How to increase your productivity so you can get more done in a relatively short time. There are things in life more important than work

• Translation

How many hours a week do you spend working? About 40, right? What do you think will happen if you work 90 hours a week?

The author of the website a Year of Productivity Chris Bailey decided to conduct such an experiment. What did this lead to? Read about the 10 lessons he learned in our translation of his article.

On average, people work approximately 40 hours a week or more.

There are two solutions to this problem on the surface:

1. Keep working 40 hours a week and don't succeed.
2. Work more than 40 hours a week and try to increase your productivity.

However, in practice this choice is not easy. Even though it seems that working for a long time will allow you to cope with more tasks, this is obviously incorrect reasoning: not because you will have less time to rest and recover, but because it will long term labor productivity will decrease significantly. This has been proven many times, so the thesis is completely obvious.

I consider myself a highly productive person, even though I once did nothing for a week. But now I can’t even remember when I was as unproductive as working 90 hours a week.

In February, I had an alternative: work 90 hours a week, only to work 20 hours the next. I wanted to see how extreme work would affect my productivity. Below are the 10 most important lessons I learned during the experiment.

1. Working long hours will increase your productivity, but only in the short term.

This is perhaps the most important lesson I learned for myself: you can achieve more by working long hours, but this will not last long.

In the long run, working long hours leads to more procrastination and less productivity. This is the reason why you start doing less without always realizing it.

In fact, after 40 hours working week, the study found, marginal productivity begins to decline until “working for eight 60-hour workweeks equals the productivity of eight 40-hour workweeks.” And if we work 70 or 80 hours in 7 days, the break-even point will be reached in the third week.

When I worked 90 hours a week, I managed to get a lot done, but only during the first days of the week; after which I didn't have the time or emotional energy to recover, so my productivity really took a hit. I made sure that sleeping and going to the gym every morning helped me regain my energy, but it was still dropping by Wednesday-Thursday.

It's easy to fool yourself into thinking that a long work week will make you more productive, and in the end it does, but not for long. But personally, I believe that there are fundamental limits to overall productivity, and they can be overcome by working smarter, not harder.

Most studies show that the optimal number of hours to work during the week is about 40. After my experiment, I am inclined to believe this.

2. Just because you're busy all the time doesn't mean you're highly productive.

There is a big difference between being busy and being productive, but it can sometimes be very difficult to grasp.

From my point of view, productivity has nothing to do with how much you work; it depends on how many things you complete. So, you can start doing many tasks and not complete any of them within a week. For example, if you have a 60-hour work week, but you spend all your time talking to co-workers, checking email, and doing unimportant tasks all day, you will be much less productive than someone who works 30 hours a week but is actually involved in important processes. .

Productivity is not how much you work during the day, but how much you get done.

3. Feeling productive does not mean having it.

Even if you feel like you're highly productive, that doesn't mean you are. In fact, sometimes the opposite is true:
When you multitask, you feel more productive than when you do one thing, but research has shown time and time again that this is not the case;
When you consume caffeine, you feel more productive because coffee affects the brain. However, the body gets used to caffeine, and this substance can reduce your productivity in solving creative problems;
You feel more productive by checking email 10 times an hour, instead of preparing a report, because you get feedback. But you are not paid for viewing mail, but rather for working and achieving certain results.

The same goes for constant recycling. I think working long hours makes you feel more productive and you feel less guilty about not getting all your work done on time.

4. Plan your time when you are not busy with work.

I believe that scheduling time when you are not busy at work allows you to more effectively address the quality of work, which allows you to work smarter, but not necessarily harder. As simple example If you work as an accountant, you can spend the entire day sharpening pencils (or the modern equivalent, checking email), or you can take a moment to step away from your routine and figure out what will bring the best results, and then do that particular job.

Intellectual activity makes us more creative, concentrated, energetic, because it allows us to see work from a bird's eye view. It allows you to see what you need to do differently to achieve more in less time. And although you may feel less productive, as with the example of single-tasking, you will be more successful.

When I forced myself to work 90 hours a week, I constantly noticed that I was working less efficiently, doing stupid things, but not achieving significant results at the end of the day: I noticed all this after analyzing my work a week after the end of the experiment .

5. Every minute spent planning will save 5 minutes of work.

Here's my favorite productivity quote from Brian Tracy:

“Every minute spent planning saves 10 minutes of work.”

I would argue about 10 minutes (I think a little less), but the principle is absolutely correct.

When all you do is work and you never take the time to plan, it's hard to work smart. Even if you always work harder than everyone else, without working smart, without doing extra-difficult tasks, you will never reach the level of productivity of other people who can work half as hard and achieve the same results.

When you stop working and plan your activities, you will become more focused and be able to focus your time and energy on a few concentrated goals, achieving greater productivity.

6. To achieve more in less time, set limited deadlines for completing tasks in your plan.

Allocating a limited amount of time to complete tasks is a direct path to increased productivity. Do you want to get more done? Spend more energy to complete tasks.

My favorite way is to allocate less time to the tasks I need to get done.

The fewer days (hours) are allocated according to the plan to complete a task, the more you push yourself, spend more time to complete the work. And vice versa, if there is a lot of time, then a person can take longer to make decisions and sit idle.

During the experiment, I had an alternative: work 90 hours one week, and only 20 hours the next.

It's funny, when I only had 20 hours to do 40 hour tasks, I found ways to get more done in less time. Since I had much less time than required, I had to use all my energy to achieve the goal.

The more you need to do, the more time it would seem you need to spend on work. This is what all people understand, and what, at first glance, seems correct. But in my experience, the less time you allocate to a task, the more you will accomplish in that limited time.

7. Take care of your energy and don't forget to replenish it.

As Brian Tracy, author of the fantastic book Eat That Frog, said, “If you want to stay happy and have high productivity, take care of your energy and remember to replenish it.” For example, when there is a lot to do and you only get a couple of hours of sleep, your productivity levels will decrease. But if you go to bed early and get enough sleep, you will be able to complete your tasks faster.

Energy is the fuel you burn throughout the day to get through work, and during the experiment I got rid of a lot of the things that energized me simply because I didn't have time for them. And if you want to do more in less time, you need to think especially carefully about replenishing your energy.

8. Overworking will drain your willpower.

Every time you force yourself to work when you don’t want to, you use a little willpower - a mental resource that can run out.

Forcing myself to work 90 hours a week expended a huge amount of mental resources, more than any other experiment. This led to a number of negative consequences:
I put off important things more often than ever before: sometimes for 3-4 hours;
My productivity dropped on Wednesday and Thursday of my 90-hour work week, with my brain simply refusing to do its job;
I realized that I was focusing on menial, stupid tasks (checking Google Analytics, Twitter, email) instead of actually working.

You may not force yourself to work 90 hours, but every time you force yourself to work more than you need to, you are depleting your willpower, which conflicts with energy and motivation, the main components of productivity.

9. One of the worst (and least productive) things you can do is be dishonest with yourself.

An issue that I often want to write about on my site is the need to be honest with yourself, because any productivity tactic becomes useless if you are lying to yourself. For example:
Are you doing what needs to be done or are you just putting it off until later?
Do you set yourself high goals and then give up after a few weeks, or do you break them down into several stages and still achieve them?
Do you wake up the first time with your alarm clock or reset it 5 times before you get out of bed?
Do you listen to your brain when it says that it is tired from work and wants to rest?
Do you spend hours in front of the TV and then try to figure out where the time went?

Throughout the experiment, the more pressure I put on myself to be productive, the less honest I was with myself. I tried to put my guard down, trying to be productive when I wasn't feeling strong, which caused me to procrastinate, making excuses to do less today. Instead of being honest with myself and thinking about how much energy I was expending, I put too much pressure on myself and it reduced my productivity.

10. There are more important things in life than productivity.

Without a doubt, every second of work is a second that you did not spend on something less important, but more loved.

When I spent some time with my girlfriend while working 90 hours a week, I felt much better. There are things on the list of obligations that are important, but not urgent, and we most often refuse them in conditions of high busyness. I deal with this as much as other people.

When you recycle it extra time, which needs to be taken from somewhere, makes you give up simple things that give you energy (for example, spending time with your loved ones). As soon as you stop spending time on things for the soul, you begin a losing battle, becoming irritable and less productive.

In particular, working long hours has been shown to be no different in productivity than a 40-hour workweek (especially over the long term).

An important thing you can do to be productive is to plan your activities wisely. This will help you replenish your energy, work smarter, find interesting solutions, get rid of secondary tasks, and most importantly, control your work.

Good luck to you!

Who would have thought that increasing productivity could be incredibly easy! Follow these simple steps and adopt the recommended habits to achieve incredible results.

Make productivity your priority

When it comes to working effectively, you can probably already imagine the basic rules, for example, that you need to procrastinate less, and also be able to tune out external irritants like noisy colleagues. However, research shows there's another side to productivity you might not have thought about. There are simple little things you can do every day to improve your productivity. They are performed by all people who have made productivity a priority! All of them are listed below - the first step to success will be your familiarity with them.

Focus on feeling happy

One of the main obstacles on a person’s path to success is his psychological state. You must stop putting yourself down. Studies have shown that happy people are twelve percent more productive at work than unhappy people. This makes sense, as two common symptoms of depression are decreased motivation and trouble concentrating. Even Bad mood and does not prevent you from working fully, it reduces your productivity and prevents you from functioning with normal efficiency. Try to focus on a positive approach. If you are suffering from depression, do not be afraid to seek help from a specialist. Treatment with a psychologist will help you identify your goals and cope with your symptoms. This will not only allow you to achieve balance in your life, but it will also teach you to look at things differently and make you think about changes that you had not previously thought about. You are guaranteed to become not only happier, but also more productive.

Try to exercise regularly

You've probably heard about the countless benefits of working out. It's really true: exercise improves your mood by increasing the amount of feel-good hormones that ease your stress and stimulate your brain's productivity. Even thirty minutes of moderate-intensity exercise can be enough to help you better achieve your personal and professional goals. The psychological benefits of exercise will quickly become evident once you start exercising. Research has shown that even minimal exercise can be quite effective. If you don't love Gym, find yourself another activity option that will allow you to save high level motivation. In addition, you can involve a friend in training who will serve additional source motivation at the moment when you want to give up and quit your studies.

Take breaks

It is important to be able to press pause. Research has shown that complex tasks that require alertness, energy expenditure, and the ability to focus quickly become boring and reduce your productivity. To cope with the problem, give yourself breaks. Taking some time to unwind will help your ability to concentrate stay strong for a long time. Get up from your chair and go for a walk, do a little workout. If you do this, you'll be much more effective at getting back to work after a break. If you sit without a break all day, the quality of your work will inevitably decrease.

Work near a window if possible

Of course, in most cases you do not have the opportunity to choose your own workplace, however, if you do have options, try to position yourself near a window. Research has shown that exposure to daylight helps you feel good, have normal sleep quality, and have a high level of activity. Prolonged exposure to dim light increases the amount of melatonin in your body, which can negatively affect your mood and reduce your energy levels. If your workplace does not allow you to sit by the window, try to spend some time outside before work, in lunch break or in the evening. Alternatively, you can buy a lamp that creates natural light and increases your productivity just as much as the sun.

Control the use of electronic devices

To some people, such a decision may not seem logical, because the work itself involves the constant use of a variety of devices. However, studies have shown that immersion in the world of technology, especially those related to computer work, reduces human productivity and causes increased psychological stress and fatigue. The constant feeling of being connected to the Internet can be stressful and you are distracted from all sides at once. This makes you more tired and you are forced to do several things at once. Try to control the time you use different gadgets. For example, only respond to email during certain hours of the day.

Don't try to do everything at once

Try to be calmer about what is happening around you. It's okay if you pride yourself on your ability to multitask, but you should still try to do one task at a time. Try to be conscious of what is happening and live in the specific moment. Western culture spreads the myth that it is better to do everything at once. However, research suggests otherwise. The more you spread yourself thin, the less effective your work becomes in each area. Instead, focus on just one specific task until you finish it and can move on to something else.

Try to get enough sleep

You may have stayed up all night during your university days studying for an exam or completing a coursework, but research shows that this approach is completely wrong! Lack of sleep leads to serious health problems. According to scientific data, insufficient hours of sleep reduce the level of productivity, impair productivity and prevent you from fully taking care of your own safety. Try to monitor the amount of your sleep, provide yourself with the necessary comfortable conditions, do not eat or drink right before bed.

Think about the organization of your workplace

This can be difficult if you have an open space in your office with several dozen of your colleagues sitting around. However, research has shown that the physical features of your workplace play a big role in determining your level of productivity. The optimal physical environment for productive work is one that is spacious enough to allow you to work without being distracted by the noise of other people talking or moving nearby. At the same time, your workplace should not be completely isolated - you should still have the opportunity to freely exchange ideas with colleagues. A happy medium is a workplace that has both individual corners and general meeting points where you spend your time as needed.

We know that productivity is a big step towards success and personal achievement. By actively “investing” in your work, you can significantly increase the efficiency of your work and achieve unprecedented heights in your career. But every time we note with despondency that the day has passed, and very little of the planned work has been done. How to increase productivity at work?

“Productivity is not an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort."

Paul J. Meyer

At one of his seminars, Alexander Friedman told an interesting parable. A traveler, walking through the forest, saw a woodcutter who was diligently chopping down the forest with an ax. The ax was very dull, and the worker had to put in a lot of effort in order for the work to move forward even a little. Necessary tool The woodcutter also had one that could be used to sharpen an ax - it lay not far from the place of work. When the traveler, surprised by such a picture, asked why the woodcutter did not sharpen a dull axe, he replied that he had no time - he needed to cut down this tree, and the sooner he did it, the better...

How did the woodcutter measure personal productivity? In the number of blows, without being distracted by an “unnecessary” break, during which it would be possible to sharpen an ax, and relax, and cut down this tree, and do it several times faster. The wrong approach to business and lack of planning are the “enemies” of productivity, preventing the woodcutter from completing his work quickly and with the least amount of effort.

“In fact, planning and organization are prerequisites. One hour spent planning saves four hours of pointless swinging a blunt ax.”

Alexander Fridman

Benjamin Franklin adhered to a strict "code" of behavior and his own philosophy of effective performance. This allowed him to distribute every minute of his time and do many outstanding things: create the American Postal Service, carry out the honorary mission of ambassador to France, solve business issues of the printing house he founded, and much more. But even in such a busy schedule, Franklin made sure to set aside time for leisure and pleasant pastime, for example, to launch kite in rainy weather. If Franklin had the task of cutting down a tree, he would no doubt spend 2/3 of his working time sharpening the axe.

How to Increase Productivity: 9 Rules for High Productivity

“Be determined to do what you must. Strictly carry out what has been decided."

B. Franklin

Increased productivity will be possible if you adhere to these simple rules:

“Nothing is less productive than doing effectively something that should not be done at all.”

P. Drucker

2.Don't drown in shallow water. Highlight specific goals for today, and put important tasks first, and push the rest to the end of the work. Remembering the expression of M. Twain, “eat a frog” in the morning. In other words, it is better to start the most time-consuming, unpleasant task at the beginning of the working day, without putting it off “for later”. Completing work will give you a boost of vigor and energy for the rest of the day!

“We don't always need to do more. More often than not, we need to focus on smaller things."

N.Morris

3. Concentration on one thing. How can you be productive when you have a lot of work to do? Multitasking is not your friend if you decide to increase your own productivity. Our brain can be compared to the work of a computer: if you run many programs at the same time, the work will go much slower. Have you planned tasks? Do them sequentially, but not simultaneously. Use the ABCD method. This effective way of highlighting the main tasks leads to maximum concentration on the most important task, and until work A is completed, tasks B and C cannot be started. Simple, but it helps!

“If you spend too much time thinking about something, you will never do it.”

Bruce Lee

"Increased productivity means less human sweat"

5. Remember the 20/80 rule (Pareto's law). This postulate states that most often 80% of the result depends on 20% effective work. A productive person knows which items lead to the best work results and focuses on them, ignoring the rest.

“Most of the stress comes not from having too much to do, but from not finishing what you started.”

D. Allen

6.No to lists! Yes – to a plan for the working day, divided into blocks. If you have planned 100% of your work for the day and expect to complete it, don't be upset if you only get 40% done (statistically, this is true). Unresolved matters that hang over you lead to stress. Therefore, enter your tasks into the calendar and try to live every day according to the created plan, divided into small blocks consisting of 15-30 minutes.

“Concentrate all your thoughts on work. The sun's rays do not burn until they are focused at one point."

A. G. Bell

7. Cleanliness on your desk means cleanliness in your head. The wild chaos reigning at your table sows disorganization, unproductivity, and apathy. Use an effective tool to help you manage your time - a wastebasket. Throw away unnecessary papers, send old files to the trash on your computer, and you won’t spend the lion’s share of your working time searching for the right document.

Does the flow of emails never stop? Do Facebook and VKontakte endlessly send notifications about new messages? Has your favorite news resource prepared a newsletter of the most interesting materials that appears as a pop-up window in your browser? There's someone on the phone in the hallway and you feel like you know every detail of this family drama? Is your colleague breathing too loudly?

There are an endless number of distractions that interfere with your work to one degree or another. Some of them are objective, others are subjective, but, nevertheless, they can and should be fought. Below are five ways that are so simple that they are definitely worth trying. We bet at least one of them will suit you.

Listen to the right music

The power of music is difficult to overestimate, and in this case it also plays an important role. It turns out that the type of songs you listen to during the workday can speed up or, on the contrary, reduce your rate useful action. A 2016 study published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior found that people who listened to South Korean group Brown-Eyed Girl, Katrina and the Waves' Walking On Sunshine, and Fab Four's Yellow Submarine were more likely to collaborate with colleagues and were in a pleasant mood throughout the day.

At the same time, those who listened to depressive music (in this study- heavy metal), were not inclined to collectively solve problems. Interestingly, the mood of the group that did without musical accompaniment during the study did not change, but there was no increase in productivity.

Bring a sweater

Are you frozen? This can seriously affect performance. The results of one Japanese study suggest that "thermal satisfaction" (that is, when you can say that the temperature in a room is as comfortable as possible, and you would not like it to be warmer or colder) - important factor productivity. In experiments, those participants who were not satisfied with the current temperature were more likely to not complete their tasks than those who were climatic conditions"We were more than satisfied. And this is a great reason to always keep a warm sweater, scarf or blanket in the office.

Turn on the desk lamp

If your work requires extreme concentration, then fluorescent lamps can help you with this. Japanese scientists who studied the concentration came to the conclusion that different conditions illumination is not the same. So, they found that additional lighting - e.g. desk lamp- increases concentration on current tasks by at least 5%. Unlike a ceiling lamp, which does not give the same effect. Do you want to get the job done quickly and efficiently, without being distracted by extraneous noise? Turn on the directional light and get started.

Make a to-do list

Experts from Columbia University examined 258 people and found that those who are constantly busy are more motivated to complete tasks than those who give themselves “moments of laziness” (which, as we know very well, very easily and even somehow imperceptibly turn into watch). The same scientists found that a list of tasks helps to plan time more effectively, and if you don’t meet deadlines, then try to stick to them, which also increases the efficiency of work in general. So take a couple of minutes at the beginning of your day to make a to-do list, and you'll notice that you'll end up doing even more than you planned.

Create nature around you

When researchers in Michigan tested the effects of industrial and natural conditions environment on human productivity, they found that working in nature allowed participants scientific experiment concentrate as much as possible. Thus, try to surround yourself with nature, even if you have to be in the office all day. For example, put a forest landscape on your monitor screensaver or buy a small tree that you can put on the table and admire it as an emotional release. By the way, a walk for 15-30 minutes also counts: it not only allows you to increase productivity, but also becomes a kind of “reboot”, after which you can begin tasks with renewed vigor.

Effective people know how to manage time correctly and value every minute. If you are constantly short of time, spend a few more minutes to understand what you are doing wrong and where the precious resource is leaking. The day of those who manage to do everything also consists of 24 hours.

Super productive people are no different from anyone else. In addition, they value their time and know how to use it. Sometimes trivial and simple things can help save a lot of resources and significantly increase work efficiency. Travis Bradberry collected for Inc. 11 things that productive people do differently from everyone else.

When it comes to productivity, we all face the same problem - there are only 24 hours in a day. However, sometimes it feels like some people have twice as much time: they have some kind of supernatural ability to do everything. Even if they lead several projects, they achieve their goals and avoid failures.

“Time is the only capital a man has, and the only thing he cannot afford to lose,” Thomas Edison.

We all want more from life. There is hardly a better way to achieve this goal than to find a way to wisely manage the allotted time. Leaving the office after a really productive day feels really good. The so-called “working euphoria”. With the right approach, you can achieve this state every day. To do this, you don’t need to work longer or stimulate yourself more actively. You just need to work smarter.

Super productive people know this. They rely on productivity hacks to make them exponentially more efficient. They squeeze every second out of every hour without wasting time on unnecessary things. The best thing about these hacks is that they are easy to use. So much so that you can start doing it today. Read it, use it, and you will see how your productivity will increase.

1. Don't start things twice

Productive people never procrastinate because starting a task twice is a big waste of time. Don't put off writing or calling. As soon as something comes to your attention, either do it, delegate it, or delete it.

2. Prepare for tomorrow before leaving the office.

Productive people end each day preparing for the next. This practice solves two problems: it helps you structure what you did today and makes sure you're productive tomorrow. It only takes a couple of minutes, but it's great way end the working day.

“Every minute spent in planning is worth an hour of work,” Benjamin Franklin.

3. Eat a frog

“Eating a frog” is an American phrase that means “to do something deeply unpleasant.” "There is a frog" - best medicine from procrastination and super productive people start with this every morning. In other words, they do the most unpleasant and uninteresting tasks before all others. After that, they move on to the things that really inspire them.

4. Fight the “tyranny of the urgent”

The “tyranny of the urgent” is when small tasks that need to be done right now take time away from what is really important. This creates a big problem because immediate action usually has very little effect. If you succumb to the “tyranny of the urgent,” you may find yourself going days and sometimes weeks without doing important tasks. Productive people know how to notice in time when “burning” tasks begin to kill productivity and prefer to ignore them or delegate them.

5. Keep your meeting schedule

Meetings are the biggest time killers. Super productive people know that a meeting can go on forever unless it's set to a strict time limit, so they keep participants informed of the schedule from the beginning. The time limit prevents relaxation and makes everyone more efficient and focused.

6. Say no

“No” is a powerful word that super productive people aren’t afraid to use. When it comes to saying “no,” they don’t use phrases like “I don’t think I can,” “I’m not sure,” and the like. When you say no to a new commitment, you show respect for the ones you've already made and give yourself the opportunity to successfully keep them. A study conducted at the University of California San Francisco found that the more difficult it is for you to say “no,” the more likely you are to experience stress, job burnout, and even depression. Learn to use this word and your mood and productivity will improve.

7. Check your email only at designated times

Super productive people don't allow emails constantly distract them. Not only do they only check email at certain times, they use features that allow them to sort emails by sender. They set up notifications for emails from the most important vendors or users, and postpone the rest until a certain point. Some people even set an auto-reply message telling them the next time they check their email.

8. Don't do several things at once

Super productive people know that multitasking is a productivity killer. Research conducted at Stanford has confirmed that multitasking is less effective than working on one task at a time. Researchers have found that people who are constantly bombarded with electronic information are not able to concentrate, process data, or switch from one job to another as well as perform one specific task.

But what if there are people with natural multitasking abilities? Scientists at Stanford compared groups of people based on their propensity for multitasking and their belief that it was good for their productivity. They found that hard multitaskers—those who do many things at once and feel that doing so improves their performance—performed worse at this task than those who preferred to do one thing at a time. Permanent multi-taskers showed the worst results because they had problems with organization own thoughts and filtering unnecessary information. They were slower to switch from one task to another. Oops.

Multitasking reduces your efficiency because your brain is able to focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain doesn't have enough power to complete both tasks successfully.

9. Drop out of society

Don't be afraid to drop out of society when necessary. Give one person you trust a phone number to call in case of an emergency. Let this be your filter. Everything must go through this person, and if he does not consider this matter to be critical, let it wait. This strategy is a bulletproof way to finish high-priority projects.

“Some achieve weekly goals in a year, while others achieve annual goals in a week.” - Charles Richards.

10. Delegate

Super productive people accept the fact that they are not the only smart and talented people in the organization. They trust people with part of their work so they can concentrate on their core business.

11. Make technology work for you

Technology can be disruptive, but it can also help you focus. Super productive people make technology work for them. In addition to setting up email filters that sort and prioritize inboxes, they use apps like IFTTT that set up connections between other apps and notifications for things that really matter. So if your stock peaks or you receive an email from best buyer– you will be in the know. There is no need to constantly check your phone and updates.