How to get more done in less time

For the longest time, I'd give myself 8 hours to do work.

At the end of 8 hours, I'd still have tons of work leftover.

So I would push today's TO DO LIST to tomorrow's TO DO LIST

It got frustrating and DEMOTIVATING.

Here's how I got myself out of my productivity hole:

1) Chop up your time in 30 minute blocks

2) Time yourself doing a task and try to fit as much into 30 minutes

3) Spend the next 5 minutes figuring out how you can fit as much work into the next 30 minutes

4) Time yourself and try to complete in 30 minutes

5) Check the quality of your work - this is CRUCIAL

6) Repeat above - eventually, you'll be able to do LOTS of high quality work in a short period of time

If anything, the technique above changes your mindset about "boring work" or "that hard project" you'd rather not do.

30 minutes seems too short but i get the point 45 will be afficient for me.

Thank you for share

Sounds like Pomodoro technique. Haven't tried in a long time, variant of it might work well

Good technique, will try it out.

Nice Idea

One more thing that I like is that you should follow a fixed schedule for the first 1 hour of work in morning. Most of them people start by checking mails, calls, messages and the body goes in reaction phase.

I'm gonna try that. For awhile I applied this when I was doing tasks https://www.inc.com/carmine-gallo/why-your-next-pitch-should-follow-teds-18-minute-rule.html . I would set my phone timer at either 18-20 minutes then stand up and like refresh my brain for 3-5 minutes and start again. It actually helped me start tasks knowing what my time frame was and checking to see how much I can accomplish. If I had a single big task, I would break it down to smaller pieces.

you could also get some fresh air in between it increases productivity as well

I think we should have a special section on BHW for productivity...threads like these don't belong in the lounge

In my day job my schedule gets screwed up day by day with urgent tasks and meeting. I can keep a handle on what needs to be done regarding my writing orders and website projects, as well as household chores and tasks.

However I’m in a similar boat. It doesn’t matter how hard I optimize and prioritize, things get pushed. Sometimes the days I am off from my day job and my wife is working are the most productive, as I can schedule out 18 hours and know what to do hour by hour. This is one drawback of having a full time job with fluidity in workload.

I aim for 50% completion in a days list. If I finish half of what I wanted to finish, that’s great. If not I need to do better.

I’m still on the hunt for the perfect methodology, and I am always facing problems focusing. But one thing I have been trying to do is chunk out focus hours. So I set a timer for an hour from 6pm to 7pm with a goal to write 2,500 words, no matter how bad they are.

Then from 7pm to 8pm I do chores, relax, walk the dog, whatever. 8pm to 9pm I will focus on revising and formatting those 2,500 words. So with two hours of deep, focused work I’ve accomplished $175 in writing.

Pomodoro is great, but when your tasks take more than 25 minutes, it can be very difficult to get back on track.

I also agree with @TheVigilante , a Time Management subsection of the Lounge would be awesome.

I try to do my least enjoyable things first. That helps me knock them out because I don't want to spend all day doing them.

theRevolt said:

Sounds like Pomodoro technique. Haven't tried in a long time, variant of it might work well

Click to expand...

yes, its pomodoro.
togl time tracker has this option.
i have tried this simple productivity hack personally..

IT WORKS..

BHopkins said:

I try to do my least enjoyable things first. That helps me knock them out because I don't want to spend all day doing them.

Click to expand...

Ribbit!

Another reason why this technique works is it CHANGES YOUR ATTITUDE toward your tasks

I agree, attitude and being aware that the time is not unlimited... It's important.
Nice method, thanks for sharing it with all of us here at BHW!

BHopkins said:

I try to do my least enjoyable things first. That helps me knock them out because I don't want to spend all day doing them.

Click to expand...

I do something similar. I tackle the largest, most difficult task first. Once the big task is out of the way, all the little stuff is easy to mop up, and if it gets pushed, no problem. If I do the little stuff first, the big tasks get pushed, and pushed, and pushed.

If you really want to do more in less time. Read book "eat that frog" one of the best books for time management!