Earlier this week, I got an email from Google stating they were no longer supporting the Google Notifier. I couldn’t believe it. I’d been using this app since day one to help me see my emails while I work through the day. As I was uninstalling the app from my laptop, cursing and swearing about how stupid Google was, I realized that by removing the app from my system I was actually doing something positive for myself. I made a mental note to observe my behaviour over the next few days to determine if there were any benefits to losing the notifier. I concluded after several days of observation that I was actually accomplishing more throughout the day than I had when that little red mail icon flashed messages at me. This made me think of how else I can be more productive throughout the day. I’ve narrowed down the list to four ways that you can implement right now.
- Cut back on your addiction to email
This is one of the hardest things to do. I’m like most people who like to check every message that comes in all the time. It’s not that I like getting email or that I like to even checking email. I sometimes find the emails in my inbox to be slightly frustrating. In fact, I actually kind of hate it. It usually means that someone needs something mundane from me so of course, I then make it an urgent matter. It becomes a life or death situation. All life stops until I’ve dealt with this email. My suggestion here is to check email only two to three times a day. Work through your emails in bulk. Trust me there is rarely a situation when the world is going to collapse if you don’t deal with that one email straightaway. For the most part a lot of our emails are spam or subscription lists. Build a filter for these. Gmail actually has a decent way of dealing with subscription based emails with their new tab system. When switching to a reduced email schedule, you will have to manage expectations that people have as they will want an immediate reply. If you put a schedule in place and stick to it, people will catch on. I’ve even noticed that some people I deal with have revisit their own views on email urgently by changing the way they write and delivery their own emails. A final thought on email is that you should never check your email as soon as you wake up or right before you go to bed. Doing so will only keep you up and distracted from much needed sleep or productivity time. I schedule time to check my email at 9:30am and 2:30pm every day. This allows me plenty of time to work uninterrupted. -
Keep a schedule
Schedule everything. This one took me a long time to learn. I’ve always thought I was pretty good at keeping track of what I needed to do in the run of a day. However, once you go out on your own and don’t have a production manager fitting projects into your schedule, you quickly realize that it’s worth scheduling out your day. It’s worth scheduling everything. I might even go a little overboard with this since I include everything from coffee breaks, email checking, doctor’s appointments and blog writing. The reason I do schedule my time this way is that it keeps me accountable. Scheduling everything so rigorously gives me the feeling like I have to answer to someone for how I spent my day. It also allows me to look back on days I don’t feel I’ve accomplished a lot and say “Wow I’ve actually done a lot of things today”. It has kept me on track and allowed me to finish tasks faster than I initially predicted. Life is too short to have wasted days so use your time wisely and make everyday count for something. Remember even accomplishing a dozen little things can be as rewarding as accomplishing one big thing. -
Get away from your computer
It may sound counterproductive, but taking time to go out for a walk or spend 10-15 minutes doing something away from your computer screen can help keep you on track and keep you more focused. These breaks allow you to reboot your mind. Sometimes when we are fighting to find a solution to a problem, it is best to step away from it. You will be pleasantly surprised how quickly the answer comes to you when you stroll through a public park or go for a swim. Just make sure that you have a way to document your answer. This is why I always carry a small notebook with me where ever I go. Having a notebook handy keeps me from missing a great idea. Another benefit from taking time away from your screen is that it’s good for your eyes. We blink less when we stare at our screens. Over 80 million Americans are now suffering from computer vision syndrome. Research has discovered that people are having severe dryness and eye fatigue from staring at screens all day. Getting away from your devices can help reduce this stress on our eyes. -
Avoid meetings
Probably the hardest thing to do is avoid meetings. Some people rely on meetings to feel like they’ve accomplished something in their day but for those of us who build things, they are the plague of our existence. So many meetings are scheduled without an outcome objective. We call them update meetings or checkins, but really they are just a waste of time. If you are open with your communication with your team through email or time logging then you shouldn’t need to have meetings. 99% of every meeting I’ve ever attended could have been accomplished through a series of quick emails or a chat service like HipChat or P2. In addition, having a paper trail of information that can be referred back to is far more valuable than your distracted notes you took during the meeting. Of course that’s assuming you actually took notes and didn’t just doodle like I usually do. Get people into the habit of communicating in a more productive way. If chat services don’t work use tools like Evernote to share ideas and information with your team. A final note on meetings is that no meeting is ever just an hour of billable time unless it only has one person in it. Every meeting is the billable time of each person times the length of time you spent talking about your plans for the weekend or whatever else. That’s a lot of wasted cash flow.
None of these tips are revolutionary, but they are often overlooked. Try to implement them today and see if it helps change the way you accomplish tasks. For me, none of this was an overnight change, but I did start seeing positive results in my workflow. I was far less stressed and felt more accomplished at the end of each day. I’ll be honest, checking my email only twice a day is still a huge problem for me, but it has been getting better the longer I stick with it. Before I end this post, I’ll leave you with a bonus tip.
Turn off social media
Social media has changed the way we discover what’s happening in the world. It’s fast, current and you must be involved in it. There really is no way around that. However, we don’t need to leave social media open on our desktops all the time. Switching off the Twitter app or whatever you use can help keep you far more focused. Schedule time to interact with your communities like you schedule time to check your email. Don’t worry the world won’t explode if you aren’t watching for it all the time. You’ll also find that by reducing the need to check status updates all the time, you’ll have more productive things to say on your channels. Make social media a useful way of communicating rather than just a series of noise. I don’t know about you but I think I have enough random noise coming at me all the time.
Do you have tips or ways that you keep your productivity up? I would love to hear about it. Leave a comment below or tweet me at @chrisdasie.
###Further Reading
