Here are some of the best techniques to be as efficient as possible!
11 - OHIO With the average person sending and receiving
124 work emails every day, or 620 emails every week, we're spending on average a bit more
than two hours per day on emails!
Honestly, that’s a lot of time!
So what’s OHIO?
OHIO means, Only Handle It Once.
The “OHIO” method is an easy way to be more efficient and productive in the way you
handle your inbox.
This tactic requires more of an active mindset when using email.
No more taking five minutes to mindlessly check your messages on your phone – the
OHIO method requires you to get through your emails efficiently.
To maximize time-saving, you turn off email notifications and you only check your mailbox
twice a day, and responding immediately to any emails.
Responding later means you take three times longer to get through your email than taking
care of it the first time you read it, because responding later means you have to waste time
rereading that email... or even worse, the time wasted reminding yourself over and over
to get to that message.
10 - Pomodoros for everyone Want maximum efficiency?
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management philosophy created by Francesco Cirillo that
aims to achieve maximum focus and creative freshness.
It allows you someone to complete projects faster with less mental fatigue.
The process is simple: for every project throughout the day, you budget your time into short increments
and take breaks periodically.
You work for 25 minutes, then take a break for five minutes.
Each 25-minute work period is called a “pomodoro”, named after the Italian word for tomato.
Francesco Cirillo used a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato as his personal timer, and that’s
how he got the name.
After four “pomodoros” have passed, which is 100 minutes of work time with 15 minutes
of break time, you then take a 15-20 minute break.
The constant timing of your activities makes you more accountable for your tasks and minimizes
the time you waste procrastinating.
9 - Texting This one may totally annoy the recipients,
but hey, at least it saves you time and it’ll probably give you a longer time to respond!
Text messaging is the most used data service in the world.
The average American adult over 18 spends almost 3 hours on their smartphone every day.
That’s about 86 hours a month!
But really, the worst part of texts is how texting disrupts your workflow.
Constantly switching from one task to another, or in this case, from your phone to whatever
else you’re supposed to be doing, eats away your productivity and slows you down.
If you’re trying to be productive, really, just put away the phone.
Next time you want to talk to someone, a time-saving alternative to texting are voice messages.
It’s sort of a win win if you think about it.
Because people hate listening to voice messages, they take longer to get back to you.
And of course, talking is way faster than typing.
But really, just put down the phone!
8 - Social media Several different studies show that the average
American adult spends somewhere between 2 to 4 hours on their smartphone every day using
apps.
And what do people do on their phones?
They’re most likely using social media apps, such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram.
The solution?
Limit the time you spend mindlessly using social media!
Or really, just get rid of social media, because c’mon….what’s the upside?
Turn off notifications so you’re not tempted to open them.
Turn on airplane mode to avoid any distractions.
Hide social media icons from the home screen so you’re not mindlessly opening them up
the next time you unlock your phone.
Set deliberate timeframes for social media use throughout the day – for example, half
an hour in the evening and stick to it.
You’ll be surprised how much time you end up with!
7 - Task switching Instead of juggling a large number of projects
at the same time, set aside a block of time to do one project until completion.
Switching from one thing to another requires you to get back into focus for each item when
you go back and forth.
You’ll need to order your to do list from most important to least important.
For big projects, this means setting aside half a day or even an entire day.
If the project is long and tedious, break that project down into manageable chunks.
If the project is something important that takes weeks or even months until completion,
do it first when you start working, especially if it’s something you DON’T want to do!
Even though this may seem like the to do list never gets smaller, it really doesn’t matter.
The to do list theoretically never ends, so as long as you’re working through the tasks
efficiently, that’s all that matters.
You’ll be saving a bunch of time from not multitasking.
6 - Keep it away
How many times have we taken a break and checking to see what’s up on Instagram – and 40
minutes later, you’re somehow still there looking at the latest memes.
It's all too easy to get lost in our screens as we tap from app to app and scroll through
social feeds without being aware – a behavior that costs us productivity!
To keep our focus intact, we need to cut out on all the distractions.
That means putting down the phone, and also putting yourself in a clean work space.
If you’re still finding it difficult to resist checking up on your latest tweet, there
are plenty of apps out there dedicated to helping keep you distraction free.
Freedom and StayFocusd temporarily block apps and websites for set periods of time.
Really, just do the Pomodoro technique we outlined earlier.
If you can do it on your own, the simplest way to do it is just set a timer on your phone.
Set the timer for whatever time works best for you and then put your phone on airplane
mode.
Just don’t pick up your phone until the timer goes off!
5 - No worries be happy
Have you ever spent an entire day worrying about something that "might happen?"
At the end of the day, your situation hasn't changed but you've lost valuable time and
energy over something that hasn’t even happened in the first place!
Aside from wasting your time, worrying hijacks your brain and makes it difficult to focus
on what is important.
Next time when you feel worries starting to pop up ask yourself, what can I do to make
this better?
If there’s something you can do to help that situation, then just do that action.
If there isn’t anything you can do about it, there’s no point in thinking about it.
For example, let’s say you often worry about losing your job.
What you can do if is having your resume prepared and periodically look to see what opportunities
out there.
But once you do that, don’t worry about it, because you’ll be prepared for it.
Control what you can control, and don’t waste time and energy worrying about something
you can’t.
4 - Just do it
The 2-Minute Rule draws on Newton’s First Law, which states that objects at rest tend
to stay at rest and objects in motion, stay in motion.
When you come to a project or a task or a habit you want to build, but find yourself
putting it off, just immediately take 2 minutes to work on it.
After all, 2 minutes is nothing and you’ll be done before you know it.
For most of us, taking that very FIRST step to getting started is the hardest step.
A lot of it is the fear of starting that causes the procrastination to manifest in the first
place.
Getting started creates momentum, even if it’s just 2 minutes.
Research has found that taking small actions leads to increased motivation, which in turn
lead to more action.
Pretty soon you’ll be saying to yourself “This isn’t as bad as I thought.
Why not just keep going at it?” and before you know it, an hour has gone by, and something
you didn’t want to do at all is already done!
3 - Make workout time more efficient
If you already go to the gym regularly, congrats, you’re doing one of the best things you
can do for yourself.
However, most likely you can do it more efficiently!
For many of us, gym time can be a 2-3 hour time suck.
There are many ways to make workout time more efficient.
Before going to the gym, make sure you’re ready to go as soon as you step onto the gym
floor.
Have your workout already planned out for each day.
Make a checklist for each exercise.
Have your gym playlist downloaded to your phone, and put your phone on airplane mode.
Have your water bottle filled up!
All of these little things add up and they waste precious gym time!
And unless you want to make gym time social hour, just save the small talk until after
the workout is over.
On another note, don’t just go through the motions on the workout.
Make every single rep count and make the workout hard for yourself!
That means not taking 5 minute breaks between sets!
Ideally, you’ll want to be in and out of the gym in an hour.
2 - Same Things
Batching is getting a long list of the same tasks completed at once.
The reason this is successful is that the myth of multitasking hasn’t proved to work.
When we switch from one task to the other, our attention and willpower to complete the
next task gets diminished, especially if we’re switching from something that isn’t completed.
Batching is the other extreme: only doing one task until it’s completed.
For example, people “batch” their week of food by simply cooking all their food at
once, throwing it into containers, and having lunch and dinner done for the week.
There are plenty of other things that can be batched.
Another example is ironing all your shirts for the week.
Instead of setting up the ironing board and iron every day of the week, do it just once
by ironing the clothes you need done for the week.
If you find yourself repeatedly doing something, ask yourself if you can minimize the number
of times it needs to be done.
1 - Decision Fatigue
It's said that the average person makes 35,000 decisions every day.
What to eat for breakfast?
What shirt to wear?
Which door to go through?
Where to go for lunch?
All that causes decision fatigue – the deterioration of our ability to make good decisions after
a long session of decision-making.
In other words, the more decisions you need to make, the worse you’re going to be at
weighing all the options and making the best choice.
It all adds up, whether we realize it or not!
The way to save brainpower is to cut down on the number of random decisions you need
to make throughout the day.
Create outlined routines for things you do repeatedly and save the mental energy for
the important things.
But if you want to get the most out of life?
Stop living in the future or in the past!
Live in the moment, right now.
Here’s what’s next!