Excerpt: “Without a clear focus, it’s too easy to buckle under to distractions. Set targets for every day beforehand. Decide what you’ll do; then do it.
We often discuss our goals as if they’re nothing but dreams. Actually, we can accomplish goals on a daily basis. Daily goals contribute to weekly goals. Weekly goals add to monthly goals. Monthly goals add to–you guessed it–yearly goals. With some preparation and planning, our goals can be something we accomplish day in and day out. Here’s how to begin”
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Table Of Contents
Foreword
Chapter 1:
Get Rid Of It and Setting Daily Goals
Chapter 2:
Dreaded First and Apex Cycles Of Productiveness
Chapter 3:
No Communication Times and Micro-Mileposts
Chapter 4:
Time Framing and Wake Early
Chapter 5:
Pacing and Clear The Clutter
Chapter 6:
Bust Procrastination and 60 Second Decisions
Chapter 7:
Accountability and Visualize
Chapter 8:
Reward Yourself and One Month Plan
Chapter 9:
Assign and Expand Your Interests
Chapter 10:
Hunch and Optimize
Foreword
Heuristics are conventions specified to help you solve problems. When a issue is large or complex, and the optimal solution is unclear, employing a heuristic lets you start making progress towards a resolution even though you can’t envision the entire path from your beginning point.
Suppose your goal is to drive to the store, but there’s no road to follow. An illustration of a heuristic would be: Head directly toward the store till you reach an obstacle you can’t cross. Whenever you contact such an obstacle, follow it around to the right till you’re able to head toward the store again. This isn’t the most levelheaded or comprehensive heuristic, but in a lot of cases it will work just fine, and you’ll finally reach the store.
Heuristics don’t ensure you’ll find the optimum solution, nor do they broadly guarantee a resolution at all. But they do a beneficial enough job of solving particular types of problems to be of value. Their strength is that they break the impasse of indecision and get you into action. As you take action you start to explore the solution space, which heightens your understanding of the issue. As you acquire knowledge about the issue, you can make course corrections along the way, gradually bettering your chances of finding a resolution. If you attempt to solve a issue you don’t initially know how to figure out, you’ll often work out a solution as you go, one you never could have imagined till you began moving. This is particularly true with creative work like product development. Often you don’t even recognize precisely what you’re attempting to build till you begin building it.
Heuristics have a lot of practical applications, and among my favorite areas of application is personal productivity. Productivity heuristics are behavioral rules (a few general, some situation-specific) that may help us get matters done more efficiently..
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Chapter 1: Get Rid Of It and Setting Daily Goals
Synopsis
- Get Rid Of It
The most effective way to click a task is to get rid of it. If it doesn’t need to be done, get it off your to do list.
- Setting Daily Goals
Without a clear focus, it’s too easy to buckle under to distractions. Set targets for every day beforehand. Decide what you’ll do; then do it.
Dump It Or Do It
Get Rid Of It
The most effective way to click a task is to get rid of it. If it doesn’t need to be done, get it off your to do list.
A central dogma of many time management and personal productivity systems is that you need to expend more of your time doing those activities that are more crucial for reaching your goals, and less time doing those matters that are more insignificant. You must invest most of your time each week doing what you do best, and let other people do what they do best. Assigning some of your tasks to other people (maybe more qualified) individuals can free up your time and energy to follow up on your highest priority goals. For example, you may choose to hire an accountant instead of preparing your taxes yourself, thereby freeing up a couple of hours of your time and perhaps reducing stress. Naturally, each of us has to work out the value of one’s time versus the economic cost of hiring somebody to do yard work, home repairs, and so on.
Setting Daily Goals.
Without a clear focus, it’s too easy to buckle under to distractions. Set targets for every day beforehand. Decide what you’ll do; then do it.
We often discuss our goals as if they’re nothing but dreams. Actually, we can accomplish goals on a daily basis. Daily goals contribute to weekly goals. Weekly goals add to monthly goals. Monthly goals add to–you guessed it–yearly goals. With some preparation and planning, our goals can be something we accomplish day in and day out. Here’s how to begin
Arrive at a list of goals every single day. Even if you foresee a slow day, it’s still a beneficial idea to set goals for yourself. The sooner you assume the habit of setting daily goals, the earlier you’ll get into the habit of meeting them.
Keep your every day goal lists in one place. You are able to utilize a spiral notebook, a PDA or your computer’s calendar program. Keeping your goals in one place lets you look over the lists from days and weeks passed, which makes it simple for you to see how systematically you’re meeting your goals.
Be honest about your daily goals. A goal like “Make $2,000 before 5 p.m.” is undefined and unrealistic, but a goal like “Network with 4 clients” is totally attainable–and just may help you work toward that $2,000.
Picture your daily goals as the “building blocks” of your weekly and monthly goals. For instance, if you prefer to send marketing material to 10 prospective clients by the end of the week, make it your goal to send out material to 2 prospective clients per work day.
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Chapter 2: Dreaded First and Apex Cycles Of Productiveness
Synopsis
- Dreaded First
To shoot down procrastination learn to undertake your most obnoxious task first thing in the morning rather than detaining it till later in the day. This little triumph will set the tone for a really productive day.
- Apex Cycles Of Productiveness
Identify your apex cycles of productiveness, and schedule your most crucial jobs for those times. Work at minor tasks during your non-peak times.
Timing
Dreaded First
To shoot down procrastination learn to undertake your most obnoxious task first thing in the morning rather than detaining it till later in the day. This little triumph will set the tone for a really productive day.
Consider why you procrastinate: Are you afraid of flunking at the task? Are you a perfectionist and only willing to start working after every little element is in place? Are you easily disturbed? Break up a big, hard project into several smaller pieces. Tackle each piece individually. Set deadlines for completion.
Attempt assigning yourself modest deadlines ‘ for instance, commit to reading a particular number of pages in the next hour. Work in little blocks of time rather than in long stretches. Try working in one – to two hour spurts, letting yourself have a small break after each stretch. Do away with distractions or move to a place where you are able to concentrate. Switch off the TV, the phone ringer, the radio and anything else that may keep you from your task.
Apex Cycles Of Productiveness
Identify your apex cycles of productiveness, and schedule your most crucial jobs for those times. Work at minor tasks during your non-peak times.
What time of day is your most productive? This question was posed in a poll. So while there seems to be no fixed time of day that’s the most productive for everybody, the recent poll of 181 individuals did supply some insights into who gets the most done when. Here, then, are some insights into people’s most productive hours.
In the total results, thirty-six percent of those reviewed said that the morning between nine and eleven was their most productive hours.
In 2nd place was early morning, when thirty-one percent of those who answered said their productivity was at its peak.
The lowest time for productivity was between twelve and two p.m., with only six percent of respondents stating this was their most productive hours. A mere nine percent said the evening between 7:30 and 10 was their most generative. “
So what does all this mean to you, and how can you employ it in your daily life? Here’s the 2 suggestions about how to find and capitalize on their most productive time of day.
Start by locating your power times. Are you an early riser who takes on your morning to-do list with all the zest of a bear eating honey? Maybe you’re a night owl and zip through your most urgent projects at 11 p.m.? Either way, knowing and capitalizing on your natural energy patterns — your power times — will help you be at your most productive by utilizing these times to tackle the projects you find most ambitious.
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Chapter 3: No Communication Times and Micro-Mileposts
Synopsis
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No Communication Times
Apportion uninterruptible blocks of time for unaccompanied work where you must focus. Schedule light, interruptible jobs for your open communication time periods and more ambitious projects for your no communication periods.
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Micro-Mileposts
When you start a task, name the target you must reach before you are able to quit working. For instance, when working on a book, you may decide not to get up till you’ve written at least a thousand words. Hit your target regardless what.
Priorities
- No Communication Times
Apportion uninterruptible blocks of time for unaccompanied work where you must focus. Schedule light, interruptible jobs for your open communication time periods and more ambitious projects for your no communication periods.
- 1st, cut down disruptions
You can’t truly begin adding more productive activities to your work schedule till you free yourself from productivity-sapping interruptions. Try these strategies.
- Resolve problems before they occur. Start by analyzing interruptions. Are there frequent time wasters that could be avoided with a little more upfront planning?
- Group like activities. If at all conceivable, ask people to reschedule their communication with you during the same period. In that way, you are able to have several productive hours before being interrupted.
Likewise, attempt to block out particular times in your day to return calls. Unless it’s a real emergency—which are few, a client isn’t going to have a problem with getting a message that says “I will call you back between 11 and noon this morning.” And grouping all my call returns together lets me concentrate on other things instead of constantly dropping everything to respond to a call.
- Schedule disruptions. Appropriate particular times during the day—around lunch, for instance—when you’re available to answer colleagues questions, catch up with friends, or talk to your children. Apply this even to your family, unless it’s an emergency.
- Micro-Mileposts
When you start a task, name the target you must reach before you are able to quit working. For instance, when working on a book, you may decide not to get up till you’ve written at least a thousand words. Hit your target regardless what.
You are able to think of goal setting as a process that helps you to decide precisely what it is that you want, and then to systematically do what you need to do in order to get it.
It’s a process that helps you center your time and energy on your most crucial targets, produce strategies and plans to reach them, take action, and make adjustments as necessary till you reach them.
