🧠7 Productivity Hacks that got me a 95+ ATAR

Feeling unproductive lately?

In today’s newsletter, I will reveal to you the 7 productivity hacks that you need to get straight-A’s and achieve your desired ATAR — I started following these hacks in year 11, and I follow them till this day!

No wasting time — let’s jump right into it!

Table of Contents

• 🧠 The 7 Productivity Hacks

  • #1 Brain Stimulants

  • #2 Plan in advance

  • #3 Use Notion

  • #4 Create Simple Routines

  • #5 Use the Pomodoro Technique

  • #6 Block out Social Media

  • #7 The Daily Highlight

• 🔫 Take Action!

• ✅ Action Steps for the Week

🧠 The 7 Productivity Hacks

#1 Brain Stimulants

Do you ever feel groggy, distracted, and unable to focus? 

What do you do when you are exhausted yet need to finish some work?

For me, the solution is brain stimulants!

Brain stimulants enhance your cognitive function and allow you to stay alert and mentally focused.

There are many brain stimulants out there, however, the two that I stick by every day are:

1. Coffee

2. Magic Mind (only 12 natural ingredients)

“But aren’t these bad for you?!“

After doing my research and asking many around me, I’ve concluded that these brain stimulants are NOT bad for you, but in fact, have many health benefits! — as long as you aren’t having 6 of them a day.

Supporting evidence for coffee: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/is-coffee-good-or-bad-for-your-health/

Supporting evidence for Magic Mind:

#2 Plan in advance

I’ve said this about a million times now on all my social media platforms, but I’ll say it once again to make sure it sinks in:

Plan your day and week in advance!

You can’t be productive consistently if you do not plan. It’s just too overwhelming.

When you don’t plan, you have to sit there and figure out what you need to do. Then, by the time you figure out what to do, you’re mentally exhausted already!

I want you from today, to do the following:

1. Plan each day the night before — before sleeping, write down the 3-5 things you plan on doing the next day.

2. Plan your week — for each day this week, write down what you plan on doing. If you’re not exactly sure, then at least plan out what subjects you want to work on.

Don’t procrastinate this. Do it!

#3 Use Notion

Notion is an all-in-one productivity software that helps you stay organised, plan, take notes and much much more.

I used notion for literally everything and it’s 5X my productivity!

If you haven’t downloaded this already, be sure to do it today and start using it — you won’t regret it, I promise 🙂 

#4 Create Simple Routines

We humans love routines!

And right now, you do have a routine. However, the question becomes: is your routine productive or degenerative?

For instance, your routine right now may be to use your phone and scroll on TikTok first thing in the morning — this is part of your routine.

To take control of your day, create a simple morning and night-time routine that you stick by every day.

🌅 My simple morning routine:

1. Wake up at 5:30 am

2. Journal with coffee

3. Read (depending on the time of the year, I also crank out a 1-hour study session)

🌃 My simple night-time routine:

1. No phone usage 1 hour before bed

2. Journal

3. Plan the next day

4. Lights off + read fiction book if I can’t sleep.

#5 Use the Pomodoro Technique

Break down your study into smaller blocks. This will allow you to study for hours without burning out.

⏰ Pomodoro technique:

• Set a 25/60/90 minute timer

• Study during this time with full focus

• Take a 5/10/15 minute break.

🌊 A better alternative to the Pomodoro technique — Flowmodoro:

• Set a stopwatch timer

• Study for as long as you can until you start to lose focus

• Divide the time you studied by 5

• This is how long your break is!

For example, if you study for 50 minutes, you would have a 10 minute break (50/5 = 10).

#6 Block out Social Media

Social media is the devil…

It fries your brain with cheap dopamine, makes you have a goldfish attention span, and sometimes creates a negative self-image.

📵 To block out social media, I’d suggest you follow these steps:

1. Set yourself time blocks — for me, I try to make this in the morning and night. I set a time block from 6am to 10am called 'Deep Work’. During this time, I don’t touch my phone. I do the same for 8pm to 10pm.

2. Download a distraction-blocker app — I’m currently using Opal.

#7 The Daily Highlight

At the start of each day or the night before, write down the single most important thing (s) you want to complete — the maximum number of tasks is two!

To make sure you write down the appropriate task, ask yourself these questions:

• What task do I need to complete today for me to say ‘I was productive today’

• What task(s) would make me feel satisfied at the end of the day?

Whatever your answer to these questions, make it your daily highlight — and start working on them immediately.

The daily highlight is effective as it helps you prioritise what’s most important and will also make you satisfied at the end of each day.

🔫 Take Action!

Many students simply consume without taking action.

I used to do the same and I always wondered why I never improved.

Just think about it — if you’re learning all these productivity tips and study strategies, but don’t take action…then you’ve literally wasted your time. What you’ve learned has just become useless to you.

If you want to achieve your desired ATAR, don’t fall into this trap!

I wish I could tell you that if you just read these posts and watch my videos, you’ll be okay — but this is a lie.

You can’t just learn. You need to apply!

From today, be an ACTION-TAKER.

✅ Action Steps for the Week

1. Start using brain stimulants — I’d suggest magic mind if you’re not a fan of coffee. Once again, if you’re interested, you can use my link to get 20% off (by the way, there is a 100 day money-back guarantee - if you don’t like it, you can get your money back, no questions asked)

2. Plan your day and week

3. Download Notion and watch this video to learn the basics.

4. Create your own simple morning/night routine

5. Use the pomodoro technique when studying

6. Block out social media

7. Make a daily highlight

❤️ Thanks for reading today’s ATAR Digest post!

If you’re a dedicated ATAR student who is hungry for success, join my free community of 150+ students — the DUX Club!

This free community includes:

✅ ‘Reinventing yourself’ mini-course — a full guide to shifting your current identity to become the person worthy of achieving a 95+ ATAR

✅Supportive community of like-minded students

✅Motivation and Inspiration from a student who went from getting D's to straight A's

✅Weekly 95+ ATAR tips & tricks

✅Live Q&A Sessions that offer personalised guidance & support

✅Accountability to make sure you get things done

Join NOW 👉 https://www.skool.com/the-dux-club-4750/about