What if adopting one specific habit made you more likely to achieve all of your goals?
We did some digging into the rituals of Power Lifters (people with the longest streaks on Lift) to identify habits that made them so successful.
We discovered that Power Lifters share four key productivity habits in common: they set clear goals, keep their work free of clutter, make sure they’re physically able to perform and make their personal development a top priority.
The good news is that these success-boosting habits are easy to adopt.
1. Set Clear Goals & Track Your Progress
Power Lifters set an average of 7 goals per year and just over one third of them (36%) were still practicing their New Year’s resolutions at the year’s end. That’s 4.5x more adherence than the general population according to a study by the University of Scranton.
You can increase your productivity by setting small goals daily. The most popular productivity habit mentioned in our latest Twitter chat was Setting Priorities for Your Day. There are many ways to keep track of your daily goals: Lift notes, Trello, or even simple text files. Use what works for you.
It’s just as important to review your goals as it is to set them, too. One third of Power Lifters set aside time to do so and consider it one of their most important habits.
My tip to new users is to regularly review your goals and habits during a weekly review. I do this and try to fix any minor issues before they become bigger problems or bad habits.
~ Lift Power User
2. Maintain Inbox to Zero (or get close).
75% of Power Lifters keep 20 or less emails in their inboxes.
How important is this habit to reaching your goals? Important enough that Power Lifters have gone to the extreme of deleting superfluous email accounts to reach their Inbox Zero goals:
I didn’t receive your replies because I was so over-zealous about getting to Zero Inbox that I deleted my gmail account to speed up the process.
~ Lift Power User
We’ll be tweeting tips for reaching Inbox Zero during our productivity challenge in April. We also recommend taking advantage of apps that can help you unclutter your mailbox:
3. Sleep 7-8 hours a night (or whatever is right for you)
Power Lifters sleep an average of 7.3 hours a night. 
Only you’ll know how much sleep is right for you but it’s important to determine how much sleep you need and then to make sure you’re sleeping that much every night. If you aren’t sleeping very then we would recommend that you invest in a high-quality mattress like the ones at Leesa. This will let you get the sleep you need and also help with any aches form training. We recommend reading Leo Widrich’s post on sleep and productivity if you’re curious to learn more.
There are plenty of Lift goals to choose from that will improve the quality and quantity of your Zzzz’s.
- Set a strict bedtime (Sleep by Midnight) or waking time (Wake up by 6:30)
- Restrict caffeine (No Caffeine or No Caffeine After Lunch)
- Create a morning routine like behavior change expert Buster Benson.
- Or adopt an evening routine like Buffer’s Joel Gascoigne, whose bedtime ritual includes taking an evening walk.
4. Put Yourself First.
Power Lifters share another crucial habit in common: they place their well being and personal development above all other priorities in their lives. 
Take care of your basic needs first and you’ll increase your ability to achieve more difficult goals.
We’ll be providing extra support to Lifters building the productivity habits mentioned in this post during our two week productivity challenge starting April 15th. Join the challenge (you’ll need to download Lift to do so).
