Posts Tagged ‘productivity’

Take a walk

Posted May 18, 2012 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | Add your comment »

Time-management experts often tell us to take short breaks throughout the day. It’s advice I find easy to agree with but hard to put into practice, at least regularly, because I don’t remember, or I just wasted time checking email and don’t see how I can justify it, or I’m not really sure what I should be working on now, anyway.

Yesterday around 4:00 pm I realized I had a serious case of work doldrums — it was a sunny day, and I hadn’t gotten much accomplished, and though I knew I was in no danger of, say, blowing a deadline because of it, I couldn’t bring myself to give up… and yet I couldn’t focus. Usually what I do in such times is take care of some small, domestic errand like folding laundry or doing the dishes, which is generally enough to kick me back into action at work. Instead, I took a short walk.

Lo and behold! It was glorious, and I felt great on my return, and though I was initially tempted to grab a book and relax on the sofa, I sat down on my desk and enjoyed a compact, productive next hour.

| More

Making a list, checking it twice

Posted April 30, 2012 by
in Planning Tips | 2 comments »

225/365 Reminders

I heard a business coach speak recently on the subject of productivity, and was struck by something she said about to-do lists: make sure to keep each task manageable. So rather than noting that you have to write your company’s marketing plan, break the job down into multiple steps you can tackle, cross off, and feel good about.

It’s an interesting point, and one I don’t always adhere to. My main work related to-do list is pretty big picture, in fact — as a freelancer, I like to have a good high-level sense of how much, exactly, I’m juggling — though I do sometimes write out a secondary list so that smaller tasks don’t fall through the cracks.

Which doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement, of course. Rather than reminding myself to prepare some advance posts for this blog, for instance, I suspect I’d be better off committing to a specific number — say, enough for next week. And rather than noting that I need to research an article I’m preparing, it might make sense to define a couple of micro-topics I’d like to explore.

How do you manage your to-do lists?

| More

Personal metrics

Posted March 19, 2012 by
in Planning Tips | 1 comment »

Here’s some more fun with data: The Economist reported recently on a trend known as “self-tracking,” or using data about your everyday activities to improve your health and quality of life.

Robin Barooah, a software designer, said he had lost 20kg by monitoring his after-lunch mood using flashcards, which heightened his awareness of how different foods made him feel. Sara Riggare, an engineer from Sweden, described how she used an iPhone app to determine the best drug combination to control her Parkinson’s Disease, and a Nintendo Wii game to monitor and improve her balance.

Unsurprisingly, start-ups and larger companies have begun to support self-trackers with gadgets and apps that facilitate the collection and analysis of personal data.

It’s a promising approach, though I’m reminded of a thought I had, years ago, while working at Forbes.com. I was on a tour of the MIT Media Lab and listening to one of the grad students talk about how mobile phones could help you track what you ate and let you know, for example, if you needed to eat more veggies or lay off the red wine. And, you know, nutrition is great, but will nobody stand up for our capacity for self-deception? There are things I’d like to understand about myself, and things that are important to know. But gosh, I’m not sure I could take that level of clarity in every last aspect of my life!

Do you use any self-tracking tools?

| More

Habits and destiny

Posted February 23, 2012 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 4 comments »

Treadmill

Another great piece in this weekend’s New York Times magazine, adapted from a forthcoming book, told the story of Andrew Pole, who analyzes retail behavior for the marketers at mega-retailer Target. The goal, of course, is to get shoppers to change their habits and buy more stuff at Target.

It’s fascinating stuff, however. Author Charles Duhigg describes the three-step process by which habits are formed:

First, there is a cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. Then there is the routine, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a reward, which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future. Over time, this loop — cue, routine, reward; cue, routine, reward — becomes more and more automatic.

But habits aren’t destiny, pace the famous proverb that’s attributed to Gandhi, and the neuroscience that underpins Pole’s analysis can be used for more constructive purposes, too. Pole describes using it to break his mid-afternoon habit of going down to the cafeteria for a cookie. The secret was to determine that the reward he really sought was a bit of socialization: “When I walked to a colleague’s desk and chatted for a few minutes, it turned out, my cookie urge was gone.” He has since lost 21 pounds.

Are there habits that you’ve broken, or that you’re trying to break right now?

| More

The expandable hour

Posted September 24, 2008 by
in Planning Tips | 1 comment »

dali-clock.jpg

In general, I think I’m a fairly efficient person, but I often find I fit the tasks I have to do to fill the time that’s available. Like many writers, I can be very productive when I’m on deadline or juggling multiple assignments. It’s when my workload’s light that things start to go downhill, as I take little breaks to catch up on blog reading, clean the house or re-organize my desk, and put off what little work I need to do until the very last moment.

Many different theories have been put forth to explain procrastination—that procrastinators are perfectionists, for example, or that they lack self-confidence. I wonder if it’s not also because we’re subliminally addicted to stress, since we know that’s one sure way to actually get the job done. If I feel like I’ve been wasting too much time at the end of the day, I start to get stressed, and then I tend to sit down and actually finish the work.

At any rate, the answer is as simple as it is hard to implement: prioritize your tasks, then do them (I also like Karen’s suggestion of using an hourglass to keep track of time). If you’ve got time left over at the end of the day, work ahead—or kick back with a book or a glass of wine and enjoy yourself.

| More

Freedom without self-control

Posted August 15, 2008 by
in Planning Tips | 1 comment »

freedom.png

By now, plenty of productivity experts have suggested a relatively simple solution for battling the distractions of the modern workday: resist the urge to constantly check your email or surf the Internet, and don’t answer the phone unless you have to.

Not so easy, is it? If you can’t resist the temptation—and you work on a Mac—you might want to check out a new application called Freedom. Freedom disables all wireless and Ethernet networking on your computer for a period of your choosing, up to three hours at a time. After that, it re-enables your network and restores things back to normal. And don’t think you can just up and cheat whenever you want to; according to the Freedom ReadMe:

Stopping or quitting Freedom will not re-enable your network adapters. This is purposeful. To re-enable your network before the time period elapses, you must restart your computer.

You’re on your own, however, when it comes to not answering the phone.

[via Lifehacker]

| More

Put your thoughts—all of them—to work

Posted May 9, 2008 by
in Planning Tips | 1 comment »

thoughts.jpg

Did you know that the average person thinks around 60,000 thoughts each day? (Actually, it’s more complicated than that, but never mind.) According to Sharon Melnick, clinical psychologist and life coach, the key to success and accomplishment is to make sure those thoughts are directed positively, towards your goals. On her blog, she recently wrote about how to let go of things you obsess over.

The situation unfolded the way it did. That’s now a fact. But when you explain to yourself why it happened that way, you have made the situation to be a confirmation of a long held belief you have about yourself (e.g. I am not good enough; I’ll always be a “B+” kind of player; I’m a loser”, etc.)

To start moving forward, what you want to do is start to trace “what it means about YOU” that the situation happened the way it did. Write down on a piece of paper the explanation(s) you tell yourself for why the situation happened this way. With each answer you give, dig a little deeper to answer the question “and what does that mean about me?” This analysis will lead you to the root of what is making you ‘hold onto’ the situation. You want to see if you can come up with a personalized meaning that confirms your deepest fear or doubt about yourself.

The next step, of course, is to analyze the problem more objectively and stop blaming yourself… Easier said than done, of course, but that’s no different from most good advice.

| More