Procrastination. Ugh. Can't live with it, can't live without it.
"There's so much to do, and so little time."
"Man, how tf am I going to finish this by then!"
"God..."
"Fu..."
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT?
Let's kill the sloth in you.
Try out these tips/tricks, and let me know which ones worked for you!
1. Batch processing
This is especially helpful for mundane tasks. Batch similar tasks together to operate at greater efficiency.
Batch your phone calls. Batch your emails. Batch your bills.
DO NOT CHECK YOUR EMAIL 10 TIMES A DAY! This is a sin.
2. Love your workspace
You should like to sit and work in your workspace. If something about it ticks you off, change it. Keep it clean and organised.
If you don't love your workspace, what are you even doing...
3. If a task takes 2 minutes or less, do it now.
I know a lot of developer friends who preempt using the washroom to save 80 seconds. NO KIDDING. Stop with that madness.
4. Prioritise!
One of the most crucial decisions you have to make while prioritising your task is to think if you should first do important things or urgent things.
💡 TIP: Important things first.
Most people default to doing urgent tasks first — the problem is that if you're always doing urgent tasks, you're not able to accomplish important tasks. Urgent tasks always come up. And there will always be more urgent tasks than you have time to accomplish, no matter how hard you try. (Source here)
5. Divide and conquer
Break down large or complex tasks into small chunks. This way you will have multiple small wins throughout the day. To stay productive, it is necessary to have a healthy amount of dopamine in your system.
6. Brainwave symphonies
Personally, I love listening to some Chopin while working. I know many people who also like to listen to lofi. The music will help you focus your energy.
7. Figure out when are you most productive
You could be highly productive early in the morning or late in the night or even in the afternoon. Figure out when is your body more alert, and capitalise on that.
💡 TIP: Don't schedule meetings or meet people at this time. This time is super precious for you.
8. Templatize everything
I use Notion a lot. I have a template for every damn thing in my life. This helps me reduce number of decisions I make everyday. Believe it or not, decision fatigue is a real thing!
Just for giggles: Why do you think managers are always stressed out without doing anything really impactful? 😉
9. The famous 80/20 rule ~ Pareto principle
80% of results come from 20% efforts.
Understand that being productive does not mean to do more work. It is about generating more value in less time.
Carefully analyse where are you spending your 24 hours at, and then optimise. Automate 80% of the efforts and then improve the remaining 20%.
10. Eat healthy, live healthy, drink well.
Can't stress enough on this point.
Stay peachy!
Top comments (17)
Thank you. This is very helpful especially number 8. Btw I am going to share 3 hacks that work for me:
1)Pomodoro technique
2)Sleeping well
3)Having a schedule and stick to it. It doesn't matter if you didn't finish your work in X time. Leave it for completion to the next day. Idk why but every time I spend a lot of time on the same task, it seems that everything breaks apart and my energy for the next day is drained, then I lose my motivation and organization. So, instead of trying to have these marathons of work is best for me to work a little on the same thing then change to another task.
I have heard a lot about the pomodoro technique but never came around to actually try it. Maybe now is the time to give it a shot!
I think the third point you mentioned is a consequence of NOT following the rules of the pomodoro technique. The idea is to know when to stop. Not just while working, but in life in general! 😉
Yeah. I learn the Pomodoro technique from the Coursera course Learning How to Learn. They said that sometimes we associate certain activities with previous bad experiences. And we try to avoid those activities, if you use this technique you will be thinking about setting the clock and concentrate instead on the task itself. It works in that way for me.
Have you tried Pomodoro yet how are you finding it? I have been using the app Tick Tick for Pomodoro.
11: Leave everything for the last minute, until you have absolutely no choice but to sit and work like crazy. It will help you focus like nothing else!
Just kidding, the tips are valid and I try to follow most of them. When it comes to music, though, I can only listen to it when the task is boring/trivial. If it requires more thinking, I prefer to keep it quiet, as music becomes a distraction.
One other tip that I believe it to be important and I am guilty of not following as often as I should, is this: If you find yourself unable to focus, don't just stare at the monitor or fool around on Facebook. Close your computer, go for a brief walk and come back in half an hour to resume your work.
I couldn't agree more with that- instead of spending time on social media or checking your mail to declutter your mind from work, one should take a walk.
Thanks for sharing!
I think motivation also plays the main role in productivity. If you're not motivated to do the work, then there won't be any productivity.
What do you do to motivate yourself to work?
Of course motivation is important. But in my opinion, what's more important than motivation is momentum.
Thats' true too. :)
Eat healthy, live healthy, drink well. this is the most important point, as a Developer to get energy and make all the last points
(10) is a big deal. I find if I am caring for my body as a whole, it helps me focus when I am working.
I agree. If your system is working all right then the systems 😉will work all right.
11) Sleep well 💤.
12) Exercise 💪.
Absolutely! All go under #10 tho.
Thank you! This post was what I needed for all my productivity issues and I think number 8 might be what I've been looking for, for a long time. Cheers!
Number 8 is new to me. I would love if you can elaborate more on it.
Of course. In a future blog point, I'll touch that topic as well.
In the meantime, you can checkout YouTube. There are many awesome videos that can help you get started.