PAPERmaking! g FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TECHNOLOGY Volume 5, Number 1, 2019
24. Stop multitasking. Multitasking doesn’t work. In fact, it takes longer to complete a task when we multitasks because our minds are shifting back-and-forth. Instead, focus on one task at a time. Train your brain to slow down a little. It's like running, the more train your body, the faster you'll become. 25. Don’t beat yourself up. What happens if you spend a Saturday morning binge-watching Stranger Things? Stop wasting your time feeling guilty about it. Sometimes that happens. Do your best not to make that a habit and move-on instead of living in the past. To make the most of your time, here are tips for implementing a productivity system. 26. The “Pomodoro Technique.” The “Pomodoro Technique” is where you use a timer and schedule short breaks, usually five minutes, after 25 minutes of focused work. 27. Seinfeld’s “Don’t break the chain” method. Jerry Seinfeld would use a wall calendar and red marker to stay focused. He would cross out the days on the calendar when he wrote. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.” 28. David Allen’s “two - minute rule.” According to David Allen, author of the best-selling Getting Things Done, if a task takes under two-minutes to complete -- do it now -- so that it’s out of the way. 29. Break your day into five-minute slots like Elon Musk. How does Elon Musk run both Tesla and SpaceX? He breaks his entire day into five-minute slots - even his lunch. Doing so keeps him productive since it ensues that he stays on- track and doesn’t waste his time. 30. Jay Shirley’s “Must, Should Want Method.” Here’s a simp le exercise from Jay Shirley. Every morning start your day by answering three questions: What must your do to create the most impact today? What should your do to build a better future? What do you want to do so that you can enjoy today and life more completely? This gets your day started on the right foot, while increasing your productivity and happiness. 31. The Eisenhower Matrix. This strategy was developed by Dwight Eisenhower. As explained by James Clear, “Eisenhower’s strategy for taking action and organizing your tasks is simple. Using the decision matrix below, you will separate your actions based on four possibilities. 1. Urgent and important (tasks you will do immediately). 2. Important, but not urgent (tasks you will schedule to do later). 3. Urgent, but not important (tasks you will delegate to someone else). 4. Neither urgent nor important (tasks that you will eliminate).” This matrix “can be used for broad productivity plans (‘How should I spend my time each week?’) and for smaller, daily plans (‘What should I do today?).” 32. Airplane days. “Some years ago, Hughes AirWest, a regional airline that once served the western U.S., hired a consulting firm to compare the efficiency of flying first-class with flying economy-class, and with working in a normal office,” writes Brian Tracy. “What they found was that one hour of uninterrupted work time in an airplane yielded the equivalent of three hours of work in a normal work environment. The keyword was ‘’uninterrupted.’’ If y ou plan ahead and organize your work before you leave for the airport, you can increase productivity by accomplishing an enormous amount while you are in the air.”
Article 12 – Time Management
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