33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity

Heuristics are rules intended to help in solving problems.  When a problem is large or complex and the optimal solution is unclear, applying a heuristic allows beginning and making progress towards a solution even though one can’t visualize the entire path in detail from start point.

Suppose goal is to climb to the peak of a mountain, but there’s no trail to follow,  head directly towards the peak until one reaches an obstacle one can’t cross.  Whenever one reaches such an obstacle, follow it around to the right until one is able to head towards the peak once again.  This isn’t the most intelligent or comprehensive heuristic, but in many cases it will work just fine and one will eventually reach the mountain peak.

Heuristics don’t guarantee one will find the optimal solution, nor do they generally guarantee a solution at all.  But they do a good enough job of solving certain types of problems to be useful.  Their strength is that they break the deadlock of indecision and get into action.  As one takes action one begins to explore the solution space, which deepens understanding of the problem.  As one gains knowledge about the problem, one can make course corrections along the way, gradually improving chances of finding a solution.  If one tries to solve a problem one doesn’t initially know how to solve, one will often figure out a solution as one goes, one could never have imagined until he started moving.  This is especially true with creative work where solutions are not readily known.  Often one doesn’t even know exactly what he is trying to build until he starts building it.

Heuristics have many practical applications and one of favorite areas of application is personal productivity.  Productivity heuristics are behavioral rules (some general, some situation-specific) that can help in getting things done more efficiently.  Here are some of them.

1.    Nuke it - The most efficient way to get through a task is to delete it.  If it doesn’t need to be done, get it off to do list. It may seem to be difficult as people have emotions attached to tasks. Many times, one may get an answer like; it is to be done as it was done yesterday.

2.    Daily goals - Without a clear focus, it’s too easy to succumb to distractions.  Set targets for each day in advance.  Decide what one will do; then do it.

3.    Worst first - To defeat procrastination learn to tackle most unpleasant task, do it as the first thing in the morning instead of delaying it until later in the day.  This small victory will set the tone for a very productive day.

4.    Peak times - Identify peak cycles of productivity and schedule most important tasks for those times.  Work on minor tasks during non-peak times.

5.    No-communication zones - Allocate uninterruptible blocks of time for solo work where one must concentrate.  Schedule light, interruptible tasks for open-communication periods and more challenging projects for no-communication periods.

6.    Mini-milestones - When one begins a task, identify the target that must be reached before one can stop working. 

7.    Timeboxing - Give oneself a fixed time period, like 30 minutes, to make a dent in a task.  Don’t worry about how far one gets.  Just put in the time. 

8.    Batching - Batch similar tasks like phone calls or errands into a single chunk and knock them off in a single session.

9.    Early bird - Get up early in the morning and go straight to work on most important task.  One can often get more done than most people do in a day.

10. Cone of silence - Take a laptop with no network or WiFi access and go to a place where one can work flat out without distractions, such as a library, park, coffee house or one’s own backyard.  Leave communication gadgets behind.

11. Tempo - Deliberately pick up the pace and try to move a little faster than usual.  Speak faster.  Walk faster.  Type faster.  Read faster.  Go home sooner.

12. Relaxify - Reduce stress by cultivating a relaxing, clutter-free workspace. 

13. Agendas - Provide clear written agendas to meeting participants in advance.  This greatly improves meeting focus and efficiency.  One can use it for phone calls too.

14. Pareto - The Pareto principle is the 80-20 rule, which states that 80% of the value of a task comes from 20% of the effort.  Focus energy on that critical 20% and don’t overengineer the non-critical 80%.

15. Ready-fire-aim - Bust procrastination by taking action immediately after setting a goal, even if the action isn’t perfectly planned. One can always adjust course along the way.

16. Minuteman - Once one has the information needed to make a decision, start a timer and give oneself just 60 seconds to make the actual decision.  Take a whole minute to vacillate and second-guess oneself all one wants, but come out the other end with a clear choice.  Once decision is made, take some kind of action to set it in motion.

17. Deadline - Set a deadline for task completion and use it as a focal point to stay on track.

18. Promise - Tell others of commitments, since they’ll help hold one accountable.

19. Punctuality - Whatever it takes, show up on time.  Arrive early.

20. Gap reading - Use reading to fill in those odd periods like waiting for an appointment, standing in line or while the coffee is brewing. 

21. Resonance - Visualize goal as already accomplished.  Put oneself into a state of actually being there.  Make it real in mind and one’ll soon see it in reality.

22. Glittering prizes - Give oneself frequent rewards for achievement.  See a movie, book a professional massage or spend a day at an amusement park.

23. Quadrant 2 - Separate the truly important tasks from the merely urgent.  Allocate blocks of time to work on the critical Quadrant 2 tasks, those, which are important but rarely urgent, such as physical exercise, writing a book and finding a relationship partner.

24. Continuum - At the end of workday, identify the first task one’ll work on the next day and set out the materials in advance.  The next day begin working on that task immediately.

25. Slice and dice - Break complex projects into smaller, well-defined tasks.  Focus on completing just one of those tasks.

26. Single-handling - Once one begins a task, stick with it until it’s 100% complete.  Don’t switch tasks in the middle.  When distractions come up, jot them down to be dealt with later.

27. Randomize - Pick a totally random piece of a larger project and complete it.  Pay one random bill.  Make one phone call.  Write page 42 of book.

28. Insanely bad - Defeat perfectionism by completing task in an intentionally terrible fashion, knowing one need never share the results with anyone.  Write a blog post about the taste of salt, design a hideously dysfunctional web site or create a business plan that guarantees a first-year bankruptcy.  With a truly horrendous first draft, there’s nowhere to go but up.

29. 30 days - Identify a new habit one would like to form and commit to sticking with it for just 30 days.  A temporary commitment is much easier to keep than a permanent one. 

30. Delegate - Convince someone else to do it.

31. Cross-pollination - Sign up for martial arts, start a blog or join an improve group.  One will often encounter ideas in one field that can boost performance in another.

32. Intuition - Go with gut instinct.  It’s probably right.

33. Optimization - Identify the processes one uses most often and write them down step-by-step. Refactor them on paper for greater efficiency.  Then implement and test improved processes.  Sometimes we just can’t see what’s right in front of us until we examine it under a microscope.