The Importance of Punctuality The life of George Washington was characterized by a scrupulous regard for punctuality. When he asked a man to bring by some horses he was interested in buying at five in the morning, and the man arrived fifteen minutes late, he was told by the stable groom that the general had been waiting there at five, but had now moved on to other business, and that he wouldn’t be able to examine the horses again until the following week. When he told Congress that he’d meet with them at noon, he could almost always be found striding into the chamber just as the clock was striking twelve. Washington’s promptness extended to his mealtimes as well. And when Washington’s secretary arrived late to a meeting, and blamed his watch for his tardiness, Washington quietly replied, “Then you must get another watch, or I another secretary.” We may no longer live in an age of knickers and powdered wigs, but being punctual is just as important as it ever was. Why Is Being Punctual Important? Here’s why.
notes on "i am not busy" The not telling people “I am busy” plan. I’ve been working on this plan for a while now. I just added it to my daily Lift habits so I thought I would write about it. When I first started working in tech I regularly worked 10 to 14 hour days. I’d be home by midnight, sleep, get up, shower, and drive back into work. I had the energy to do it, and it seemed like a good use of my time, even though I was being paid for the same number of hours of the day as my friends in HR or accounting. It felt like I was doing critical, valuable work. Everything was an emergency. But the truth is: nothing we did was all that important. When I left Federated Media and started my own company I decided I wanted to try working a bit slower and with more focus. I work until 6pm. During the six months we were making MLKSHK we shipped like crazy. So the final piece I have been working on is never telling people I am busy. Rather than say: “I am too busy, I don’t have any time for X.”
30 Things You Need To Stop Wasting Time On The modern world is fast paced and time often seems to slip by with us barely noticing. It’s for that reason that it’s important that we don’t spend time or attention on things that are frivolous, negative or just plan stupid. Check out our comprehensive guide to things you shouldn’t be wasting your time on, and see if there’s anything on this guide that you can cut out of your life. 1. Putting Makeup on for the gym and sports It looks weird and it’s only going to melt off, which negates the purpose of putting it on in the first place. 2. Get your lazy butt out of bed. 3. Try living life rather than waiting for an acquaintance to update you on how their lunch is going. 4. Life is far too short to waste your time on doing something you hate. 5. Did you hear your message tone? 6. In the immortal words of Vanilla Ice, “If there was a problem. 7. It’s similar to above. 8. Unless you’re getting good advice from people you love, disregard it. 9. 10. 11. Just do it. 12. 13. It’s what they want.
The Origin of the 8-Hour Work Day and Why We Should Rethink It One of the most unchanged elements of our life today is our optimal work time or how long we should work – generally, every person I’ve spoken to quotes me something close to 8 hours a day. And data seems to confirm that: The average American works 8.8 hours every day. At least, those are the official statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: And yet, for most of us it is obvious that knowing how long the average person works every day has little to do with how efficient or productive that pattern is. With success stories from people working 4 hours a week, to 16 hours a day, it’s hard to know if there is an optimal amount. Share stories like this to your social media followers when they’re most likely to click, favorite, and reply! Why do we have 8 hour work days in the first place? Let’s start out with what we have right now. In the late 18th century, when companies started to maximize the output of their factories, getting to running them 24/7 was key. So there we have it. 1.)
How to destroy Programmer Productivity | George Stocker The following image about programmer productivity is making its rounds on the internet: As Homer Simpson might say, it’s funny because it’s true. I haven’t figured out the secret to being productive yet, largely because I have never been consistently productive. Ever. Sometimes I just can’t get anything done.Sure, I come into the office, putter around, check my email every ten seconds, read the web, even do a few brainless tasks like paying the American Express bill. I’ve read that blog post about half a dozen times now, and It still shocks me that someone who we see as an icon in the programmer community has a problem getting started. I’m glad I’m not alone. I’m not here to share any secret methods to being productive, but I can tell you what has kept me from being productive: Open Floor plansDevelopers arguing about Django vs. .NETDevelopers arguing in generalA coworker coming up to me and asking, “Hey, did you get that email I sent?” Discuss this post on Hacker News or Reddit. Like this:
How to Scale Yourself and Get More Done Than You Thought Possible The following is a detailed write-up of a popular productivity talk delivered by Scott Hanselman. Visit his blog, hanselman.com, for more productivity tips. "Don't worry, just drop the ball." This counterintuitive advice is one of a dozen-plus productivity practices preached by Scott Hanselman, a program manager at Microsoft, author and avid blogger and speaker. "Dropping the ball is sometimes the right answer," Hanselman says. Hanselman's not the person you'd to expect to hear encourage dropping the ball and discourage burning the midnight oil. How does he do it? "A lot of people say, 'Well, Scott, you're doing all this stuff. "It turns out," he continues, "the less that you do, the more of it that you can do. Scale Yourself In a 40-minute talk Hanselman originally delivered in 2012, and has since presented several times—most recently at South by Southwest Interactive earlier this month—he shares his productivity practices. Look for Danger Signs "Hope is not a plan," Hanselman says.
70% of Time Could Be Used Better - How the Best CEOs Get the Most Out of Every Day The average tech CEO works about 300 days a year, 14 hours a day. That’s 4,200 hours a year. The stats for most other tech leaders and startup employees aren’t too far off. Looking at the schedule of a typical CEO, a full 70% of that time is sub-optimal, and I’ll back that up with my own experience. This year, I spent several weeks leading up to our annual CEO Summit catching up with people I know who do a superhuman job at managing their time. As your company becomes more prominent, you’re only going to get more of everything. Saying no is so hard. Try “No” templates — canned responses for all the common situations where you find yourself saying no. Hi Bill, Great to hear from you. Best,Josh This lets you put the time and attention you want into crafting a response. When you have your batch of templates, you can say no to salespeople. For those of you who haven’t seen SaneBox, I’m a huge fan — it’s so simple. All day. If you don’t have an assistant, I recommend the batch route.
Essential Time-Management Hacks How to Be More Productive and Eliminate Time-Wasting Activities by Using the 'Eisenhower Box' | James Clear Dwight Eisenhower lived one of the most productive lives you can imagine. Eisenhower was the 34th president of the United States, serving two terms from 1953 to 1961. During his time in office, he launched programs that directly led to the development of the Interstate Highway System in the United States, the launch of the Internet (DARPA), the exploration of space (NASA), and the peaceful use of alternative energy sources (Atomic Energy Act). Before becoming president, Eisenhower was a five-star general in the United States Army, served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, and was responsible for planning and executing invasions of North Africa, France, and Germany. At other points along the way, he served as President of Columbia University, became the first Supreme Commander of NATO, and somehow found time to pursue hobbies like golfing and oil painting. Urgent and important (tasks you will do immediately). Elimination Before Optimization Sources
Kill these Productivity Killers at Your Workplace You must have seen those videos of assembly lines at factories. A continuous flow of perfectly crafted, identical looking items flowing across the shop floor almost as if by magic. If only you and I could produce output at that level of efficiency, speed and accuracy, day after day after day. Unfortunately, being human is something that doesn’t equip us for assembly line-like precision and productivity. However, there are a bunch of things that we do at our workplaces that are productivity killers. Lack of Planning A recurring theme in many teams is the disorganized manner in which individual members approach a problem. This could mean more than one person doing the same work, unknowingly, which is one of the big productivity killers. Just as every movie has a script so you know exactly which scene follows which one, create a script for your team. Drowning in Email Even in this age of social media and a million apps to boot, email manages to rule our days at work. Meeting Mania
Read This Google Email About Time Management Strategy Editor’s Note: This article is one of the top 10 Leadership stories of 2015. See the full list here. I recently wrote an email to our team that posed a simple challenge in time management. The response I got was unexpected, and I was urged to share it with more people—so here we are. Some of my fellow Googlers went so far as to make a video for those of us who appreciate a good visual aid. To: ░░░░░░░░░░Subject: If you don’t have time to read this . . . read it twice.