- Joined
- Nov 29, 2021
- Messages
- 83
I've been runing my own business in a demanding proffesion for 8 years now. From the day I started my own biz, I got a bit obsessed about productivity and today I'd like to share two things which lately had a huge positive impact, both of which are specific to the overly-connected and overly-distracted world we've come to live in.
1. The Freedom app. I bought the lifetime access to this thing. It's an app that you can install on every kind of device (computer, phone, tablet, Android, iOS, etc etc) and then from a unified online dashboard set up that certain apps or websites are blocked. It has many options for both the thing it blocks to the way it does it - ie. one-time sessions lasting a certian amount of time, reccuring sessions, sessions you set up in advance etc. By far the biggest killer of productivity today are distractions, and with this you make sure that distractions are available to you only when you want them to be. I have it set up so that every weekday I can only use work-related apps/sites up untill early afternoon, and also it blocks websites that typically tend to suck me in at night, which causes me to go to bed late. Here's a suggestion also to try: take a look at what are your biggest timewastes; say it's Youtube and other video-sites. Now open Freedom and block them on every device you have, for a full 5 days. You'll be surprised at a) the lizard-brain reaction you have in the first moments of blocking yourself off of these things and b) how much time and energy will open up to you in those 5 days. People who ran stuff like this reported no just having more time and more energy but things like better sleep etc. Do yourself a favour, get this app, install it everywhere and block yourself from things which are stealing your life away for cheap dopamine.
2. Time-blocking notebook. This was inspired by Cal Newport. Now, time-blocking is the simple method of blocking time in your calendar to do specific tasks. The important part of this point is that I do this in a physical notebook. Why? Notebooks don't have notifications, pop-ups, adds, multitasking etc. I am all for digital tools, and used them a lot, but for this specific purpose (daily task scheduling) I exlusivley use a paper notebook. It works like this:
Every day, first thing I do when I start working is open a A5-sized lined notebook (imagine a typical Moleskin, but Moleskins are overpriced crap lol). I check all the places where I do task/project managment (the program I use for case management, digital notebook for personal stuff, calendar etc). I decide what I'm going to do this day, and then list the tasks for the day on the left-hand page of the notebook. Usualy around 5-10 tasks, err on the side of less as "most people overestimate what they can do in a day, and underestimate what they can do in a year". I leave some space underneath the list for short notes that come up as I go about my day. Then, on the right-hand page, I write out the hours of the day to the left of each line, and with two lines between each hour (thus, the empty space between two lines equals 30 min). I then add time blocks for every tasks from the left page, until I fill up the day. I don't make the blocks too wide, so that I can correct the schedule as the day goes on and things inevitably don't go as planned.
The act of writing out the schedule for the day, and then keeping the notebook open in front of me the whole time, creates miracles. Time that would be wasted because you're not sure what to work on next (which eats up 10 minutes here 15 minutes there, and then 2 hours from your whole day are gone) is saved, as you refocus quickly with a glance at the notebook. Also, this additional focus means the work you do, you do with more concentration, and end up doing faster (and probably better). It has often happened to me when using this method that I end up finishing what I expected to be an 8 hour workday in 6-7 hours. And I almost always finish work with a sense of satisfaction that I've done all the task I wanted to do, which also leaves you with a pep in your step after work, and not feeling exhausted (see Chase's writing on winner effect for an explanation why).
I've also tried many other things to improve productivity which, if you're at all interested in this field, you've probably ran into already. Some work, some don't. But these two have been tremendous for me in keeping focus and advoiding distraction, which is more than half the battle, so I wanted to share for ya'll here. It could leave you with more time and energy to go do pick-up instead of wasting your time on things which do nothing to improve your life!
1. The Freedom app. I bought the lifetime access to this thing. It's an app that you can install on every kind of device (computer, phone, tablet, Android, iOS, etc etc) and then from a unified online dashboard set up that certain apps or websites are blocked. It has many options for both the thing it blocks to the way it does it - ie. one-time sessions lasting a certian amount of time, reccuring sessions, sessions you set up in advance etc. By far the biggest killer of productivity today are distractions, and with this you make sure that distractions are available to you only when you want them to be. I have it set up so that every weekday I can only use work-related apps/sites up untill early afternoon, and also it blocks websites that typically tend to suck me in at night, which causes me to go to bed late. Here's a suggestion also to try: take a look at what are your biggest timewastes; say it's Youtube and other video-sites. Now open Freedom and block them on every device you have, for a full 5 days. You'll be surprised at a) the lizard-brain reaction you have in the first moments of blocking yourself off of these things and b) how much time and energy will open up to you in those 5 days. People who ran stuff like this reported no just having more time and more energy but things like better sleep etc. Do yourself a favour, get this app, install it everywhere and block yourself from things which are stealing your life away for cheap dopamine.
2. Time-blocking notebook. This was inspired by Cal Newport. Now, time-blocking is the simple method of blocking time in your calendar to do specific tasks. The important part of this point is that I do this in a physical notebook. Why? Notebooks don't have notifications, pop-ups, adds, multitasking etc. I am all for digital tools, and used them a lot, but for this specific purpose (daily task scheduling) I exlusivley use a paper notebook. It works like this:
Every day, first thing I do when I start working is open a A5-sized lined notebook (imagine a typical Moleskin, but Moleskins are overpriced crap lol). I check all the places where I do task/project managment (the program I use for case management, digital notebook for personal stuff, calendar etc). I decide what I'm going to do this day, and then list the tasks for the day on the left-hand page of the notebook. Usualy around 5-10 tasks, err on the side of less as "most people overestimate what they can do in a day, and underestimate what they can do in a year". I leave some space underneath the list for short notes that come up as I go about my day. Then, on the right-hand page, I write out the hours of the day to the left of each line, and with two lines between each hour (thus, the empty space between two lines equals 30 min). I then add time blocks for every tasks from the left page, until I fill up the day. I don't make the blocks too wide, so that I can correct the schedule as the day goes on and things inevitably don't go as planned.
The act of writing out the schedule for the day, and then keeping the notebook open in front of me the whole time, creates miracles. Time that would be wasted because you're not sure what to work on next (which eats up 10 minutes here 15 minutes there, and then 2 hours from your whole day are gone) is saved, as you refocus quickly with a glance at the notebook. Also, this additional focus means the work you do, you do with more concentration, and end up doing faster (and probably better). It has often happened to me when using this method that I end up finishing what I expected to be an 8 hour workday in 6-7 hours. And I almost always finish work with a sense of satisfaction that I've done all the task I wanted to do, which also leaves you with a pep in your step after work, and not feeling exhausted (see Chase's writing on winner effect for an explanation why).
I've also tried many other things to improve productivity which, if you're at all interested in this field, you've probably ran into already. Some work, some don't. But these two have been tremendous for me in keeping focus and advoiding distraction, which is more than half the battle, so I wanted to share for ya'll here. It could leave you with more time and energy to go do pick-up instead of wasting your time on things which do nothing to improve your life!
