Productivity hacks that change how much you can accomplish each day
Productivity is all about efficiency – doing more, faster and with less. Here are four tricks and several products to help you get the most out of your day
CHOP UP YOUR TIME
Many successful people break up their day into 15-minute blocks. In other words, they work on tasks for a quarter of an hour at a time or schedule meetings for only 15 minutes. When working time is treated as sprints, it is found that people tend to make the most out of those 15 minutes by working with intense purpose before they rest up to get ready for the next burst.
ESTABLISH A RITUAL
Dan Ariely, author and professor of psychology and behavioural economics at Duke University believes in associating an activity that you enjoy performing with another productivity-related activity. It might be listening to your favourite podcast as you work out or in Ariely’s case, it is having his morning coffee while writing. “It’s an almost conditioned response, where I start working and I’m enjoying the coffee and the writing at the same time,” he was once quoted saying.
KEEP A DISTRACTION LIST
The biggest blight of productivity is distractions, especially now that we are constantly bombarded with streams of data. CEO of Noisli, Stefano Merlo has discovered the secret to counter it – by keeping a ‘distraction list’. He makes sure to keep a pen and a notebook within reach at all times. Whenever he remembers an unfinished task or an idea pops into his head, he simply writes it down to be revisited later when he is less busy.
TAKE THE CHAIRS AWAY
If you have not heard about the benefits of a standing desk: It could help you burn more calories during the day and reduce back and neck pain. A new study even suggests that they could greatly boost productivity.