezing every second out of your day.