New answers tagged productivity
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I know this is not really answering your question, but if the task is menial and doesn't represent a business opportunity, it's screaming to be automated. Even simple things that require human supervision, like replying to customers, can be largely accelerated by the use of templates, reminders and such.
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Reading an article about design I step onto something interesting, which may actually be useful in making everyday tasks more an opportunity for growing (which may help get into the flow state).
"Design everything you do"
During my first internship out of college, Stella Lai gave me this tip and it has been the best professional advice I ever received. ...
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As you are doing your work with computers, a typical problem could be that you watch some light emitting screen before going to sleep, for example a Monitor or a Tablet, maybe phone. It is very bad, your body makes hormones that makes you fall asleep harder and makes your sleep inefficient.
Change this habit, you have to stop viewing screens at least 1 hour ...
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Water solved my problem.
I drank about ~1.5l yesterday before bed (had coffee about 3 - 4 hours prior to that), went to sleep and had a good quality sleep (I'm guessing caffeine got flushed out during the night, giving me the ability to get undisrupted sleep).
I'm surprised no one suggested this.
Thanks for all the advices, but unfortunately I think water ...
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I have done a bit of research on this topic for other reasons, but my understanding of flow and the associated focus and such is that this is the result of an emotional involvement or motivation, which releases different neurotransmitters in the brain than when normally focusing.
I don't know of a way to "game the system" of your neurotransmitters, but if ...
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You are likely to find that caffeine just helped you remove a symptom of whatever the real problem is.
Caffeine doesn't make you alert, it just blocks your body's signals of tiredness reaching the brain, so I can think of many causes associated with tiredness that could explain your raise in grades.
While the question may ask how to cancel out the ...
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Have you tried yerba mate? Taste is a bit, mh, controversial, but once you get used to it, it might be great booster for your work without downsides of the caffeine. You can drink it hot or cold (it's called terere prepared that way).
I think no one has mentioned yet a physical activity which in my opinion plays great role in having good night sleep. Try to ...
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Mindfulness training is known to facilitate getting into what's called "flow". Such training is inspired by Buddhism, and uses regular meditation to clear your mind from non-productive thoughts.
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The half life of caffeine is around 6 hours for an adult. So if you drink a cup of coffee at 3 PM, half of it will still be in your system if you try to fall asleep at 9 PM. Hence the recommendation to you is to stop drinking coffee well before afternoon.
As you say, you degrade your performance the next day, so drinking coffee extensively really is no good ...
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Flow is harder to achieve for coders then for artist. This is because flow is a state of mind where you don't have to think but only to react and interact with you current task. This Comes easy to an artist but is hard for coders. We have to think about what we are currently doing and this will brake any flow. Only when you're a great coder and don't have to ...
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I think this is a more sophisticated version of the questions we often get on gamification. I don't think there is much question that modern video games draw the user into a near-perfect state of flow.
Looking at the three components:
Clear goals.
Immediate feedback.
A balance between opportunity and capacity.
We can draw parrells with GTD's next ...
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Flow is overrated. Persistence is the key. If you persist in working no matter how you feel and what you are in the mood to do, you will beat everyone who has the idea they must be in a flow state to work. You will get into a flow state at times, but it is best not to rely on it as necessary to work. So never worry about it, it will come naturally when the ...
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Give yourself a time limit during which it is forbidden to do anything else. Within the time limit you are only allowed to do the specified thing, or to do nothing.
For example: "During the following five minutes, I will either read this article, or just close my eyes and relax. (Start the timer.)".
The timer is there to prevent you from watching the clock ...
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Prioritization and keeping distractions away are good but these are not the key abilities.
I think one may be perfectly sure that his no.1 priority at the moment is studying math. But it won't keep him away from facebook or 9gag.
The key ability is to evaluate how much struggle one will need to return to his task after distraction. E.g. while coding you ...
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I think it is important to be upfront with your new employer and tell them what has worked best for you, but as you stated, you are flexible.
If they don't think your prefered hours are going to fit, you'll need to compromise.
The biggest driver on when you can start your prefered hours will depend on how soon you are expected to work independently. Some ...
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Sleepy tea just before bedtime and reading a book also helps. I've tried several kinds of teas and I've found that valeriana works the best. There are also pills of valeriana extract and it's a completely natural help, much better than other drugs.
Also try to substitute some of the coffee's with tea's...I used to drink about 6 cups of coffee per day (free ...
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All of these will need a willingness to change current practices and will require willpower:
Note: I drink 4+ cups of coffee a day myself...
Set a time limit. No coffee after noon or after 3pm has worked for me. If your wake-up varies, base it on your estimated sleep time, e.g. '8 hours before sleep is expected'.
Keep the same schedule. The body sleeps ...
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Some ideas that help me:
Use multiple browsers.
I use Opera for personal stuff, it has all my personal bookmarks for everything I'm into. Then I use Firefox for work. This way I can separate my email (I use gmail in both cases). Not having the browser (Opera in my case) open at all then help me only look at work related stuff in firefox.
Use multiple ...
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You don't do it day 1.
When discussing taking a new a role, your expectations on times and hours should be part of the discussion. If the job does not allow flexible working then either you turn it down or you change your plans.
If these hours are essential for you then make sure this is known before you start, otherwise you may find your contract won't ...
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I believe the answer is to to take control and define the work duration.
Much of the stress comes from not recognizing how long things really take to get done. We often tend to underestimate by a factor of 2 or 3, regardless of what the task or task complexity is. This has actually been true for most professions that have got more efficient over the past ...
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Um, yes - and almost by relex - I'm going to quote randy pauch again... from http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Randy/TMenglishTranscript.pdf
When you get good at time management you realize that it's a
collaborative thing. I want to make everybody more efficient, it's not
a selfish thing, it's not me against you, it's: How do we all
collectively ...
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Ask help from others. As programmers, we have a certain pride in our abilities and in solving our problems ourselves. However if you're going nowhere, and your schedule is suffering, then it's time to ask help. A fresh pair of eyes may have the answer or may point you in another direction.
Also, step back a bit and give yourself a break. I've solved some ...
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I use good ol' Sticky Notes for this purpose. I end up not opening productivity apps when I download them. The sticky notes, they just sit right on my Desktop, waiting to have a -> DONE! tag in them.
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There is some research that technology is causing some attention spans to decrease, although I don't think there is a consensus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_span). If it is the case, checking your phone, facebook, and using other quick interruptions will make it harder to concentrate on one thing. Even if it is not the case, and brains are not ...
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It sounds to me like you're skimping on the GTD step of "processing" your inbox(es). You describe adding to-do items directly into your GTD system using your keyboard shortcut to Toodledo. My understanding (and practice) of GTD uses a general purpose inbox, where all random thoughts go for later processing. Occasionally I'll have a thought that I know is ...
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Prioritize.
And really enjoy doing that one thing. Or don't even start doing it if you can.
"The main thing is
to keep the main thing
the main thing"
When you can't get concentration on one thing only, is it that one thing the one you really want to do?
If it's not, start doing the main thing for you. If it is, avoid the rest from stopping you on ...
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I use http://getpocket.com/ (and for some things the competing http://www.instapaper.com/) which save pages for later reading - pocket goes to my rss reader where I know I will review it when I'm in more 'tuning into the world's information mode' - I trust this system and that works well. Some things that don't go into pocket - go into instapaper - because ...
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I use google calendar - I solve the catagories problem by creating a different calendar (with a different color) for each catagory - because of the gmail intergration it handles pretty well for tasks... Heres a (redacted - I'm open, I'm not that open) version of time for last week.
For how I fill it in - you might be interested in this answer...
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I have two different methods I've used for tracking what I have done. Both work pretty well.
One is the web site IDoneThis (https://idonethis.com/. Its free for individuals. You receive an email reminder daily to log what you did. Either reply to the mail or go to the web site to make entries. You can reply to the mail multiple times to add more ...
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In Week Plan, you can send a list of tasks to today@hello.weekplan.net and they will be added to your today list. You can mark them as complete and they will stay in that day as completed (Week Plan has a week view that allows you to see what you have achieved in the past. A task can be assigned to a "role" which can correspond to your concept of categories. ...
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I used to run a mastermind group myself and I structure the meetings this way:
Each participant comes with a challenge he faces in his business.
The group has 15 minutes to discuss the issue and suggest solutions.
Then it is the next participant's turn. Etc...
I wrote how we did it more in details on my blog: Founder Mastermind Breakfast
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You definitely need to identify what the question is asking for. If you don't do that correctly, you're bound to answer the question incorrectly!
Learn key concepts first, thoroughly, then go through the guided exercises, then try the practice exercises on your own and check your work. Textbooks are very helpful, even though paying attention in lecture may ...
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