2 quick WFH productivity tips
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I wanted to share 2 quick productivity tips with you.
I’ve been doing these things lately, and they’ve helped me:
Get a lot more done…
Experience less work anxiety…
Effectively end my days — without feeling like I still have a zillion things left to do.
Tip #1: Plan out your daily tasks the day (or week) before. And then do those things, one-by-one, in that order, until you finish them.
This is called “The Ivy Lee Method.” And I first learned about it in this blog post from James Clear.
It sounds simple, but it’s effective.
Don’t check email in the middle of a call if you don’t have to.
Don’t try to write a blog post and send Slack messages at the same time.
Don’t switch to back-and-forth between your tasks if you get bored with one of them.
Do one task, by itself, until you finish it. Then move on to the next one.
Tip #2: Time yourself.
Tip #1 gets a lot more fun (yes, I said fun) if you use a Pomodoro Timer.
This is something I started doing after going through this course from Ian Stanley (not an affiliate link).
Basically, you work in 25-minute blocks with little breaks in-between. And it’s fun to challenge yourself to try to knock out complete projects within those blocks.
For me, it’s led to getting things done much more quickly. And that makes sense, according to Parkinson’s Law, which is:
“Work expands or contracts in proportion to the amount of time you give yourself to complete it.”
…or something like that.
Basically, if you give yourself 2 hours to complete something, you’ll finish it in 2 hours.
If you give yourself 2 days to complete something, you’ll finish it in 2 days.
Anyway, just thought these things might help you get more done — or at least be a little less stressed out while you’re working from home.
Try them out today or tomorrow and let me know if they help.
Robert
P.S. You don’t have to be super dogmatic about these things for them to work, either.
Sometimes I switch between tasks. And I don’t always use a Pomodoro Timer.
But following these 2 tips more often than not has been super helpful for me.