Category Archives: motivation
How to Make Your Daytime More Productive
Whether it’s on a business or personal level, the amount of distractions we face is overwhelming: email, texts, meetings, kids’ schedules, keeping up with the house chores – and on and on. So here are some thoughts, apps, resources etc. to help define what you want to achieve, how to think about your goals and how to approach the tasks. Last time we focused on starting your day, this post is about maintaining your momentum during the day.
Discover Your Time Black Holes
Do a Time Audit
It’s sort of a paradox that a time audit takes up time, but it’s time well spent, which will ultimately make you more efficient. For one week, log your hours in a notebook, spreadsheet or a program like Evernote. At the end of the week look at the record of what you’ve done, and it probably won’t make you happy. For work, I use a time tracking tool called Harvest to keep track of my hours that has a plugin to Asana, our project management software. It can get pretty grim sometimes, but it helps me analyze how I spend my time. So what did your time audit show? I’ve learned that many of us share the same time management challenges. Here are a few… can you relate?
Email
This is an enormous distraction for most of us. News articles, sales at your favorite site, celebrity gossip, politics, etc. all wind up in our inboxes. So the question is… how important are they really? If they’re not important, do yourself a favor and unsubscribe. Keep a record of the unsubscribes and if you REALLY can’t get along without the cutlery sale at Sur la Table, resubscribe when you can’t take it any more. Another strategy is to direct all of the emails that aren’t critical to your day to a separate account that you only check once a day.
Other hints:
Check your email at set times of the day.
Prioritize – If something is urgent, respond to it right away, if not, let it rest until your scheduled email check time.
Schedule your emails to come in every half hour our (or whatever frequency makes sense for you.) That way you won’t be looking for something every five minutes.
Organize your emails – All of the major email clients have ways to create folders, archive emails, etc.
Browsing:
Did the Mets win last night? Who was pitching? Colon ? How old is he? Who is the oldest pitcher in baseball? What pitcher makes more money? Who is the best paid player?
Got it? Your afternoon is gone. Information and web browsing are addictive, but manageable.
If you don’t need the internet, disconnect – turn off wifi, use airplane mode on mobile devices, pull the plug if you’re hard connected.
There are also software programs that will let you schedule and block specific sites or the entire internet for specific periods of time:
Set a timer to limit your online time.
Save articles to view later – If you find an article that you need, but you don’t need it immediately, save it to look at later.
Be More Productive!
Try to schedule meetings in blocks – that way you won’t have a half hour here an
d a half hour there, which forces you to “reboot” to use the time effectively
Create a to-do list – I’ve been using Wunderlist and it works great. I have to do lists for phone calls, home stuff, work, etc. Works on my computer, phone, wherever.
Easy stuff – hard stuff – Tough as it is, do the hard stuff first. Will power and self control are limited and decrease as the day goes on. You’re also fresher in the morning so the tasks that might seem overwhelming at 3:00 might seem more manageable at 10:00.
Take breaks – Try working for 25 minutes and taking a five minute break or what ever works for you http://pomodorotechnique.com/; try to meditate for 10-15 minutes; stretch at your desk or go outside. Brief diversions help you focus.
The afternoon slump – When I was a kid, we’d put our heads down on our desks in the afternoon for a rest period. That’s a luxury most of us don’t have anymore. How to avoid getting sleepy at 3:00?
Have a good breakfast (carbs and some protein to get you started, and I don’t mean a Cinnabon!)
Lunch– Have protein with your salad or sandwich. Avoid fatty foods, they’ll sit in your stomach
Take a walk – it will get your heart going, take your mind off what you’re doing and refresh you.
If you have a snack, have one with a protein-carb combination
End of the Day
Check your to-do list – If you didn’t get everything done, set your priorities for the next day and review your schedule.
Complete one small task – there’s always one small thing you can get done to finish the day so you don’t have to think about it.
Do a final email and social check – It’s tough not to look at email, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc at night, but that’s also a path to more evening stress. Try to close out your necessary communications so you don’t have to think about them until the next day.
Here’s More Info:
Seven Ways to Manage Your Email
How to Overcome Office Distractions
Improve Your Day
Sometimes it seems like our lives are built on excuses about how we never manage to do what we want to do or accomplish. Whether it’s on a business or personal level, the amount of distractions we face is overwhelming: email, texts, meetings, kids’ schedules, staying in touch with friends, keeping up with the household chores – and on and on. So here are some thoughts, apps, resources etc. to help you define what you want to do, where you want to go and how to get there. This post focuses on getting started in the morning.
How to Make your Mornings More Productive
If you’re an average adult, you have approximately 25,000 mornings to deal with. Believe it or not, the way you use those mornings can define your day.
“Rise and Shine… Really!”
Wake up earlier so you can have time for yourself. This doesn’t mean check your email, get aggravated over the news or change the litter boxes. Reward yourself: read, exercise, work in your garden- what ever your passion is. Gradually make your wake up time earlier until you reach the point at which you have enough time to do what you want. And make your wake up time consistent.
Eat This
In all my research, eating a real breakfast was the suggestion I saw most often. Recommendations included fruits, smoothies, vegetables and proteins. Stay away from that high sugar breakfast folks!
Exercise
I tell people my motto is “Exercise is bad for you!” but I don’t really believe that. Research has shown that people who exercise have more energy and a better outlook. So even if it’s just for a short time, put exercise into your morning routine.
And Speaking of a Routine
Plan your mornings and stick to the plan. It sets the tone for your entire day. Things you can include are:
Meditation – Mindfulness has become a big buzzword over the past couple of years. Meditation helps settle your mind, relaxes you and helps you focus. Here are a few apps and web sites that can get you started:
Stop, Breathe & Think
Calm
The Mindfulness App
Headspace
Other Thoughts:
Keep an Idea Diary. Write down your thoughts and ideas to review at the end of the week or on the weekend.
Identify one person you would like to recognize or congratulate and get in touch. It’s a great way to get things going on a positive note.
Mentally go through the good things in your life. Sadly, there are lots of big things we can’t do anything about. But when you get closer to home you have the ability to create a positive place for yourself.
Get Your Day Started
Make a timed to-do list. A list is great, but unless it’s realistic it will only frustrate you. If you have a four-hour task in the morning, you can’t have another one at the same time. This applies to your business and personal lives. So put your timing in there.
Here are some well reviewed to-do list apps. They all have free and premium versions:
Wunderlist
Todoist
Trello
Toodledo
Any.do
Email is the black hole of productivity. If you MUST look at your email, have a plan in place so it doesn’t overwhelm you (more in our next post).
“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” – Mark Twain
There are things that all of us have to do that we don’t want to address. Personally, I like to hit what I don’t want to do first and get it out of the way. It lightens my mental load for the rest of the day and enables me to get that odious task done when I have the most energy for it. It makes getting through the rest of the day easier because I’m not dreading the task, so give it a try.
These are just some of the thoughts we found to start the day.
Next, making the most of your daytime hours.
Some of our sources:
http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/slideshows/12-ways-to-have-the-most-productive-morning-ever
http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2013/06/10/not-a-morning-person-you-can-still-power-up-your-day
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230240
http://www.inc.com/travis-bradberry/11-tweaks-to-your-morning-routine-will-make-your-entire-day-more-productive.html
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/kickstart-productivity?utm_campaign=blog-rss-emails&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=26227544#sm.0000ss22plfguezqw0h1aj7117tx7
Tags: diet, focus, productivity, well being