Goals, motivation, effectiveness

Tips and tricks for organizing workflow and increasing productivity.

Keep your surroundings neat and tidy, especially your workspace. It is easier to start any task in a space that is not cluttered with unnecessary things.

The smaller the space, the easier it is to focus.If you need to focus on a task, it is better to choose a smaller space. The smaller the space, the easier it is to keep your attention.

Headphones improve focus. If you just put headphones in your ears, your focus gets better. You can put on background music, but even without it, the headphones muffle outside noise and help you focus better on tasks.

Get your phone out of sight. If the phone will be lying in the line of sight, then in the first place it will constantly distract you with pop-up notifications, and in the second place it will “tempt” you with its appearance, so that you go and check another messenger or social network. Take your phone out of sight to improve your focus on the task at hand.

Group motivation is stronger. Imagine you want to start running in the mornings. You’ll find it hard to do it alone, but if you have a whole group of ten of you, you’ll find it much easier to get yourself out of bed in the morning and out for a run. Try to utilize the group effect for your tasks.

Keep notifications only from the apps you want. The smartphone constantly wants to steal your attention. But if you only leave notifications from important and really necessary apps, you’ll be less distracted by the little things on your smartphone.

Prepare everything in advance to make it easier to get started. Imagine you need to do a home workout, but things aren’t prepared, your mat isn’t spread out, your equipment needs to be pulled out of the closet. All of these are extra things you need to do before you even start practicing. If you prepare everything you need in advance, you’ll have a much easier time getting started on the task.

Golden Time. To make it easier for you to build morning practices into your life, I recommend using the “golden time” technique. You allocate time, say 30 minutes. The one you do your morning practices in. This is your golden time that you set aside for yourself to practice. Allocate any time, even 10 minutes, even an hour. The main thing is to start making your “golden time”. Set a timer for the time you choose and quietly do your practices. Here’s an example of my “golden time”:

It’s my golden hour every day. In those 60 minutes, I do:

• 7 minutes of yoga
• 7 minutes of qigong
• 20-minute workout
• 15 minutes of reading
• 5 minutes of affirmations
• 6 minutes rest between practices.

Likewise, spell out your golden time by the minute so you know exactly what to do.

Check the plan throughout the day. To fulfill your plan, look at it regularly throughout the day. That way you can remove some tasks or move some tasks forward in time.

Make a real plan. Don’t try to shove all your tasks into your plan for the day. It’s better to write down what you’ll realistically get done for the day so you don’t feel incomplete at the end of the day. Either during the day, remove tasks from the plan that you don’t have time to do.

Use a voice recorder.A voice recorder can help you capture information quickly so you don’t forget or refer back to it in the future.

Systematize. Collect small tasks into big blocks and do several small things at once in one go.

Find a system of doing things where you feel most comfortable. For example, do 30 minutes – rest for 5 minutes. An hour done, 15 minutes rested. Determine a system you’re comfortable with and implement it. Dynamic doing is always an effective long immersion.

If you want to maximize your focus on the doing process, turn off your phone and internet.

Learn the hotkeys of the program you use all the time. Not only will you save yourself time, but you’ll enjoy doing it.

If you want to read a lot, always keep a book handy. Read even when you have 5 free minutes.

Make your phone’s screensaver a picture, a symbol of your goal. With each unlock, you’ll see the main vector of your movement.

Create a time-shield(a list of your processes over time) and track your energy inflows and outflows. This way you will realize which processes empty you energetically and which ones fill you up.

Try to do the most unpleasant things first thing in the morning. Energy is highest in the morning and doing not-so-pleasant things is easier than in the evening.

Break a big case into pieces. It’s much easier to do it that way 😉

Write down the little things you do. Free up your RAM and you’ll be flying like a freshly installed Windows)

Get plants in your home and workplace. These guys clean the air, and clean air fills you with energy.

Take your eyes off your computer/smartphone/book every 30 minutes while completing the task. Look out the window or at the setting. Give your eyes a rest.

When doing the sitting task, get up every hour and stretch your back. Save your spine, you’ll need it 😉

Don’t start “on Monday”, start now. The deferred is very seldom brought to action.

Put a marker board in front of you and write your current tasks there to keep them in front of you. Or you can start a notebook/notebook that will lay in front of you. This way you’ll greatly increase your efficiency and won’t forget about small tasks.