Earlier today on a web forum I frequent, someone asked other people what they do to be more efficient at work. I gave him a short list of what I do:
For me, it’s a few interconnected things.
ENVIRONMENTAL
- Either completely close IM apps, or turn off window blinking notification of a message
- Put on headphones and crank up good concentration music at a reasonable volume
- Close web browser and relegate browser icons to desktop only (no quicklaunch!)
- Remove anything distracting in your field of view from your workspace.
HEALTH:
- Get at least 7 hours of sleep.
- Wake up 3 hours before work and eat a good, healthy, balanced breakfast
- Drink LOTS of ice water. It’s good for you, keeps you awake and forces you to take fairly regular restroom breaks, which is a good way to get you up and moving.
- Try to minimize your carbohydrate intake at lunch, lest you later succumb to Food Coma and try to bail yourself out with coffee and sugar.
PROCESS:
- Make a master to-do list for the next two or three days in no particular order, then blaze through each task until you finish or get sick of it, then move onto another
- Classify my tasks, roles and responsibilities and devote specific time blocks of one to two hours each day to focus SOLELY on each facet.
- Work on a timer for 15 or 30 minutes at a time, uninterrupted, then take a short (timed) break to answer messages, browse the internet, etc before returning to work.
- Whenever possible, make decisions within the space of seven breaths.
As for getting up before work, I usually get up around 5 or 6 every day, and I feel like I have SO MUCH MORE TIME during the day when I do that than when I get up five minutes before work. I get to make my own breakfast, let it settle in my stomach, read, check email, check all my news sites, clean up my apartment a bit, play with my cats, and generally get a better feel for the day before I head into work. By the time I get there, I’m totally awake and alert, and I got all my goof-off bullshit done before I got in. So I’m ready to kick it into high gear and get shit done!
The idea behind all this is that I understand that I can’t really change my core behaviors. But I can erect my own little barriers that take advantage of the way I act naturally, and funnel it into doing something productive.
In other words, I create my own path of least resistance. If I can RAISE the barrier to entry of doing goof-off bullshit like IM and web browsing and playing games, and LOWER the barrier to entry to getting work done, I’ll do whichever takes the least effort. If I make web browsing some big bother, I just won’t want to do it.
Same for goofing off at work, checking news sites, IMing people, and so on. I know I’ll wanna do it. So I just force myself up earlier, get it out of my system, then shift into Work Mode even more easily.
Basically, I acknowledge Jon’s Inner Idiot so I toss him some shiny baubles to make it as hard as possible for him to distract me.
I call stuff like that a “hack,” as in a cheap-fast way to circumvent a problem rather than fix it outright. My own mind is held together by duct tape and rubber bands. :)
Because, face it, changing yourself is hard. I do it all the time, but sometimes my Inner Idiot fights back so hard, I decide it’s easier to trick him and give him an outlet for his energy than to try to tear myself up trying to “cure” myself.
Do you use any hacks?