Double your productivity with 1 tip
Starting a business is a lot of work, especially when you’re doing it all yourself. I need all the hours I can get in a day, so I came up with a handy little practice that’s really increased my productivity. Yes, I’d even say it’s doubled it (hmmm…does that mean it was abnormally low to begin with?). Your mileage may vary, of course, but if you follow this advice and stick to it, it’s just about impossible to not see your productivity go up.
The Trick
So what is it? What is the miracle of productivity tips that has naught been divined hence?
Simple: when you sit down to work, set a timer. Work your butt off until that timer buzzes, then take a break. Lather, rinse, repeat until it’s time to go home. Let me explain.
I find I can concentrate steadily for about 2 hours at a time. So I set the timer for 2 hours. Once the 2 hours is up, I take a 15 minute break (using the timer), during which time I’m checking blogs, twitter, Facebook, or most importantly – playing with the dog. Lunch time is a little different – I typically take 45 minutes to an hour. I get in four quality 2-hour work sessions every day with little to no distraction. This, in my opinion, is awesome.
How it Works
Why does this work so well? For me, it’s the assurance of knowing I’ll be able to goof off soon enough. That way, I feel compelled to concentrate for 2 hours because I know I’ll be immediately rewarded at the end of it. But during the breaks, anything goes, and since I’ve just worked for 2 hours, I don’t feel guilty goofing off a bit.
Timers to Try
If you want to give this a try, I can recommend a few timers. If you’ve got an iPhone or iPod touch, just use the Timer app that comes with it (make sure you turn the volume up so you can hear the timer go off). If you run OS X, give a timer dashboard widget a try. There are two that I like: Stop It! (my fav) and Tea Timer. If you run Windows, uhhhh…do you own an egg timer? 
Bonus
Bonus tip: write your todo’s for the day down. Tackle the tough creative ones in the morning (especially the ones you’re dreading). You’ll feel a since of accomplishment and be motivated to do the boring stuff. Do the administrative stuff and email after lunch.
Bonus bonus tip: don’t do personal email at work!
What do you think? Do you have any easy productivity tips of your own you’d like to share? Comment below!
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I’ve used a similar technique. You go two hours! That’s a little longer than I would be able to handle most of the time. I’m usually 45 minutes with 10 minute breaks. Have you read about this: http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/
Scott – as I do this more and more, I’m afraid I’m getting *too* good at it – if I don’t set a timer, I’ll work straight through the morning without a break. I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing yet:).
I just checked out the Pomodoro Technique. It looks pretty interesting, and I think I’ll give part of it a try. It looks like there is a lot of recording and evaluation aimed at improving productivity. I’m not a big fan of all that note taking, but I am going to give the 25 minute work – 5 minute break a try. I like the reasoning behind it: the 5 minute break gives your mind time to assimilate the 25 minutes of work you’ve just done.
I installed http://www.rescuetime.com/ yesterday. It looks interesting, though I haven’t viewed any of the reports yet. I’m giving it a few days to marinate.
Thanks for the tip on Pomodoro.
I recently read “Getting Things Done” and thought it had some good ideas. The best idea concerned freeing the brain to be effective.
The author says that most of the time we aren’t working efficiently because a part of our brain isn’t focused on the task at hand. To be totally in the “flow” requires freeing the brain from its to-do list, (also called open loops, or clutter, or hooks.)
Clutter: is the mental to-do list that is at the conscious and unconscious level. It keeps us from focusing on the task at hand and getting in the “flow”.
Most of us store our to-do list in a scattered manner: in our brain, post-it notes, calendars, organizers, etc.
Solution: Log all tasks into a single organizer of your choice. This could be a pad of paper or any PC or mobile device task organizer. We need temporary collecters as well, becuase we don’t always have access to our main organizer. Have a limited number of temporary collectors and move the tasks to the main organizer as soon as possible. These are my tools:
- Outlook Tasks: my main organizer.
- Temporary collectors: note pad in the bathroom, voice notes on my phone.
To be most effective, the task entry into your organizer needs enough clarity to free your memory. If you don’t have a little detail associated to the task, your brain will keep working on it unconsciously: Example:
- Poorly Defined Task: Work on the Marketing Video
- Well Defined Task: Create draft story board for the video
and call videographer to review it before Friday.
Ed –
I read GTD a year or two back and enjoyed it. I liked the idea that you mentioned – getting tasks down on paper or some system so they’re not cluttering up your thoughts while you’re trying to concentrate. The book lost me a bit when it described the really complex filing system (a folder for every day of the month if I recall correctly). But I really like the core ideas behind the system.
I actually use Stickies, and application that comes with OS X, as my main organizer. It works surprisingly well. I do need to get couple temporary collectors though. I find that if I come up with an idea and I’m not in front of my computer that I’ll typically forget about it.
I think GTD had about 15 pages of good information…stretched and padded into book length. I haven’t tried the idea of timed worked / break intervals. I think there might be a down-side if you’re really getting into the flow of some complex work, then breaks could be counter productive.
My latest tweaking of my work habits is to limit multi-tasking. I’ve read a few things about the false efficiencies of multi-tasking. I guess true multi-tasking (performing multiple tasks at the same time) isn’t possible, you can’t do two things simultaneously, you’re just time slicing your focus. I don’t do multi-tasking very well, but at the same time, it is difficult to give 100% focus. There might be a little ADD involved too.
I think your blog said the app your creating now is your second. What was the first? If it’s explained in your blog history – which one would I read.
ed
Sometimes I find it tough to work in timed intervals for exactly the reason you mentioned – I’m right in the middle of something and *bing* it’s time for a break. I haven’t figured out if it’s better to keep working and thereby stay in the flow, or to take a break and thereby stay a bit more refreshed throughout the day. There’s probably no right answer I guess.
My first product was a site called SendAlong.com. You can see what is left of it at http://www.sendalong.com. I actually just shut this site down. I’m planning on writing a series of posts about what it was, why I did it, and why it ultimately was shut down. Stay tuned.
I struggle a lot with effective time management. One thing that helps is keeping it simple. In the morning I’ll make a short list of the things that I absolutely have to do that day, in order of priority.
Then a “long term” list of todos that I work on over time, hoping to finish them off eventually (like book keeping, or just maintenance related work).
I try to shut off email/twitter/etc… during the blocks of time when I’m working on the short list, but frequent mini breaks are required to check email/fill the coffee mug/etc…
Thanks for the tip!
@Justin –
I totally agree – short term/long term goals list (I use OS X’s Stickies application for this), shutting off email/twitter (that’s critical, otherwise I allow myself to become distracted easily), and mini-breaks (gotta exercise the dog:) ).