Productivity!
We all seem to want to be more and more productive. With more to do, in seemingly less time – any tips are most welcome, right?
So here are 3 tips that can help you.
The first two are to do with reading. Why? Because almost everyone I meet (that’s into developing themselves, in any case) wishes they read more.
In the five years since I’ve rediscovered my reading (before that I was an occasional reader, whereas now I’ll always have a book on the go), I’ve read around 200 books. I did that from a combination of things, but in this post, the first two tips I share, are two of the things I did.
1) Read on a Kindle
For a long time I was against buying one. I felt that that wasn’t the way to read books. Here’s the thing though. Just because you learn how to drive a car, it doesn’t mean that you have to stop riding a bike. You can still read ‘normal’ books. Indeed, I sometimes still do. Especially if I want to reference them again later, share them, know it’s a book I’ll want to highlight/make notes in or some other reason. But you can also read them on a kindle.
Why?
When commuting to/from work and other places I found it a lot easier. You can read bigger books, you can read one handed (leaving the other hand to hold on to the rail), it’s easier to carry and easy to get out of your pocket (and you don’t have to take your backpack off – although I recommend doing that anyway, if you’re on a crowded tube/train – c’mon people!).
Not only that, but I found myself more likely to pull it out when I wouldn’t use a normal book. Like waiting in line for something, or even sometimes in a lift! As a result, you get more pages in. And get through the book quicker all the while using time that would otherwise have been wasted.
Also, with a kindle-type device you can adjust the font size. Why is this important? I found that I tended to read faster if I adjusted the font size. Usually bigger. Why? It’s part of how we read really. If you still read where you are effectively reading each word out in your head, that’s pretty slow. One of the reading skills I’ve developed has been Photoreading (worth looking up and investing in a course). As part of that, you learn to take in sentences rather than words. This all sounds complicated, but let me share with you a resource that can also prove that you can read much faster than you think. And that you don’t need to read all the words to get the meaning. Check out http://accelareader.com. Have a play with that. Great for any long documents you need to read!
So first productivity tip is to read on a Kindle.
2) Use audio books and training
I’m a big fan of using audio now to grow my learning. Think of how much time is otherwise wasted in commuting, washing dishes, ironing, cleaning, walking! By listening to books and training you get a whole host of knowledge without taking up any more time. What Tony Robbins likes to call NET – No Extra Time!
When I heard Brian Tracy talk about how you should make your car a university on wheels, it really struck a chord with me. I don’t own or use a car (despite having had a licence since I was 17, I’ve never owned a car), but I had a 10 minute walk either side of my 10 minute commute on the tube (London Underground). This would otherwise have been dead time. Sure, I could listen to music, but where’s that really going to get me in life? I still have some music on my phone – but that’s mainly to get me into state before delivering a presentation or heading out for the evening. Generally though, if you see me with headphones in I’ll be listening to a podcast, training audio or book.
It’s a great way to read more and learn more without taking up any extra time. I recommend getting in on the action!
3) Have your phone on airplane more and out of sight
Lately, I’ve been finding myself putting my phone more and more on airplane mode during the day (it’s always on that overnight). I first decided to do this while away in Miami as I wasn’t using it much and it conserved the battery immensely. So now, I have it on airplane mode when I’m out and about – that way the phone lasts the day!
As a useful side effect, it meant that I didn’t check the phone as much as I knew there would be no notifications (which I have off anyway, but there’s always SMS which is still on). You also don’t get interrupted by phone calls.
But surely I need my phone to be reachable? I hear you say.
No. I believe that you should live your day on your agenda. Not someone else’s. Sure, if you have kids or some other good reason (and I mean good) where it needs to be on then, fine, this might not work for you. But I encourage you to give it a try (you can always leave a landline number for emergencies). When you turn it off airplane mode (at certain time periods or after completing the big piece of work you are working on) you can get back to those people. It’s rarely life or death. If it is – i.e. you’re a doctor on call – then fine, use your judgement on this one.
What you’ll find is that as the days and weeks go by, you’ll be less addicted to your phone. You’ll also have a longer battery life, you won’t have all the EMF’s attracted to your body (which I don’t believe is good for you) and you’ll be more productive.
As an addition or alternative. Pop the phone out of sight. Maybe in the desk drawer, or even the other room if you work from home and can do that.
It’s true though, that if it’s out of sight, it’s eventually going to become out of mind too.
This really works for me.
So, there you have it. Three time saving productivity tips that will work – if you work them.
- Read on a kindle-type device
- Listen to audio books and training
- Put phone to airplane mode and away
What do you think? Do you practise any of those methods already?
