33 rules to increase your productivity (Steve Pavlina)

Original: 33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity
Posted by: Steve Pavlina
Translation: Evgeny Efremov

Heuristics is a set of rules designed to help you solve your problems. When a task is complex or simply large, and the optimal solution is unclear, applying heuristic methods will help you advance in solving it, even if you do not have a clear vision of the entire solution.
Suppose your goal is to conquer a mountain, but no road leads to the top. An example of a heuristic solution could be: Move directly to the top until you meet an obstacle that you cannot overcome. When you encounter a similar obstacle, follow it to the right until you can move to the top again. This is not the best or most complete use of heuristics, but in many cases it will work fine and you will reach the top.
Heuristics do not guarantee that you will find the optimal solution, moreover, it does not guarantee that you will find at least some solution. But for a certain type of problem, heuristics can be quite useful. Its strength is that it helps to get the ball rolling when you cannot make a decision and take action. When you take action, you explore options that deepen your understanding of the task. And getting more information about the task, you gradually increase your chances of finding a solution. If you are trying to solve a problem without knowing exactly how to do it, you can often find a solution in the process. And this, to which they could not have thought of, without starting to act. This is especially true for creative activities, such as software development. There you often don’t know what you want to do until you start doing it.
Heuristics has many applications, one of my favorites is application in personal productivity. Heuristics in productivity problems is a set of behavioral rules (sometimes common, sometimes situational) that help us do things more effectively. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Get rid of it! The most effective way to deal with tasks is to delete the unnecessary from the list. If something is not so necessary to do - remove this task from your “Make” list.
2. Everyday goals. Easily waste your time on unnecessary things if you are not focused on specific goals. Set goals for the coming day. Decide what you need to do; the next day - do it.
3. The worst is first. In order to cope with the delay, learn to perform the most unpleasant tasks at the beginning of the day, instead of putting them off until the very end. A small victory will set a productive tone throughout the day.
4. Peak time. Determine the time of the day at which you have the greatest productivity and plan for this time the most important tasks. Work on less important tasks in less productive time.
5. Non-interaction areas. For work that requires maximum concentration, allocate time intervals in which you should not be distracted. For periods when you are open to interact with others, plan the easiest tasks; more difficult projects leave to your non-interaction zones.
6. Small milestones. Starting the task, determine the goal, before reaching which you do not stop working. If you are writing a book, you may decide that you will not get up from the chair until you have written at least a thousand words. Reach this goal, whatever it takes.
7. Timeboxing ( Hard time limit ). In order to somehow move the task, select a limited period of time - 30 minutes, for example. Do not care about how far you will go. Just work for the allotted time. See Timeboxing ( in English ) for more details.
8. Batch mode. Combine similar tasks (like phone calls) into one group, and then deal with them in one sitting.
9. Early bird. Get up early in the morning, for example at 5 in the morning, and get to work on your most important task right away. Soon you will find that you have time to do before 8 am as much as others cannot in a day.
10. A corner of silence. Take your laptop (without access to the Network) and go to some quiet place (such as a library, park, coffee shop or your own backyard), in which you can safely, without being distracted by work. Leave all your communications at home.
11. Pace. Thoughtfully select the desired rhythm and try to act a little faster than usual. Speak faster. Walk faster. Print faster. Read faster. Come home earlier.
12. Relaxation. Reduce stress by creating a relaxing, relaxed workplace. See 10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace (translation: 10 ways to relax the workplace ).
13. Agenda. Prepare and provide a clear plan of the event to all participants in advance. This will greatly increase the effectiveness of the event. You can use it for phone calls.
14. Pareto. The Pareto principle says - 80% of what needs to be done requires only 20% of your efforts. Focus your efforts on these critical 20% and do not overload on the remaining 80%.
15. Get ready-Plie-Aim. Get rid of your habit of postponing - start acting as soon as you set a goal. Even if you did not have time to make a clear plan of action. You can always adjust the direction in the process of movement.
16. Man of the minute. Once you get the information you need to make a decision, set the timer to 60 seconds - this is your time to make a decision. You will have a whole minute to doubt and hesitate, but after it has passed - have a clear decision. Once the decision is made, do something to give it a turn.
17. Deadline. Set a deadline when work should be performed. Use it as a guide to stay on track.
18. Promise. Tell people about your decisions; they will help you not to abandon them in the future.
19. Punctuality. Whatever the cost, come on time. And even early.
20. Short reading. Use reading to fill short waiting periods, such as standing in line, waiting for a meeting, or while coffee is being made. If you are a man, you can read even when you shave (preferably an electric razor). This is 365 articles per year.
21. Resonance. Visualize your goals as if they were already achieved. Enter the state as if you already reached the goal. Make it real in your mind, and soon it will be truly real.
22. Frequent rewards. Set yourself frequent rewards for achieving small and large goals. Watch a movie, go for a professional massage, or spend the day at the amusement park.
23. Quadrant 2 . Separate the really important tasks from the urgent ones. Allocate time spans to work on quadrant 2 tasks that are important but rarely urgent — such as physical training, writing a book, or searching for a loved one.
24. Continuum ( Continuous Field of Activity ). At the end of the working day, determine the task that you will work on tomorrow morning and prepare all the necessary materials for this. Start the next day with work on this task.
25. Divide and rule. Break a complex project into smaller, well-defined tasks. Focus on doing just one such task.
26. One at a time. When you have begun work on the task - keep working on it until you have done it completely. Do not switch in the middle of work. When something distracts you, just write it down, in order to figure it out later — when you're done.
27. By chance. Take a completely arbitrary part of the project, and execute it. Pay the first invoice. Make one call. Write page 42 of your book.
28. Insanely bad. Defeat high demands on yourself by doing your job as much as possible, terribly bad (knowing that you don’t need to share the results with anyone). Write an article about the taste of salt, make a terribly non-functional website, or write a business plan that will guarantee your ruin in the very first year. Now, having made such a terrible attempt, then you can only do better :).
29. 30 days. Choose a habit that you want to work out in yourself and give yourself the word to devote it to just 30 days. A temporary commitment is always easier to keep than an indefinite one. See 30 Days to Success (translation: 30 days (before) success ).
30. Delegate. Have someone do it for you.
31. Cross-pollination. Get into a martial art, start a blog or join a development group. Often you can find an idea in one area that will increase your productivity in another.
32. Intuition. Trust your instincts. Often they are right.
33. Optimization. Identify the process you perform most often and describe it in steps. On paper, improve these steps so as to achieve greater efficiency. Now test your new process in practice. Sometimes we cannot see what is in front of us until we examine it under a microscope.

This article is copyright © by Steve Pavlina and is reprinted with permission. For more personal development articles, visit Steve Pavlina's Personal Development for Smart People
Translation © Eugene Efremov, 2007

Initial publication : Project “All Steve Pavlina. com in Russian! "