There are, I promise.<\/p>\n
The problem for all of us busy people though is maximising<\/em> your time:<\/p>\n Making sure that you\u2019re eeking every last drop out of every second you do work to have enough room for a life at the other end.<\/p>\n In this article you\u2019re going to learn the scientific way to do just that. You\u2019re going to find the five most effective ways to boost your productivity<\/strong> and get more done.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Did you know the average person checks their phone 110 times a day?<\/a> That\u2019s nine times<\/strong> an hour.<\/p>\n The same can be said for your emails too.<\/p>\n The average businessperson can spend up to 13 hours a week checking their email.<\/a> That\u2019s longer than the entire first season of Breaking Bad.<\/p>\n Now when you see it like that, that\u2019s a lot of time that could be spent doing many more productive things, right?<\/p>\n I\u2019ll be honest with you; I\u2019m an email addict too. Or at least I was. I would actually stop writing an article to see if I had any new emails or if anybody had got in touch with me so I could reply straight away\u2026and then wait five hours for a reply.<\/p>\n The more I checked my emails, the more stressed I got too.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve probably felt the same, right? It\u2019s easy to feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders when you have 50+ emails waiting for your reply.<\/p>\n And it turns out that scientifically, that\u2019s how you\u2019re going to feel. The more you check your emails, the more stressed you actually become. But thankfully for you, the reverse is also true:<\/p>\n The less you check your emails, the less stress you have.<\/p>\n A study from The University of British Columbia<\/a> found that the optimal amount of time to check your emails a day is three<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And not only will you be less stressed checking your emails three times a day; you\u2019ll also be more productive. Because that 13-hour figure \u2013 or wherever yours is at right now \u2013 will drop.<\/p>\n To make sure you stick to this, set specific times that you can respond to email throughout the day. My day looks like:<\/p>\n So I can be in touch with my clients all across different time zones, without saturating my day. And by doing this, I\u2019ve found room to write 3000<\/strong> more<\/strong> words a week.<\/p>\n Instead of structuring your day around emails; structure your emails around your day.<\/p>\n A few years ago a Vanity Fair story<\/a> went viral about how President Obama only wears blue and black suits, so he has to make one less decision every day.<\/p>\n Also, Timothy Ferriss \u2013 the author of the Four Hour Work Week \u2013 wont spend more than 20 minutes on a decision<\/a>, and has any business decision under $100 automated so it doesn\u2019t even show up on his radar.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s because decisions require a lot of effort. They spend a lot of what is often called attention points.<\/em><\/p>\n Put simply:<\/p>\n You only have a limited amount of attention each day; so you need to spend it wisely.<\/p>\n For example, your average morning might be filled with decisions like:<\/p>\n All before you\u2019ve actually got around to doing any actual productive work at all. And the more you let these decisions mount up, the less attention you\u2019re going to have left to focus on other parts of your day.<\/p>\n So the more of your day you can automate \u2013 especially at busy times \u2013 the more attention points you\u2019ll have left over to carry onto important parts of your day.<\/p>\n Now the solutions to this are rooted in your own life and that you have going on for a daily basis; your morning will be far more hectic if you have three children and a house compared to a single twenty something who lives at home, for example.<\/p>\n But good strategies to start with are:<\/p>\n You\u2019ll be amazed at how much mental capacity you have left by automating just one of these.<\/p>\n I recently made a simple shift of buying only two types<\/strong> of coffee to drink in the morning \u2013 stronger for when I\u2019m tired, weaker for when I\u2019m fresh \u2013 instead of the five I used to have. I don\u2019t miss the extra coffee, and I feel much better as soon as I sit at my desk.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The key to getting more work done?<\/p>\n Do less work.<\/em><\/p>\n Yeah take that, logic!<\/p>\n There\u2019s always been the long-standing battle in business \u2013 and life \u2013 of quality vs. quantity. The more you try and do, the less quality the work tends to be.<\/p>\n But conventional wisdom is to beat your head off your keyboard until, well\u2026you get everything done.<\/p>\n Thankfully there is science to show that taking breaks from your work can actually make you much more productive, <\/strong>creative and effective.<\/p>\n All it takes is a short interruption to what you\u2019re doing<\/a> \u2013 a break away from the task you\u2019re performing \u2013 to keep your mind fresher and focused on what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n Think of it like going for a run. If you were asked to run at a constant pace, with no breaks, running gets progressively harder and harder until you had to stop.<\/p>\n While if you were to take a break every time you got too out of breath, you\u2019d be able to run for longer and with better technique, because your body had chance to recover from what\u2019s just happened.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Also if you take a break to daydream or detach from the situation the more creative parts of your brain<\/a> become active and create better ideas.<\/p>\n There are lots of methods of taking breaks \u2013 Buffer wrote about a lot of them here<\/a> \u2013 that you could use. But to stick with the science you should take a 10-minute break at least every 50 minutes.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Psychopaths can make you more productive.<\/p>\n Now, that\u2019s a sentence you weren\u2019t expecting, isn\u2019t it? But it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n In their book The Good Psychopath\u2019s Guide To Success<\/a>, Andy McNab and Dr Kevin Dutton outline ways that you can use Psychopathy to improve all aspects of your life.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s one bit that really stands out about productivity:<\/p>\n \u201c<\/em>A small rise in body temperature<\/strong> has been shown to stimulate both working memory and alertness \u2013 the two key ingredients of sustained cognitive performance\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n By simply getting warmer for a few minutes you can focus your mind and replenish a lot of your lost attention points.<\/p>\n Now, I\u2019m British, so 90% of the time I have to do this by getting in the shower or cuddling the radiator. But sitting in the sun for a few minutes can also do the job too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Not only can you get a break that maintains your productivity, you can start to replenish it too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I first heard about this from James Clear<\/a>, who has (unknowingly) taught me most of what I know about forming habits.<\/p>\n The two-minute rule is simple:<\/p>\n If it only takes you two minutes, do it.<\/em><\/p>\n And this rule is great because once you get started \u2013 like Newton\u2019s Law Of Motion<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019s hard to stop. Small things like:<\/p>\nTip#1: Only Check Your Emails 3 Times Per Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Tip #2: Make Fewer Decisions<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Tip #3: Take Frequent Breaks<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nTip #4: Get A Hot Shower (Or Sit In The Sun)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nTip #5: Follow The 2-Minute Rule<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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