Welcome to 3 ideas for 2 minutes –
Productivity Top Tips that give you time.
Favourite Read
Clarty & Creativity
Increase clarity and creativity in just 10 minutes a day. This article by productivity pro Benjamin Hardy demonstrates how to get more out of the old adage to ‘sleep on it’ with two practices to help cultivate and capture great ideas. Said to work for former chess...
Sit-stand desks
Fast Company exposes the truth about standing desks and productivity. Contrary to recent stat that those who used sit-stand desks were 46% more productive, the actual link to productivity is more indirect through the health, happiness and mental agility of not sitting...
15 things productive people focus on
Addicted to Distraction
Procrastination blog (Todoist)
I loved this blog about why we really procrastinate by personal analytics expert Belle Beth Cooper. She exposes procrastination as a habit and presents 8 helpful strategies to help manage it.My favourite is number 7 which is also picked up in this edition's Favourite...
Only five email folders for any inbox
Sort emails in folders? This Fast Company article will be an eye opener.
Quitting coffee doubled his productivity
Do you love coffee because of the energy it brings or is it something you rely on to get things done?
Favourite Tool
Varidesk
Instead of investing in a £300 sit/stand desk, get the benefit of movement with the Varidesk App. It’s a timer that reminds you when you’ve been sitting for too long. Also tracks the number of calories burned while standing. As Fast Company revealed, it’s neither one...
Todoist
Blinkist
Pomodoro Pro App
Derived from the Pomodoro Technique this tool allows us to create blocks of time to focus on a single task, while eliminating distraction. The tool I like is the Pomodoro Pro App. To monitor focus time, without the annoying ticking sound of the kitchen timer Pomodoro,...
RescueTime
Ever wanted to try a time audit? This tool could help.
Know the value of your time
Is there someone who could do a task equally well, if not better?
Favourite Experiment
Time for Timeouts
I have a cyclical approach to getting things done: energise, prioritise, focus. When things get busy it’s tempting to revert to 'do, do, do.' I wanted to check the robustness of my approach so on one of my busiest days I deliberately made time for timeouts. Simple...
Focus playlist with headphones
Not always having the luxury of a quiet work environment, I’ve been experimenting with ways to maintain focus while chaos reigns all around. What I’m finding works best is tuning in to one of the ‘Focus’ playlists on my preferred music streaming app, Spotify....
18 minutes a day
Collection points – head for thinking
White board
To make sure my daily frog jobs* stand out from the crowd I tap into my visual side and have started using a dedicated white board. What I find works best for me is that the whiteboard is small, eye catching and most importantly used ONLY to display these most crucial...
Deadline-driven email folders
Inspired by Zac Hanlon’s piece on deadline-driven email folders I gave it a try.
Just get started
I often find my tasks bigger than the perceived time to do them.