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Posts Tagged ‘Productivity’

Unplug For Greater Productivity

June 11th, 2009 | No Comments

Power Plug

We’ve all experienced those days when we sat down at our desk with a long list of things to do, and yet somehow hours later we realize that we haven’t done much, aside from checking our emails 5 times, spending hours at Lifehack.org, and instant messaging everyone we know.  For those days, when you can’t seem to beat the buzz, the greatest possible way you can ensure productivity is to disconnect from the electronics.

Now I’m not against the use of electronics to aid in productivity, far from.  In fact, I probably couldn’t live without my Blackberry.  But sometimes a disconnect from electronics all together will allow for a clearer mind, a mind which can become a productivity machine.

Remember paper and pens?  Well they’re making a comeback.  It turns out that when we disconnect we don’t have to fight our own minds trying to distract us.  There is no email on your Moleskine, no instant messenger on your legal pad.  No, here all we have is a blank paper waiting for you to create.  And there is something liberating about filling a page in a notebook with your own work.

Here’s a strategy that I use when my electronics fail me.  First I have a notepad on my desk labeled “Distractions.”  I write down every thought that is distracting me from my task at hand, and during my scheduled breaks I can knock out the distractions, or make notes of my next action on each.  This allows me to safe keep the ideas that come during productive moments, but allows the moment to stay productive.

Next I use an old fashion to-do list.  Generally my Blackberry serves this purpose well, but unplugging is unplugging, so I use my Moleskine for this task.  For my to-do list I take into account my energy levels, the amount of time each task will take, the lengths and times of each scheduled break, and anything else that needs to be addressed during my “analog” time.  This ensures that nothing will take me away from peak productivity.

Finally, there are a few things that you just can’t get around, as far as a digital disconnect goes.  For these tasks I use as rudimentary tools as possible.  Obviously you don’t want to hand write a large amount of text, especially if it needs to be in digital format.  So why not pick up an inexpensive netbook, disconnected from the internet, for these tasks.  Or at the very least, use a minimalistic text editor like JDarkRoom to minimize your distractions.  By keeping things as simple as possible, we allow for less distractions and more productivity.

Even if you can’t unplug completely, there are easy ways to decrease the noise and get things done:

  • Schedule the times you check your email, and limit this to 2 to 3 times per workday.
  • Take a media fast; you already know the economy isn’t doing well, how many articles do you really need to read about it?
  • turn off the music; it might be soothing, but music with lyrics tend to take our attention away from our work, and even the little distractions can kill productivity.
  • exercise the 2 call rule;  if someone calls twice consecutively, it’s probably more important than a regular call.
  • Let all other calls go to voicemail;  if you are in a position where you can call people back at scheduled times, let them know this in your voicemail greeting and stick to that schedule.
  • turn off all notifications;  alarms, instant messages, email notifications, and any other notifications that will pop up and distract you from your work.
  • Schedule unplug times;  You may require the use of a computer for your job, but you could probably get away with unplugging the ethernet for a scheduled period of time (if all else fails, act like you don’t know how it got unplugged).

Like I said, when used properly the digital world is one of the greatest tools man has available.  But this great tool can also lead to distractions that keep us from our work.  Unplug when the need arises and create those precious moments of peak productivity.  When you  find those extra hours eachday, you’ll be thankful.

Ibrahim Husain is the creator of ZenCollegeLife.com, a college blog dedicated to helping students succeed in and out of academia. He also journals his lifehack experiments at BrainVault.net. Offline Ibrahim is a fitness addict, motorcyclist, avid reader, guitarist, digital artist, adventure seeker, and so much more.

Follow him on Twitter: @IbrahimZCL

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5 Ways to Set Your Goals in Stone

June 8th, 2009 | No Comments

photo by mendhak

Most of us set goals for our lives. Whether the goal is to climb Everest or to buy a pair of shoes, setting goals can sometimes seem like second nature to us. Even so, setting a goal doesn’t automatically mean getting the result. Sometimes goals are gradually forgotten about and fade away into the back of our minds.

Motivation is the biggest goal killer. When we first set a goal, whether it’s to earn double what we earn now or achieve world domination, there is usually a reason behind that goal. People don’t jump out of bed with a goal out of the blue. There is a source of inspiration, something that has sparked our imagination. We usually see something, or read about something that makes us want our lives to change. There is an initial spark and we’re hit with a flood of motivation, and can’t wait to get started on this goal.

After a few weeks or even days, our enthusiasm dies down, and that spark of inspiration becomes a memory. We know what the goal is, but we no longer have that passion burning inside us and our momentum grinds to a stop.

To achieve goals that take time, we need to stay motivated, and we need to keep the inspiration flowing. The goals need to be constantly in our minds. Unavoidable and present wherever we are. If we’re constantly reminded of our goals, they never go away. This constant reminder means that goals are always on our mind, and easier to achieve.

As with most things, it’s better to keep this process simple. These are five suggestions that I use. They’re easy to do and don’t take much time, but the effects are obvious once you do them.

I’m going to start with what I find to be the most effective method, and the rest of the list will be in descending order (so you get the best stuff first).

  1. Create a “vision board” or “board of dreams”.

I found this method over at selfgrowth.com, and it always keeps me motivated. The idea is to get a notice board, and let your artistic side out. Create a shrine to what you want to achieve. Don’t just write a list. Stick up things that remind you of what it is that you want. Photos, gifts, memorabilia, letters, notes, pages from books. Anything that provides you with a reminder of that original inspiration. If you’re goal is to become wealthy, think of all the things that remind you of that goal. Houses, cars, yachts, people. The list is endless. Be creative: print a picture of the American Express Centurion card and stick that up until you can replace it with one of your own (you might have to phone American Express and say you lost your card to replace the one on the board). This board will engulf everything about your goal and show you all the reasons you want to achieve it.

Once done, stick it where you will see it most. I have mine facing my desk. Whenever I glance up from my monitor I see the board. When I’m feeling uninspired and ready to quit, a few minutes looking at my board, appreciating all the things that I want to achieve gives me that bit of inspiration needed to continue working.

  1. Photos (everywhere)

Visual stimulation can be much more powerful than words. Seeing the words “Aston Martin Vanquish” doesn’t compare to seeing an Aston Martin Vanquish. Images are a source of great inspiration. A quick look at advertisements will show that the ones providing visual stimulation work better than the ones with only words. Seeing a sunset isn’t the same as reading about it, no matter how good the writer. Get photos of what you want to achieve and stick them everywhere you can. Pictures of the people that inspire you doing what they do best are great. Decorate your home with them, put them on your desktop background, put them on your cell phone background, have photos on your desk of things that represent your aims. The picture isn’t as important as the emotional connection to your goal that comes with it.

Steve Pavlina suggests using digital photo frames. Digital photo frames allow you to have a slide show of images. Seeing these images will reinforce your desires, and remind you what you’re working towards.

  1. Leave notes (everywhere)

As well as the photos, have notes dotted around the place. Write notes that explain the photo you have chosen. A photo of a mansion with a pool with a note saying “I am going to buy this house” will further reinforce your goal. The more unavoidable and obvious your goals are, the easier it becomes to remember what you are working for. Notes can be left anywhere. I leave notes on my desk, by my bed, on the refrigerator door, in the bathroom (although they tend to get wet). Write on your spouse’s face when they’re asleep if you want to (okay, don’t. This isn’t a good idea…).

  1. Your most used applications

What applications do you use most? The majority of applications that are used everyday will have some way of keeping a note, whether it was meant for that purpose or not. I’m an avid user of iGoogle and my iGoogle homepage displays my goals every time I log in. Microsoft Outlook can do the same. Firefox can (there are handy notes add-ons!). Even Windows can. Google’s Desktop sidebar lets you save notes so that they’re ready for you when you log in. Whatever application you use the most, have it remind you of your goals.

  1. Tell people (but be selective)

Tell others about your goals. Tell the people that inspire you and will throw encouragement your way. The inspiring people in our lives will add to our momentum. Have a conversation about your goals often, don’t just tell other people and never mention them again. Remind others and talk about their goals as well as yours (don’t phone someone at 4am every morning to tell them about your goals, that doesn’t work either…). If your goals are well known and a regular talking point, you’ll never lose that inspiration.

Staying motivated past the original spark of inspiration is not easy. It can take discipline and a strong will to keep working towards a long term goal, but at the very least we can make things easier.

Remind yourself of the original moment you set your goal. The reasons you want to achieve that goal. The potential results of your hard work should be seen around your home or workplace.

Don’t stick to a list. Be creative, put effort into this and it will have a bigger impact on your life. Make a day of it and let the day become part of your memories. A day dedicated to decorating your house with reminders will stick with you longer than 10 minutes spent writing a list.

I’ve used all the methods above, and I find the vision board to be the most effective. Spending a few hours creating a collage of what I want to achieve helped the whole idea of the goal sink in, and I got to spend some time going through each aspect of the goal this way.

Hopefully with the above methods, you will find your goals become part of who you are, and you’ll find the journey to achieving them much easier.

Paul Dickinson is the author of SolopreneurProductivity.com, a blog designed for the sole purpose of providing productivity tips and tricks for solopreneurs!

Follow me on Twitter: @pauldickinson

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GTD Refresh, Part 4: Getting Sorted

June 5th, 2009 | No Comments

File Folder

Last week, I talked about finally getting my projects in order. Of course, that’s not a one-time thing, but I’m not quite ready to talk about the process of bringing new projects into my lists just yet, whether “on-the-fly” or as part of my weekly review.

But getting a grip on my projects, both big (there’s a book proposal I want to write) and small (I need to find a decent dentist) is a two-step process. The first is what I described last week: identifying all my active projects and getting some next actions assigned to each of them. The other part of the process is setting myself up to actually do them.

In some cases, of course, I can just figure out what needs doing and go ahead and do it. But for the bigger projects, I need materials, and that means files.

Maintaining files is a weak area for me, not because I, like any other full-blooded productivity geek, don’t have a healthy lustful appreciation of file folders and my standard-issue GTD label-maker, but because it’s the least interesting and fussiest part of doing anything. But I’m 1800 miles from home – if I am going to get anything done in this 5-week sojourn, I don’t have any room to forget anything crucial, or for being disorganized.

I can’t think of anything less interesting than talking about putting paper in folders (except maybe actually putting paper in folders) and I’ve posted about filing before, so I won’t get into the mechanics of it all here, except to say that every project gets a folder (or sometimes a hard-bound notebook, if it will be unfolding over a long period of time) and every folder is neatly labeled. While a project is active, I’m careful to keep every scrap of paper related to it – I would rather have a little extra cleaning to do at a project’s close than find myself without something I didn’t know would be important down the line.

What I do want to talk about here is that perennial chestnut of personal productivity literature: paper vs. technology.

Now, I’m a big old geek, no getting around that. I’m the kind of guy whose as likely to have his nose stuck in his Blackberry as not, who fantasizes about new home network configurations (I’ve got two old PCs under my kitchen table waiting to be repurposed…), and who travels with not one but two laptops. I love well-designed software that does a job beautifully, and love the searchability and security of keeping important information in electronic form, preferable backed up in multiple places.

That said, I am as far from paperless as possible. My productivity system, indeed my office as a whole, is “paper-full”. For all the arguments against it – and believe me, the environmental impact alone pains me, though I try to use recycled paper whenever I can get it – I find paper is important. No paper, no productivity.

For one thing, I’m a writer. And while I am pretty comfortable letting words flow from my fingers through the keyboard to the screen, I can’t edit that way. I’m just not comfortable enough with the screen to read for any length of time at it, and especially not to do the kind of finicky re-thinking involved with a revision for publication.

But that’s just for writing. My preference for paper goes way beyond just editing and revising. And here is where, I hope, it gets interesting for GTD’ers everywhere.

There’s something very physical about GTD, or perhaps about working in general. Something about writing things down with pen or pencil on actual paper, about holding things in your hands, that acts as a trigger for action. Email, Evernote notes, tasks on online Todo lists – I find it all too easy to scroll through them, to glance at them and think “yes, that’s something that has to be done” and not actually do it.

But paper, something I hold in my hands, something I  physically manipulate… It’s as if physically interacting with my work in a material way triggers that animal part of me that feels the sun moving across the sky and knows that work must be done, and if not now, it will be too late.

So while I use all manner of virtual technological tools to get things done, in the end most things funnel to a paper file – a nice, heavy file folder stuffed with papers. I buy decorative file folders for two reasons: a) they tend to be made of sturdier stock than plain folders, thus holding up to use better, and b) they are easily differentiated one from the other, making my work just that little bit easier to get to.

When I’m ready to go to work, the folder comes out, the contents get scanned, and somehow, almost as if by magic, I get down to working. And things get done.

Dustin M. Wax is the project manager at Stepcase Lifehack. He is also the creator of The Writer’s Technology Companion, a site devoted to the tools of the writing trade. When he’s not writing, he teaches anthropology and gender studies in Las Vegas, NV. He is the author of Don’t Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College.

Follow him on Twitter: @dwax.

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Nap time

June 3rd, 2009 | No Comments

catnap

Napping is one of the best, most underused tools for busy people. It is frowned upon by many people and is viewing as something for the elderly and children. Mention napping and you could be seen as lazy, depressed and unwilling to work. The majority of people experience drowsiness in the afternoon and notice their productivity and mood starting to slip and napping will help combat this. It is completely natural and helps to fight the affects of fatigue such as burnout, stress and a lack of mental clarity.

Even though there seems to be a taboo on napping, there have been many famous nappers who swear by the midday snooze to keep them awake and alert. Famous nappers have included Richard Branson, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Lance Armstrong, Winston Churchill and Leonardo da Vinci. No one can claim that these people didn’t achieve anything and spent all day napping.

Research on napping is constantly showing positive effects. The results suggest that napping can make you more alert, reduce stress and improve cognitive functioning compared to working all day without rest. A mid-afternoon sleep means that productivity can last long into the night. Researchers at NASA showed that a 30-minute power nap increased cognitive functioning by 40%. The volunteers on the tests found that their memory improved as well as experiencing an increase in concentration. Those who didn’t nap would score lower on IQ test than those that did (after a day of work).

If you feel a slump in the afternoon and from then on don’t perform at your best, I recommend taking a short power nap to get yourself feeling alert and ready for work. You will feel rested and you’ll notice your mood and alertness improve. I advise keeping the nap between 15 and 30 minutes as you want to avoid getting into deeper stages of sleep. If you do, you’ll find it harder to wake and may experience the groggy feeling for a while.

For those who are worried about the after affect of a nap, there is the caffeine nap. A caffeine nap is taken after an intake of caffeine, so that you are asleep while your body digests the caffeine. After a 15-30 minute nap, you wake up and instantly have the caffeine in your system. This is great if you instantly need to be on the move after a nap, and you can bounce out of your sleeping state and jump into work feeling refreshed and energised.

Finding 15-30 minutes in a day can sometimes seem difficult, but doing so could mean a great deal to your productivity. Even 10 minutes a day will be better than nothing at all, and may give you the energy you need to be successful. If you’re willing to give it a try, make sure you can find a comfortable place (both physically and mentally) before setting your head down. If you can feel secure and let go, then you’re rest will be even more beneficial.

A lot of people who wish to start their own businesses but are currently working 9-5 will benefit from a nap. The majority of the work on their own business will be done after 5pm and it is hard to stay enthusiastic and inspired at this time. Taking a nap during a break at work or just after finishing work could effectively increase your concentration levels and allow you to keep working, allowing you to further your own business after the 9-5 grind.

Try this for a few days and see if you see the benefits. I did, and now I’m off for a nap!

Paul Dickinson is the author of SolopreneurProductivity.com, a blog designed for the sole purpose of providing productivity tips and tricks for solopreneurs!

Follow me on Twitter: @pauldickinson

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