43 Simple Ways To Simplify Your Life
Post written by Sherri Kruger. Follow me on Twitter. Simplicity. How can we make things simpler, more streamlined, or more efficient? Is this all just hype or is there actually something to this simplicity thing? Reducing complexity in my life has reduced stress, increased free time, and top priorities are actually top priorities. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. There are countless ways to simplify your life, these are but a few.
How To be so Productive You Can't Stand it
You might think that creatives as diverse as Internet entrepreneur Jack Dorsey, industrial design firm Studio 7.5, and bestselling Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami would have little in common. In fact, the tenets that guide how they – and exceptionally productive creatives across the board – make ideas happen are incredibly similar. Here are 10 laws of productivity we’ve consistently observed among serial idea executors: 1. Break the seal of hesitation. A bias toward action is the most common trait we’ve found across the hundreds of creative professionals and entrepreneurs we’ve interviewed. 2. When our ideas are still in our head, we tend to think big, blue sky concepts. 3. Trial and error is an essential part of any creative’s life. To avoid ‘blue sky paralysis,’ pare your idea down to a small, immediately executable concept. 4. When working on in-depth projects, we generate lots of new ideas along the way. 5. 6. 7. 8. Few activities are more of a productivity drain than meetings. 9.
How to Become a Productivity Ninja
Believe it or not, productivity can be learned, grasshopper. Yeah, I didn’t believe it either..until I transformed myself into a productivity ninja. Today, I’m going to teach you to maximize your time at your computer, dominate your email in-box, and spend less time on unimportant tasks to focus on what really matters. Like Neo learning Kung Fu, today I shall teach you the skill of productivity. My story I am the world’s best procrastinator. For the past three years: Every single article you’ve read on Nerd Fitness was either written very late the night before or the morning of its publication.I would spend 10-15+ hours a week on just Nerd Fitness emails.I usually slept somewhere between five and seven hours a night.I would freak out before traveling, work WHILE traveling (instead of enjoying my trip), and then spend weeks afterward catching up.I always felt like I was behind and overwhelmed. I finally came to the harsh realization that I was lying to myself. The issue with multi-tasking -Steve
How to Spend the First 10 Minutes of Your Day - Ron Friedman
If you’re working in the kitchen of Anthony Bourdain, legendary chef of Brasserie Les Halles, best-selling author, and famed television personality, you don’t dare so much as boil hot water without attending to a ritual that’s essential for any self-respecting chef: mise-en-place. The “Meez,” as professionals call it, translates into “everything in its place.” In practice, it involves studying a recipe, thinking through the tools and equipment you will need, and assembling the ingredients in the right proportion before you begin. For the experienced chef, mise-en-place represents more than a quaint practice or a time-saving technique. “Mise-en-place is the religion of all good line cooks,” Bourdain wrote in his runaway bestseller Kitchen Confidential. Chefs like Anthony Bourdain have long appreciated that when it comes to exceptional cooking, the single most important ingredient of any dish is planning. Most of us do not work in kitchens. Finally, prioritize your list.
A Pattern Language for Productivity, Pattern #3: Checklists
by Andre · 4 Comments Checklists are mental inventories made physical. Instead of trying to hold your thoughts on a topic entirely in your head, write them down as a list. Experiment with making checklists for anything and everything that has your attention. Having a list to review reduces the need to rethink what you need to consider about a topic. Since short-term memory limits the number of items that someone can think about simultaneously, checklists provide a simple structure for spreading things out for reviewing in parallel (see Distributed Cognition). For instance, a travel checklist would include all of the items you need to take with you on a trip: TicketBoarding passDress suit2 casual shirts2 casual pantsToiletriesEtc… For blogging, I brainstormed a checklist of future articles to write. Checklists are a great way of seeding the mind for further thinking on a topic. The first checklist was meant to be an inventory of what to bring. Tags: A Pattern Language for Productivity
Why Efficiency is Overrated – and What to Do About It
An awful lot of time-management techniques show an obsession with efficiency. And being efficient – getting tasks done quickly – is certainly important. But efficiency for its own sake is worthless. Sure, you could spend three hours implementing a new system that lets you automatically tag every email as it comes in. If you pay too much attention to efficiency, you might actually become less effective. Here’s how efficiency is damaging: Playing the Numbers Game Efficiency tends to reduce everything to numbers: How many emails did you answer this morning? Now, I’ll be the first to agree that paying attention to metrics can help you with your time management. What about that long, heartfelt email from an old friend? Change It: Cut yourself some slack, and remember that there are many situations that can’t be reduced to numbers. Shying Away From Challenges Becoming obsessed with efficiency can make us cowardly. When we tackle something new, we might fail – or only partially succeed.
Are You Taking Productivity Too Far?
Since you’re reading Pick the Brain, I expect that you’ll agree with me when I say that productivity is a good thing. Being productive generally means: You’re living up to your full potential (instead of daydreaming about what might be … and never actually doing it)You’re being proactive rather than reactive, taking control of your own lifeYou feel good about yourself and your life: each day, you have a sense of accomplishmentYou’ve got clear goals, and you’re on track to reach them Pretty great, huh? Except… …can you end up being too productive? The Darker Side of Productivity Like I say, I’m all for productivity. But … I know that sometimes I take it a little too far. Yes, getting things done (or if you’re a David Allan fan, Getting Things Done) is good. When you get overly focused on being productive: Your relationships suffer. Do you need to take your foot off the pedal? Is your focus on productivity starting to make you feel miserable or stressed out? Taking a Break From Productivity
The productivity pyramid (give yourself a promotion)
Productivity is a measure of output over time. All other things being equal, the more you produce per minute, the more productive you are. And economists understand that wealth (for a company or a community) is based on increasing productivity. The simplest way to boost productivity is to get better at the task that has been assigned to you. The next step up is to find people who are cheaper than you to do those assigned tasks. The next step up is to invest in existing technology that can boost your team's output. The step after that? The final step, the one that that eludes so many of us: Figure out better things to work on. It turns out that the most productive thing we can do is to stop working on someone else’s task list and figure out a more useful contribution instead. The challenge is that the final step requires a short-term hit to your productivity.
