What would help you increase your productivity?
Dimitris Niavis
33 replies
What is the one thing that could help you become more focused on what you do and increase your overall productivity?
Why would that have such a big impact on you?
Replies
Matthew Johnson@mattovca
Startup-Investor Fit
Time boxing my tasks, taking regular breaks, having a plan in the morning, and turning off my phone/email/Slack :)
Share
@mattcrail I like it! Simple yet powerful plan! I find that these work great for me as well. It seems to me that the ability to block distractions (internal) and interruptions (external) is becoming one of the most crucial skills in the modern workplace. Figuring out the way that works for you is pure gold.
One thing: meditation. It helps me focus. It also helps me not to act impulsively and resist temptations and other distractions. it makes it also easier to detach and consider probable consequences of my actions. For example, not working on what is important. With this, knowing the consequences and having control over my focus, I can work on what is important to get done and get it done.
Meditation is a great idea. As far as I understand, it is a way to help us concentrate on our current state of our body, thus help us aware of our emotional state & quickly re-organize our thoughts. I learned this from my psychology teacher & he said due to people's busy life, they tend to forget staying aware of their own emotion & thoughts. Our brain always work excessively, and it tends to pack with tons of ideas, thoughts, negativities, etc...
Meditation can help us on this by making us staying calm & looking into our own mind again.
And thus explains why meditation practioner has better control over their emotion & action because they aware of their own thoughts & emotions even before they decide to act.
But it can be rather difficult when working in the office. I believe it depends on different workplace but in my case, it is rather difficult. I cannot just simply sit down , close my and do nothing for a period of time. My co-workers do not understand my method, they will not scrutinize me or anything. But still, it can feel pretty awkward. Though I cannot deny how much benefits it brought to me personally.
@alexdevero meditation sounds great for internal distractions. I'd like to try it out in the coming month! I'm sure that it will help a lot on the days that I get to work from home, being able to have a greater control over my environment. But, what happens when you work in an office with other people? When you get regular micro-interruptions (and some major ones)?
@dimitris_niavis It works in the same way. You are able to retain your focus even in distracting environment. It is also easier to resist paying attention to those distractions and keep working on the task at hand. It doesn't matter how many people are there, or how distracting the office is, you can ignore it. You are not even bothered with it. If something comes up, you have enough of detachment to think about that thing rationally, weight the consequences, and decide what to do with it.
@tommyle1289 interesting! Meditation keeps popping up as a way to control your self and the effects your surroundings may have on you. I have to try this!
Tommy, in your opinion, is there anything that would help you to do this in your working environment? Is there something that could relieve that awkwardness?
@dimitris_niavis I think it depends on our workplace.
It would be lucky if the boss/manager/etc. know about meditation then I think they will let us do as we please.
I tend to go to the toilet & meditate. I know it does sound awkward, but our office is small so that's the only place I can go to. At least we do clean our office thoroughly so it is not a problem for me.
NeighborPledge
One hack: turn off the killer of productivity (slack); contrary to their slogan, slack is where work doesn't happen. Turn off notifications, switch to async communication.
@aloukissas This is so true! Slack is major source of interruption for many people. In some cases, it traps you in an "interruption limbo" that drains your focus and destroys your productivity.
I'm guessing that your team is OK with not getting instant responses, right?
@dimitris_niavis I meant, with the overflow of tasks and ideas to solve those problems(tasks) you need to manage to cancel the noise of overdata
@dimitris_niavis Actually I need to use this work's stack: SCRUM and Kanban to generate my daily tasks that I upload to Trello, then I need to see theses tasks in my Google Agenda... Then I look in my agenda and see my meetings and tasks that is fixed, and between they I try to do tasks that is in need but not fixed.
If was something that could help me do it but better I would pay and happy.
@dimitris_niavis Actually I use Todoist to connect Trello and Google Agenda, and to see the not fixeds tasks.
@braian_mendes pretty interesting!
So your plan wraps around fixed, calendar-based events. You and your team/s use SCRUM and Kanban, so you get your daily tasks from your backlog. Then you need to upload your tasks for the day to Trello.
I'm guessing that your team/s use other software to manage tasks, yet you prefer Trello, is this correct? If so, why is that? What is it that you like some much that you're willing to upload daily tasks in to Trello? Do you have to sync task progression to the software used by your team/s at the end of the day?
@braian_mendes we are building something that could help you a lot.
We have a couple of features that are perhaps a neat solution to a couple of your pain points!
WebDataRocks Pivot Table
Muted notifications and silence :)
@veronika_rovnik that could very well be the most fundamental thing to increase ones productivity!
How does that work for you in the modern workplace?
Are you able to achieve this? If yes, could you please share how did you overcame some of the common obstacles (e.g. team mates chatting, cat wanting attention, etc)?
i usually think about my future, i have some goals , i want a better life for my children , so every time i want to quit , i remind myself that i do it for my family . i motivate myself .
@dimitris_niavis at work i have a lot of paper sticks where i write everything i have to do , and every day in the morning when i start my job, i start it with resolving problems from may paper sticks.
Your First Year in Code
I am going to break down what helps me most to stay productive throughout the day.
It's a ToDo list.
Not just any ToDo list, I need a daily ToDo list.
Why first? Because without a deadline, I am never going to accomplish any task.
If the task looks big and I am afraid of the complexity, break it into small tasks and do it one by one.
So when I finish/tick off the task and review completed tasks in my ToDo list, I will gain confidence, empowerment, happiness, and, most important, I will increase my productivity level too. I will be in momentum to proceed further.
@ilonacodes I see, an achievable plan for the day, task breakdown of tasks and a review of what has been achieved to get motivated and keep going! Sounds like a good plan to me.
In your opinion, what would you say is the most important benefit of the daily plan/to-do list for you?
Also, how to you do this, do you user software, pen and paper or any other tools?
Your First Year in Code
@dimitris_niavis Benefits:
1. Ability to execute without too much of analysis paralysis. This way I can separate my work into two interchanging activity: thinking/planning and execution. Of course, if I learn new information, I can always halt the execution and switch back to planning.
2. If I treat this todo-list as a commitment (I have to complete these 5 tasks today), then I’m going to procrastinate less and be more efficient.
3. If I see that I was completing all my tasks for a few days without struggle, I can try to go for a more optimistic plan (more tasks for the same day), and it becomes a challenge again.
4. These daily self-imposed deadlines allow the work to stay on track, and even if you don’t complete what you planned, that pushes your goals by one day forward, and you can readjust your planning.
Software: these days I’m doing it with checklists on Trello cards, because I want to share it with my co-maker. But any checklist would work for me, and including the hand-written one.
You asked about one thing, however, there are two of them on my mind, which are interrelated though. I'm super productive when I start working super early (like 5 or 6 am). It is the first thing. Second thing - I have to be prepared (have list of To Dos) since last night.
@dmitry_zamriy1 The second thing that helps you came up a lot during our user interviews. It seems that a braindump of some kind helps people feel calmer and more focused.
In your opinion, how does this helps you become more productive?