Increasing personal effectiveness: tips from Mark Andreessen

One of my favorite treats is productivity porn, efficiency porn. Or, for those who are in the subject - pr0n. This is a set of techniques, tactics and tricks to maximize personal effectiveness. What is called "getting things done."

I use the following techniques in the complex, but perhaps not all of them will be useful to you specifically. Even if you get one or two ideas, it means that my goal will be achieved. So let's start suddenly.

Do not make yourself a schedule

Yes, you're crazy! - you will tell me. No, I'm serious. If you manage to live without a schedule (and in many jobs it is impossible), then you will greatly increase your efficiency. By lack of a schedule, I understand the following: refusal of meetings and other events rigidly tied to any time in the future. As a result, you will be able to work on what is more important or interesting to you now.
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Want to write a research report all day? OK. Code? You are welcome. To spend the whole day in a cafe with a book on improving personal efficiency? No problem.

If someone writes to you “we will meet on Tuesday at 3 o'clock,” the correct answer would be: “I do not compile a calendar this year, so I don’t promise anything. Call me on Tuesday at 2:45 - if possible, I will meet. " If this is very important - write "come on right now."

Of course, not everyone can. If your work is clearly painted, or you are the CEO, it will be difficult to do. But if you can - it is very liberating, and leads to higher productivity than any other methods. I took the idea from the book A Perfect Mess (Ideal Mess), which describes how the lack of a timetable helped Arnold Schwarzenegger to become a star, politician and businessman over the past 20 years.

Want to meet Arnold? Come on in. If he can, he will receive you. But it is better to call in advance. No, he does not schedule meetings in advance. As a result, he spent 20 years working on what was most important at any given time. Whoever followed his election campaign in California, knows how he turned out to be wildly active and easily won the election. The book describes that all this time his calendar was empty, and he could spend a whole day in his career as a politician, not worrying about the agreements and not being distracted by anything.

If at some point in your life you existed on a strict schedule, you know that there is nothing more liberating than, having looked at the calendar, to realize that you have nothing planned for the week ahead, and you can do what is important and necessary. you. It also increases your chances of successful entry and work " in the stream ", which is a topic for a separate conversation, albeit strongly related to the issue of productivity.

I conducted such an experiment on myself in 2007, that those who tried to arrange a meeting with me or invite to the conference will be able to confirm. And I became so happier that I can't even convey. I had time to concentrate on the really important things - in my case these were two companies, charities and my beautiful spouse.

The good news is that this tactic does not force you to completely abandon something. Some things that are simply impossible to refuse, still penetrate the calendar. But you can still draw a line between "necessary" and "kind of interesting, but I do not obey the schedule."

To-do lists

Keep three, and only three lists: a to-do list, a tracking list (watch) and a to-do list (later).

In the to-do list put all the things that "must" be done. Promises, obligations, and so on. One list that can be categorized by time (today, next week, next week, next month).

Everything that needs to be tracked gets into the tracking list - what do you expect from someone to answer, reminders about future affairs, and so on.

The rest of the list gets everything else. All that you would like to do when there is time for it.

If something does not fit into one of these lists, it is discarded.

Every evening, prepare a small card with a list of 3-5 things you will do tomorrow. And do these things tomorrow. Personally, I sit at the table before going to bed, open my todo list (I have it stored in Microsoft Word in Outline mode, according to the old habit), and choose 3-5 cases that I am going to do tomorrow and write them down on a card. The next day I try very hard to do these things. If I succeed, the day is considered a success.

Many who have tried various productive porn will tell you that this technique is the most effective of all that they have tried. When it becomes a habit with you, you realize how many days you have spent without doing these most important 3-5 things.

During the day, use the back of the card for a list called “anti-todo”. Every time you have done something important, write it on the list. You will feel a rush of endorphins. At the end of the day, enjoy this list of things done. Then tear it up and throw it away - that’s another successful day.

I really like this technique - putting nicks on my belt of achievement, so to speak. When I write down all the important things that I have done, I feel extremely productive and efficient. Much more than if I just did something and did not record. Also, remember the days when you rush like a squirrel in a wheel, talk to people, call, answer letters, fill out forms - and when you return home, completely exhausted, you think: “and what did I do today?” . Anti-todo will give you a clear answer. By the way, you need to always carry a handle.

Structured Procrastination

This great thing was invented by John Perry, a professor of philosophy at Stanford. I recommend reading the original description of this technique. There is a photo where a professor on the beach jumps over a rope of algae while he is waiting for work.

The essence of the technique is that you do not need to deal with the desire to prostrastinate - on the contrary, you need to use it for your own purposes. Often there are such things that you are not going to do, because you prokrastiniruete. And while you are coloring, just do a bunch of everything else.

The professor writes: “The to-do list in the head is always sorted by importance. The most important tasks at the top. But there are always worthy things that are just below. And when you do them, this is the way not to do those that are high. By doing so, the procrastinator becomes a useful member of society. Thus, in general, you can earn the reputation of a person who has a lot of time - how I did it. ”

Reading an essay was one of the revelations of my life. For example, I hate phoning. I love email, personal meetings - but I hate calls. I can do so many things while I avoid a call — it's hard to believe in it. Right now, for example, I am doing this.

Strategic incompetence

The best way to ensure that you are not asked to do something is to completely overwhelm the work the first time you were asked to do it. It is even better to try immediately to convince the applicant that you will fill up the work. Of course, provided that there are more important things that you need to do and that you understand.

Organizing a corporate picnic, sending faxes or parcels, communicating with insurers ... The list of cases in which you may be strategically incompetent is endless.

post office

Mail twice a day. For example, in the morning, and at the end of the working day. Allocate for half an hour, or as much as you need, and the rest of the time, do not launch the email client and do not set up confirmation of receipt of messages. If someone urgently needs to find you, they can call, send a messenger, give a smoke signal, or come up with something else. And the best thing is to find someone else who will do what they need.

If you communicate with your beloved relatives by email during the day, simply set up a separate account for them and check it. A worker does not open. And do not give anyone this family contact. In doing so, you will feel increased productivity. The fact is that by receiving and responding to emails, you get the very flow of endorphins as a result of the task performed. This creates the effect of achieving something. Therefore, you are constantly distracted by the incoming mail and get satisfaction from it. And in fact, you break your schedule, get out of the stream and kill the possibility of concentrating on the long-term tasks that make up quality work.

This is easier said than done. And it is difficult to do when you are busy with a project that constantly updates. Personally, I'm still trying to reduce the number of mail checks to 5-6 per day. Work with the mail as follows.

First, terminate the mail handling session with empty Inbox. When I know that I have letters left there, it is difficult for me to concentrate on other things.

Second, either send each incoming letter to the right place, or reply to it. If you are not working on a schedule, this makes it easier for the task - you can often answer “sorry, but I do not work on a schedule, so I can’t promise.”

Thirdly, letters relating to current projects or urgent things go to the temporary subfolder of the special section “Urgent”. In this section there should be subfolders only for really necessary and urgent things. You process emails from these subfolders while working on relevant tasks during the day.

Fourth, in addition to these folders from the “Urgent” keep only three additional folders: “Waiting”, “Understand” and “Storage”.
Letters go to “Waiting”, to which you will have to return - for example, someone promises you something, and you want to not forget about it.

In the "Understand" are letters that need to be studied in more detail.

The rest goes to the "Vault". Periodically check the subfolders from the “Urgent” folder and the “Waiting” and “Understand” folders, and drop everything that is no longer needed in the “Vault”.

And that's all. No need to fence a lot of different subfolders, because modern customers are well able to look for in letters. Of course, you may need additional folders, for example for contracts, or letters from a doctor, etc. - but these are exceptions that do not change the main procedure.

Do not answer calls

Let everything fall into the voice mail, and then you periodically check it, and respond to the right. For example, twice a day. Now it is possible to afford two phones or two sim cards, one of which will be intended for relatives, close friends and the boss, and the second for the rest. Answer only calls first.

Hide from distractions in headphones

One of the easiest ways to reduce distractions is to wear headphones. For some reason, people feel worse distracting the person in the headphones. This is a great way - often people walk around, say something, then notice that you're in headphones, apologize and leave. Because in half of the cases, they don’t really really need to talk to you, and in the other half it will be enough for them to send you a letter that you can view at the end of the day during the mail processing session.

In this case, you do not need to listen to something. You can keep your headphones on at all.

I will not spread about the mode of the day, because everyone has it individually. Personally, I am 99% of the time - an owl, and 1% of the time (I want to bring up to 2%) - a lark. But the more important point, no matter how much you get up, be sure to start the day with a hearty breakfast. There are two reasons for this.

First, you refuel. Breakfast is actually the most important of the meals. It is very important to feed yourself before a busy day, and it is also important in order to stay slim, or lose weight. Those who have a bad breakfast usually eat more at lunch.

Secondly, you can calmly and quietly think about the day ahead. It seems to me that it is worth trying to lie down a bit early in order to get up early and be able to calmly have breakfast and think for 45 minutes.

Agree only on what you are interested in.

Agree only when the mind and the heart together say yes. This is the rule of Robert Evans, I recommend his audiobook . It is very easy to be in a situation where you are asked to do something, and you understand that it is necessary, but the heart says “no” - and the mouth says “yes.” As a result, your calendar is filled with events that seemed necessary and important at the time of the discussion, and now you don’t want to do them. And what's more, they distract you from really important things. And you become aggressive, reticent and angry.

To discern, with your head you agree or with your heart, experience is required. It seems to me that the main difference is whether you are excited at the same time. If you feel a pleasant rush of adrenaline, then your heart says yes. By the way, if suddenly the heart says “yes” and the head says “no”, you still better say “yes”. But not vice versa. Do what you love.

In general, from the above it should be clear that it is better to strive to free your life in order to achieve your dreams and follow basic interests. If most of the time you do not do what you love, and you have at least some personal freedom, it’s time to change the situation. And I'm not talking about what you might like to do. Just what you really like.