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Productivity Methods - Coggle Diagram
Productivity Methods
Time Blocking
"A 40 hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without structure." Cal Newport
Time blocking is a time management method that asks you to divide your day into blocks of time. Each block is dedicated to accomplishing a specific task, or group of tasks, and only those specific tasks.
Take stock of what’s coming up for the week ahead and make a rough sketch of your time blocks for each day.
With days that are time blocked in advance, you won’t have to constantly make choices about what to focus on
Time blocking has a few close but distinct cousins that are worth considering: task batching, day theming, and time boxing.
“Periods of open-ended reactivity can be blocked off like any other type of obligation. Even if you’re blocking most of your day for reactive work, for example, the fact that you’re controlling your schedule will allow you to dedicate some small blocks (perhaps at the schedule periphery) to deeper pursuits.”
Blocks can change
See your time blocks as a flexible way to challenge yourself, not strict tools to punish yourself when you fall short.
Do not schedule your leisure time
Studies have shown that scheduling leisure activities has a “unique dampening effect” on the overall enjoyment of the activity.
Researchers have found that bite-size tasks and interruptions (“Hey, can I ask you a quick question?”) can disrupt concentration for up to half an hour. If you find yourself spending too much of your day dealing with little items that only reappear the next day (like emails) and too little time tackling the big stuff, this method is for you.
The Pomodoro
How to
Set your timer for 25 minutes, and focus on a single task until the timer rings.
Get a to-do list and a timer.
When your session ends, mark off one pomodoro and record what you completed.
After four pomodoros, take a longer, more restorative 15-30 minute break.
Then enjoy a five-minute break.
Research says 52-17 is good
A DeskTime study found that a 52-minute focus and 17-minute break is the perfect balance. Others prefer 90 full minutes with a 20-30-minute break, based on Ultradian rhythms.
Break down complex projects. If a task requires more than four pomodoros, it needs to be divided into smaller, actionable steps. Sticking to this rule will help ensure you make clear progress on your projects.
In the event of an unavoidable disruption, take your five-minute break and start again. Cirillo recommends that you track interruptions (internal or external) as they occur and reflect on how to avoid them in your next session.
Luckily, studies have also shown an effective way to break out of the avoidance cycle: shrink whatever it is you're putting off down to a tiny, unintimidating first step. For example, instead of sitting down to write novel, sit down to write for 5 minutes. Still too hard? Try just sitting down to edit a paragraph. Doing something small for a short period of time is a whole lot easier to face than trying to take on a big project all at once.
While it would be nice to blame technology for everything, recent studies suggest over half of all workday distractions are self-inflicted — meaning we pull ourselves out of focus. In the moment, it can be easy to justify these internal pulls — “This email is too important to wait,” or “It took less than a minute to check my Twitter; it isn’t a real distraction.”
When you use the Pomodoro technique, you have a clear measurement of your finite time and your efforts, allowing you to reflect and plan your days more accurately and efficiently.
While an 8-hour workday technically leaves room for sixteen pomodoros, it's best to build in a buffer of 2-4 "overflow" pomodoros, just in case.
Stay away from screens on the break
tand up, move around, stretch, go outside, do a mini meditation, grab a snack, watch birds out the window. If you work from home, fold some clothes or clear off the kitchen table.
Eisenhower Matrix
Urgent & Important tasks/projects to be completed immediately
These items typically have visible deadlines and consequences for stalling on taking action. Most often, these are either things that were sprung on you from an external source or things that you put off until faced with a looming deadline
Covey cautions that spending too much time on Quadrant 1 tasks can lead to increased stress, burn out, and the sense that your days are out of your control
Not Urgent & Important tasks/projects to be scheduled on your calendar
Not urgent, but important tasks are the activities that help you achieve long-term goals. These may not have a deadline (or even an end date) so it is easy to put them off in favor of more urgent tasks.
Planning for long and short-term projects
Regular chores or maintenance projects
Professional networking and personal relationship building
Learning a new skill, keeping up with current research in your field, attending educational events
Exercise and routine healthcare
Urgent & Unimportant tasks/projects to be delegated to someone else
Urgent but Not Important tasks are best described as busy work. These tasks are often based on expectations set by others and do not move you closer to your long-term goals.
Unnecessary interruptions from coworkers
Checking your phone or email whenever it goes off
Responding to certain texts, emails, or social media messages
Acting on coupons or limited time offers
Some meetings
Not Urgent & Unimportant tasks/projects to be deleted
Important matters, on the other hand, are those that contribute to long-term goals and life values. These items require planning and thoughtful action. When you focus on important matters you manage your time, energy, and attention rather than mindlessly expending these resources. What is important is subjective and depends on your own values and personal goals. No one else can define what is important for you.
Urgent matters are those that require immediate action. These are the visible issues that pop up and demand your attention NOW. Often, urgent matters come with clear consequences for not completing these tasks. Urgent tasks are unavoidable, but spending too much time putting out fires can produce a great deal of stress and could result in burnout
Eat the Frog
“Most people overestimate what they can get done in a year and underestimate what they can do in a decade.”
We tend to overestimate what we can get done in a day, but underestimate what we can accomplish in a year.
“If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.”
Email and instant messaging tools put you in reactive mode – as soon as you start responding, you’ve ceded your time and attention to what other people want or need you to do. This kind of reactive prioritization can quickly take over your workday. In contrast, Eat The Frog asks you to put your agenda first before any other requests come in to derail your day.
How to:
Decide on Frog
Also known as your Most Important Task (MIT). This task is often important but not urgent, the type of difficult task that creates a lot of mental resistance and ensuing procrastination if you don't intentionally make time for it. You probably already know the task I’m talking about.
Pick something you'll be able to complete in 1-4 hours
Resist the temptation to plan ahead
Prepare your frog the night before
SMART method
Specific:
Meaning the What — what is this project and what, specifically, do you want to accomplish?
“I want to be able to improve my average time for a 5 mile run by 1 minute”
Measurable
You need a way to be able to tell that you have achieved what you set out to achieve.
. It is much easier to achieve a tough objective when you can break the journey up into smaller increments. It’s a psychological thing, by giving yourself a series of successes along the way, through meeting a set of milestones, you give yourself positive reinforcement and working towards your goal becomes a much more pleasurable experience.
Achievable
Some things may simply be beyond your influence
Relevant
If you don’t believe in something, when you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, it is not only extremely difficult to keep doing it, but you also get very little personal satisfaction from achieving milestones or even attaining the final objective
itself.
Timely
:
Deadlines. Deadlines are an important part of nearly every successful productivity strategy, and with good reason. Time constraints force us to be efficient. Come up with reasonable deadlines for each measureable task
Personal Kanban
Visualize Your Work. In short, you should be able to, at any time, look at your overall workload, be able to determine quickly what you should work on next
A simple board is nothing more than a chart with three vertical columns: Backlog/To-Do, Doing, and Done.
since seeing how much work you've completed keeps you motivated and productive.
remembering to limit your work in progress, is important as well. If you just keep adding Post-Its to your to-dos, you'll get overwhelmed, and those visual benefits will be replaced with stress and anxiety. Benson and DeMaria Barry explain that it's critical to keep your sequential work to a minimum
Trello
Weekly Review
"The Weekly Review will sharpen your intuitive focus on your important projects as you deal with the flood of new input and potential distractions coming at you the rest of the week."
David Allen, Getting Things Done
Try it if:
Usually start the week without a plan and just "wing it"
Feel busy but haven't made any real progress toward your goals
Want to set aside regular time for reflection and self-improvement
Are a human being who wants to get more done (seriously, weekly reviews are so great, we think everyone should do them!)
Reflections:
What did I get done this week versus what I planned to get done?
What unexpectedly arose this week that blocked my productivity?
Why was I so efficient this week as compared to the last one?
Develop a set of questions
How do I feel I did this week overall?
What enabled me to reach my goals this week?
Has anything stopped me from reaching my goals this week?
Which actions did I take this week that will propel me towards my long-term goals?
How can I improve for next week?
What can I do next week that will set me up for my long-term goals?
What should I plan for in the next month? Year? 5 Years?
Do not break the chain
This technique was made famous by Jerry Seinfeld, who said that he writes a joke every single day. No matter how he feels or whether he has anything to say, he writes at least one joke every day.
OKR