Being productive is a skill that requires a lot of experimenting and practicing. It is about demolishing your bad habits that make you waste a lot of time and energy, as well as fine tuning the ones that make you prone to be more efficient with less time and energy.
Over the years I have always tried to experiment habits that would help me to be more productive, as most of the times I was finding myself with an endless list of things to do, but at the end of the day very few of them were completed.
These are my top 7 proven tips that I have tested over the years in order to be more productive.
Be Productive, Not Busy.
The number one point I want to get across is a reformulation of your vocabulary. I fall into this trap very often and it took me a while to actually realize that most of the times I was busy but not productive at all. This is because I used to be very disorganized, jumping from one task to the other without completing it, not concentrating on the major tasks I had to complete first.
Being productive means to be smartly busy, this leads to more fulfilment and having more tasks done.
Make A Sensible List
Making a list is crucial when it comes to be more productive. Try to generate a list of clear and specific tasks to get them done.
One of the fundamental skills of productivity is time-management. This means that every task needs to have a specific time-to-complete attribute, as we will discuss later on in this article. So, be as specific as you can, otherwise it is difficult to tell if you have actually completed the task and it will also be challenging to allocate a specific time to it.
For example, if I were to write down “Work on new project”, you can tell that it is highly generic and vague, making it extremely difficult to allocate a time-to-complete attribute to it. This will mess up all the other tasks and the prioritization process too. Instead, try to reformulate it to a much simpler sub-task, like “Write down proposal” or “Set objectives of the project”. Likewise, the generic task of “Sort Out Life Admin” can be reformulated as “organize receipts for tax return” or similar related tasks.
Keep your list nice and short, it should not have more than two major tasks and no more than 5 total tasks in it. If you finish your list before you can always add tasks in there, but the more there are the more overwhelming it gets.
Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s law states that a given task takes the time that you allocate to it. I am not going into great details on how it works and how to use it in this article. If you are interested to read more about it, you can find the detailed article here.
Long story short, assign the time that you think it will take you in order to complete that task. Try to challenge this time, make it shorter. You will be amazed on what your brain can achieve under strict deadlines.
Prioritize
Now that you have generated a list and you know approximately how much time you need for each task, it is now time to prioritize the tasks listed in it. My personal trick is to set a quick and easy task at the very top. Usually it is a task that doesn’t usually take more than 5-8 minutes to complete and it can be something like “Reply to Dr X about patient Y” or “Update calendar with confirmed meetings”. This will give me the chance to quickly tick something off my list and it will fuel my brain with motivation for having already completed a task. Also, it will give you the chance to switch to “work mode”.
After your “warm-up” task, place one of the major tasks after that. Ideally try to cram the major tasks before your lunch break placing the ones that require more time to complete on the top of the list and the ones that require less time to complete at the bottom.
Learn To Rest
It is a very common misconception that productive people do not rest and that they work with no break all they long. It is actually counterproductive and shifts the equation from productive to just busy.
Take short, regular coffee/walk breaks in between tasks, this will help to reset the brain and get ready for the next task.
2 Minutes Rule
Some tasks take more time than others, and you might be tempted to write them all down, regardless of how much time they will take. As I have said above, you ideally want to aim for a short and concise list without flooding it with non-related, easy tasks that take up too much space.
Try to allocate a slot of 20 minutes for all the tasks that take 2 minutes or less in order to complete them, like washing your cup of coffee, or brushing your teeth, or tidy up your desk.
In other scenarios and if you are not working with a list, try to complete there and then those small tasks that take 2 minutes or less, instead of procrastinating.
Work Smart
Productivity is all about working smart and optimization, and this also mean foreseeing and avoiding repetitive, and time consuming activities.
The first example that comes into my mind is when writing/replying to emails. Email conversation can be quite time-consuming, especially when your first email is not self-explanatory and does not have an algorithm with a clear plan of action. Let’s consider these scenarios when writing an email for a business meeting.
Scenario 1
Me: Dear X, can we please have a catch-up meeting? When would that best suits you? Kind Regards, A.
X: Dear A, thank you for your email. Sounds good, should we do this week? Kind Regards, X.
Me: Dear X, thank you for you reply. Sure. I am free Wednesday afternoon? Would that suits you? Kind Regards. A
X: Dear A, Wednesday afternoon I am free from 5-7. Kind Regards X.
Me: Dear X, I have another personal meeting around that time, could we do earlier? Kind Regards, A.
X: Hey A, how about 13:00? Kind Regards, A.
Me: Could we make 14:00 just to be sure I can make it on time? KR A.
X: In that case it is better if we move it to Thursday, would 14:00 be OK? X.
Me: On Thursday I can only do 10 am. Would that work. A.
X: 10 am it is. Should I prepare any particular document? X.
Me: If you could present spreadsheet Z would be great, as we need to discuss XYZ. A
X: All set. Will see you there. A.
This conversation would actually take at least 20 to 30 minutes, which is way too time consuming and there is a better way to to that. See Scenario 2.
Scenario 2
Me: Dear X, hope this email finds you well. I was wondering if we could have a 20 minutes catch-up meeting to discuss XYZ. To do that I need you to have spreadsheet Z ready.
If you want to have the meeting this week I am available at the following times: Wednesday at 14:00, Thursday at 7:30 or 10:00. If those times are not suitable for you next week I am available on Monday at 13:00 and Friday at 20:00. If those times are still not good for you, please get in touch with co-worker P (CCed in this email) and arrange a meeting with him, he will then write and forward to me a summary of the meeting with the outcomes.
Let me know if any of those times are good, if not get in touch directly with co-worker P.
Kind Regards
A
As you can see this is clear, concise, self-explanatory, with a clear algorithm of steps to follow and it only takes 2 minutes to write. This principle can be applied to pretty much every aspects of your life, and it is a huge time saver.