"Effectiveness is doing the right things, but efficiency is doing things right. That means effectiveness is picking a direction and efficiency is running really fast in that direction."

If anything important happens in the world, it will come your way many times. There's no need to hit refresh every 5 minutes on news sites. Somebody will tell you.

Remain in Your Flow

David Allen's threefold nature of work:<ul><li>Pre-defined work: Work you've set up ahead of time.</li><li>Work as it appears: Work that interrupts you.</li><li>Defining work: You sit down and think about what work you need to be doing.</li></ul>

Define "Work"

<ul><li>Effectiveness is goal orientation. It's picking something to do. This is doing the right things—picking a goal and doing that goal.</li><li>Efficiency is doing things in an economical way, process-oriented.</li></ul>

Effectiveness Vs Efficiency

When you're multitasking you are actually doing something called task-switching, which requires context switching. And this harms your productivity overall.

Multitasking is a Myth

<ul><li>Do It</li><li>Drop it</li><li>Delegate it</li><li>Defer it</li></ul>Only do it if it's going to take a minute and it's been scheduled. Otherwise, just drop it, delegate it and defer it.

The Four Ds

"If it's not helping me to make money, if it's not improving my life in some way, it's mental clutter and it's out."

"Hope is not a plan. Hope is nothing but waiting and letting life happen to you."

<ul><li>Change the way emails appear in your inbox: set up a folder for emails that you're Cc'd on and a folder for emails that come directly to you.</li><li>Don't reply to emails in the morning (or at night): it teaches people that they should expect future replies from you at that time. </li><li>Keep your emails to 3-4 sentences.</li></ul>

Resolve Inbox Issues

The following is a detailed write-up of a popular productivity talk delivered by Scott Hanselman. Visit his blog, hanselman.com, for more productivity tips. "Don't worry, just drop the ball." This counterintuitive advice is one of a dozen-plus productivity practices preached by Scott Hanselman, a program manager at...

CHRISTOPHER HAWKINS

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