background preloader

Productivity Tools

Facebook Twitter

5 Hacks For Prioritizing Complex Tasks. The objective of prioritization is to help you achieve results with as little effort as possible.

5 Hacks For Prioritizing Complex Tasks

Here are some hacks for prioritizing tasks with no pain. 1. 5 Hacks For Prioritizing Complex Tasks. 35 Quick and Simple Tips for Better Productivity. When people first begin exploring the world of personal productivity and task management, they either don’t know where to start or can’t seem to find their footing when they do.

35 Quick and Simple Tips for Better Productivity

If you’re one of these people, I’ve assembled 35 quick and simple tips for better productivity – ones you can use right away and start to see results in your work and in your life. You don’t need to take on all 35 (in fact, I’d recommend taking on far less and returning to this piece as you feel comfortable taking on more), but each of them can be used to provide you with a sample of what improved productivity feels like. Let’s get started… Don’t use email as a task manager. Email is meant as a form of communication, not as a task manager. (Photo credit: Productivity Road Sign via Shutterstock) How to Learn Really Hard Courses. Some of the newer readers might not be aware that I’ve been keeping a semi-weekly video blog for the MIT Challenge.

How to Learn Really Hard Courses

Along with providing more detailed updates of my progress, I also try to share the methods I’m using to learn faster, not procrastinate and stay motivated. Here are just a few of the recent updates: Why You Don’t Need a Perfect Memory (and What Matters Instead) My most recent update, I explain why most students mistakenly focus on memory as being the most critical component and neglect two other skills which matter far more. The 7 Bad Habits of Insanely Productive People. Write 1000 Words in an Hour. Writing is the bottleneck.

Write 1000 Words in an Hour

Not for everyone… but for a lot of people – particularly who are involved in any kind of blogging or content creation. It’s time-consuming, which keeps you from creating all the content that you want to create. And it’s frustrating, which prevents you from expressing your ideas as compellingly as you like. Except… it doesn’t have to be that way.

My blog posts are usually between 1,200 and 1,400 words long, and I usually spend 60-90 minutes writing them. Is it because I’m some kind of writing genius? Defeating the blank screen with ruthless proceduralization When most people write, they do it all wrong. Big mistake. See, if you start by staring at the blank screen, you’ve already lost. By the same token, writing works best when you take the guess-work out of it. That’s what I do, and it works like a charm, every time. Five Best Productivity Methods. How to Get Organized in Spite of Yourself. “He who knows others is wise, he who knows himself is enlightened” – Lao Tzu One of the first steps in change is awareness — understanding how and why you do things the way you do.

How to Get Organized in Spite of Yourself

But why is it important to know yourself? Awareness of self…empowers. It creates space and understanding for decisions to be made. Decisions on how to move forward or decisions on how to change. In Sunny Schlenger and Roberta Roesch’s book “How to be organized in spite of yourself”, they explain that everybody can be identified by a different operational style and knowing what your personal style is can be a good starting place if you feel the need to organize your work life. In the book, people are classified by the following Time Styles: Hopper: A person who generally has many projects on the go at once and likes to works on all simultaneously.

Perfectionist Plus: The Perfectionist Plus gets so involved in their projects and believe they can do everything right that they rarely finish a project on time. Practice Multiple Skills at a Time Instead of Focusing on One for Greater Results. Productivity Made Simple: The Key to GTD. Sounds serious, doesn’t it?

Productivity Made Simple: The Key to GTD

Thankfully, the whole idea turns out to be quite easy to grasp. But first… The Best Uses for Your Local Library (That Aren't Just Books) The Key Habits of Organization. By Leo Babauta A trusted organization system that you actually use regularly can turn your day from one of chaos to one of focus, effectiveness and calm.

The Key Habits of Organization

This is something I’ve learned through repeated failures, actually: when I become loose with my organized habits, my day becomes worse. The Clipboard Workspace. Front-Load Your Week + 3 Other Stress-Busting Time Management Strategies. We know that creativity can flourish when our minds are free to wander during unstructured time.

Front-Load Your Week + 3 Other Stress-Busting Time Management Strategies

However, a completely open calendar can lead to a day consumed by reactionary work. This is why, paradoxically, the secret to maximizing your freedom of choice is to increase the structure in your day-to-day life. When you make essential daily activities automatic, like answering email and moving forward on major projects, you’re creating the equivalent of a waterslide for your time and energy. By simply going with the flow, you know all of the must-do activities will get done on time or early thus avoiding stress-inducing backlogs.

This then frees up more mental energy and space in your schedule for free-form creative exploration or impromptu adventures without needing to put any boundaries on yourself. Strategy 1: Make Processing Automatic If you struggle with keeping up on communications, rituals for processing email, voicemail, and snail mail can do wonders. 10 Proven Time Management Skills You Should Learn Today.