“People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” – Samuel Johnson
Last week, I posted this simple comment in our Path community:
When you sit down to work…
…Put your phone on airplane mode.
A friendly reminder to myself and anyone else who has been forgetting this fundamental rule, lately 🙂
Which got me thinking:
What other fundamental rules of productivity are so simple we often forget them, only to see our work suffer as a result?
Here’s what comes to mind…
1. Time blocking
Set your timer for 45, 60, or 90 minutes (whatever length of time you can comfortably focus for), and work with unbroken focus until the timer goes off.
2. Clean cuts
When the timer goes off, bring yourself to a natural stopping point, then stop.
Completely.
Don’t keep working, don’t flick around social media, don’t open your email.
Make a clean cut from work and initiate the recovery process immediately.
3. Micro-movement
2-3 minutes of bouncing, stretching, and shaking out in-between blocks of work can do wonders for your body, your mind, and your energy…
…All of which means deeper, more productive work when you return.
4. Boring breaks
Give yourself 15-30 minutes in-between time blocks where you don’t do anything more stimulating than the work itself.
No social media, no youtube, no podcasts, no checking the dog-and-pony-show on CNN.
Instead:
Drink some water, eat something light if you’d like to (I usually have a smoothie during my morning break), go for a walk, stare at the wall, whatever.
Part of letting your brain recover is not filling it with anything else in the meantime.
5. Batch multi-tasking
Put all of your smaller tasks that might require multi-tasking (answering email, checking social media, admin tasks, etc) into a single time block.
Don’t spread them out across your entire day, do them all at once so your focus remains unbroken during the tasks that really matter.
Any others?
Hit reply to let me know.
The simplest principles are the easiest to forget, but they’re also the most important to remember.
I hope they serve you well.
– T
P.S. Unrelated but perhaps even more important…
