Welcome to 3 ideas for 2 minutes –
Productivity Top Tips that give you time.
Favourite Read
100 blocks a day
Have you ever stopped to consider how much time you wake up with each day? This blog post by Tim Urban of Wait But Why recommends chunking time into 10 minute blocks which leaves us with approximately 100 blocks a day. It sounds generous doesn't it? Certainly made me...
Quitting coffee
Do you love coffee? Is it because of the caffeine-infused pleasant buzz of energy it brings or is it something you rely on to get things done? Digital marketer, Mike Fishbein tells his story claiming quitting coffee doubled his productivity. He offers 3 key ideas to...
Mountain of emails
A client shared this very practical article ‘How to get on top of the inbox mountain.’ It highlights the direct link between stress levels and a full inbox with some anecdotal suggestions for how to manage it. My favourite is the‘Video Game Method’ - you can’t move on...
Multitasking is Pointless
Entrepreneur blogger Jon Westenbergshares why the most productive people know that multitasking is pointless and what they do instead. It centres on the preservation of energy - task switching is draining. This advice may not be new but do we heed it? Let's not be...
Live Asynchronously
Ever considered working without the concept of time? In the interest of getting more done, coding expert Quincy Larson invites us to do just that in his blog post 'Live asynchronously'. The benefits it seems are reduced distractions and an opportunity to get into a...
Too Busy
This insightful Linked-In post from Dr Travis Bradberry claims busyness can make us less productive. He pits multitasking against mindfulness, sharing evidence on the importance of slowing down if we want to do our best. Leaves me with a question - am I just busy...
Digital Assistant
This article from Business.com heralds five ways a digital assistant can improve workplace productivity. Benefits include: Time saved checking team status as the chasing is done for you. Scheduling meetings and reminders. Replacing the need to type which apparently...
3 Day work week
The Daily Telegraph made a case this week for why we should all be working a 3 day week. Technological progress, in theory, should be making us more efficient, yet many businesses still have a culture of long hours. This article offers helpful tips for avoiding the...
Take regular breaks
We know it's not possible to be productive all of the time which is why taking regular breaksis critical for productivity. The question is, do we recharge right? This article from PC Mag explains how. Good news for time savers is that short, intermittent breaks are...
Time to innovate
What can this 11 year old teach us about productivity? As an accomplished composer, Alma has achieved a lot in her short years. How? By making space for innovation. Inspired by Alma's approach this piece suggests practical ways to be more innovative at work. Einstein...
Favourite Tool
Fiverr and PeopleperHour
A golden rule for getting things done is to know the value of your time. Is there someone who could do a task equally well, if not better? I highlyrecommend Fiverr and Peopleperhour,online marketplaces for freelance services - anything from graphic design to business...
Robin Sharma 90:90:1
There's huge value in giving the best hours of your day to move forward on something meaningful. However, the temptation is to spend this golden time on fake work. The tool to turn this around is Robin Sharma's 90:90:1 rule. For the next 90 days, spend the first 90...
Standing Desk, John Hinton
Since our last update I've had the pleasure of working with a group of charity managers, all part of the Imagine Foundation, helping them with Timewise Productivity. This is John Hinton of Handcrafted, a Durham-based charity that uses enterprising projects & work...
Acuity Scheduling
Scheduling meetings has to be one of life's biggest time sucks. Checking availability, confirming, then someone realises they've been double booked! Enter Acuity Scheduling. An online tool that allows clients and colleagues to see your real-time availability and...
Alone Zone
Most of our time at work is with others - meetings, calls and open plan offices. The question is, how conducive is this to getting things done? Authors of 'Rework', Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, recommend getting into an Alone Zone. Quite simply it means...
Juice Plus
We all know it's important to eat well - we need to in order to perform. Yet it's our over commitment to busy lives that means we often don't have the time. As much as I try to eat a range of fruit and vegetables every day, the reality is I don't. To bridge the gap I...
Parkinson’s Law
Less of a tool and more a guiding principle, I was reminded recently of the value of Parkinson's Law. The basic rule is that work expands to fill the allotted time e.g. give 12 hours to do a 6 hour task and it will take 12 hours! Being time savvy though, I find I get...
Yesterbox
I love this email management technique from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. He calls it Yesterbox - schedule time to deal with emails a day later. It's a game changer - control, not be controlled by your inbox. Could it work for you? Click here.
Udemy
To stay at the top of our game requires continuous learning. A resource I frequently use to get up to date with the latest thinking is Udemy. From Accounting to Zumba, the range of courses is infinite. It's accessible from your computer or smartphone and if I download...
Unroll.me
How many mailing lists do you subscribe to? Probably more than you realise adding to an already busy inbox. Some are helpful, many less so. Unsubscribing takes time and often doesn't work. Enter Unroll.me a nifty tool that allows you to unsubscribe from unwanted...
Favourite Experiment
Change the channel in the brain
I've been reading about residual attention i.e. how focus gets split when we move between tasks. To be more present with whatever I'm doing I've been trying to consciously change the channel in my brain instead of flitting unconsciously from one thing to the next....
Tus maith leath na h’oibre
I often find my tasks bigger than the perceived time to do them. It's tempting to wait until I 'have more time', which inevitably never comes and procrastination sets in. Instead I've taken to the advice of a favourite Irish saying 'Tús maith leath na h’oibre' (in...
Cold Shower
A cold shower first thing in the morning? You have to be kidding me! Research cites countless benefits including increased alertness, improved immunity and circulation, stress relief so, I had to try it. For the past fortnight I’ve been ending my normal warm shower...
Metaphorical Dishwasher
Last week I spoke at a gathering in Dublin for the 30% Club, the voluntary movement championing gender balance on boards. The topic was 'A Better Breed of Busy' questioning whether or not there's a difference in the work tasks men and women choose and most importantly...
Achieve in a day vs a year
I've recently been reminded of a mindset shift that keeps me focused on long term progress. Don't overestimate what can be done in a dayyet underestimate what can be achieved in a year. As soon as I feel like I have everything to do overwhelm creeps in. Then the...
Red flag
I love my iPhone but can't stand the sight of red dots showing something new. This red dot-itis means I'm compelled to 'just quickly check' so I can erase the redness and all is well again. Of course this takes me away from whatever I was doing, often brings me down a...
Why be more productive?
Recently I've been questioning WHY I want to be more productive? If it's just to get more things done then I'll just end up doing more things. My realisation is that the real end game of productivity is to create time for what I want more of in life. In a recent...
Reset
Ever start the day with a clear plan of what needs to be done only to find by the end of the day it's been completely derailed? I used to suffer the same plight and hear similar complaints from clients. What I find works particularly well is a Mental Reset at regular...
Snack hacks (almonds)
Fuel to focus is critical. One of my favourite snack hacks is roasted almonds. I've learned it's healthier to eat almonds that way so what I do is: take a bag of almonds, soak them in water for a couple of hours, drain, then roast in the oven until dried out. I...
One touch email
How many times do you check emails in a day? Often it's just a glance, to see what's in there but not do anything about it. A great time saver I learned from a friend is the 'One Touch Email' approach. The idea is to touch each email once which means reading it,...