Good Productivity Practices
I’ve been reading books and articles on productivity for many years. I’ve collected what I consider the most important ideas on the topic in this post. If you’re just starting to explore productivity, this post is perfect for you.
Don’t Use Your Brain
Don’t use your brain to remember what you need to do. The human brain can hold an average of 7 items in short-term memory. If you have more things to do, you won’t remember them all. You’ll eventually forget something. That’s why it’s very important to write down everything that needs to be done.
Collect in One Place — Inbox
Collect tasks, ideas, and thoughts in one place. You’ll be able to review everything you’ve written down more easily.
Use an app that’s available on both your phone and computer and has sync. Collecting in a paper notebook often means you won’t be able to write something down because the notebook won’t always be nearby.
What to collect where:
- Ideas — in a notes app (e.g. Apple Notes, Evernote, Bear, etc.)
- Tasks — in a to-do list app (e.g. Todoist, Apple Reminders, Nozbe, Remember the Milk, etc.)
- Meetings — in a calendar (e.g. Google Calendar, Apple Calendar)
Always Think About the Timeline
Everything you do takes time. Tasks you plan must be placed on a timeline, one after another.
Multitasking doesn’t work (with small exceptions like commuting by train and listening to an audiobook).
This means that at any given moment, you have one top-priority task. Only when you finish it can you start the next one.
Remember, a day has 24 hours, a week has 7 days. You can’t change that and you must account for it in planning. No matter how hard you try, you can’t do everything at once. You need to arrange tasks in order and do them one at a time.
If your timeline is already full or nearly full, adding something new (a new task, a project) will require giving something up. Keep this in mind when deciding on new initiatives.
Plan the Next Day Every Day
You need to control your task list. You do this through daily planning. At the end of the day, decide what you’ll do tomorrow. You start the next day with a concrete plan. Instead of wondering what to do, you act according to what you decided the day before.
On your to-do list you should have a daily task: “Plan the next day.”
Do a Weekly Review
Once a week, review all your tasks, projects, and notes. This is essential to stop thinking throughout the week “what else do I have to do today, tomorrow, this week?”
If you have a system where you write everything down and regularly review what you’ve written, you’ll stop worrying about whether you’ve forgotten something. A system of collecting, daily planning, and weekly review keeps everything under control so you never forget anything.
During the weekly review, plan the coming days. Plan on a horizon of at least 2 weeks, and ideally a full month, but break your plans down into weeks.
Add a buffer to weekly planning. Unexpected things always come up. The more people you work directly with, the more unplanned events can arise. If you only work with your manager, plan 30–35 hours per week. If you have more people you work with, or if you manage others, plan less — e.g. 20–30 hours. For a few weeks, write down your plan and compare it to what you actually completed. This will help you find the right number of hours to plan each week.
Less Is More — Work in Progress Register
Your tasks can often be divided into standard recurring ones (business as usual) and initiatives. Initiatives are actions that have a defined timeframe, with a beginning and an end and a goal to achieve. They can also be called projects.
You should monitor these initiatives: which ones you’re currently working on, and how many. You should set a work-in-progress (WIP) limit. We often tend to volunteer for new things without analyzing how many things we already have in progress and whether we can realistically complete them on time. Such a register of open initiatives/projects means you’ll only start new ones after finishing previous ones. Then you can focus on fewer projects and, as a result, do them better.
The WIP limit is something each person should set for themselves. I suggest starting at 3 and checking whether that’s too many or whether there’s room for more. It depends on the volume of business-as-usual tasks, since those are things you must do.
“Less is more” applies not only to the number of in-progress projects. It’s also worth thinking about physical things. Every item you buy requires your attention. Buy a car — you need to service it, insure it, fuel it. Buy a tablet — you need to charge it, update it, find space for it at home or at work. These will be additional things to do that appear on your timeline and take time away from other tasks.
“Less is more” is also worth applying to apps, especially on your phone. You can find apps for everything in the app store. Each one will often generate additional notifications that distract you. Consider whether you really need an app to track how much water you drink, how many workouts you’ve done, how many focused sessions you’ve had (pomodoro), etc.
Make It Fun
We’re much more willing to complete tasks we enjoy. Sometimes there are tasks that give us no satisfaction. In such cases, it’s worth thinking about whether they can be done differently — more interestingly, in a different place, etc. Introduce variety into tasks you must do but don’t find engaging in their standard form.
Summary
- Collect tasks and ideas in an app
- Plan the next day
- Do a weekly review