We all need a productivity boost now and then — sometimes throughout the day. We each want to be productive for very personal reasons — to accomplish more, to make more money, to get done earlier to make more time for our personal lives, to accomplish our goals. But whatever the reason, these Productivity Hacks will do the trick.
Here they are,
in reverse order
#10: Take care of your Most
Important Things first. Your Most Important Things (MIT) for the day —
the things you most need to accomplish that day — should take priority over
everything else. However, we all know that fires come up throughout the day,
interruptions through phone calls and email and people dropping by, new demands
that will push the best-laid plans aside. If you put off your MITs until later
in the day, you will end up not doing them much of the time.
Try to get all
three of your MITs done before moving on to anything else. If you can do that,
the rest of the day is gravy!
# 9: Wake up early. Decide what you’d like to
accomplish each morning, and build your morning routine around that. Like to
exercise? Put that in there. Healthy breakfast? Go for it. Check email? Fine.
The mornings are a fresh start, peaceful and free of ringing phones and
constant email notifications. If you get your Most Important Things done in the
morning, the rest of the day is just gravy.
# 8: Simplify information
streams, crank through blogs & email. Think about all the information you
receive (email, blogs, newsletters, mailing lists, magazines, newspapers and
more) and edit brutally. You will
drastically reduce the time you spend reading. For everything else that begins
to come in after your editing process, ask yourself if you really need to be
getting that information regularly. Most of the time the answer is no. Now,
after this process, you should be left with less to read. Here’s the next step:
crank through it all, really only reading
the really interesting ones.
Editing and
cranking through the information you receive can free up a lot of time for more
important things — like achieving your goals.
# 7: De-clutter your work-space;
work on one thing at a time. The de-cluttering your work space part of
it is simply to remove all extra distractions, on your desk and on your
computer. If you’ve got a clean, simplified work-space, you can better focus on
the task at hand.
Now, with
distractions minimized, focus on the task at hand. Don’t check email, don’t
work on five projects at once, don’t check the stats on your blog, don’t go to
your feed reader. Work on that one task, and work on it with concentrated focus
until you are done. Then celebrate your achievement!
# 6: Get to work early; work
fewer hours. My
best days come when I get into work early, and begin my work day in the quiet
morning hours, before the phones start ringing and the din of the office begins
it crescendo to chaos. It is so peaceful, and I can work without interruption
or losing focus. I often find that I get my MITs done
before anyone comes in, and then the rest of the day is dealing with whatever
comes up (or even better: getting ahead for the next day).
# 5: Avoid meetings; when you
must meet, make it effective. I find it best to say no to
meetings up front. I just say, “Sorry, I can’t make it. I’m tied up with a
project right now.” And that’s always true. I’ve always got projects I’m
working on that are more important than a meeting.
# 4: Avoid unnecessary work. If
we just do any work that comes our way, we can be cranking out the tasks, but
not be productive at all. You’re only productive if you are doing work
that moves you towards a goal. Eliminate non-essential tasks from
your to-do lists, and start to say no to new requests that are non-essential.
If you do not
take these steps and speak up, and say no, then you will be overloaded with
work that you simply do not need to do. Cut out the non-essential tasks, and
focus on those that really matter.
# 3: Do the tough tasks first. You know what those tasks are.
What have you been putting off that you know you need to do? Sometimes when you
put things off, they end up being things you don’t really need to do. But
sometimes they are things you just have to do. Those are your tough tasks.
Do them first
thing in the day.
# 2: Work off-line as much as
possible. To increase your productivity, disconnect your
Internet connection.
Have scheduled times when you’re going to check your email, and only let
yourself check your blogs or surf the web when you’ve gotten a certain amount
done. When you do go online, do it on a timer. When the timer goes off, unplug
again until the next scheduled time.
You’ll be amazed
at how much work you’ll get done.
# 1: Do something you’re
passionate about. This
might not seem like the normal productivity tip, but give it a thought: if you
really want to do something, you’ll work like hell to get it done. You’ll work
extra hard, you’ll put in even more hours, and you’re less likely to
procrastinate. It’s for work that you don’t really care about that you
procrastinate.
This article was originally
written by Leo Babauta -Zen Habits
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