Let's talk about productivity tools! Pyschotherapist Dr. Mike Dow shares four tools to increase our productivity in the ever-changing work environment.
Time Chunking
Working in 60-90 minute chunks, or what Dr. Mike calls "time chunking", can help some people be more productive. One study found that elite violinists practiced 3.5 hours per day on average—in three 60-90 minute sessions. They were time chunking based ontheir ultradian rhythms. They were also more likely to nap between practice sessions—averaging three hours of napping per week. Non-elite violists only practiced 1.4 hours per day with no deliberate rest bereaking up their session.
Pomodore Technique
Do you struggle with your attention span? This method might be for you. Think of the Pomodoro technique as a tabata workout. It works in 25 minute intervals and all you need is a timer.
Here are the steps:
- Identify what the task is at hand
- Set your timer to 25 minutes.
- Work on the task until the timer goes off.
- Take a five minute break.
- For every four rounds of this, take a longer break (15-20 minutes).
The 25-5 Rule
Consider Warren Buffett's famous 25-5 rule. The successful CEO once has his private pilot, Mike Flint, list his top 25 career goals. Then Buffett instructed Flint to circle the top five most important goals. Buffett asked Flint what he would do about the other 20 things that weren't the most important. Flint replied that they weren't as important as his top five goals, and he would work on them intermittently. This is where Buffett corrected Flint. "No. You've got that wrong, Mike. Everything you didn't circle just because your Avoid-At-All-Cost list. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you've succeeded with your top five."
How much unnecessary stress and inaction is on your list? Are the items on it draining your brain or balance? What would happen if you only focused on your most important ones, completing them, and then concerning yourself with what goal you wanted to tackle next? Writing your own personal "25-5" will help you be mindful of the overall "big picture" focus of your life's work.
Working Mindfully
Armed with this "big picture" strategy to frame your goals, consider a mindful strategy that will supercharge your everyday tasks in service of these larger goals. Another wealthy and successful businessman, Charles Schwab, once sought the advice of a productivity expert named Ivy Lee. Ivy shared the following strategy with Charles' executives. There was no up-front fee for his consulation. Ivy told Charles he could send a check in three months for the amount he thought it was worth.
Ivy instructed Charles' executives to write down the six most important tasks for the following day at the end of the current workday. These six tasks were to be prioritized by level of importance from most to least important. At the beginning of tomorrow's workday, focus only on the first tasks, finish it, and then move on to the next task. If you don't finish all six, simply move the unfinished tasks to the next day's list. Three months later, Charles was so happy with his company's increased productivity that he wrote Ivy a check for what would be worth almost a half-million dollars today.
The simple strategy can be learned in minutes, but the results are indeed powerful and can save thousands of hours of lost productivity. Research has proven the effectiveness of this strategy. A recent study gave people a warm-up task followed by a brainstorming task. When subjects were prevented from finished the warm-up task, they performed worse on the brainstorming tasks. Because the first task was uncompleted, it was still stuck in the brain's active memory. You can heal your drained brain by remaining focused on the tasks at hand. You'll prevent it from wasting energy or unfinished tasks, and you'll have more energy to give to what you're doing in the here and now.
