A common question at work is, how to accomplish many tasks and projects on time, without doing overtime.
Working extra hours and on weekends is a productivity killer. It creates stress and decision fatigue which reduces your productivity and ultimately your happiness.
The answer relates to acquired habits that, in most cases, are taking out large chunks of time from your schedule.
Reducing the time spent in the next three activities will free up your time and let you focus on things that move the needle of your efficiency.
1-NEWS
News is that thing that seems to give you a competitive advantage, being up to date. But spending too much time on the news it is, in most cases, rather a waste of time. News is designed to produce new headlines regularly and to keep you hooked.
Reduce your News consumption to a few minutes a day or even think about swapping this time with learning something.
2-SOCIAL MEDIA
I’m not going to elaborate too much on this one because most of you know it already. Social media AI algorithms create an addiction in your brain and will make you mindless scrolling through images or videos that doesn’t add much value to your life.
Duolingo, the popular language-learning app has a demolishing quote about social media.
15 minutes a day can teach you a language. What can 15 minutes of Instagram do?— Duolingo (@duolingo) August 1, 2018
3-EMAIL
While email is an excellent communication mean, it has also turn into a constant grabber for attention.
With the democratization of email marketing and automation tools, we receive more and more carefully tailored emails. Whether it is a promotion or updates, emails are a continuous drip of information that consumes lots of time and brainpower.
Use tools like Unroll.me to get rid of the email noise and limit your inbox to things that add value to your job or private life.
Reduce your email checks to twice a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon to avoid the email addiction.
You don’t need to get rid of these activities entirely but reducing them to a few minutes a day will free up your time to do actual work and share more with family. It is not easy to start, but once you have done it, you will experience exponential productivity growth.
