Category: Productivity

W is for Will Power (Which Isn't Enough)

4/27/2015

In just over three minutes, the short video (below) manages to inspire and educate us about productivity. It helps explain why will power is not enough to reach our goals, because "some studies suggest that will power is an exhaustible source that can be entirely used up." Instead of relying on will power to improve productivity, a few other simple methods are offered.

I love the concept of the Zeigarnik Effect and almost saved it for my "Z" post. In case you didn't watch the video, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines this effect as "the psychological tendency to remember an uncompleted task rather than a completed one." This makes intuitive sense to me, because I find that unfinished items tend to rattle around in my brain, clamoring to either be completed or written on my to-do list.

Does the Zeigarnik Effect (or another concept from the video) resonate with you?

V is for Vanderkam: Interview with Productivity Author Laura Vanderkam

4/25/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

Laura Vanderkam is the author of some of my favorite productivity-related books, including What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast and 168 Hours. I was thrilled that she made time for an interview to be shared on my blog. Here's what Vanderkam had to say when I asked if she had any life-changing advice, and what tips she could offer people who work in creative fields.

Advice from Laura Vanderkam

Keep track of your time for a week. Many of us think we know where our time goes, and we may even have a pretty good handle on this with work, but the rest of the 168 hours that make up the week can be quite surprising. I’ve done this exercise multiple times over the years and I learn something new every time. If you want to spend your time better, you need to know how you’re spending it now. So get a notebook, or download a time-tracking spreadsheet, or get a time tracking app, and record what you’re doing, as often as you remember, in as much detail as you think will be helpful. You can start whenever. Monday morning is good. Wednesday at 2 a.m. is fine as well, as long as you keep going for 7 straight days. And remember, there are no typical weeks. Labeling weeks as “typical” and “atypical” contributes to faulty impressions of our lives.

Kept your time log? Great. Here’s how to use this knowledge to be more productive.

First, one of the upsides of self-employment is having control over your time. So use it! Figure out when you work best, and protect this time for your most important work. For many of us, we’re most productive in the mornings after that first cup of coffee, but if you do your best work late at night, that’s fine. Just make sure you figure out what work requires your most intense concentration, and schedule this work during these peak blocks. Schedule phone calls, meetings, and marketing work at other times.

Make sure to work enough. We can all be more efficient. We should be more efficient! But creative work, like all work, takes time to execute. Make sure you’re scheduling enough time for it, and not getting distracted by other things, just because your work might be flexible.

That said, don’t view creative work as all-consuming, either. I always laugh at those lines in book acknowledgments when the author laments all his missed dinners. If you’re chronically missing dinner to complete your projects, don’t blame the artistic life. You’re better off looking at your own time management instead. Don’t wait for the muse to strike. The muse can be trained to strike between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. if you’re disciplined. The muse can then disappear for a few hours while you hang out with your family, and revisit after the kids go to bed.

Thank you for taking the time to share your advice with us! I like the idea of scheduling work time during peak periods. Blog readers, let us know in the comments if you've tracked your time yet or if this type of scheduling is something you do.

Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books, including I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours. She's also the author of a novel, The Cortlandt Boys. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and four children, and blogs at www.lauravanderkam.com.

U is for Unclutter: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

4/24/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

Confession: I'm happier and more productive when my house is neat. I've been known to completely organize closets in between major creative projects. I love to read books and magazine articles about organization, even if I already know many of the techniques.

Because of this, I was excited to find a new book which offers a somewhat different approach to organization: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo.

Kondo says, "Sort by category, in the correct order, and keep only those things that inspire joy. Do this thoroughly and quickly, all in one go." (Caveat: "one go" can last several months if tackling a whole house. ) This is very different from techniques that suggest getting rid of one item (or one garbage bag) a day, or the fifteen-minutes-at-a-time strategy.

I also like her criterion of keeping what inspires joy. It seems like an interesting way to decide about saving things, instead of "have I worn it in the last two years?" I'm not sure about folding socks instead of rolling them, or emptying my purse completely each night as she suggests, and I definitely need my uninspiring tax-related documents. But organizing by category makes sense to me. For example, she recommends organizing all the books in the house at one time, instead of by room, because otherwise you don't have a complete sense of what you own. She also suggests touching each book, instead of letting your eyes skim the shelves. I haven't tried this yet but can see how it would lead to getting rid of more because you have to carefully consider each one.

Having less clutter can make it easier to find items, but it can also be transforming because Kondo believes "being surrounded by things that spark joy makes you happy."

Have you ever done a purge by category or do prefer to do it by room? What items inspire joy for you?

T is for Technology Tools

4/23/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

My productivity theme continues!

Here are some free technology tools that might help you be productive and organized. You can pay to upgrade some of these, but the free versions seem pretty effective.

Wunderlist

Wunderlist is an app to create and track items on your to-do lists, grocery lists, etc. It can run on your phone and your computer, which I like, because you can update lists wherever you are and keep them in sync.

Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck allows Twitter users to set up columns to read tweets from certain groups of people separately. For example, you can follow agents and editors in one column, friends in another, and the #AtoZChallenge hashtag in a third. It's an easier way to read through streams of data than paging through hundreds of sequential tweets. (Hootsuite is a similar tool.)

Talkwalker

One productive way to research is to have search results sent to you automatically. Many people are familiar with Google Alerts, but I like using the free version of Talkwalker, too, because it often provides different results. When I was writing Pandemic, for example, I had alerts set for "emerging infectious diseases" and "avian influenza." You can receive alerts on any topic of interest.

Evernote

I just started using the free version of Evernote after a technology glitch in AOL caused most of my 17+ years of favorite places to disappear. (The ones that were left would randomly reorder themselves each time I logged on. Maddening.) Evernote has a lot of functionality, but for now I've been using it to save blog posts and article about say, productivity, and keep them organized.

I'm sure there are other helpful free programs out there -- please share your favorites! Have you survived any technology glitches recently?

S is for Sleep

4/22/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

I'm blogging from A to Z this month about productivity.

Sleep might seem like an odd topic for a productivity theme. But two of Gregory Ciotti's productivity tips from my "C" post--manage health and manage energy--both relate to sleep.

How much sleep each individual needs can vary. There is no magic number, according to SleepFoundation.org. "While you may be at your absolute best sleeping seven hours a night, someone else may clearly need nine hours to have a happy, productive life." And a February 2015 article at LiveScience.com says that ". . . although the NSF [National Sleep Foundation] recommends that adults ages 26 to 64 sleep 7 to 9 hours, it may be appropriate for some people to sleep for as little as 6 hours, or as long as 10 hours, the guidelines say." (See Infographic below.)

Sleep like a baby?

According to 5 Things You Should Know About Sleep Health and the Workplace, sleep deprivation affects not only productivity, but creativity as well. "Lack of sleep affects the prefrontal cortex of the brain, the area that controls innovation, self-control and creativity. A 1999 study found that just 24 hours of sleep loss impairs innovative thinking and flexible decision-making."

If you don't get enough sleep at night, naps can help bridge the gap. (See my previous post, How To Procrastinate.) Either way, being well-rested can help you do your best work.

How many hours of sleep do you need to feel rested? Do you regularly sleep that amount of time?

Source:LiveScience

R is for Routines and Rituals

4/21/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

Routines and rituals are a great way to trigger our brain that it's time for a certain task. We can use our habits to set ourselves up for success.

James Clear says, "The power of a ritual . . . is that it provides a mindless way to initiate your behavior. It makes starting your habits easier and that means following through on a consistent basis is easier."

Here's an example: as a writer, I spend lots of time imagining, creating, and revising. But there comes a point in every project when I need to proofread what I've written, word by word, comma by comma. I always proofread in a separate place from where I write. When I sit in that room with my printed manuscript, it's like my brain knows: It's time for focused, meticulous reading! I don't need to spend time transitioning to this task or gearing up for it. The ritual does that for me.

It's time to make a routine!

When establishing a new routine, Clear says that "the key to any good ritual is that it removes the need to make a decision: What should I do first? When should I do this? How should I do this? Most people never get moving because they can’t decide how to get started. Having a ritual takes that burden off your shoulders." (By the way, Clear has lots of useful information on his site, including two short books you can download for free.)

Do you have routines or rituals that make you more productive? Please share!

Q is for Quit Bad Habits

4/20/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

Q is for quit . . . your bad habits, that is. My number one unproductive habit is checking email throughout the day. I'm sure you know all the reasons this is bad. It's a distraction. It's inefficient. It's a time-suck, because one click leads to another, and then my peak writing time is gone, spent reading a blog post or answering email instead of revising my novel.

Apparently, I'm not the only one. OfficeTime.net recently released the results of their annual survey of small business professionals, and email is the number one time waster, with surfing the Internet coming in at number three. (Luckily, most writers don't have too many meetings, which holds the number two time killer spot.)

Granted, answering email can't be completely eliminated, and corresponding with people is often a good thing, not a waste of time. Stephen Dodd, the CEO of OfficeTime, says, “If we’re going to spend that large percentage of our day communicating, we have to look at how our communication can boost productivity. A key way to accomplish that is to make sure your communications are in the clearest, most effective way possible.”

Sometimes it's not the act of corresponding that's the time waster, it's the interruption and constant checking of email that's the real problem. For more on that, see my previous post, D is for Digital Procrastination. (And for a different take on Killing Time, visit my K post.)

Do you know what your biggest time killers are? Have you taken any steps to try to reduce them?

P is for Pomodoro Technique

4/18/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

The Pomodoro Technique is a simple method of getting a project completed by using a timer. Created by Francesco Cirillo, this is the premise:
25 minutes of concentrated work, followed by a 5 minute break, another 25 minutes of focused work, followed by another 5 minute break. (After 2 hrs, take a longer break before beginning again.) Breaking a larger task into smaller pieces makes it more manageable and the timer helps encourage undivided attention.

There really isn't much more to it than that. It's cheap and easy, and a free phone app can now replace the tomato-shaped timer that Cirillo originally used.

This technique was voted as the best productivity method on Lifehacker.com in 2012. If you want more information, there's a Lifehacker article here and a Pomodoro website here, but the simplicity of the technique is what contributes to its popularity.

Is this something you've tried or that you think would work for you?

O is for Open Loops (Unfinished Business)

4/17/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

In Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day, author Todd Henry explains the concept of Open Loops. “These are the unfinished projects, the halfhearted efforts, or the unreconciled relationships. They are the projects that you’re afraid to say no to, but deep down you know that you can’t commit to," he says. "These must be acted upon and made a priority, or immediately closed and put aside. If you have too many open loops in your life, it diminishes your ability to focus on the mission-critical things. You must become good at pruning your projects and commitments so that you have energy available for your most important work.”

This concept makes sense to me because I'm a big believer in “mental clutter”--those items that stay on our minds because that they're unresolved. Open Loops definitely contribute to that clutter. I once left an email in my inbox for five weeks (don't judge me!) because I couldn’t make a decision about it. My entire inbox was clear, except for that one last email, which I would see there every day. I’m pretty sure that counts as an Open Loop!

Does this concept ring true for you? Do you have any Open Loops that need to be closed?

N is for "No"

4/16/2015

By Yvonne Ventresca

For toddlers, we teach the magic word as "please." But for adults, there is a different magic word: No.

Saying no helps eliminate future undesirable tasks, freeing up time for what we'd rather be doing.

But saying no can be tough. What's the best way to approach it?

In the Psychology Today article aptly entitled No Is A Complete Sentence, Dr. Cytowic advises: "The way to refuse to do something one is not obligated to do is to refuse: 'No thank you,' 'No, I’m so sorry.' 'No, I simply can’t.' 'Thank you for asking, but I’m afraid it’s impossible.' Repeat these phrases as often as necessary to wear out the attacker. It is a tactical mistake to ever give a reason for declining. . . .When you offer no excuse you imply that you’d love to participate or oblige if only it were possible."

Deciding when to say no can be tricky. One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Martha Beck. "Here is the crux of the matter, the distilled essence, the only thing you need to remember: When considering whether to say yes or no, you must choose the response that feels like freedom. Period."

Have you ever said yes to something you knew you would regret later? Do you have any tricks for deciding when to say no, and then actually saying it?

<<Previous

Forward>>

W is for Will Power (Which Isn't Enough)

V is for Vanderkam: Interview with Productivity Author Laura Vanderkam

Advice from Laura Vanderkam

U is for Unclutter: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

T is for Technology Tools

S is for Sleep

R is for Routines and Rituals

Q is for Quit Bad Habits

P is for Pomodoro Technique

O is for Open Loops (Unfinished Business)

N is for "No"

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