How to be more productive. How to allocate time more efficiently

Thomas Oppong

Popular blogger and entrepreneur, founder of Alltopstartups.com service.

1. The basis of a productive day is focus

When we are focused, we get things done faster. And if we are distracted, our brain cannot fully immerse ourselves in work, we do not have time for anything and start to get nervous. Our ability to make decisions and think creatively suffers. Of course, it is impossible not to be distracted during the day, but you can still try.

2. To control your life, control your time

Time is the most valuable resource at work. You can do much more if you control your time and know what exactly and when you do it. But the time wasted, you can't get back.

Super productive people try to make the most of every minute they have. Allocate time for all the things that you need to do during the day. Each task should be realistic, achievable and have a clear time frame. So it will be easier for you to concentrate and you can.

Also be sure to schedule breaks. A short walk, a book, or a podcast can help you unwind and rejuvenate.

3. Daily activities should help achieve big goals.

Try to understand how your daily activities and tasks relate to the larger goals of your company. When we do not know what the importance of our work is, we are much more likely to not finish things or leave them for later. Realizing that even small and boring tasks help move you towards achieving big goals, it will be easier for you to carry out any daily activities.

4. Focus on the one thing that matters most

Most likely, you need to redo a bunch of things in a day, half of which you do not have time to complete. So every morning, set aside about 30 minutes to plan the main things for today.

Think about what is your most important task for today? Try to complete such tasks in the morning, this will help you stay motivated and cope with the rest of the tasks on time.

Take this approach every day. Try to figure out what time of the day is easiest for you to focus, and plan your hardest things for that time.

5. Stay focused on one task to complete another.

Try to deal with each task and only then move on to the next one. Remember how often we read an incoming message, close it, then open it again and still do not answer? It only makes it difficult to focus on important work.

So when an unscheduled call or message distracts you, ask one of your colleagues to answer or answer yourself if it takes no more than a couple of minutes. If it takes more than five minutes to answer, it's best to put it on your to-do list and get back to what you've been working on. Once you've completed the first task, move on to the next one.

People in an effort to earn more money try to work more. They stay overtime, work as freelancers, and look for additional income. But working for days is almost impossible to become successful. By devoting less time to work, but doing it more productively, you can get a return many times more.

Imagine a sole trader who works non-stop for his business. No matter how good it is, it will not be possible to adequately compete with corporate competitors.

An entrepreneur can work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if he refuses sleep. But a company that fills his niche but hires a team to work will be more successful. Each individual employee devotes less time to work, and the result of cumulative activity is higher.

But why then do small startups manage to do things that giant corporations fail to do. For example, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion when it only had 13 employees. Snapchat received similar offers to buy. The company's staff included 30 employees. Part of the success of these startups is based on luck, hitting the right moment, but more important is the efficiency of a small team.

The key to success is not to work hard, but to become more productive. There is a noticeable difference between employment and efficiency. It may not be obvious to everyone, but productivity is the ability to produce the most results in the least amount of time. An effective person is focused on managing not time, but energy. Any of us can reduce the working week by 1.5-2 times, spend less time on work that gives the same result.

1. Stop Working Overtime – Be Productive

Ever wondered where the five-day, 40-hour work week came from? In 1926, Henry Ford, an American industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company, conducted an experiment with personnel:

Ford gradually reduced the number of hours from 10 to 8 and reduced the workweek from 6 to 5 days. As a result, workers have shown increased productivity.

The more you work, the less productive you become, both in the short and long term. This is evidenced by The Business Roundtable report for 1980 - "The planned impact of overtime on construction projects."

“If a work schedule of 60 hours or more per week is applied for more than two months, there is a cumulative effect of reduced productivity. It leads to a delay in the delivery of the project. And with a 40-hour week, the planned finish date is shifted, but the work is still completed faster than in the first case.

The importance of good sleep

In an article for AlterNet, editor Sarah Robinson cites research done by the US military. They showed that "reducing sleep by 1 hour per night for a week resulted in a reduction in levels of cognitive decline equivalent to a blood alcohol level of 0.10." You will most certainly be fired if you show up to work drunk, however, with a lack of sleep, the drop in productivity will have an equal effect.

No matter how well the day goes after a night of short naps, you are unlikely to feel optimistic. This is not the main enemy of good work. Worse, in this position, the desire to think, make creative decisions, act actively, control impulses, and maintain self-confidence is reduced. Lack of sleep leads to a loss of emotional intelligence, and a decrease in the ability to empathize with others.

It turns out that there is a simple pattern. To become more productive you need not to overwork and sleep well. Therefore, in order to work less, but with high quality, you need to have more and better rest.

Lack of sleep is a common problem of modern mankind. According to James Mass, an American sleep researcher, 7 out of 10 people in the United States do not get enough sleep. Think about this when looking for reasons for inefficiency in the workplace.

A few facts about sleep in the life of famous personalities:

Leonardo da Vinci practiced polyphasic sleep - several short sessions at night and during the day.
Napoleon never denied himself the desire to take a nap during the day.
Thomas Edison regularly practiced daytime sleep, although this ritual confused him a little.
Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, slept before public speaking to gain energy.
US President John F. Kennedy had lunch in bed every day, after which he took a nap. And his colleague Lyndon Johnson divided the working day into two shifts - a short daily nap in his schedule was scheduled for 15:30.

Among the famous and successful in daytime sleep, Winston Churchill and John Rockefeller did not deny themselves.

2. Don't say yes too often.

According to the Pareto principle, 20% of effort produces 80% of results, and vice versa. Instead of working hard, focus on activities that are more effective. Thus, there will be more time to concentrate on important tasks. Just stop saying yes to things that don't work.

“The difference between successful and not-so-successful people is that the former say no to just about everything.” – Warren Buffett

When to say "yes" and when "no"? If it's hard to figure out which activities are worth your time, do your research. Keep track of the tasks you are doing. Write down the time spent on them and the result. So, you will collect information about where you work effectively by default, and where you need optimization.

Most of us say yes more than we need to for a variety of reasons, including guilt and overexertion. It's easier than saying no because no one wants to be a bad person.

In 2012, Consumer Research conducted a study. They divided 120 students into two groups. One was to say "I can't" when discussing options, and the other was to say "I can't...".

Students who said "I can't eat X" chose the option to eat a candy bar 61% of the time. And those who said: "I don't eat X" - only 36%. A simple change in terminology has increased the percentage of healthy lifestyle choices.

When you need to say no"I do not do this" instead of "I can not do this".

3. Stop doing everything yourself and let people help you.

It is important to realize that we can ask for help when we need it. It's impossible to do everything on your own. Delegate individual processes to focus on the tasks you do best. Many people are helped by the mere presence of relatives or colleagues, even if they do not provide tangible help.

“In the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, there is the concept of “double body”. Scattered and distracted people perform best when there is a person next to them, even if he does not help them. When you're faced with a task that's boring or difficult, like cleaning your workspace or sorting through paperwork, ask a friend to be your "second body" from The Influence of Friendship: How Our Friends Shape Us (Carlin Flora).

4. Quit with perfectionism

Dr. Simon Sherry, Professor of Psychology at Dalhousie University, has done research on perfectionism in relation to performance. It showed that the more a person is a perfectionist, the less his productivity becomes. It will seem counterintuitive, but this is the pattern:

Perfectionists spend more time on a specific task.

Perfectionists procrastinate and wait for the perfect moment. In business, this approach almost always leads to failure. It is better to start before ideal conditions than after them.

Perfectionists are bad at judging the big picture because they pay so much attention to the little things.

5. Stop doing repetitive tasks and start automating

Don't be afraid of automation if it will pay off. When you're a marketer, it's best to spend an hour building a Python bot that collects data from your audience's Twitter pages. This will allow you to get the result in a few minutes, which previously required 1 day of manual work.

If you do some operation or task more than 5 times, consider automating it. Don't invent your own solution - chances are it already exists.

When there is no automatic option, hire a specialist to help with the chore. Such work is paid. But it's worth it if you make more money in the long run and free up time for productive work on what you love.

6. Stop guessing and start exploring yourself.

There is a lot of research out there that provides insight into how to become more productive. If it is important for you to work less but achieve more, use the available information. Did you know that most people are most easily distracted between 12:00 pm and 4:00 pm? This conclusion was made by Professor Robert Matchok from the University of Pennsylvania.

7. Finish work and take a break for idleness

What people don't realize is that when we're focused, we're actually locked in a box of counter-productivity. We think narrowly, apply skills worse, get tired faster and move towards the goal more slowly. Paradoxically, for good work, it is important to periodically quit it to give the body and head a rest.

One Harvard study says that being alone increases your ability to empathize with other people. And while no one will argue that extreme isolation at an early age is bad, spending time with yourself has been proven to lift teens' mood and improve their academic performance. It is important for a person to have time to think. It leads to the solutions we are actively seeking.

Do not think that you can become more productive right away. It takes patience, practice and diligence. Change doesn't come to those who just wait for it.

1. Control your destiny.

Instead of asking the question “Why me?” Challenge yourself as often as possible. Ask "Why not me?"! Try new things that will help you succeed. Fear of making a mistake and insecurity is not your life credo. Don't procrastinate and waste your life waiting for the perfect moment to express yourself. You get a chance like this almost every day. So take advantage of it!

2. Know clearly what you want to achieve in life.

Plan and create a mental image of what you want to achieve. Create plans and lists. Believe me, this is not a waste of time. Many people have long been convinced of the benefits of planning and visualization and have reached unprecedented heights.

3. Constantly learn and develop.

Acquire new knowledge in various ways: lectures, talks, meetings, seminars, Internet resources. Don't be limited by what you get in your schools. Look for yourself in new areas of art, literature, science and technology. Surely you will like something and become useful for your life.

4. Learn to keep in touch with people.

This is a very important factor that will help you to establish contacts with important personalities and become an influential person in various environments. Improving your speaking skills, you take a step towards numerous acquaintances, meetings, successful performances that will contribute to success.

5. Do not turn your life into a series of chaotic events.

Have a life plan and constantly work towards its implementation. Do what most other people don't want to do, because successful people must constantly act, work and improve. Of course, sooner or later you will encounter a reluctance to do anything, a decrease in motivation, but this should not become an obstacle for you. You just need some rest (meditation, listening to music, walking). After that, you can return to your business again. Believe me, even the most successful person in the world is distracted from his duties and plans in order to arrange a short break.

Laziness is a state that limits a person in actions and makes him fall into a routine. It is no secret that millions of people suffer from this problem, but at some point almost everyone realizes that they need to change their behavior patterns and move forward. In this article, we will figure out what it takes to say goodbye to the usual everyday life and become a productive person who is confident in his abilities.

In most cases, a person manages to get rid of laziness rather quickly, but for a short time. Laziness sooner or later returns to everyone, but you need to learn how to overcome it. To do this, you need to understand the causes of this condition, which often come down to a similar list:

lack of initiative
fear that nothing will work
doubts about success
inability to get out of the comfort zone,
self hatred,
winding up unnecessary problems.

To get rid of laziness, you need to eliminate all these causes, overcome your own fears. They appeared in your mind as a result of failures in the past or due to lack of motivation, but these can and should be fought. Any state needs to be processed, to isolate life lessons from it. In any difficult situation, it is very important to find the core of the problem and realize it. Understand what needs to be done in order not to face similar difficulties in the future.

How can you overcome yourself and increase the efficiency of your own life?

act. Make a list of things to do right now. Then divide the plan into sub-points and follow step by step what you wrote. Do not look for excuses to be lazy again, this time is already in the past. Set yourself up for success and be patient. All in your hands.

Do not be afraid. If, nevertheless, something does not work out for you, you will still get life experience. It is better to try what you are afraid of than to torture yourself in the pangs of conscience all your life. What if it's not all that scary?

Enjoy completing tasks. Forward movement, correct thinking and productivity are the most important components of a successful life. Do not complete tasks like a labor prisoner, let them be only for your joy.

If you really want to get rid of laziness, then this is already the first step to success and the main guarantee that everything can work out for you. Realize right now that daily actions, no matter how small and petty, can lead you to something greater. Get infected with this thought and start doing now what you have long thrown into a black box.

Change is only for the better. Laziness must be destroyed at the earliest stages. If you find it difficult to cope with it yourself, find an associate who will remind you of business and push you to move forward. Although, it is probably much more pleasant to take the first steps yourself, because only you yourself can control your life to the fullest.

List of methods for effective time, energy and attention management.

To bookmarks

After graduating from university, I got two great job offers, but turned them down because I had a plan. For a year, I was going to absorb all the information about productivity that came my way and write about it every day on my blog.

Over the course of the year, I conducted countless experiments, interviewed many extremely productive people, and read a ton of books and studies about productivity. To wrap up this year, I've compiled a list of the main things I've learned. These are my favorite ways to hack time, energy, and attention to get more done every day. The article is long, but it is easy to scroll to the right place.

Time Management

How to allocate time more efficiently

1. Set aside less time for important tasks. It seems illogical, but practice shows that it helps. When you limit the time you spend on important tasks, you force yourself to expend more energy in less time and get those things done on time.

2. Forget TV. On average, a person spends 13.6 years of his life watching TV - they are better spent on more meaningful tasks.

3. Write down your time wasting in a diary. When you keep track of what exactly your time is spent on, you can see how much of it is being wasted, and this helps you recover wasted time and think about how to spend it better in general.

4. Give up activities that suck up your time, energy and attention. The best thing to do is to simply avoid unproductive activities in your life.

5. Remember that the best is the enemy of the good. Your house will never be in perfect cleanliness - something is bound to be wrong. Know when to stop, especially in unproductive activities.

6. Have a technical day. Group all such tasks (laundry, shopping, cleaning, watering flowers, etc.) on one day so that on the rest of the week you have more time for more promising tasks.

7. Don't work more than 35 hours a week. Research shows that under this condition, we reach the peak of productivity and creativity. Yes, working late makes you more productive - but only in the short term.

8. Your letters should not be longer than five sentences, and it is best to mention this in the signature to the letter. With this technique, I became insanely fast with mail, and most people are only happy when you write short and to the point.

9. Turn on The Email Game app if you use Gmail. This is a free add-on that turns email responses into a game.

10. Register on Unroll.me if your mail is on Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook.com. This app collects all your subscriptions into one convenient daily email.

11. Stop putting letters into folders. Searching emails by keywords is much faster.

12. Learn to type blindly. So you save a lot of time.

13. Track your computer time with the free RescueTime app. You will be surprised how much time is wasted.

14. The more of your income you save, the better. If you do not chase fashion and entertainment, you can reduce your working life by decades.

How to spend time doing the right things

15. Identify your most productive activities. Make a list of everything you are responsible for at work and ask yourself: if you could only do three of these things all day, which ones would you choose? It is in them that you need to invest 80-90% of your time.

16. Reduce the duration of your sessions so you don't feel resistance. This is a great way to learn new habits. “Can I meditate for 15 minutes? No, I feel resistance, I won't. Okay, what if 10? Still a lot. What if it's five? Hmm, that seems easy. I think I can do it." That's all.

17. Work on important but non-urgent tasks. Every day, do at least one important thing that does not have to be completed right today - this way you will move forward in fulfilling your long-term goals, and not just close current holes.

18. Use the Pomodoro Technique: Focus on something for 25 minutes, then rest for 5 minutes. It's incredibly efficient.

19. Make a procrastination list: productive and meaningful things to do the next time you procrastinate. This will help you stay productive even when your brain is trying to slip away from the things ahead.

20. Use the "two minute rule". This rule from David Allen's system says that when a task takes less than two minutes, just do it, and don't put it on the list for later.

21. Plan your free time. It seems like some kind of backward principle, but in general, structuring free time makes us happier and more motivated.

22. Determine the next thing you will do based on four questions: where you are (office, home, cottage, etc.), how much time you have, how much energy you have, and what are your most productive activities.

23. Watch how you spend your time. Constantly check and reflect on how you spend your time, as well as energy and attention during the day. For this, I put notifications on my phone that sound every hour.

24. Plan a time when you are completely disconnected from work. At this time, the brain is still thinking about work issues, but in the background while you are busy with something else.

25. Spend more time planning. A minute of planning saves five minutes of implementation. If you only execute and don't plan anything, it's hard to work smarter.

26. Keep in mind what people really mean when they say they don't have time. Usually it's not that there is no time at all, but that the task does not seem important enough to them.

27. Take a break before sending important emails and messages. Give your brain time to form thoughts so your message can become more complete, valuable, and creative. The world will not collapse, and you will be able to convey your message more accurately.

Energy Management

body control techniques

28. Go in for sports. It's the best way to get more energy, plus it helps fight disease, lifts your spirits, and improves sleep.

29. Eat better. Your food greatly affects your energy levels. The worse you eat, the faster you get tired, and the less energy you have for current affairs.

30. Stop drinking coffee out of habit. Caffeine loses its effect when you drink it daily and in large quantities, but it is very effective if you use it strategically (only when you need an energy boost or need to focus).

31. Use caffeine wisely. Drink slowly, drink water at the same time, stay away from sugary energy drinks. When consuming caffeine, eat well, don't drink coffee on an empty stomach, and don't rush your second coffee or tea.

32. Don't drink caffeine less than four to six hours before bed. It reaches peak blood levels within an hour and is eliminated in four to six hours.

33. Drink more water. Water adds energy, speeds up metabolism, helps you think, suppresses your appetite, helps your body eliminate toxins, reduces the risk of many diseases, and even helps you save money.

34. Drink half a liter of water after waking up. Your body has just been without fluid for eight hours, and it is clearly dehydrated.

35. Keep a food diary. People who keep such a diary usually do not overeat - and eat on average almost a third less.

36. Get enough sleep - even more than you need. Sleep enhances concentration, attention, decision-making skills, creativity, social skills and overall health, and reduces mood swings, stress, anger and impulsivity. Between larks and owls, by the way, there is no difference in socioeconomic status.

37. Don't drink late at night. Alcohol before bed impairs the quality of sleep and reduces energy the next day.

38. Set the air conditioner to 21-22ºC. At this temperature, we are most productive.

39. Set the air conditioner to 18.5ºC overnight. Most studies advise turning the bedroom into a cave at night, where it is cool, dark and quiet.

40. Learn to take a nap during the day. If your energy is waning during the day, take a nap. It strengthens memory, attention, restrains burnout and enhances creativity.

41. Constantly reflect on your energy level and act accordingly. So you can recharge your energy when it is low, and take on bigger, more daring things when there is more energy. Soon you will start noticing certain trends.

42. Find your biological peak by tracking your energy levels throughout the week.

43. Smile. It boosts immunity, helps you cope with stress and see the bigger picture, instills more confidence in people and is just nice.

44. Paint your office the right colors. Blue stimulates the mind, yellow - emotions, red - the body, green inspires a sense of balance.

45. Before going to bed, try to look less at the color in the blue part of the spectrum. Too much time on your phone, tablet or computer is bad for sleep.

46. Try to be in natural light conditions. It helps to fall asleep, reduces stress, increases energy levels and focus.

47. Download F.lux - this program redshifts computer colors when the sun goes down, which encourages the body to produce more melatonin and improves sleep.

Brain control tricks

48. Constantly introduce new habits to change your life. This is how change is permanent.

49. Learn to reduce stress: exercise, read, listen to music, spend time with friends and family, go for a massage, walk in nature, meditate, engage in creative hobbies.

50. Take breaks more often. This stimulates the influx of new ideas, allows you to think about your work and become more productive in general.

51. Start small. To become more productive, you need to make very small changes one after another. The smaller they are, the more likely they are to happen.

52. Notice when you are being too hard on yourself. According to coach David Allen, 80% of what we say to ourselves is negative. Track the moments when this negativity is overflowing to make life more pleasant.

53. Make friends with office colleagues. This increases job satisfaction by 50%, boosts job engagement by several times, and increases career chances by 40%.

54. Think back to who you've been in contact with in the past few months. What meetings brought you the most energy, motivation, happiness and drive? Meet these people again.

55. Lower your expectations. Strange advice? But it makes you more confident, allows you to relax, have more fun and not worry about proving something to others.

56. Understand that no one cares. When you realize that most people don't care about your success, money, clothes, house or car, you will realize that you are freer than you thought before. You can take more risks because your life is not cast in granite and follow what you consider your passion.

57. Eat mindfully. Watch for when the brain begins to feel the approach of saturation - so you will not overeat, and this takes a lot of energy.

58. Visualize. My favorite example: Imagine that you have just received an order to leave town tomorrow for a whole month. What exactly do you need to do before leaving? Do it right now.

59. Don't run away from conflict, look for it. We are most productive when we experience moderate levels of conflict and stress.

60. Download the Coffitivity app. The ambient noise of a coffee shop has been proven to enhance productivity and creativity, while Coffitivity simulates this sound on a computer.

61. Every day remember three things for which you are grateful. This trains the brain to look for the positive in the world, not the negative, making you more energetic, happier and more efficient.

62. Write down a great experience every day. So the brain relives it again and energizes you.

63. Exhale periodically. Don't take productivity too seriously. And most likely, by relaxing, you will become more productive.

attention management

How to become more attentive

64. Meditate. Meditation is the art of constantly returning attention to one object. It also calms the mind, increases blood flow to the brain, brings the feeling of “flow” closer, and helps fight procrastination.

65. Stop multitasking. It hurts performance terribly, increases the number of errors, badly affects memory and adds stress.

66. Fix everything that is spinning in your head - what you need to do, what you are waiting for, other ideas and obligations that are pressing on you. This will give you more mental space to think about more important and enjoyable things.

67. Make a list of everything you expect so you don't miss anything and worry less about people and things to keep an eye on.

68. Start a thought fixation ritual. Unplug everything, set a timer for 15 minutes, and go to bed with a notepad and pen. Fix whatever is bothering you to clear those mental blockages.

69. Eat something that strengthens concentration. My favorites: blueberries, green tea, avocado, lettuce and kale, oily fish, water, dark chocolate, flaxseeds, nuts.

70. Return to the starting point. When you finish something, clean up after yourself so it's easier to start next time. For example, after cooking, clean the kitchen or prepare sports equipment for tomorrow.

71. Learn to slow down. It's easy to turn on autopilot and jump from one distraction to another. Slow down and do things mindfully to manage your attention and be more productive.

72. When you need to do something, completely disconnect from the Internet. 47% of time spent online is spent procrastinating.

73. Resist temptation by working out the reaction in your head in advance. For example, imagine in advance how you will keep yourself from going to McDonald's on your way home.

74. Use your smartphone less. It distracts you much more than it seems, prevents you from communicating with people, and at the same time, immersion in it is an almost meaningless activity. I used my smartphone for only an hour a day for three months and since then it has not pulled me to itself.

75. Between 8pm and 8am put your smartphone into airplane mode. This ritual helps you feel more meaningful, fall asleep faster, and encourages you to focus on better things before and after sleep.

76. Do things that are challenging enough for your skill level to work in a "flow" state.

77. Do less. When your attention, energy and time are divided among fewer things, you give more to each of them and achieve much more.

78. Look at pictures of baby animals. This enhances cognitive and motor outcomes because it narrows the focus of attention.

How to focus on what matters most

79. At the beginning of the day, identify three outcomes that you want to achieve (precisely the outcome, not the action). This will force you to prioritize.

80. Focus not on doing more, but on doing the right thing. Find tasks that match your interests so that you understand why you want to implement them.

81. Develop a growth mindset. The main quality that distinguishes successful people from unsuccessful ones is that the former do not believe that their intelligence and skills are set once and for all.

82. Connect with your future self. People often perceive themselves now and themselves in the future as completely different people. Create a memory of the future, send a message to yourself in the future, or just imagine what kind of person you will become.

83. Make a to-do list. Gather together tasks like laundry or cleaning and do them in a row while listening to something meaningful (an audiobook, a TED talk, etc.).

84. Ask yourself for advice.

85. Make your goals smarter: specific, measurable, realistic and time bound. This will make them easier to identify and achieve.

86. Stop tracking the process of moving towards the goal. This usually reduces the chances of reaching them. How to be? See your actions as evidence that you are committed to this goal and remind yourself why you are striving for it in the first place.

87. Set not traditional goals, but intermediate ones. Intermediate goals are goals that you need to achieve on the way to a larger goal: for example, do not set a goal to win a boxing championship, but set a goal not to be knocked out once during the match.

88. Stop surfing the internet aimlessly. Better just relax, slow down and think about what you really need to achieve.

89. Turn off useless email notifications. They take a little time, but a lot of attention - every time you get a notification, it takes attention away from the case.

90. Have an email vacation. When you need to sit on a project for a day or two and work hard on it, put an auto-responder in your mail and calmly get on with your current business.

91. Answer letters in waves. Set a few times a day to reply to emails rather than replying to them as they arrive.

92. When you have a personal meeting with someone, turn off your phone completely. You will show that you are ready to give the person 100% of your attention.

93. Identify your core habits. These are habits that change and build other habits in your life. A few examples: cooking, developing relationships with a partner or friends, waking up early.

94. Make Bad Habits Expensive: Arrange with someone to pay each other fines when you indulge in bad habits. This way you will think about the cost of habits, and not about the pleasure of them.

95. Reward yourself. New habits and behaviors are difficult, but if you reward yourself in some way for them, it helps to make them established.

96. Anticipate what will prevent the development of new habits.

97. Keep distractions at least 20 seconds away from you. This is enough distance to reduce their strength.

98. Listen actively. Focus fully on the words of the person you are talking to - this creates a deeper relationship, helps you judge people better, avoid misunderstandings.

99. View life as a series of hotspots. Every day your time, energy and attention is spent in seven areas: brain, body, emotions, career, finances, relationships and pleasure. Think of these "hot spots" like portfolio investments - be careful not to invest too much in some and too little in others.

100. Always act with a specific goal in mind. When you constantly ask yourself why you are doing this, your actions will be tied to a goal that actually makes sense.

How many days a week do you really dedicate to work? Research conducted by Microsoft has proven that only three. But if you think about it, we are capable of more than 72 useful hours and 4 days of procrastination! And it's not about working non-stop, but about finding a balance between rest and work. Tim Ferriss, author of How to Work 4 Hours a Week, Live Anywhere, and Get Rich, provides six tips for making the most of every day.

1. Manage your mood

We read about how to increase our ability to work, and we try to do as we were advised, but nothing works. This is because productivity tutorials are designed primarily to be read by a robot. Well, or the hero of the dystopia "Equilibrium". They are not designed for the rich range of emotions that we can experience.

Always start your day calmly. Warm up, stretch, focus on today's goals and objectives. Prioritize them. During breakfast, try to resist the temptation to read the news feed - this will bring you extra stress and interfere with digestion.

By reading work emails first, you are wasting your personal time working for someone else's goals.

In no case do not start working right in bed! Many of us are already checking our work email four seconds after waking up and starting to panic because of the volume of work tasks. When we start the morning like this, then all day long we will not do something, but react.

“The first hour and a half of my morning is exactly the same every day,” says Tim Ferriss. - My body is used to this routine, it helps me to keep the situation under control and not to panic during emergencies. And if I'm calm, then I'm productive." A good start to the day is the key to productivity. But a bad mood is a direct path to procrastination.

2. Don't check email in the morning

For most of us, this advice will sound like real nonsense. Indeed, how is it possible to wake up and not check your work and home mail, all the news feeds of all social networks? But to the question "What would you like to spend more time in your life?" no one will answer that mail and social networks. Just imagine: when you read letters first thing in the morning, you can't help but react. This means that you spend the best time (your personal time!) Working for someone else's life goals instead of your own.

“If possible, do not even open email applications and instant messengers for the first two hours after waking up,” advises Tim Ferriss. - I agree that most people find it difficult to even imagine such a thing. How do I make my to-do list for the day without mail? How will I know what tasks I need to complete today? You will be surprised, but you can create 80-90% of daily plans without looking into Outlook. You can, of course, drop by, but do you need that dose of cortisol and dopamine early in the morning? I don't."

3. Before you rush to do something, ask yourself - is it necessary to do it at all?

To the main question “Why can’t I do everything?” there is a very simple answer. Because you are doing too much. Do you want to increase your productivity? Instead of fighting for hours on one task, ask yourself: “Is it really necessary to complete it?”.

“Making something perfect doesn't make it a top priority,” says Tim Ferriss. - People go to trainings on time management and learn to do things as quickly as possible. But the problem is that some of them don’t need to be done at all.” It's funny how we complain about not having enough time and then prioritize it like we have enough. So what to do? Perform only tasks of paramount importance. And nothing more.

4. Concentrate - Eliminate What Distracts You

“All people in the world have attention deficit disorder, which has appeared under the influence of life in modern society,” says Ed Hallowell, a professor at Harvard Medical School. Has modern life really distorted our priorities? No. It's just that around us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, a whole carousel of bright, shiny and such attractive distractions is spinning. Our ancestors lived without it. Therefore, we need to work where there is no this distracting carousel.

“The essence of concentration is to minimize the number of factors that can lead you to procrastinate,” explains Tim Ferriss. - People perceive concentration as a superpower. This is not true. It is the ability to place yourself in an empty room with only the work to be done and close the door. That's all".

The value of self-discipline is greatly exaggerated. A clear daily routine is much more effective

I immediately recall the story of the students at the New Haven school, whose windows in the classroom overlooked the railroad, on which freight trains constantly ran. At the end of the year, it turned out that all the students in this class were lagging behind in the program. They were moved to another classroom, away from the distracting noise of the trains, and their academic performance improved.

In a word, the more we are distracted, the worse. The top management of large companies is interrupted every 20 minutes on average. How do they manage to complete so many tasks in a day? They work from home for an hour and a half every morning, where no one can disturb them. And then they go to work.

What are you thinking now? "I have other responsibilities as well." "My boss needs my help." "I was invited to a business meeting." "My husband is calling me." "I can't just go and hide"... That's why you need a system.

5. Design a system

“I don’t know how I manage to do everything. I just do my best and hope for the best,” these are the words you will never hear from successful people. Every productive person has a daily routine.

“A clear daily routine is much more effective than self-discipline. In my opinion, the importance of self-discipline is greatly exaggerated, - Tim Ferriss states categorically. “Usually I ask people to make their own daily routine so that decision-making relates only to the creative part of their work.”

How to create an ideal system? Tim Ferriss offers the 80/20 method.

Determine which actions are responsible for the majority of your success.
Find out what activities reduce your productivity.
Develop your daily routine so that the first item is several times more than the second.

So, you are ready to wake up tomorrow with a clear head, fresh thoughts and a clear daily routine. But how do you know where to start and what to do?

6. Set your goals for tomorrow before bed.

It is very important. Then you can wake up and clearly understand what you should do and in what order, and no “pseudo-urgency” will ruin your day.

“It's best to identify one or two urgent and important things before dinner. So you unload your head before bed and prepare for tomorrow, ”recommends Tim Ferriss. Get yourself a nightly ritual. Try to finish work at the same time. Then save all files, disassemble the desktop. Slowly make a plan of action for tomorrow.