Productivity-Crazed Shit I Do:

 Productivity, Uncategorized  5 Responses »
Sep 102012
 

I am fascinated by productivity. For one reason I believe to succeed you will need enormous amounts of it; to make the most efficient use of the time that has been given to us, you have to actually be using that time.

For another completely different reason, I have a ridiculously short attention span. If I could have cosmetic surgery on my attention span, I would.  But in between my bouts of productivity and being distracted by fluffy animals on the Interwebz, I find some decent original productivity helpers.

  • I use My Blackberry as my walk-writer. I’ve filled it with all these different notes: When I have a stroke of inspiration, I get out my phone and rapidly-fire the thoughts into text. I have lists with ideas for projects and blogs, possible presents for my boyfriend I update whenever I get a good idea, (half finished) drafts for articles and tweets I like enough to write down whenever I’m in a wi-fi less zone. I mostly do this when I’m walking: I may look like a 24/7 texting douchebag, but at least I can’t forget.
  • I have a few hours between the two groups of students I supervise on Monday. I used to spend these 2,5 hours mindlessly browsing the Internet and talking to my colleagues but I’ve opted out of that now: Instead I take my regular 30-minute lunch break and then go to my classroom (where there is no Wi-Fi) to write.
  • Speaking of no Wi-Fi, if I really need/want to get a lot done I go to Wi-Fi less coffee places. It’s super effective against an Internet addict such as myself.
  • I have a page in my iPad notes with a big list of potential articles to write for the website. I update it whenever I have a good idea but zero time to write the entire article. This way, I can always come back to it later.
  • I audiorecord entire blogs on my iPod or iPad whenever I’m cycling to work, to yoga or to the grocery store. I can’t really be bothered by people listening in to my one-sided conversation. Most people assume I’m on the phone anyway and those who think I’m crazy are a lot less likely to be in my way whenever we encounter each other again.
  • Because I used to go with the subway a lot I trained myself to use my time effectively with reading articles for my university classes. This has stuck: I write or read. The only time I’m not doing something useful in public transit is when I’m craving a level of Plant versus Zombies, which I believe I’m entitled to every once in a while.

These are my main extra productivity ‘hacks’; I’m pretty sure they are occasionally the difference between pulling something off and crashing down completely, mental breakdown concluded. You know what they say: It’s the little things.

Creating The Ultimate To-Do List

 Brian Tracy, Discipline, Productivity  6 Responses »
Aug 292012
 

Don’t you just love lists? I know I do. I am about as organized as a hurricane and easily distracted like a labradoodle so I often make lists to help me focus, prioritize and let’s not forget: to prevent myself from going into total and utter mental breakdown mode.

I have always worked with them on and off but the busier I am, the more lists become my necessary liferaft. Lately I have responsibilities in a few different areas, which is risky for someone like me who loses the sight of the big picture. Lists often prevent me from a) freaking out and b) forgetting items in areas.

Over time I figured out how I personally work best with to-do lists. I have taken quite a few ideas from Brian Tracy, whose book I reviewed and who incidentally Gala Darling wrote an excellent piece about last week, containing some of his best tips and advice. Click here to read it, I think it’s very good.

So here’s how I personally work my to-do lists.

I have this little ringed booklet that will costs you next to nothing at HEMA. DON’T get me started on my love for HEMA office supplies. I LOVE ALL OF IT. I could forever exclaim my joy, but maybe another time. Bigger task at hand.

Anyway, if it’s a short to-do list for just one day, it looks like this. As you can see, I have had quite a dutiful Saturday.

Now, the letters you see circled indicate their importance. I always have to focus on the A’s & B’s of the day. These items are most important. By doing these first you prevent yourself from procrastinating by doing less important tasks and even if you can’t finish your entire to-do lists, you will still have done the most important things you could have done that day.

Sometimes I have more than one and that’s when you can work with a A1, A2 or B1, B2, B3 system.C is sort of meh-in between: if you have the time you can do it but they’re not as big of a deal as the A’s & B’s. D stands for Delegate (definitely true here, lots of people are doing my job for me*) and E stands for Eliminate, meaning you can cross it off altogether*.

However, I only use the one-day list if I either have only a few things to do or one day to do it (like with a deadline or going on a holiday or something).

Normally my to-do lists look like this: I look at the things I got to do on more of a multiday or weekly basis and divide it into categories like Writing, Work, Social, Health, and Other. I usually take a few days to finish the lists and then either update the old one or start a new one.

This works best for me personally: Multiday/Week-based to-do lists in categories. Working like this, I can keep checking off items and get in a productivity flow. Which I love. Until I’m distracted by the Internet of course.

Do you have any brilliant to-do list or efficiency tips? Please share in the comments for other readers and myself. The work to (try and) be productive is never done.

*No Justin Bieber or Beliebers were harmed in the making of this article.

How To Get Away From Your Computer.

 Discipline, How to, Productivity, Time Management  23 Responses »
Aug 012012
 

Oh Internetz, how I love you. So much inspirational material available, countless hilarious Internet memes and all these awesome people only a click away. I love it. The Internet is in my top 5 Abstract Concepts I Would Marry List*. But let’s face it: Too much Badluck Brians and brainless Youtube videos isn’t good for a person.

We spend shitloads of time on stupid websites while we could be doing other stuff. We all know checking your e-mail every 5 minutes is neither effective nor productive. We basically overstimulate our brain with a load of crap (which makes our brain less useful later in the day) as well as procrastinate on more important things as well as miss out on a lot of other way more fun, creative and awesome things we could be doing in our free time.

And I’m the worst addict when it comes to the Interwebz, so I really have to make it easy for myself to not be on the Internet. Here are some easy ways to start taking down your Web-Time and start having some more Real Life Time (I’ve heard it’s really fun, you guys).

Turn off your computer when you’re not using it. My poor MacBook is always on. I am surprised it hadn’t become a fire hazard yet. I’d like to keep it that way, so now I (try to) turn it off when I have no legitimate reason to use it. And watching a Jenna Marbles marathon is not a legimitate reason. At least not twice in the same week. 

Write down what you want/need to do on-line before you do it. When I know I only need to check my e-mail, find the route to this new restaurant and cry over my bank account balance, I can be on- and off-line rather quickly. Even if I want to read through my bloglovin’ feed I can do most of that in an hour. When I have a list of things I want to do next to me, it’s easy just to cross it off and not to wander in the Labyrinth of WiFi I accidentally create for yourself. So make a list: What are you really on the Internet for? Some blogs? Some fashion inspiration? Finding a good recipe. Make a list, go on-line, do your business, go off-line. Like using the computer once was intended.

Limit your browsing time. Set an egg-timer for 30 minutes. You can go nuts on 9gag and Tumblr in those 30 minutes but after that it’s back into the real world with your cute little butt, okay? Plus, there’s only so many memes you can see before you stop laughing. Trust me.

Browser Nannies. I use Safari and there is no Safari Nanny yet, but Google Chrome & Firefox have Nannies: These are basically apps you can add to your browser who block or limit time on websites of choice (Facebook. Gmail, Twitter) and who lock the entire Internet for you after the hours you set to have per day. I’ve heard people made great strides in terms of less Internet with this, and I like the posh British sound of having an Internet Nanny.

 

Make it less visible. Remove Safari, Mail & Twitter from your dock. Remove the shortcuts from your desktop. This way you won’t be visually reminded (at least not after a while, for the first week you’ll probably hallucinate them there) and the more effort you have to put into starting up your browser, Tweetdeck and e-mail, the less likely you’ll do it in your moments of hurry and deadlines.

Declare Internet free hours or days. Shut off your wireless network or router if you have to. Have your house or workplace be Internet-free from 9 to 11 or from 1 to 3. This way you can not be distracted. You’ll be amazed how productive you can become in those hours; when I go to Internet-free coffee places I get the most work done, no joke. This is also addictive: you’ll soon be craving them!

Literally step away from the electronics. I have the worst habit: I check everything the moment I wake up. I often attach a few Tumblr-browse minutes to that morning-routine as well, which is also quite stupid considering I have more important things to do with my morning time (getting ready for various things). Which is why I now leave my iPad and MacBook in the living room when I go to bed, just taking my phone because it’s my alarm clock. For now it’s just delay, but at least it’s progress. I strive to not touch any electronics until after breakfast at one point.

Get Internet on your phone. This is not my own tip, but I’ve seen this in boyfriend & friends: Once you have a phone to look up minor things such as movie times, important e-mails and routes, you’ll be less likely to start up your computer and be lost there for hours. Slight risk is your face being constantly buried in your phone, but that’s something you have to find out for yourself.

Things that also help is getting a hobby that does not involve the computer, such as reading, dancing, running, cooking and -you guessed it- hooping, or meditation instead of clubbing your brain to death with LOLcatz. Speaking of…Maybe we should just all get ourselves some Internet Monitoring Cats. That might work too.


*Writing, Internet, Bikram Yoga, Teaching and Coffee. Yes, still.