Bill Gates Productivity Tips

Take steps to make it easier to sleep well.

• Avoid caffeine, alcohol, or other drugs for several hours before bed
• Set a regular bedtime
• Drink some warm milk or herbal tea, or have a light snack
• Try a screen-free activity like meditation or reading
• Eliminate as much noise from your bedroom as possible
• Keep your bedroom dark
• Don’t linger too long in bed. It’s better to do your lounging on the couch and head for bed only when it’s time to sleep.

• Adam Smith wrote in 1776 that there are two kinds of labor: productive and unproductive. The productive one generally adds value to the materials which he works upon, of his own maintenance, and his master's profit. However, a man grows poor by maintaining a multitude of menial servants who add to the value of nothing.
• Benjamin Franklin put forth his own "to-do" list in 1791, stating that one should start the day asking what good shall be done and end the day evaluating what was accomplished.

In the late 18th and early 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution, machines moved production from handmade in the home to factories. A frenzy of producing more goods more quickly became a kind of national pastime.

Low-wage factory workers, many of whom were children, toiled in unsafe conditions for decades before labor unions put measures in place to protect workers from the excesses of the push for productivity.

Efficiency does not necessarily guarantee effectiveness. Getting more done is not an accurate barometer for measuring your impact. Consider whether you’re being effective in achieving what you actually want. 

Think about what it is you’re really seeking and what might be the most direct path to get it. Then realize that sometimes doing less can actually pave the path to experiencing more—more satisfaction, more ease, and even more effectiveness.

Research suggests that happiness leads to success, not the other way around. It would benefit us to shift our focus from achieving future happiness to accessing that joy right now.

When we wrap our days around things we have to do we leave very little time for the things we want to do. Happiness requires balance.

Your “frog” is your most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it.

If you have two important tasks, start your day with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first. Focus on completing it before you go to the next one.

We tend to confuse activity with accomplishment: we attend endless meetings and make plans, but at the end of the day, no one does the job and gets the results required.

“Failure to execute” is among the biggest problems in organizations today.

Unnecessary meetings can severely deplete productivity out of someone’s working day. 

Instead of arranging a meeting, see if you can speak with the person in another way. Skype, texting, emailing and phone calls are all efficient ways to communicate on important matters, while still focusing on your own projects.

Research has discovered that most people become less efficient while attempting to multitask.

Try concentrating on one task at a time for great, productive results.

Consistent time tracking keeps you honest about your own productivity and reveals opportunities for improvement. 

If you discover that you’re spending too much time on projects that don’t matter to you, or too little time on those that do, you can make deliberate adjustments.

Resist the pressure to multi-task, which will leave you feeling scattered and with your powers of concentration spread thin. 

Single-tasking – applying all your brainpower to a specific task for a short burst ­– is more effective. Close all the tabs on your browser, ignore your inbox and get to work.

By scheduling every minute of your day you not only guard against distraction but also multiply your focus.

Also, focusing on one task at a time can make you up to 80% more productive than splitting your attention across multiple tasks.

• It takes a lot of time and effort.
• Few of us (if any) have the same schedule every day.
• We’re bad at estimating how long tasks will take to do.
• Constant interruptions and “urgent” tasks can destroy your system.
• Flexibility is key in most workplaces.
• You can lose sight of the bigger picture if you focus just on each day.

Most of us get 80% of results from 20% of the work we do. So focus on that 20%.

Don’t be vague. Specify what you need to get done - research shows that having concrete goals is correlated with huge increases in confidence and feelings of control.

You have 2-2.5 hours of peak productivity every day. You may actually be 30% more effective at that time. For most of us, this happens in the morning.

Those are the hours when you should be working on your main goals. Why would you want to waste that on a conference call or a staff meeting?