In an effort to expand our readership to people striving for unproductivity, here are six things you can do to guarantee that your co-workers get as little done as possible. Productivity501 takes no responsibility for the results of actually implementing any of these ideas.

1. Randomly put entries on their calendar like: “1:30 meeting with John White Important!” or “Call Sally 535-321-1242″. Place them far enough in the future that they won’t suspect you did it.
2. Write in fake delegated tasks and followup reminders: “Ask Joe for status of XYZ presentation.”
3. Set up their copy of MS Word to autocorrect their boss’s name with “The Silly Clown” or “The Surpreme Ruler of Canterbury”
4. Switch their phone display to Hebrew.
5. There are still a number of “Fax Back” services out there where you call in, select the documents you want and then give the system your fax number. Call in an use their desk phone or cell phone number.
6. Put an ad on Craig’s List saying that you have 4 Superbowl, Hannah Montana, or Blueman Group tickets that you aren’t going to be able to use and you’ll give them away free to whoever tells you the funniest joke on the phone. List their work number.

Originally published April 01, 2008.

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Thank you to everyone who participated. If you’d like your own copy of Where the !@#% did my day go? or his other ebooks checkout his products page. Also

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Doing more is only valuable if you are doing things that really need to be done.  A system that just enables you to always be busy isn’t really valuable.  Obviously there is some value in not letting anything “slip through the cracks” if you are talking about things like getting your wife a birthday present or going to your son’s soccer game, but letting some things slip through the cracks can be a valuable way to let go of things that just aren’t important.

When you are making lists or putting stuff into your “trusted system,” think hard about the consequences of not doing a particular task.  Are the consequences really all that bad? Maybe you really don’t need to do it.  Maybe you should replace it with something much more valuable–something that, at the end of your life, you will regret having not done.

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1. Keep cleaning supplies within easy reach

It is a simple thing, but having some Windex and paper towels nearby to wipe down your desk can save you time and help keep your workplace more organized and tidy.

2. Remove your guest chair

People are less likely to stay for a long time chatting if there isn’t a place to sit.  You can keep a fold out chair nearby or borrow a chair from the conference room when necessary.  If you stand when someone enters the room, you can easily signal for them to leave by sitting back down.  It doesn’t always work, but often it will.

3. Open your mail over the trash can

Even better, don’t bring it into your office–open it in the mailroom and toss anything you don’t need.  The idea is to touch everything as few times as possible.  If you open everything onto your desk, then you have to deal with picking up the parts that need to be discarded and handling them again. Anything you can do to keep clutter from getting into your office in the first place will save you time.

4. Keep some emergency items in a drawer

It isn’t a bad idea to keep an extra stick of deodorant, mouthwash, five or ten dollars in cash and other emergency items in your desk.  You probably won’t use them often, but if you happen to forget your deodorant or eat something for lunch that gives you bad breath, you won’t have to deal with running out to the store.  If you are on the road a lot, you might consider keeping some deodorant and a toothbrush in your computer bag.

5. Speed-dial, bookmarks and shortcuts

If you go to a particular list of websites everyday, they should be in a shortcut folder.  If there is an application you use every day, it should have a shortcut on your desktop.  Numbers that are called repeatedly should be on your speed dial.

6. Keep a journal of your notes

When someone gives you a telephone number, address or other piece of information over the phone, where do you put it?  Many people write it on scraps of paper or post it notes.  A much better solution is to have some type of “notes” journal where you put this type of stuff in chronological order.  Most of it should probably be transferred to an address book, calendar or somewhere else, but having a single place to go back to where you can look up that number that you thought you’d only need once is very valuable and can save a significant amount of time.

7. Strategic hours

If your employer gives you some flexibility in your start and end time, consider arranging your working hours strategically.  You can plan your day to avoid heavy traffic, to give you an hour to work before people and distractions come to work or even just to get a parking space closer to the office. For many people, a small shift in their arrival and departure time could easily save 10 to 15 minutes in travel time each way.  This amounts to a very significant amount of time over a typical work year.

8. Work from home one day each week

If your employer will let you, working from home one day each week can be a big timesaver.  Not only does it cut out your travel time, but it can also give you uninterrupted time to concentrate for periods longer than what you can do in the office.  If you need tips for approaching your employer about such an arrangement, checkout our guide on How to Convince Your Boss to let you Work from Home.

9. Scan old records

If your office has a high speed copier/printer, it probably has the ability to scan directly to a PDF file.  Many can even do OCR.  By scanning in your older records, you not only save space, but you make it a lot easier to search for the part of the document you are looking for.  A program like DevonTHINK or Google’s desktop search can make it easy to locate your documents when you need them.

10. Forward your phone

Some tasks will take only 30 minutes to complete if they have your undivided attention, but 3 or 4 hours if you get interrupted a few times.  When faced with one of those tasks, forward your phone, turn off your mobile, and close your email program.  Give the task the attention it requires and complete it.  If you need to, you can even add a message saying that it is 9:30 and you are wrapping up an important project, but you will return all calls by 10:45. Just remember to unforward your phone when you are done.

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If I am able to maintain my same level of pay and cut my work time in half, I’ve made some pretty significant improvements in my productivity.  But what if, instead of maintaining the same level of pay, we just try to maintain the same standard of living. Or better yet, just maintain the same standard of living on things that are important to us.

This type of thinking suddenly opens up many new ways of looking at how we spend our time.  If I can cancel cable, reduce the number of times I eat out each month, and move to a smaller house, what will that buy me in terms of time? Could I spend another 20 hours a week with my daughter if I were willing to give up some things that will lower my cost of living?

I see a lot of people that become so obsessed with “doing more” that they never stop to ask themselves “why?”

Consider this:  Do you have more or less time to spend on things you enjoy and that are really important to you than you did 5 years ago?  If not, when do you expect the trend to reverse?

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What time of day do you feel you are most productive and why? (198) Here are their answers.  What about you?  Leave your thoughts in the comments.

I feel most productive in late morning and early afternoon.  My energy peaks at this time of day, and I have found I am able to focus more on important tasks.  I am not a morning person, so usually I end up going around in circles or repeating something- basically, wasting my time.  Late afternoon, beginning around 3, I begin to get sluggish and often need a nap!  It is important to know when your energy level is at its highest and when you are least distractable.  That is when you should schedule your top priorities for the day.  That way, the task is more likely to be finished.

Rebecca from Life Lists

Morning. I’m well rested, my head is clear and I’m full of coffee!

Brendon Connelly from BikeHacks (rss)

Mid-morning to early afternoon.  I’ve tried being productive early in the morning, and sometimes I’m able to, but most of the time I can’t wake up my mind enough to tackle complex projects early in the morning.  Between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.  are usually when I do the most of my paper writing and other thought-intensive work.

I usually schedule all my reading and research for the evening hours.  It helps that I have figured out what times of day I work best in, so I don’t even waste my time trying to write after 3.

Too early and I can’t wake up my mind enough to focus, and any later than 3 and my mind is too tired to focus.  My sweet spot is late morning-early afternoon.

Sam from Sam I Am (rss)

I think different people have different habits. I have worked nights for years but I still feel that an early morning riser is more productive then a night crawler. Thats because the sleep which you get at night is most useful for the body and it provides you with a new energy to work every morning.

Abhijeet from Jeet Blog (rss)

I’m most productive in the morning between a run and the first time I check email (which is usually after 11:30).  I usually don’t take or schedule calls until after lunch either, so I can instead focus on thought-intensive or otherwise important tasks all morning.

Jared Goralnick from Technotheory (rss)

I’m most productive in the morning, because I’m refreshed!  When I have a client appointment to go to in the afternoon, I’m even more productive because of the adrenaline I get from knowing I have to be somewhere later.

Ariane Benefit from Neat & Simple Living

If I am passionate about what I am doing or what I’m trying to accomplish, any time of day is good. The key is being well rested. When well rested, it is easier, even natural, to get passionate about stuff. If I am tired, even the most compelling things won’t capture my imagination.

Fred Gratzon from The Lazy Way to SUccess

Definitely early in the morning.  During this time, I have the most energy and am looking forward to what all I will get done during that day, and it’s also the time with the fewest distractions.

Charlie Gilkey from Productive Flourishing (rss)

Mid-afternoon to early evening.  I find that I’m only good for rote work first thing in the morning.  Too bad my research doesn’t require a lot of rote work!  But come 2 p.m. or so, I’m ready to so some serious thinking.  I peter off again around 9 p.m., although I’ve been known to work later if coding.

I think I’m just groggy after sleeping.  By the time the afternoon rolls around, I’m annoyed at myself for not working harder, and am just generally able to focus better.

GTD Wannabe from GTD Wannabe (rss)

Anywhere between 9pm and 2am. It’s shocking, really, especially considering I’m rudely awoken by an energetic two year old at disgusting hours of the morning, but that’s when I’m most productive, so that’s when I typically work!

Why? I have no idea. Maybe something to do with being a musician.

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

I am most productive early in the morning. Its more peaceful and free from the usual interruptions of the working day. I work on my high priority tasks during this time as i feel more refreshed early in the morning. By getting a good start on more pressing tasks i also find i can get a head start on the next days work.

Grace Smith from Postscript5 | Freelance Web Design

I’m definitely a night owl.  I typically get the most done in the evening.  I think it’s when I’m most alert and focused.  Plus, I don’t have to deal with the distractions of phone calls and people in the office.  Evening hours are usually distraction-free and available for prime productivity.

Andrew Flusche from Legal Andrew (rss)

I’m usually the most productive later in the day and in to the night. There’s typically a greater sense of urgency later in the day that almost forces me to focus. I also find that I’m more creative and open to new ideas at night.

John from Fiscal Musings (rss)

I feel most productive in the early mornings because the rest of the world isn’t around to bother me. It’s the time that has the least amount of distractions.

Glen Stansberry from LifeDev (rss)

I am in my most creative mindset between 12am and 3am. I am the most productive after I take a shower in the morning. I’m not sure why, heh. Probably because I use the shower to think, so once I’m out, I’m ready to execute.

Nathan Snell from The Technopian (rss)

Between 5am and 7am

Ever since I started to rise early I discovered that these are golden hours. It’s because:

• I’m the only one awake in the house
• I’m not bothered by any troubles of the day yet
• I’m on caffeine vs. on alcohol (morning vs. evening). But even without the caffeine this time rocks!

Between 3pm and 5pm

Not sure why, but these are golden hours for me as far as writing is concerned.

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

I’m a morning person. 4am to 6am is my most productive time. After 5pm… forget it!

John Richardson from Success Begins Today (rss)

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The idea is that you will never reach your full potential for efficiency and productivity without significant investments in non-work, fun activities.  If all your time is spent working,  you will accomplish less than if you leave some time to relax and pursue recreational activities. I think this only holds true for creative-type work.  If you are simply counting pebbles every day, I don’t know that spending the weekend water-skiing will make a noticeable improvement in your counting skills.

However, if your job involves  coming up with ideas, finding patterns, or pretty much any work that is thought-based, your productivity will be somehow tied to your leisure activities. What do you think? Can you reach your peak productivity without spending time on leisure?

Originally published December 28, 2006.

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It took about 7 days for him to get used to the idea that the clock was set ahead, and the method started losing its effectiveness.  No big deal.  He just bumped it another two minutes forward and he started being on time again…for about a week.

I was sitting at my desk reviewing some notes for my next class at 1:50.  I stood up to grab a book off the book shelf and something just didn’t seem right.  It took me a minute to realize that I had seen a clock out of the corner of my eye.  As I looked back I saw 1:51. Now, to many people, this might not seem like a big deal, but I just wasn’t someone who came to class late.  To make it worse, this particular class was with a professor that had hired me to tutor others in music theory. Being late to class was a big deal because it would reflect poorly on me as a tutor.

I scrambled to grab my books and ran down the hallway, down five flights of stairs, across the campus and into the music building.  I ran down the hall to the classroom hoping to slip in without attracting much attention, but when I looked through the door, there was no one there.  The lights were off and the room was empty.  No students, no teacher, no lecturing… nothing.

Now, this is the point where many people would have probably thought, “Cool, no class today!”, but this particular professor had a sense of humor that I had seen him use several times. For example, if a student fell asleep in class, he would continue talking in the same tone of voice and try to get the rest of the class to quietly get up and leave the room without disturbing the sleeping student. The class would continue in another room or the lobby and the sleeper would wake up with no idea where everyone had gone.

I looked around to see if anyone was hiding in a nearby classroom.  No luck.  As I headed back to the lobby, I saw the clock.  It was 1:37. I waited around for 13 minutes for class.

My roommate kept moving the clock forward, and every time he started getting used to it, he would move it ahead a few more minutes.  I had just happened to look at his clock instead of mine because of where I was standing. The clock was a full 15 or 16 minutes ahead.

This is a trick that I’ve heard people recommend.  Just set your clock ahead so you get to places on time. The problem is that being late is a habit and simply moving the clock forward doesn’t actually break the habit.  In fact, it will make it worse.  If you can’t seem to get to places on time, don’t set your clocks forward- move back the deadline.  So if you have a meeting at 2:30, set a deadline for yourself of 2:25.  Once you get to where you are consistently getting places 5 minutes ahead, you’ll have broken the habit of lateness.

Originally published April 9, 2007.

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For example, when I was running the technical department at a large non-profit corporation, I started measuring our response time for help desk tickets.  This was quantifiable data, and by looking at the trends over time, we were able to see if our response time was improving (going down) or getting worse (going up).  Without measuring this, we would of had no objective way to measure our performance and we would have been left guessing based on how we “felt” we were doing.

Once you have something to measure, you need to make sure you notice it. In the previous situation, I made graphs that showed how we were doing each week and posted them near the office door each week. Everyone in my department could see exactly how we were doing, if we were improving and if we were meeting our goals. This kept it very visible and helped people focus on the part that they needed to plan in improving our numbers.

At a software company where I worked, I hooked up red and green lava lamps to indicate how things were going. When the software was passing the tests and building as planned, the green light was lit. When tests were failing or there were other problems with the code, our system would automatically switch on the red light. This let everyone on the team see the current status and helped us focus on what we needed to do as individuals to get the green light back on.

If you are painting a wall or building a house, it is easy to see your progress. Many jobs are abstract, so it is hard to see your progress. By transforming your measurements into concrete visual indicators, you can make the important things get noticed and help drive appropriate action.

Originally published October 1, 2005.

Technorati Tags: productivity, time management

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How Businesses Make Money

Businesses make money by selling items or services for more than it costs them to produce those items or services.  The dry cleaner may charge you $2.00 per shirt, which is probably at least twice what it costs them to actually clean the shirt.  If you are paying for their services then $2.00 must be less than the value of your time to do it yourself.

In most businesses, they make money not because their employees are highly motivated pinnacles of productivity, but because they have a good system in place.  The employee that cleans your shirt isn’t necessarily any more productive than you.  However, they have access to equipment that you don’t have and have a procedure for cleaning and pressing the shirts that allow them to do it more efficiently than you could yourself.  So it isn’t necessarily their personal productivity that allows the business to make money, but the productivity that comes from following the business system using the business tools.

Some businesses make money by having employees that will work for a much smaller amount of pay than what the company can get away with charging.  Consider the recent lawyer graduate who works for $75 per hour for a firm that bills them out at $275 per hour. The firm provides assistance and gets clients that the lawyer probably couldn’t get on their own, but when it comes down to it, the work the lawyer does is much more valuable to the client than the amount the lawyer is being paid.

When You Should Consider Starting Your Own Business

If in your employment you fit with the dry cleaner example, you probably shouldn’t go out and try to start a business. The individual working for the dry cleaner is making money by following a process–not by being particularly efficient or productive.

However, if you fit in the young lawyer category, you are unlikely to be paid what your time is actually worth. If you are highly motivated and really focus on being productive and efficient you will make a great deal of money for your employer, but very little of that will ever make it to your pocket.

Consider this: If you are able to refine your productivity habits to the point that you are twice as productive in your line of work than the average employee, how much more do you think you will be paid? How likely is it that your employer will pay you double what your co-worker makes even if you produce twice as much? It is very unlikely. In a large business it is very unlikely that you’ll end up making even 15% more than an equivalent co-worker based on your higher productivity.

Benefiting from Higher Productivity

If you really want to benefit from being a highly productive individual you will have to go into business for yourself. A highly productive employee that only costs 10% more than an average employee is an employers dream. It is like getting an extra employee almost for free–especially after you take into account the additional cost of benefits, vacation time, etc.

This isn’t to say you should just quit and go into business for yourself. Starting a business is a difficult undertaking. There may be valuable things you can still learn from your current employer and getting paid to learn is always a good financial choice. But, your long term goal (if you want to really benefit from being productive) needs to be putting yourself in a position where your ability to do more work translates into a bigger paycheck.

Why People Don’t Start Their Own Business

Starting a business can be scary. Leaving a steady paycheck and insurance benefits and depending on your own ability to run a business isn’t something you should do lightly and it isn’t something you should do without some serious study. You have to understand what you are doing. The great thing about already having a job is that you can learn about starting your business while you work for someone else–in many cases you can even start your business while you are still an employee.

To start your own business you’ll eventually need to get over your fears and step out. This isn’t for everyone, but if you are serious about being productive it is probably the only way for you to really benefit from your investment in yourself (unless making your employer very very happy is enough of a reward for you already).

Originally published February  22, 2007.

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1. Plan ahead

Studying in college requires more preparation than one might think. With all of the other distractions that are available, it is important to plan out a study schedule and really stick with it. That way, you will already have your studying done when your friends want you to spend time with them. Putting studying first will help eliminate a lot of stress, too.

2. Use a calendar

Making good use of a calendar takes stress away by helping you keep track of all your assignments and other duties. Everything from time for doing laundry to the meeting with your professor can be written in the calendar to ensure that you don’t double-book any time slots in your day.

3. Set deadlines

Just as teachers set deadlines for work, setting deadlines for yourself can be another good way to minimize stress. For example, you could set a deadline for yourself to have the work done and polished a day or two before it is due. That way you’ll have some time to review what you’ve done and make any last-minute adjustments.

4. Make time for fun

Some students get good grades and work hard, but then forget to schedule some time for themselves to relax! Forgetting to set aside time for yourself can cause you to become burnt out very quickly. This doesn’t mean to slack off, but there is a balance to be kept in this area.

5. Don’t take on too much

Although the typical semester is pretty strenuous for most full-time students, it is possible to limit the number of extra things that you have to worry about. Extra-curricular activities are wonderful, but it is best to limit them to a few that you enjoy the most.

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Lets see how do you spell “artichoke”….neat here is a nice little drawing of an airplane…wait what was I…oh yeah “artichoke” ok that will be a little further…what is that a picture of?….oh an anteater.  I didn’t realize their noses were so long. Ok now focus….”artichoke”. Hm.  How do they know what Aristotle looked like? … Arghh…. Ok focus on “artichoke” … I think it will be back a ways.  Ok lets see A R.  I went to far … wow that is a pretty good drawing of an aardvark.  I wonder if they have a picture of the Dodo bird (flip, flip, flip).  Cool. What about a platypus. (flip, flip, flip). Hmm.  How do you spell “platypus”. Oh here it is. Pretty strange little creature. Wait…  Now what was I trying to lookup?

It is easy to get caught up in this type of thing when looking stuff up on the internet.  Here are a few tips to help stay focused on your work.

1. Use a news reader – A news reader lets you subscribe to blogs and news sources and keeps track of which articles you’ve read.  That way you don’t have to visit the sites.  This can help cure you of the addiction to try to check 10 ro 20 websites several times a day just to make sure you don’t miss something.
2. Stay Focused - If you are trying to look something up, write your question on a piece of paper before you start searching.  Having it right there in front of you will help keep you focused.  If you see something that reminds you of something else you want to look at, write it down for later.
3. Don’t Interrupt Work with Browsing – If you are working on writing, creating spreadsheets, etc. resist the urge to jump to your browser every time you think of something to look up–even if it is related to what you are working on. Pause and ask yourself if that piece of information is vital to what you are doing right at that moment. If it isn’t write it down to lookup later and continue working.
4. Go Somewhere that Doesn’t Have Internet – I have found some of my most productive times writing are when I’ve been somewhere that doesn’t have internet.  I’m able to focus better without the distraction of the web and I keep a list of things to lookup during a daily or weekly trip to an internet cafe.
5. Don’t Open Your Web-browser First Thing – When you start to work in the morning, do something else first. It doesn’t have to be a long project, but just do some other task first thing.  This helps get you in the right frame of mind.  How many times, do you open a web browser, spot something interesting on your home page and lose 20 to 60 minutes without realizing it?
6. Be Careful of Your Home Page – Be careful not to set your home page to something distracting.  If you set it to Yahoo or MSN or pretty much any news site, you are just asking for trouble. 75% of the time when you open your browser, you are going to see something that looks more interesting than the work you are doing at the moment.  Set your home page to something clean and useful like Google, or just a blank page.  Better yet, create your own home page with a list of links you use often (and maybe a quote that helps you focus on productivity).

Originally published April 2007.

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1. Take a walk

If you have few options, taking a 10-15 minute walk over your lunch break is a nice way to relax and get your daily quota of exercise. It also has the added benefit of not being terribly strenuous, so you shouldn’t come back to the office dripping with sweat.

2. Forget the gym

It takes both time and money to dedicate to working out at a gym. If you don’t mind the great outdoors, pick up your running/walking shoes and step out your front door. This is, perhaps, the most relaxing way to unwind after a stressful day, especially if you live in an area with pretty scenery. Drivers are one thing to keep in mind if you are exercising on the road in the evening. It might be a good idea to keep a runners’ reflective vest on hand for the times you can’t get out before the sunset, and be aware that motorists may not always see you, even with the vest.

3. Skip the elevator

This is perhaps the easiest way to get some good, quick exercise. Simply wave goodbye to the elevator and take the stairs each day. There is a reason athletes run up and down stairs all the time…

4. Back to school

One other way to make sure you are able to exercise is to take a college or community sponsored class. Many of the prior two institutions have classes for pilates, some sports, dance, yoga and weight training. Any of these would be an interesting way to try something new and keep exercise fun! Another benefit is that taking the class will make sure that you have time already set aside for your daily routine.

5. Walk to work

If you live close enough to work, one other option is to walk or ride a bicycle to work for the day. If the weather is warm where you live, it might be a good idea to keep your work clothes at your destination and change once you are there. That way you don’t have to worry so much about working up a sweat. An added bonus for this is that you don’t use any gas that day. This could save a sizable amount of money in a few years.

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• Spend more time working.
• Do more in less time.

There aren’t any other options.  To get more done, you’ll have to do one or both of these things, so lets look at them in more detail.

Spend more time working

This is how most people try to get more done. They work 10 and 12 hour days, work weekends, etc. While this can definitely help you accomplish more, it doesn’t scale very well. If you allow 8 hours per day for sleep and eating, you can’t go beyond 16 hours of work per day. If you were able to convert all of your extra time into productive work, you’ll only be twice as productive as the average person who works 8 hours per day.

However, just because you work twice as long doesn’t mean you’ll get twice as much done. Time is only one of the factors that determines how much you produce. Other factors that impact productivity are fatigue, mood, distractions and alertness. If you are trying to work 16 hours every day, fatigue will work against your productivity. If you try to work long hours indefinitely, you may find that your actual output during a 16 hour day is about the same as your output during an 8 hour day. You might be able to get more done by working a few long days here and there, but you can’t really plan on getting ahead by working twice as long as everyone else for the rest of your life.

This brings up a question. Since the amount we accomplish during each hour of our work day is not constant, is there anything we can do make sure that we are getting the most output for each hour invested? Basically, this boils down to asking if it is possible to accomplish more, not by increasing the total hours spent, but by focusing on making every minute invested in work productive.

For most people and most types of work, this is very possible. If you work for an hour, how many minutes of work do you actually accomplish? It is rare that an individual will consistently accomplish 60 minutes worth of work over every hour period. By the time you factor in interruptions, telephone calls, trips to the water fountain, etc., 40 to 50 minutes of work each hour is being very productive. Depending on the time of day, this ratio may be much lower.

By setting up an environment where distractions and interruptions are minimized, you can be far more productive than others simply by spending more minutes of each hour doing actual work. This leads into the second way that we can increase our productivity.

Do More in Less Time

This is the holy grail of productivity. While just working more hours puts us at the natural limit of 24 hours per day, there isn’t any concrete limit on how much you can accomplish in any particular unit of time. There are many ways you can accomplish more in less time, but we’ll examine just a few here.

Delegate – If you get paid for what you produce, you’ll want to focus your energy on doing the things that add the most value. Tasks where you don’t add significant value are candidates for delegation. In a business, this may mean delegating the payroll process to someone you hire or to an outside firm. In your personal life this may mean hiring someone to mow the lawn or change your oil.

I used to mow my own lawn, and it would take me about
1.5 hours each week to just mow. I found a company who would mow the
entire lawn in about 20 minutes and do some additional trimming for
$19.00 per week. All in all, I was able to buy back 2 hours worth of my
time each week for less than $9.50 per hour

Technology – Using technology to automate and enhance your capabilities can make drastic differences in how much you accomplish. Most people understand the benefit of using technology to accomplish “big” things like sending a personalized letter to 10,000 people, but not as many people understand the benefit of using technology to make you more efficient in small things.

I send my voice mail messages directly to my email
address as an attachment. This means I don’t have to deal with logging
into voice mail using the phone and I can easily forward messages to
someone else if necessary. It is a small thing, but it probably saves
me 30 minutes each week in dealing with messages.

Technology only makes you more efficient if it saves you time. It is easy to get a false sense of productivity when using a computer on tasks that could be handled more quickly without using a computer. You must constantly evaluate what you are doing to make sure it is being done in the most efficient manner.

Another potential pitfall of technology is the tendency to do things that are unnecessary. If you spend 5 or 10 minutes picking the font for a letter to your bank, your computer hasn’t helped make you more productive. Make sure you use technology to do things that are necessary instead of doing things just because technology makes them possible.

Increase your Intelligence – Modern work tends to rely more heavily on the skills of your mind than on physical labor. You are more likely to be limited by your inability to think of good ideas than your
inability to lift heavy objects. If success relied on your physical strength, you would probably exercise to increase what you could accomplish. Your mind needs the same type of exercise in order to be productive.

Reading books, taking classes, talking with intelligent people are all ways to keep you supplied with fresh ideas and keep your mind sharp. A common mistake is to focus exclusively on learning about the field in which you work. You’ll probably find that your most creative ideas come from combining ideas from other fields with your area of expertise.

Most people never really evaluate their own productivity. By simply examining your habits and applying some of the suggestions in this article, you can significantly increase the amount you accomplish even without increasing the amount of time you spend working.

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• Rescue Time
  This tool offers time tracking service in a neatly organized package that is easy to install and operate. Rescue Time works by tracking which applications the user is paying attention to, not just the ones that the user has open. It also has the neat feature of allowing users to set goals and alerts to keep themselves on track with the tasks that need to be done, rather than allowing themselves to procrastinate.
  System Requirements
  Rescue Time is compatible with both the Mac and Windows operating systems.
  Security
  However, one disadvantage for some users is that this tool does store information away from the users own computer. The company does use SSL encryption and other measures to secure data, but some users may still not be comfortable with this.
  Versions
  There is a free version of this software for personal use, as well as the Pro version of the “Individual” product and ranges up through availability for business usage for groups of up to 30 people. The cost ranges from $8 per month for the Individual Pro version to $120 per month for 30 business-level users. One other thing to note is that data for users of the free personal version of this product is 3 months, while the storage for the paid versions is permanent.

• Productivity Meter
  Fruitful Time has developed several useful products to help people with time management. One of their latest products, the Productivity Meter, is a time tracking tool that is free for personal use, with a small one-time payment to register the product.
  System Requirements
  This tool is compatible with Vista and XP, and all data is stored locally to ensure privacy.
  Features
  The tool has the ability to automatically generate timesheets for client billing and can works offline so that it is still available when internet connections go down.
• Job Capture
  This tool is more business oriented than for personal use, but could be helpful if the user wanted the more advanced features that the product offers.
  System Requirements
  The system requirements for Job Capture for Mac users are OS X 10.3 or higher, and XP or higher for Windows users.
  Features
  For Mac users, Job Capture offers the extra perk of iCal integration. If this option is enabled, the tool will output time spent on jobs to the calendar for quick viewing. If the user would like a version of Job Capture that is geared more toward personal than business use, the same company also makes Task Capture, which is also compatible for both Mac and PC use. Pricing is on a “per seat” basis, and costs $219.
• Slife
  Sometimes it is difficult to find a tool that is available for both Mac OS as well as Windows. However, Slife Labs has developed Slife, a time tracking tool available for both platforms.
  System Requirements
  Slife is free, however it does require that Mac users have Leopard version 10.5 or later and at least 1 GB of RAM. For Windows users, the requirements are Vista or XP SP2 and 1GB of RAM. Though these requirements are a bit more stringent than for other tools, Slife is free and does not send any information to third parties. Usage can even be made more private by setting Slife to “Private Mode.”
  Features
  One of the main advantages of Slife over other time tracking tools that it allows the user to view data from several different perspectives. Some of these are as follows: by application, day, month, document or web page and also by activity.
• ManicTime
  This useful time tracking tool presents data about what programs the user has spent time on in an attractive and simple graph form.
  Features
  It also features “time tagging” so that the user can label the information on the graph to his or her preference.
  System Requirements
  The product is for Windows only and is compatible with XP, Vista and Windows 2003 and 2008.
  Security
  One neat thing about this particular tool is that it does not share a user’s personal information with any third parties. All data is kept on a local database in the user’s computer. Free tutorials on the use of ManicTime are available here.
• Easy Time Tracking
  This software is directed more toward business than personal use and includes many features for billing and such that one person may not find useful. However, the software is designed to have a very low learning curve to minimize the time it takes to use the tool productively.
  System Requirements
  The tool only runs on Windows, though, so Mac users will have to look elsewhere.
  Versions
  The price for use of the Pro version of Easy Time Tracking is about 50 dollars, but the free 5.0 version is also available for download.
• TimePanic
  For those looking for a simplified version of a time tracking tool, TimePanic might be worth a try. This tool was developed in Europe, so the cost for downloading the Windows version is 39 Euros or about $54-55. There is a free 30 day trial version available for download on the homepage.
  System Requirements
  TimePanic is only meant to work with Windows, and for handheld devices that use a Windows or Pocket PC OS the price goes up to about 82 US dollars.
• Time Analyzer
  For those who would lean toward a simpler interface and less frills, the Time Analyzer tool could be the ticket.
  System Requirements
  Time Analyzer is designed for personal and company use and is compatible with Windows only. There is a free trial version available for dowload and the price for licensing one PC is about $30. However, if the user wanted this product for multiple computers, there is a site license available for around $200.

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