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How to avoid email overload
How to organize your inbox
How to write effective emails
Do Your Most Dreaded Task First
Every one of us has one or more tasks on our to-do list that we dread doing.
Do it first thing. Writer Michael Hyatt talks about slaying your dragons before breakfast—there’s nothing more motivating for the rest of your day than crossing that monster off your list first thing in the morning.
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MORE IDEAS ON THIS
Take Breaks
There’s a limit to how long anybody can devote deep focus to a task.
After a certain amount of time, the law of diminishing returns kicks in, and fatigue—physical and/or mental—starts to impair your effectiveness.
Schedule breaks periodically even during the busies...
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2.09K reads
Batch Process
If the demands of your day include routine tasks, try to group similar tasks and schedule certain times during the day to knock them out.
By batching similar tasks, you save the time lost to ramping up multiple times a day and reap the benefits of momentum.
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2.13K reads
Delegate
Evaluate that to-do list carefully. What tasks could someone else do, thereby freeing you up to focus on the things only you can do?
An important key to productivity is doing only those things that only you can do, and giving somebody else the opportunity to contribute by doing those...
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1.68K reads
Write It Down
Uncompleted commitments take up psychic energy, each one making you just the tiniest bit more tired, more distracted, and therefore less productive.
The first step to managing your life and time is getting every commitment, large and small, out of your head and into a trusted system....
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Eat a Healthy Breakfast
There are countless studies confirming the importance of breakfast for maintaining our health.
Healthy people are more productive. No matter how busy you are, eat a decent breakfast. It’ll fuel you for a terrific start to your day.
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Say No
When someone calls or appears at your door with a request for your participation in some activity, take a breath and consider whether it fits into your own priorities
If the answer is no, then just say no. Practice it ahead of time: “Thank you for inviting me, but no.” ...
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Get a Head Start
Before leaving your workspace, or before going to bed, take 10 minutes to look over the next day’s commitments.
Decide what you’ll do first. Look at that to-do list and decide whether any tasks on it can be delegated to someone else or crossed off the list altogether.
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Turn off Distractions
One of the major productivity killers is the distraction of constant interruptions: emails, phone calls, people appearing at your door…
Schedule a block of time to focus on that commitment, turn off all outside communications and give yourself the necessary luxury of und...
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2.1K reads
Get Some Exercise
Exercise makes you healthier, so be sure to get some exercise every day.
You don’t need to spend hours at the gym to get the benefit of this; take a walk around the block, or do some isometrics at your desk.
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1.58K reads
CURATED FROM
IDEAS CURATED BY
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. " ~ Abraham Lincoln
Related collections
Other curated ideas on this topic:
Put your most important task first
- Identify your hardest, most important task for the day.
- Do your most important task first thing in the morning. Don't put it off for later.
This productivity system is known as Eat the Frog. Using this method will enable you to priori...
Do creative work first
Typically, we do mindless work first and build-up to the toughest tasks. That drains your energy and lowers your focus.
In order to focus effectively, reverse the order. Check off the tasks that require creativity or concentration first thing in the morning, and then move on to easi...
Delaying Harder Tasks
Doing the smaller tasks on your list first is often related to putting off the tasks you don’t want to do.
Instead, tackle the hard task first. Get it done and out of the way. Then you’ll feel much more able to tackle the rest of your to-do list.
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