Tag Info

There are far too many metrics to consider, especially if you want to see how much you're getting done instead of how much you're working. If you are a cook, you might want to see the rate of dishes out per minute, and so on. But from your profile, it seems you're a programmer, and you don't need an explanation why 'lines of code written' is a bad metric. ...

I recommend "Inform-Negotiate-Call" technique. You set up your period for break from current task, for example, 25-30mins. If you get external interruption between the task: Inform - them that you are doing something Negotiate - that after break you will call them back. Record this in you todo. Call - them back after break. This step is important. If you ...

The book "How the Brain Learns", Sousa, discusses learning time vs. retention variability. It cites ~40 minute chunks as being optimal, and further breaks those down into an initial 5-15 minute time with a 5-minute break at 20 minutes, following by another peak time near the end. Some original studies can be found in an older paper, "The variation of ...

Pomodoro technique would help you manage your interruptions. Don't let interruptions lead your day. Manage them and get the control back. I do agree that if I have to wait 5 seconds for something then I cannot be productive on that task. However, at the end of the day, it is what you have finished that counts, not what you have started (and left undone). ...

I've don't see multitasking or bitasking as very useful, because you'll often accomplish more focusing on one task intensely. A lot of productivity techniques involve splitting your tasks into things that can be given full individual focus, including allocating time for immersive entertainment. You should only do bitasking for tasks that don't benefit from ...

Best case, quantifying this can only lead to some kind of approximate measurement. There are far too many inquantifiable soft nuances that need to be considered. That said, Matthew Cornell lists some metrics that could be used for measuring personal productivity and study trends over time: how much time do you spend on your email how much time do you spend ...

Instead, I want to know what are the top choices for activities that I can shave time off of? Uhm, internet procrastination? Some people could easily save hundreds of hours each month just by that. Focus on those things that take most of your time.

I want to improve my personal efficiency. Okay, here is my answer. Probably off topic and perhaps will be voted down!? There are quite similar questions here and I think I want to give an perspective to one of them. In my eyes, you should focus mainly on productivity. One past question was: how can I improve my programming productivity with a 10 ...

Do you mean you want to get more done in a day or that you want to be able to solve programming problesm in less time than it takes right now? The other answers talk about the first, I will talk to the second. One way to get tasks done faster is to know how to do them without having to look up the answer. I see too many developers who throw away ...

While some folks are quite happy in an uneven job (firefighting would be an extreme example), others need to work more steadily to keep their energy up. I suspect you are in the latter category, as am I. While two tasks can be better than one, in the real world, most processes work as cycles - think more like a circle than back & forth. Perhaps that's ...