In my classes this past semester, I encountered many non-traditional students with families, second jobs, their own businesses and many, many other pursuits. Each of these students also had a full class load. Though the norm for traditional students entering college is to be able to slack off a bit, being able to watch the older students (and some younger ones) juggle a schedule I didn’t think possible was a real learning experience.

So, here are a few things I have learned from watching others that have become masterful at managing their study time:

1. Use those bits of time in between laundry/childcare/runs to the grocery store.

Those small amounts of time between chores may not seem to amount to much, but can really add up. Taking out your notes to review for a few minutes can do a whole lot more good than you would think!

2. Plan ahead. Fastidiously.

A few years ago, my mother went back to school for a short while. To accommodate for the time she spent in school, she would get up at about 4 o’clock every morning to plan her day. This included lesson plans, when would be the best time for her to study that day, dinner plans, etc. While this may seem awfully early, it allowed her to be much less stressed because she knew exactly what she wanted to accomplish for the day.

3. Don’t be afraid to spend time helping other students.

My sister and I are both in college, now, and we have taken some of the same biology classes. Studying with someone that may not be in the exact same class, but in a class on the same subject, can also be valuable. If you are at a more advanced level in the subject than the other student, it can be a good way to reinforce the basic concepts of that subject. I find that when I help another student understand a concept, I remember and understand it much better, myself. This can be especially helpful for studying for a cumulative final that contains elementary information from the beginning of the course, as well as the advanced material from later on.

4. As far as taking notes, experiment with what works best for you.

I’ve heard many people advise against using a laptop to take notes, and many others take the opposite viewpoint. For those that tend to be visual learners, perhaps taking notes by hand would be a better idea. This method allows you to draw your own concept maps more readily than when working from a laptop (depending on your proficiency with your word processor). However, if the text is what is most important for you and you can’t read your own handwriting after taking notes, using technology to help you out wouldn’t be detrimental. Of course, this does depend on your typing speed, but most people that I know type just as efficiently as they write. In some classes, it may also be better to just listen rather than taking lots of notes. I have been told that it is sometimes better to write down key points and just listen attentively. Of course, this depends on the nature of the course. If tests are extremely detailed, you might be better off taking all the notes you can and using a recorder (with the professor’s permission).

5. Identify those courses that are going to be the most difficult and budget time accordingly.

For my first couple of years in college, I really didn’t have this point figured out. I spent an extensive amount of time on every course. Then I learned from watching other students that it is okay to prioritize study time. It is possible to misjudge the time needed for a course, so this hierarchy of importance needs to be flexible, but it is a good thing to know when looking through your course schedule. Often you can judge from the professor’s attitude towards the course how much time you are expected to put into the material. Asking other students that have taken the course is also a good way to get ideas about the time needed for study in the course.

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1. Resolutions should be daily or weekly tasks.

Setting a resolution of “getting in shape” is setting yourself up for disappointment.  A resolution of “go to the gym at least twice per week” is better.  A resolution of “do 15 pushups each day” is another good one.  Focus your resolution on the specific actions you will take–not on what you hope to achieve.

2. Set small, specific tasks as resolutions

Resolutions need to be something where  it is easy to tell if you achieve it or not.  “Get smarter every day” is a bad resolution.  How would you know if you have achieved it or not?  “Read one astrophysics article each day” is a much better resolution (if you know enough about astrophysics that the entire thing doesn’t go over your head).

Your focus should be to keep the resolution–not achieve something nearly impossible  It is better to set a low resolution and achieve it than set a high one and fizzle out after a few months.  You don’t want to “aim high”.  You want to make a commitment that you know you can keep.  Successfully keeping a resolution is a much better spring board than shooting for the moon and failing–no matter how close you came.

3. Use “getting started” resolutions

Setting a small resolution that puts you in a good position to achieve more is a very good practice.  For example, “Exercise for 2 hours at the gym 3 days per week” is something you probably aren’t going to be able to actually do.  However, something like “get on the elliptical machine at the gym three days per week” is easier to achieve and positions you to do much more.  If you don’t want to be there after 15 minutes, you leave.  But most of the time, you’ll probably stay and do a full workout because the hard part is getting there in the first place.

4. Add up the time of all your resolutions

Don’t resolve to do so much that it adds another 20 hours to your week.  Be realistic.  You can probably handle an additional 20 minutes of daily activities, but if you go beyond this, make sure you specify what is going to get cut out.

5. Use negative resolutions and limitation resolutions

Sometimes resolving not to do something or to stop doing something is even more powerful than starting something new.  Some examples: “Watch less than 2 hours of TV each week.” “Eat only one dessert per week.” “Spend no more than 15 minutes on Facebook each day.” “Stop browsing the internet after 8pm.”

6. Make it easy to succeed

If you resolve to eat no more than one piece of candy per week, don’t keep a bunch of Snickers in your house.  If you resolve to spend at least 10 minutes each day on your exercise bike, move the TV in front of the bike and remove all the other chairs.  Set yourself up for success by creating an environment that makes it easier to follow your resolution than to fail.

7. Tie activities together

Resolve to only perform something you regularly do and enjoy while doing the task you want to resolve to do.  On the exercising example, perhaps you would resolve to only watch TV if you are exercising.  Another variation is to tie a particular existing action with a new resolution.  If you are trying to keep in better contact with your family, perhaps you would resolve to call one family member during your Thursday evening commute each week.  If you are wanting to work on saving money, you could resolve that for every dollar you spend on a particular non-essential activity, you’ll put a dollar into savings.

8. Set a time limit

Most new year’s resolutions are done with the idea that you are promising to do something for the next 365 days.  Don’t be afraid to give yourself a shorter time frame. It isn’t bad to resolve to go for a walk 3 days each week for the next two months, achieve the goal, and then re-evaluate.

Resolutions can be a powerful way to influence your behavior.  Just be sure to keep your focus on keeping your resolution and set your goals as something you can achieve.  If in a month you are saying “well that was never realistic in the first place,” you didn’t set yourself up to succeed.  Once you succeed, you can aim higher next time.

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The same rule applies. Measure the things that you want to improve. For example, if you want to read more this year, keep a list of every book you read. If you want to write more for your blog, keep track of how many posts or words you produce each week. If you want to lose some weight, keep a chart in the bathroom next to your scale and record your weight every day. If you want to watch less television, keep a chart near the TV and keep track of how many hours you spend channel surfing.

Keeping track of stuff requires effort and time on your part, but if you make it easy to do, the benefits can far outweigh any time that is lost recording your activities.

Consider keeping track of stuff in Excel. That way you can print out a graph and post it somewhere you are likely to see it to help remind you. For example, if you print out a graph of your weight for the past month and tape it to the refrigerator, it will serve as a good visual reminder every time you head for a snack.

The goal is to clearly quantify whatever you want to improve so you can see if you are doing better or worse. Just making things easier to visualize can go a long way toward making you more productive and focused on your goals.

Originally published August 21, 2007.

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If every email you read and then delete requires that you “touch” it again on your desktop, you are doing a lot of extra work.  In the paper world, you get the most efficiency by minimizing the number of times you have to physically handle an item.  The digital world is no different.  Every time you have to decide what to do with an email, that requires you to take time and make a decision.  If you have to decide what to do with each email twice, you’ll effectively double the amount of email you have to deal with.

So if you are looking for a mobile email solution, make sure you take the time to understand how it will impact your work-flow as you use your traditional desktop tools.

Originally published October 17, 2006.

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What do you feel is your most important productivity tool?(1532)

The metaphorical axe – no bit of software or technology would help me if I didn’t know how to constantly remove anything from my life that is getting in the way of living in a balanced and productive manner.

Joel Falconer (rss)

The word “No”.

I am getting really good at establishing boundaries and saying “No”.

“No” is probably THE most difficult thing for anyone, like me, who is interested in everything, loves talking with people, and has no internal time clock.  I love generating ideas and options.  I truly do not naturally like to say no to any opportunity.  But ultimately, the very definition of focus, productivity, discipline, and accomplishment is saying NO to everything that is not what is important right now.

Ariane Benefit from Neat & Simple Living (rss)

The most important productivity “tool” I use is really more of an idea.  A long time ago, while working as an intern software engineer, I was told that whenever you have a task to perform more than once, build a tool to automate it.  This one statement was ingrained in my mind over 10 years ago and has helped me to this very day.  With the demanding lives we lead, anything that can improve efficiency is vital.  For instance, in my business, I have to keep the books up to date.  Even with powerful software like Quickbooks, there are many manual tasks.  I’ve cobbled together a group of software packages, plug-ins, and even use some Excel scripts now.  These let me complete monthly accounting tasks in an hour or two when they used to take days.  So as I said, it’s not so much about a specific tool, but the mindset of using tools to increase productivity.

John Koontz from West Coast Shaving

Capture tool. A capture tool helps me:

1. clear my mind since I do not need to memorize anything, and

2. ensure that I never lose any idea, appointment, or task.

Mine is just a piece of paper I bring everywhere I go which content will then be copied to my computer.

Donald Latumahina from Life Optimizer (rss)

My three most important productivity tools are:

1. The Trash Can
2. The Delete Key
3. The Word “No”

Trust me, by using these tools you will get far more “done” than anything you could buy.

Patrick Rhone from Patrick Rhone’s Journal (rss)

As low tech as it sounds, my most important productivity tool is a deadline.  Whether it is my work, one of my employees or a client — we all seem to be much more efficient with our time when we have a deadline looming.

We use Basecamp (www.basecamphq.com) to create milestones for every project.  Each milestone is a mini-deadline.  No one wants to let someone else on the team down — so we push to meet or exceed all due dates.

On the flip side, when a project is left open-ended, it seems as though it can be a vortex for wasted time and as a result, lost revenue.

So bring on the deadlines!

Drew McLellan from Drew’s Marketing Minute

Pen and paper. I will never understand why people feel the need to search for all sorts of complicated productivity tools. Keep it simple: if your personal productivity level is currently not worth bragging about then it’s your attitude which needs to changed, the lack of productivity tools is an excuse and nothing more.

Alan Johnson from TheRatingBlog (rss)

My most important productivity tools are a pen and notepad. Anywhere I go, I’m always ready to jot down thoughts, ideas, tasks, reminders, etc.

Another significant tool is to determine your priorities. Then examine your daily activities to determine if whatever consumes your time is moving you toward your goals, priorities, etc., or  away from the things you consider to be most valuable.

I also use “Remember the Milk” and “the journal” software daily.

Consistency, few have it, we all need it.

Miguel Wickert

Miguel Wickert- Pineiro from The Pursuit Of Excellence (rss)

My index card.  Or more specifically, 1/2 and index card.  I don’t go anywhere without it in my back pocket.  I have my daily tasks written on it and I write down anything I want to remember throughout the day on it.  At the end of the day my Next Action list based on what I finished and wrote down on my index card throughout the day.

Sam from Sam I Am (rss)

It  has to be the dual monitors on my Mac at work.

I tend to work in 3 or 4 different programs at once and the dual screens really improve how I quickly I work, allowing me to swap between them easily. I reckon it must save me a minimum of thirty minutes a day.

Once you’ve gone dual screen you’ll never go back!

Katy Whitton from Productivity, Project Management & Motivation Blog (rss)

I keep a calendar.  As soon as I see something coming up ahead, I enter it into the calendar, then forget about it.  For work, I tend to keep a mental calendar as well.

Anne from Writers Cabal Blog (rss)

My Moleskines!

One for my appointments and tasks (A5 sized 12 month weekly planner) and one for all my notes (A5 sized plain paper soft cover).

Lodewijk van den Broek from How to be an Original (rss)

My most important productivity tool is the Tickler File. This external memory device allows me to postpone thinking about tasks, events, or projects until I need to think about them.

I make careful notes, and include tags and links to other related resources so that I am able to instantly process or execute the item that is due.

Stephen Smith from Productivity in Context (rss)

Gmail, Google Calendar, and Remember the Milk have been invaluable in keeping my obligations, appointments, and tasks, both personal and professional, in check.  Since I spend so much time in front of my computer, consolidating all my reminders, etc., to one or two online locations has helped focus my sometimes wandering attention.

As far as offline work (usually grading), I’ve found that removing temptation is far easier than fighting it, so I usually relocate to a room without a computer.  At work, that usually means an empty conference room.  Sounds silly, but I get astonishingly more done in an 85-minute block in an empty room with no distractions than I do in front of my computer.

Damian Bariexca from Apace of Change (rss)

I’m writing this from an elliptical machine! At the gym, I read my mailing lists and RSS feeds, respond to “light” emails that I’ve previously shunted to a folder called “Gym,” and take care of other tasks that I’ve added to a document called “Gym to do.” With this approach, not only do I avoid getting distracted by little tasks and emails during the day, but I also notice my workout less, so I can con myself into staying at the gym longer.

Eva Holtz from College Admissions Secrets (rss)

My 48 minute timer…

John Richardson from Success Begins Today (rss)

By far, OS X has become my most important productivity tool. The OS allows for the cleanest workflow of any operating system; and I have used them all over the years.

Features such as:

• Spotlight
• Keyboard shortcuts across most applications
• Spaces
• Dashboard
• Scripting through Applescript, bash Shell, and Automator
• Service to easily pass data between applications

make automation and productivity a snap.

M Nassal from Stress Free Productivity 101 (rss)

My MacBook Pro.

Brendon Connelly from BikeHacks (rss)

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“Where the !@#% did my day go?” is designed to help you adopt a daily planning routine. It assumes that you have some type of task management and calendar system in place, already. From that standpoint, it kind of picks up where other system leaves off–once you’ve captured what needs done, how do you execute? Here are some of the things I found interesting:

• Task selection – Matthew has some really good points about how to select tasks so that you feel good about what you’ve accomplished for the day.  Just getting work done isn’t enough–you need to feel good about your day when you head home.
• Task order - There is a nice discussion on the benefits of different ordering strategies.
• Interruptions – There are some great suggestions for dealing with interruptions and how to integrate potential interruptions into your planning process.
• Estimation – It is hard to plan if you don’t know how long things will take.  Matthew suggests that you  estimate and then measure how long a task will take.  That way, you keep getting better at estimating over time and your accuracy will increase.
• Worksheets – The PDF includes several worksheets to help with the planning and measurement process.  I particularly liked the idea of the “interruption worksheet” to keep track of what is interfering with your planned execution.
• Examples – There are several examples of actual worksheets and plans.  It is surprisingly interesting to see how someone else has planned their day.
• Measurements – The process tries to encourage a lot of different types of quantifiable measurements from tracking interruptions to giving you a way to check if you are on or off task every 15 minutes.

I really liked this quote encouraging people to try to create a work plan for the day and follow it:

It’s as if a very smart person who is intimately familiar with your work has figured out the best use of your time for the day, then written it out in plain language. You don’t have to think about what to do next. You simply work each task in order, relishing the feeling of flow and accomplishment.

I enjoyed reading the PDF.  It isn’t particularly long, so it doesn’t take a huge time investment to read and I can’t imagine anyone who won’t get something out of it that they can apply immediately to help make them more productive.

Contest

To enter the contest you have to leave a comment.  Give us an example of how you successfully do your daily planning or how you don’t plan or a story about your boss who doesn’t plan, but needs to, etc.  (If you draw a complete blank, you can just say “enter me into the contest”.)

We will pick a winner in a week or so and send them a shiny new copy of the PDF!

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Sunlight can also help you when you are feeling tired.  It is amazing how much you can improve a sluggish afternoon just by opening the blinds and getting some direct sunlight into the room or taking a 10 minute walk outside in the light.

I’m not sure if sunlight works best because of the spectrum or if it is just the intensity.  You can get some benefit from artificial lighting, but I’ve never been able to duplicate the full effect of sunlight.  We usually underestimate just how powerful sunlight is and most well-lit offices are still extremely dark compared with being outside on a bright day.

Originally published April 7, 2007.

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Definitely keep a clean desk and inbox. Before I leave work for the evening, I clean off my desk. When I get to work every morning, I always have a clean desk. The only stuff that can be found on my desk are projects that require action that day.

The same can be said for my inbox. Every evening I clean it out. The next morning only contains emails that I’ll read/work on that day.

Michael Morton from Marketing Monster (rss)

Pavlovian conditioning.

Here’s where procrastination can really hurt you in the beginning. If you go into your home office (or cubicle or whatever) and do nothing, that’s the vibe you’ll get from that environment.

But if, from day one, you go into the office and do nothing but work, and when you’re finished working you leave, then Pavolvian conditioning will take effect and you’ll get into the productive zone just by walking into the room, closing the door and sitting at your desk.

http://www.joelfalconer.com from Joel Falconer (rss)

To enter the productive zone i start with clearly defined short-term goals. I use an action planner to focus on specific tasks which enables me to set a schedule of work which keeps my productivity high. To keep in the zone i keep distractions to a minimum during these productive bursts, by closing down unnecessary applications such as IM, email, twitter etc. I set up fixed times when i check email and stick to it, its tough but i find if its so easy to get distracted.

Grace Smith from Postscript5 | Freelance Web Design

I am careful to do difficult work in the morning, when I’m at my sharpest, and to save busy work for the late afternoon and night.

I can also give myself a “second wind” by switching from one kind of difficult work to another. Writing, then switching to editing, then switching to thinking, helps keep me going.

Gretchen Rubin from The Happiness Project

Eliminating distractions and making sure I’m comfortable.  When I’m really serious about getting stuff done, I’ll disconnect myself from the Internet, close my door, put on some headphones, and just focus.

I like to go to the library, check out a laptop and work off a USB drive.  If I use an unfamiliar computer I don’t have to worry about all my interesting bookmarks enticing me to stop working and I don’t have any of my distracting applications handy.

Sam from Sam I Am (rss)

Gather everything you need to do the work before you begin. Turn off the phones, shut down email and minimize the potential for distraction.

Ariane Benefit from Neat & Simple Living (rss)

For me the trick lies in choosing the right music. I should like the music enough to start feeling good about my working environment, but on the other hand I should not like it too much so I won’t start singing instead of working.

Jeroen Sangers from El Canasto (rss)

It has to be “Eliminate the clutter”. How can you concentrate and be productive when you have things lying all over the desk shouting “look at me, look at me!”

A tidy working space enables you to focus on your immediate task rather that the bill that need paying/letter that needs replying to you that lying next to what you’re supposed to be concentrating on.

Katy Whitton from Flipping Heck! Productivity, Project Management & Motivation Blog (rss)

Everything unplugged. No chat, no email, no phone, no IM, no Twitter no web browsers open… turn off the Internet if you have to.  The less distracting inputs you have running, the more focused you can become.

Glen Stansberry from LifeDev (rss)

Focus on three things: diet (including water), exercise, and sleep.  If these three things become stable and regular, so will everything else, as your circadian rhythms and energy levels become balanced.

Charlie Gilkey from Productive Flourishing (rss)

Staying out of the non-productive zone, i.e., avoiding the internet like the plague!

GTD Wannabe from GTD Wannabe (rss)

Routine, routine, routine.  I eliminate distractions like email and my reader by allowing myself breaks every couple of hours or so.  Since my “work” involves reading and preparing kits for book clubs, I tend to set page-goals throughout the day.  I.e., once I’ve read or written a certain number of pages, I take a break to check email and move around a bit.  I also capitalize on my most productive time — morning — and try to get the bulk of my work done by mid-afternoon.

Kristen from BookClubClassics (rss)

Sound: know what level of sound is helpful to you.  There are times when I need things absolutely quiet and others when I can tolerate 50% noise.

Timing: as the day goes on, my resistance to difficult tasks grows so the first four hours are essential.

Pacing: one hour at a designated task is probably the most that I could give to the job.  Change it up with some manual labor (filing, walking, cleaning) in order to jog the brain.

Mike St. Pierre from The Daily Saint

Using the 48 minute singletasking idea, it’s imperative to close out all distractions (close the door, turn off the TV etc). I make sure I have a water or coffee and that I have a well planned out desk or workspace.

One place, one focus, 48 minutes

John Richardson from Success Begins Today (rss)

Just start.

But it should never be work. Work is not productive. Work is just tedious.

Play is productive because play is fun. If what you are doing is fun, it will draw you in and before you know it you’ll get to the point where you can’t wait to get up in the morning because you will want to dive into your “play” again.

Fred Gratzon from The Lazy Way to SUccess

To get into flow I find it helpful to put on some instrumental music, clean everything off my desk except what I’m working on and get a glass of water. Then I close my eyes for a few seconds and visualize a good outcome to my work, open my eyes and get to it.

I also find that setting a limit to how long I’ll work on one task is helpful. It keeps me from feeling like I’m stuck with a task until it’s finished.

Maria Gajewski from Never the Same River Twice (rss)

Keep logs. I believe the productive zone differs from person to person, in time, in circumstances, in mindset.

The only way to find out what works for you, is to keep logs. What were your most productive hours? What did the environment look like? What were you thinking? Music? Food?

Find out what the setting is for you, and make sure you get in that setting as often as possible (or desirable).

Lodewijk van den Broek from How to be an Original (rss)

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To use this feature, simply control click on the offending email and click “bounce” on the popup menu.

They will get a message back that looks as if it came from your server saying that your email address doesn’t exist, like the image you see below.

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In fact, sometimes the tools that make me feel so productive actually get in the way of what I’m trying to do because they are distractions. Trying to sit and think while I’m sitting right next to my computer is kind of like the teenager trying to do Algebra in front of the T.V.  My email is right there along with all of my other online tools.

Reading is the same way.  I’ll get more out of a book reading it on the couch, recliner or somewhere else than I will in my office chair.  I’m not saying it is impossible for me to do any reading in my office–it just isn’t usually the most productive place for me to read a book.  Here are some of the things I’m trying to do to help create better places for specific activities:

1. I’ve moved a number of my books to a bookshelf in another part of the house where there is a quiet place to read in the evening.
2. I’m working on rearranging my office so I have a workspace that isn’t shared with my computer workspace.  Something along the lines of a library table where I can spread out books and other materials.
3. I’ve moved most of my magazines to the living room.  When they are at my work desk they create a distraction from work and study.  When they are in the living room they serve their purpose better.

The question is, not only are you doing the right things, but are you doing them in the right place? How have you changed your space to make it better support different activities?

Originally published April 12, 2007.

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As a student, I was a master of procrastination, running down the clock as long as I could before beginning a project. What resulted was strong work and ridiculous levels of self-induced pressure. (I suppose that’s the academic version of living on the edge.)

The strategy that I now like to call granularity helped me to overcome my tendency toward procrastination, by making it possible to see a large project as a matter of many smaller, more manageable tasks.

Michael Leddy from Orange Crate Art (rss)

My biggest challenge to productivity is actually getting started.  I’ve found that once I can cross that threshold of actually beginning an activity I’ve been putting aside, it is much easier to keep going.

To try to overcome this tendency, I make sure to break down my Next Actions into very tangible and “doable” bits.  Instead of trying to convince my mind that I have to “start that paper,” I can convince it that all I have to do is “develop super rough outline of ideas for paper.”  Once I start that rough outline, more often than not it will carry over into actually writing the paper.

You may think your smart, but you can trick yourself easier than you think.

Sam from Sam I Am (rss)

Distractions….

I have to close the door, turn off e-mail, close the web browser, and work on one project at a time.

John Richardson from Success Begins Today (rss)

I struggle mightily with distractions–since I work from home, other projects seep in.  Mostly, my internet addiction rears its ugly head.  I check my email and comments list incessantly.  Sometimes the only solution is to NOT work at home– pick it up and get out of there!  A “reward” basis works as well– i.e., do 500 words, get a cookie

Mary Beth Ellis from Blonde Champagne

I work from home, so my biggest challenge is home tasks interfering with work time.  I overcome it by having a home office and simply shutting the door, but there are times when that isn’t enough.  I usually try to commit to a certain number of hours of work per week and then just do those where it fits in.

Trent Hamm from The Simple Dollar (rss)

Lingering in idle mode for too long. That happens when I don’t have a clear view of the desired end result or have doubt about the correctness or completeness of that view.

I overcome it by stopping what I do and start doing something entirely different. Go for a walk, work in the garden, file papers, clean something. My mind needs time to process the problem, and it usually comes up with answers within the hour as long as I do something that doesn’t require “processor time”.

Lodewijk van den Broek from How to be an Original (rss)

Know yourself and know your habits. I get tired of working on one thing continuously, so I arrange my work in such a way that I switch between assignments.  I still get the work done, but the variety makes it more interesting.  So it’s more of I will get those three things done today rather then I will do #1 by 2 pm, #2 by 5 pm, and #3 by 8 pm.

Isha Giezynska from Vanderbilt OwenBloggers (rss)

I have a mind that likes to get as much data input into it as possible. The result is that if I’m doing research for an Unclutterer post, I’ll get caught up in learning about whatever it is I’m researching and forget about the writing. When I was doing research for a post on fireproof safes, I got lost on the Underwriters Laboratory website for close to five hours. Since that time, I’ve learned that a timer can be a good friend. I set it to go off every half hour or hour based on my needs. When it rings, it forces me to stop and think about how I’ve been spending my time. One of the best and most inexpensive tools I’ve found.

Erin Doland from Unclutterer (rss)

My biggest challenge to productivity is probably myself. I am so easily interested in so many different things, and sometimes just as easily disinterested; I have to contain and restrict my curiosity to get anything done. Feed readers are such an unhealthy addiction – mine has more feeds in it than I care to count – and curiosity probably will, one day, kill this cat.

Joel Falconer (rss)

Good question! My current biggest roadblock is discipline (being able to maintain steady, productive behavior in spite of how I feel). The contributing factors? A bunch including unwillingness to defer gratification, succumbing to distractions (heading down the rabbit hole), working on comforting but low value tasks, and low energy/motivation.

How to fix it? Whew! The patented “IdeaMatt Big Arse Text File” shows over sixty resources on the topic, so I have no excuse not to make progress on this. The one that’s helped so far is removing a major distraction by creating structure that makes it much harder to give in to (removing a program/account in this case).

Matthew Cornell from Matt’s Idea Blog (rss)

Interruptions. Literally, people showing up at my door or calling me.

When I really need to concentrate, I shut my office door, or work where people can’t find me.

Brendon Connelly from BikeHacks (rss)

My biggest challenge to productivity would have to be lack of focus.  I’m still trying to figure out how to overcome it!  Mostly I manage it by scheduling in “lack of focus” time.

Anne from Writers Cabal Blog (rss)

I do all the things that my colleagues, family and friends need me to do first.  Those are people that I count on first, so why not get them what they need first?  I also realized that my life is completely fluid, and always changing.  I relaxed and stopped worrying about getting ahead.  I take care of bills and work-related, money making tasks second.  It’s become more gratifying to me.

John Trosko from OrganizingLA Blog (rss)

Being very creative is both the source of  much joy and much pain for me.
I love generating ideas and options.  I truly hate saying no.   But ultimately, the very definition of focus, productivity, discipline, and accomplishment is saying NO to everything that is not what is important right now.  So I am learning to make peace with saying NO far more often than I say YES.

Ariane Benefit from Neat & Simple Living (rss)

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Before I go any further, let me address all the people who are poised to send me vicious hate mail saying things like “What type of world do you live in?!” or “My boss would never let me do this!” Please recognize that this won’t work for everyone–I know that. However, it is a good thing to keep in mind throughout your career because there may be a point where it would work for you.

Okay. Now that that is out of the way …

When I was a teenager, the school I attended was on a 4 day per week schedule. The state requirements for school specified a certain number of hours each year, and the school administrators found that, by having longer days, they could meet the requirements and free up Fridays. As a student, it was very beneficial because I was working as a waiter at the time and could pick up a day shift on Friday, which worked out very nicely. The extra hour or two that we spent each of the four days was well worth having a big block of time off (Friday).

These types of arrangements aren’t as odd as you might think in the current work force–particularly in healthcare–especially with night shifts. It is common for ER doctors and nurses to work three 12 hour shifts in a row and then have the rest of the week off. Some even work a series of shifts totaling 80 hours in a week and then take the next week off.

Back in 1994, the World Bank started a program where they would let people work longer days in exchange for the 10th day off as part of a work/family balance program. While there were challenges, the total productivity remained the same.

My point is that not everyone is working 8 hour days 5 days per week. It depends on your job, but you might be able to ask about going to a 4 day work week. For some people, it might even be more productive. Imagine that you have 2 extra hours to get stuff done Monday through Thursday before anyone else came into the office. For a lot of people, these extra 8 hours would be much more productive when put before the normal work day on Monday through Thursday than they are all on Friday like normal because you would have a big block of uninterrupted time before the rest of the world got started.

Here are some tips for if this is something that interests you:

1. Try to shoot for coming in early instead of staying late. It is going to be easier to convince your boss that you’ll get more done by coming in a 7:30 am and getting a head start on everything than staying a few hours late.
2. Try to arrange your schedule to avoid traffic. If you normally take an hour to drive to work, you may find that it only takes 30 minutes when you come in earlier.
3. Concentrate on selling the business advantages to your boss. It doesn’t matter if it is convenient to you. You need to show that it is beneficial to the company business. (A lot of the tips from asking your boss to work from home still apply.)
4. Consider consulting. If your current employer isn’t interested in this type of setup and you have skills that are in demand, you might consider becoming a consultant where you could set up this type of schedule for yourself. We will look at this in more detail later on.

Obviously, a 4 day week won’t work for everyone, but it is something to keep in mind as you work on achieving work/life balance. Your work productivity is important, but so is the time you spend with your family or pursuing your non-work activities.

Originally published April 14, 2007.

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If most of your work is repetitive or easily quantifiable, it is easy to measure your productivity against yourself.   You just consider how many of units of work you accomplished in a given amount of time.  Unfortunately, most work doesn’t lend itself to this type of measurement.

If we could measure both our skill level and our focus level on any task, we should be able to have a pretty good idea of our productivity.  This type of measurement isn’t a hard numbers approach, but it is a good exercise in becoming aware of where we are functioning in relation to where we could be functioning.

Skill

For any task, we function at a certain percentage skill-wise.  100% is the highest level of skill on a given task.  Very few people function at 100% for any particular task.  For example, if I am preparing my taxes, I may have a skill level of 20% at that task.  A CPA on the other hand may have a skill level of 80% and a tax lawyer may be somewhere closer to 95%.

In evaluating any piece of work, we need to be aware of our skill level.  If our skill level is too low, it may be more effective to hire someone with skill in that particular area.  In other cases, we may need to educate or train ourselves in order to increase our skill level.  With the tax example, I might read a book on tax preparation, spend a few hours reading on the IRS website, and call up an accountant and ask a few questions.  After a few weeks, I may be able to boost my skill level to 35%.

Unless I’m willing to make learning a skill my primary focus, I’m unlikely to ever develop the same level of skill as someone who uses that skill to make a living.  Unless I want to devote my life to tax law, I’ll never become as skilled as a genius tax lawyer.

You should have a good idea of your skill level for your common types of work.  This gives you an idea of where you should place  your development energies and also can help you decide what tasks are best outsourced.

Focus

The other component of our personal effectiveness is focus.  While you may have a very high skill level at a particular task, your efficiency will be determined by your ability to focus.  Your focus level may depend on your mood, the time of day, distractions, and whether or not you really want to do the task at hand.

For most tasks, operating at 25% focus will take you at least 4 times as long as if you gave it 100% focus.  Of course this  there are some tasks (flying an airplane, doing brain surgery, working on a nuclear reactor) where a lack of focus may result in a terrible accident instead of just wasted time. Most of us are rarely able to operate at high levels of focus for more than 30 to 40 minutes at a time.  When you are operating at 90% to 100% focus it is very exhausting.  Most people are doing very well to operate at 60% to 75% focus.

Efficiency Percentage

By combining these two numbers, we should get a realistic idea of where we are operating in relation to our potential. So, if I have a 20% skill level at preparing my taxes and I’m trying to work on them while watching a TV show that is occupying 50% of my focus, I am operating at 10% efficiency toward achieving my goal.  90% of my efforts are being wasted through lack of skill and through distractions.

In this particular example, I can turn off the television and possibly increase my focus to 75%.  This would raise my efficiency to 15%, but that still leaves 85% wasted. The only way for me to really become efficient at this task is to spend some time increasing my skill level.

In general, if you can’t do a task at above 40% efficiency, you should probably consider outsourcing it. For example, I have the proper knowledge to change the oil on my car and I have tools to handle most of it.  However, since I lack some of the specialized tools that they have at a quicklube, my skill is probably going to be somewhere around 40% to  60% of what someone working at a shop set up specifically to change oil would have.  On the focus side of things, even if I were able to focus at 90% on the task of changing my oil, the fact that I don’t have an environment dedicated to changing oil is going to lower my focus.  Instead of just focusing on changing the oil, I’m going to have to worry about buying oil and and oil filter, disposing of the oil, finding soap that will clean grease off my hands, etc.  So even if I’m able to keep my mind completely focused, 75% of my time will be spent on things not directly related to changing the oil.  By the time everything is considered, I’ll be operating at about 15% efficiency.  Unless the cost of hiring a mechanic is very high, I should probably consider having someone else do this for me.

Obviously you shouldn’t break out a calculator to determine your efficiency for each and every task, but being aware of these two factors can help you make  better decisions about how you spend your time.  By minimizing the areas where your time is wasted, you’ll be able to devote more effort to the areas where you have an advantage over the average individual.

Originally published on February 4, 2006.

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Buy (yet more) software to make you more productive

Software needs to enable your system.  Just buying a piece of software won’t make you any more productive.  Sometimes when you buy software you are also buying the system and procedure that comes with it.  This isn’t bad, but if you don’t understand that the real thing of value is the system you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

I know people whose first reaction to something they don’t want to do, or something that is taking up some of their time is to go out and buy a multi thousand dollar piece of software.  Their past is littered with software that isn’t being used for one reason or another, but has still consumed a tremendous amount of finances and time.

Hire someone else to manage your finances

Managing your finances is one of those things that you have a bigger interest in than just about anyone else.  Make sure you always stay engaged in the areas where your expertise and interest are likely to be valuable.  That doesn’t mean you can’t hire help–just make sure you understand what is going on  and aren’t simply deferring important decisions to someone else who doesn’t have the same vested interest as you.  This goes for a lot of areas–not just managing your finances.

Get a new PDA, phone or computer

Sometimes getting a faster computer can help you save time, but for most people, their bottleneck isn’t the speed of their computer.  Before you run out and spend a bunch of money, make sure your computer processing speed is actually slowing you down and make sure your processes are designed to make you efficient.  If there is one particular task that takes your computer 60 minutes to complete, it might be much more effective to just let it run over lunch or in the evening.  If you buy a new computer to cut that task down to 30 minutes you still have a big slot of time where you are waiting on the PC. (Now if it cuts a 60 minute task down to 3 minutes, there might be some good reasons to upgrade.)

Also keep in mind that if your computer seems to be getting progressively slower, doing a re installation of the operating system (after you get a good backup) may give you a much faster computer without the expense of purchasing a new one. Many computers come with a disk or program that will let you reset everything to the factory settings.  This will usually get you back to the same speed you had when it was originally purchased.

Buy (yet another) smart phone or PDA

Once again, these can be useful tools, but only if they are part of a good process.  A smart phone or PDA can help enhance your process, but they won’t make you more productive in and of themselves.  Also be aware that you will probably greatly over-estimate the benefits of these gadgets and greatly under-estimate the amount of time they take to learn.

When I ran an IT department, I saw some pretty amazing justifications for buying new gadgets that didn’t make any sense at all.  People found something they wanted and then came up with reasons why it would help them.  Start with how you want to change your work process and then find a tool that will help you implement those changes.

Optimizing first

It doesn’t matter how efficient you are if you are doing the wrong things.  People get caught up in trying to be more efficient by writing down huge to-do lists of things that don’t really need to be done.  If you aren’t working on things that are important, it doesn’t really matter how quickly you can do it.  Make sure you are doing things that are important before you try to optimize your work.

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Network With Peers

There are a bunch of ways to promote your content. Getting on the front page of Digg or Delicious is great, but you will probably have better results over the long term by focusing on good old fashion networking. You need to meet other people in your niche. Subscribe to their blogs, comment on their posts and email them offers to help them out. Once you have a relationship established, it shouldn’t be a problem to email them once in a while to say “what do you think of this post?”

If your goal is just to get them to give you a link, you are going about it wrong. If your goal is to actually develop friendships, you are headed down the right road.

Technorati is a great place to find peers. Start with people who have a similar Technorati and Alexa ranking. Also, look for people that have a similar number of RSS subscribers. You’ll have an easier time connecting with your peers than trying to get in direct contact with the writers for the most popular blog on the internet.

Submit Tips to Top Blogs in Niche

A lot of top blogs have a “tips” email address where they solicit story ideas and links from readers. If you are familiar with the site and write a story that would be of genuine interest to its readers, don’t be afraid to submit it to the tips email address. This doesn’t mean you should email them every single post, but sending your best post every few weeks is appropriate.

Keep in mind this isn’t a mass mailing process. Your real goal is for the writers at the top blogs to like your work so much that they subscribe to it in their RSS feed. This will put your content in front of them automatically. If you email them only about highly relevant, well written stories, you increase the chance that they will want to subscribe.

Originally published July 30, 2007.

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