What would reducing your workload by 10 minutes a day do for you?
10 minutes/day = 50 minutes/week = 200 minutes/month = 2400 minutes/year = 40 hours/year.
A full work-week each year.
Below is a list of 12 proven ideas used by productive, successful people. Each could give you back 10 or more minutes per day. If you implement all 12 ideas, then you could get back as much as 480 hours per year.
How much of an impact would that have on your life and business?
Twelve Productivity Ideas
- Write out your plan for tomorrow before you finish with today.
- Make time for interruptions in your plan. Consider designating 8 hours a month as “overflow” time. Schedule it on specific days and at specific time. Try 2 hours per week, or take the whole 8 hours in one day. The rule is that nothing gets scheduled in that time until the day before. The idea is to explicitly give you room to catch up. Or if everything is done, take the time off to recharge.
- Create a to-do list and prioritize it. (Hint: First read Getting Things Done by David Allen to redesign your to-do list.)
- Eliminate procrastination with the Two-Minute Rule.
- Complete first those things that must be done today.
- Read emails 3 times a day at most.
- Create folders for those emails that you want to save. Move emails out of your inbox to the appropriate folders. (Better yet, have your email software sort your emails into folders automatically.) Delete the emails that remain in your inbox.
- Clear your email inbox daily.
- Respond to voice mails at most 3 times a day.
- Conduct one meeting a day standing up.
- Keep a journal. Even in today’s digital world, paper and pen work often work best for this.
- Learn how to create good habits that will stick.
Productivity is not about working more. It’s just the opposite: It’s about working less, in less time, with more effect.