Supercharge Your Day with Deliberate Productivity Planning
Productivity is critically important to our careers, but it's also an elusive, almost ephemeral quality that's hard to quantify and measure. That's one reason I spend so much time writing about productivity -- with posts like improving productivity through music, multitasking, and, yes, single-tasking. But here are a few important ways to focus your energies and be more productive by following some deliberate steps to prepare for your work day.
In the Harvard Business Review, Tony Schwartz recently described a half-dozen behaviors you can employ to improve your productivity. Here is the skinny:
Get enough sleep. Most people don't get the 7-8 hours of sleep we need each night, and not getting enough has a significant effect on our cognitive abilities.
Create one to-do list. Make a single list of all the things you need to do and issues you need to manage -- that's the essence of the highly successful Getting Things Done strategy.
Do the most important stuff first thing in the morning. Not only will you have the most energy, but also suffer the fewest distractions.
Monitor your mood. When your available bandwidth drops below the demands on your time and attention, your mood will suffer, and you'll instinctively start to make more rash decisions. Get in the habit of self-reflection to keep yourself on track through the day.
Schedule time for important tasks. If you don't, you'll always move from fire drill to fire drill, working reactively. Block out time on your calendar to deal with high priority activities from your to-do list.
Photo courtesy Flickr user neilschelly
