(1) Task Breakdown. Are most people aware that the knowledge work skills above even exist — let alone breaking them down into their individual micro-tasks?(2) Measurement how long each task takes. Do most people track their time? If so, are they tracking their micro-tasks?(3) Experiment to find the one best way. Are people simply using good-enough rules of thumb or are they using the scientific method to find the optimal approach?(4) Train for standardization. Once the optimal approach has been figured out, are most people being trained in them?

The 50x Productivity Framework (PART 1)

(5) Productivity doesn’t make us a machine. One of the main reasons science has progressed so far is tools that help us get finer grain, objective perspectives on reality than our senses can. I now understand how timing myself and building a granular, objective map of my thought/action process can augment my humanness rather than stunting it. (6) Small productivity gains aren’t frivolous. Amazing productivity gains come from small hacks, which individually seem frivolous, but together add up to mind-boggling change.

The 50x Productivity Framework (PART 2)

Just like the microscope unveiled entire universes of organisms (viruses, germs) and matter (quarks, atoms), finer attention to detail opens a whole new world of productivity. (7) Knowledge work productivity can be 50x’d. Knowledge work is still in its infancy. This means that the potential gains we can have with the existing tools may be much larger than anyone thinks. (8) Productivity is essential to non-productivity. The more efficient we are at work individually and collectively, the more time we have to carve out for slow, deep living not based on optimization.

The 50x Productivity Framework (PART 3)

(9) It’s worth each of us individually spending hundreds (if not thousands) of hours improving our productivity. “We realized that the true problem, the true difficulty, and where the greatest potential is — is building the machine that makes the machine. In other words, it’s building the factory. I’m really thinking of the factory like a product.” Elsewhere,

If you want to be more productive, you need to build your knowledge factory first.

Peter Drucker, one of the most respected management thinkers in history, stated these words at the close of the 20th century. Drucker isn’t just talking about 50x productivity for the smartest…

productivity

Productivity

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

timemanagement

Time Management

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

In 1911, a genius revealed a forgotten science of how to be 50x more productive without working…

Digital decluttering has become as essential as brushing your teeth twice a day. Especially now, when the knowledge industry has mass moved to online and remote work. Our mental wellbeing and productivity can suffer great consequences unless we learn to keep our online spaces tidy and organized. Fragmented attention span, exhaustion, overwhelm and irritability are just some of the symptoms of a messy digital space.In this article, we’ll take a look at the risks digital clutter brings with it, and how to start cleaning out your digital workspace.

A Digital Declutter

In short, to declutter your digital space means to clear out your computer, phone, or tablet (or all three) of all the apps and files you’re no longer using.It means learning to accept that a lot of your programs, apps, and extensions are optional, while only a handful have an actual purpose, both in your work and personal life. But I can already hear you wonder: “Do I even need a digital declutter?” Maybe you’re managing just fine because you know exactly where everything is.

What is Decluttering

But, what about all those files you’ve forgotten about, that are collecting dust in your disk space? Just because you don’t use them doesn’t mean they’re harmless. Digital clutter can actually have adverse psychological effects on knowledge workers. In this day and age, we’re encouraged to gather vast amounts of information and store them for future use, potential career opportunities, learning materials, etc.Additionally, there is another type of digital clutter masking as a beneficial thing every knowledge worker should possess.

Adverse Psychological Effects 

While we know that overexposure to social media and digital content overall can be damaging to our personal lives, we often overlook its impact on careers. Knowledge workers rely on digital spaces for growth, staying updated, and connecting. We’ve perpetuated the idea that being online is the only way to never miss a career opportunity. That includes countless social media accounts — LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium, Quora, Facebook, Instagram — be present everywhere!Cal Newport, author of Digital Minimalism and Deep Work, who’s become a household name by now, proved that this is simply not true....

Digital Minimalism

A thorough step-by-step guide covering everything you need to know about digital decluttering, and how to easily apply it in your life.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

How to declutter your digital space – Clockify Blog

The block scheduling system is where you organize your day into activity blocks for broad goals (errands, chores, ideation) and specific tasks (answering emails, writing a one-off memo). Block scheduling also offers the flexibility to swap blocks or rearrange them if tasks were completed sooner than allocated. Block scheduling promotes focused work, like programming, studying, or researching, while setting less important tasks aside for later.

The block scheduling system

Consider if you can work in "day themes" that are broad in scope and require initiative and advance planning. Do you work better with detailed directives and play-by-play planning? Do you work better in the morning or the afternoon? There are many block-scheduling methods. The most common are:<ul><li>time blocking</li><li>task batching</li><li>day theming</li><li>time boxing</li></ul>

The basics of the block scheduling method

Day theming is a less-focused approach to block scheduling, in which you dedicate a single day to one project or task. This is best used if you're juggling multiple projects or part-time jobs. Consider each day as a self-contained workflow. For example,<ul><li> set every Monday aside for newsletter writing, promotion, and administrative work, </li><li>dedicate every Wednesday to podcast production, editing, and interviewing,</li><li>Create hands-off days, or“untouchable days” where the time is dedicated to yourself.</li></ul>

Time Blocking

Task batching is helpful for tackling regular tasks. Task batching is less specific and offers a time frame in which to handle specific tasks, such as an hour to answer emails, or half an hour to pay your bills or research the best vacation spot.

Task Batching

Time blocking and time boxing requires planning a specific goal, task, or deliverable around a single slot. For example, choosing to write for four hours each morning or setting aside two hours to complete a presentation. If you have a 90-minute block for "second language study" but find it difficult to get started, you could break the larger block into smaller boxes: 40 minutes of audio listening and reading, 20 minutes of reading, and 30 minutes of workbook assignments.

Blocking or Boxing

Set aside time to look ahead. Take an hour at the end of each week to plan ahead. Ensure to leave large blocks for reading and overflow from tasks that were interrupted by daycare issues or unexpected edits/fact-checks. When you schedule with time blocks, intentionally schedule your work, but don't be too rigid. If you finish a task ahead of time, relocate another block so that you don't get engaged with busy work to fill the time.

Plan Ahead, but Be Flexible

This simple productivity system helps organize the chaos of work and life—and it uses tools you probably already have.

How to Use Block Scheduling to Revamp Your Workflow

Increasing your productivity is easy. It’s just a matter of making a few simple changes to your routine, or behaviour, or thinking, and your productivity will soar.
At least, that’s what countless online articles claim. The actual science tells a different story. Even a modest amount of research reveals that some of the most commonly touted claims about how to boost productivity fall apart in the face of the evidence.

The Advice On The Internet About Increasing Productivity

It's regularly claimed that you'll be more productive if you get up early - very early. However, there are many reasons why waking up early could be actively unproductive.
Sleep is crucial for our ability to function, and depriving yourself of it does more harm than good.

Myth 1: Waking up at 4 am will make you more productive

<ul><li>The most successful people experience 24-hour days just like anyone else.</li><li>However, the ability to use those hours productively differs tremendously from person to person.</li><li>Context is everything.</li><li>It's far easier to use time productively when you have the money and resources.</li><li>Few people have the option to use that time 100-percent productively.</li></ul>

Myth 2: We All Have The Same 24 Hours A Day

<ul><li>The idea that constantly being busy is the only way to be truly productive is the default assumption for many people</li><li>In truth, it has long been known that multitasking or 'task switching' actually erodes your productivity</li><li>The human brain has limited resources when it comes to attention and working memory - our abilities to focus on and think about things</li><li>Overworking yourself will compromise your ability to do simple tasks effectively</li></ul>

Myth 3: Keeping Busy Means Being More Productive

<ul><li>According to many people, productivity is linked to happiness - the happier you are, the more productive you will be.</li><li>However, scientific studies reveal that happy workers are only 12% more productive.</li><li>Persuading people to be happy often backfires: If people believe they must be happy, it is harder for them to achieve their goals.</li></ul>

Myth 4: You Should Be Happy in Your Work

<ul><li>As much as we might want to believe otherwise, when countless people are working equally hard for the same goals, the most important factor is actually going to be... plain old luck!</li><li>You can't tell people to 'be lucky' in the same way you can cajole them to work hard.</li><li>Our brains are sensitive to the balance between effort and reward.</li><li>When the effort we put in is not rewarded as expected, it causes stress and negative emotions.</li></ul>

Myth 5: Hard Work Always Pays Off

How much truth is behind the productivity myths touted by influencers, and do we all need to be setting our alarms for 4am?

career

Career

A neuroscientist debunks the biggest productivity myths | BBC Science Focus Magazine

Goal Gradient Effect: The closer users are to achieving a goal the more they strive to complete it and they faster they work at the goal.

Goal Gradient Effect

You can utilize this psychological effect by gamifying the experience, have a set goal that you want your users to accomplish and they show them how close they are to getting the goal.

How to Utilize it

A human psychological effect and how to utilize it in our designs or in any day life

The tendency to approach a goal increases with proximity to the goal.

communication

Communication

Goal-Gradient Effect | Laws of UX

Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.

<a href="https://www.canva.com/planners/">Creating and sticking to a schedule</a>—both in your personal and professional life—is the best way to manage your time and ensure you fit everything you need (and want!) to do into your daily life. But schedules can be challenging, especially if time management isn’t one of your strong suits.And to add to the confusion, what is an effective schedule anyway?

How to create an effective schedule

Your daily schedule is like your blueprint for the day. It keeps you on track and helps you make the most out of your time.Not only that, but schedules allow you to identify where the “time sucks” are. Think of these as areas that are draining your time, and you need to get rid of (we’re looking at you, mindless social media scrolling).If you want to be efficient on anything?Managing your time is the key to finishing everything and hitting the target 100%.Manage your Schedule, or your Unorganized Self will Manage you!

The Importance of a Daily Schedule

1. Perform a Time InventoryYou can use Digital Planners available in the Market to Track Down what are you doing every day, block a specific amount of time on these activities. If you are not a techie, you can use the good old-fashioned Planners.2. List your daily/weekly/monthly prioritiesThis is going on the Macro Level of Things, instead of counting minutes and hours, you must look at your schedule from a birds-eye view too.3. Invest in a Daily Planner If Planners are too expensive for you, you can create your own using <a href="https://www.canva.com/planners/">templates from Canva.</a>

How to make an effective daily schedule

Planners help hold you accountable; if you have written reminders of where you’re supposed to be and what you’re supposed to be doing, it’s more challenging to ignore.Planners are also helpful because they help keep you organized. Instead of having your schedule spread out over multiple devices, calendars, and post-it notes spread across your office, a planner organizes all your daily to-do’s in one, easy-to-manage place.

Why invest in a Planner?

Clearly, if you want to build an effective daily schedule, you need a planner. But what, exactly, do you need to include in that planner?Here’s an outline of the five must-have’s to include on each task in your daily planner schedule:<ul><li>Time</li><li>Commitment</li><li>Other people involved</li><li>Contact information</li><li>Notes/Any other relevant details for the commitment</li></ul>

Planner Outline to keep you Organized

Is there a way to keep on top of your to-do list? Color coding can be used to distinguish between distinct commitments. Work commitments, for example, could be highlighted in pink, family commitments in yellow, and personal commitments in blue. That way, you'll be able to see right away what kinds of things are on your to-do list for the day—and plan accordingly.Folding over each page when you're done with it is another technique to keep your planner orderly.

How do you keep your planner organized?

<ul><li>If sticking to a schedule on your own is difficult, ask the support of a friend, coworker, or family member to hold you accountable. </li><li>Pull out your planner at the end of each day and take a brief check of your schedule to see how well you stayed to it. If you struggle, think about how you can improve the next day.</li><li>Add your daily schedule to your phone and set alarms to remind you where you need to be and whenIf you have difficulties remembering to check your planner, add it to your phone and set alarms to remind you where you need to be and when.</li></ul>

How to stay in line with your Planner?

We look at how making a schedule could help us stay productive and efficient every day. Hint: It's easier than you think. 

When employees are on the clock, most managers expect them to keep busy throughout the workday. This may mean either completing tasks within their remits or finding ways to make sure their hands are in some work-related project. Even when workflows deliver some downtime, the message from management is generally clear: find a way to keep working.  Managers step in with ‘busywork’ to keep their employees occupied. Busywork is something that doesn't have a purpose. It doesn't lead towards reaching any goals, it doesn't improve the person, the operation or the culture.

The Management And Downtime: Keeping Workers Busy For No Reason

The Busywork might include compiling a pointless report, colour-coding a spreadsheet or proofreading a presentation that has already been checked. One 2016 study of 600 knowledge workers showed they spent just <a href="https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/new-study-your-employees-are-probably-spending-less-and-less-time-doing-their-ac.html">39% of their workdays</a> doing their actual jobs, with the rest dedicated to meetings, emails and busywork such as writing status reports for managers.

Busywork

Part of the busywork problem is some managers equate busyness with productivity. The perception is not just that a busy worker is engaged and making an effort, but even that their industriousness gives them a higher moral value than their less busy colleagues. This sets up a dynamic in which two office workers completing identical tasks can be judged on their busyness, rather than their results. Who appears to be more engaged: the busy worker who skips lunch to get things finished, or the efficient worker who finishes early and uses the time saved to buy groceries online?

Controlling The Worker Bees

The Busywork problem is heightened in organisations where work culture dictates that managers operate in a more traditional, authoritative style, discouraging autonomy among employees. In these organisations, managers may also feel under pressure from their own superiors to prove that their team is busy and productive. Managers are saying, ‘I need my employees to keep generating work so that I know they’re earning their salary, because somebody is watching me to make sure that I'm managing them well'.

The Problem With Old School Organizations 

Remote work has, in some cases, exacerbated this pressure. When employees first switched to remote work, many managers found the inability to visually monitor their employees unsettling. In the immediacy of Covid, bosses felt that if they couldn’t see employees working, then they weren’t working. They didn’t think employees were being productive, even if they were still delivering results.A 2020 study showed that 41% of managers questioned their employees’ motivation, and almost a third doubted that their employees had the right knowledge or essential skills to make remote work successful.

Remote Work And The Eroding Of Trust

When higher-ups doubt employees’ work ethic, one solution is to micromanage their time with an endless list of tasks to keep them chained to their desks – even if some of those tasks are pointless. Managers may not even know if an employee has finished their core work, but they are giving additional busywork to ensure that they don't finish for the day. This is to ensure that employees are working, so the manager has a sense that they are still in control.

Giving Work To Maintain Control

It is not just managers who equate industriousness with good performance, however. One study showed knowledge workers spend an average of 41% of their time at work on self-assigned busywork that could be delegated to others, in order to appear busier and more important at work.Online, the pressure to look busy remains, even if that means adding extra tasks to the workday, like sending messages to prove we are logged on. And even though many workers are able to complete their work in less time in remote-work environments, many still feel the pressure to assign themselves busywork.

Employees Know They Have To Look Busy

Some managers report lulls in work during remote set-ups have made employees uneasy. These managers start to assign busywork just to ensure that workers don't feel a void, and remain occupied.But assigning too much busywork to mitigate guilt might mean swapping one set of negative feelings for another. A 2018 study showed 42% of workers were spending half of their time on busywork, and 71% said that doing too much busywork made them feel as though their lives were being wasted.

Managing The Lull

In the long-term, frequently assigning tasks designed primarily to keep workers occupied can damage the relationship between managers and their workers. It can be very demotivating to the remote employee. It's a sign of lack of trust and lack of care. The real tragedy of busywork is in the opportunity that is lost. There’s so much that could be done within that time that would be beneficial to both the employee and the firm.

Wasting Countless Hours

Some alternatives for busywork: Assigning the worker meaningful tasks or opportunities for growth that often gets put on the back burner, such as training. A great way is to let employees take a breather. Numerous studies have proven the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2165079916653416">benefits of taking regular breaks</a> during the workday. Among them are reduced stress and <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110208131529.htm">improved focus</a>, creativity and productivity – all positives for employees and their organisations.

Taking A Break Is Good

When remote workers are putting in increasingly long hours, piling on endless busywork will have the opposite effect. The primary risk is that employees burn out and their mental wellness is impacted. This Great Resignation is the result, in part, of exhausted people who are not managed effectively in their remote work because it wasn't flexible enough.

Busywork Leads To Burnout

Apart from giving meaningful work, another approach is to give teams autonomy, which is motivating and creates a virtuous cycle, where people want to do a good job.Managers need to think harder about the kind of tasks they are handing out. The idea is to keep employees busy during work hours, but avoid busywork. Instead, they should plan for slow periods, and look for tasks they can give that will add value.

Breaking The Cycle

Ultimately, managers who feel caught in a cycle of assigning busywork should take a step back and think more broadly about what their managers want from them – rather than scrambling to keep people busy. They're probably looking for you to generate good results and, hopefully, retain people who are happy working for you.If the flexible schedules now in demand swap work hours for outcomes, they could take busywork with them, and leave healthier, happier workers in their wake.

The Bottom Line

Stop giving superficial and useless work to employees just to keep them busy.

Many managers fill up employees’ plates with inane tasks, just to keep them working. Why are higher-ups so afraid of downtime?

The managerial obsession with 'busywork'

Your time outside of your day job is your own.You have the time to learn how to bake bread, learn to cook, or just do whatever you want, and there is no excuse for not being productive.But People get exhausted after the initial spike and let go.<ul><li>Why has there not been a flood of new Great American Novels clogging Amazon's self-published section?</li><li>Why have most of the new podcasts and TikTok accounts popped up in March of 2020, when people were at their most bored-why have most of them gone silent?</li></ul>

The Premise

<ul><li>Working diligently and consistently towards our dreams, especially if they're relative longshots, is one of the hardest things we’ll ever do, if we do it at all.</li><li>The self-confidence needed to believe in ourselves enough to try, and the dedication needed to maintain the discipline to keep doing it over and over again, even when it’s hard.</li><li>Without the structure of the workplace and other people relying on you, there is no necessary timeline for any project. No sprints to the finish line, no target projections to hit.</li></ul>

Meeting Our Own Deadlines Is The Hardest

Just as we have met deadlines in our jobs, why can't we do so when we are on our own?Your self-work should be as crucial as any office deadline. Remember: <ul><li>You are your own boss.</li><li>The person who hired you for this job liked you then and trusts you now.</li><li>They saw something in you that not everyone else sees.</li><li>Thanks to the charity of this person-this person being you-you got your dream job.</li></ul>

You Work For A Boss As You Fear Disappointing Them

<ul><li>Your boss, which is you only, don't expect you to push yourself to the max every day, but they want to see you improve consistently</li><li>Your boss has the unique ability to know when you're not pulling your weight, and they're not afraid to call you out on it.</li></ul>

When You Are Your Own Boss

Your boss knows the core of our issue with self-imposed deadlines. Here is a small exercise.<ul><li>Pick a task that is slightly challenging but doable.</li><li>Set a deadline for tomorrow, or sometime this week, at 9 am.</li><li>You can't change the deadline once you set it.</li><li>If you've set your output at something you know is manageable, it shouldn't be a problem.</li><li>Don't disappoint yourself.</li></ul>

Govern Your Self-Imposed Deadline

<ul><li>Being a professional is about taking something abstract (dream) & turning it into something more concrete (action).</li><li>We all should take our dreams seriously - we all have the capacity to be professional, and bring that kind of focus and energy to our passion work.</li></ul>

A True Professional

Setting yourself a deadline like your boss does.

How To Set Deadlines That Feel Real

There are 3 main elements that help us be productive:<ul><li>Time </li><li>Energy</li><li>Direction</li></ul>And this course, there showed techniques and activities to keep these elements in shape or otherwise, all the effort we take to get things done will just end up being unproductive work.

The Productivity Equation

Without much time, we wouldn't be able to do many of our activities.In these case, time-management techniques such as time blocking or task prioritization can increase the number of hours we have to spend on certain things.

TIME

Multiplying your time: Doing something today that will give you more time tomorrow.The Focus Funnel: A way to know how to approach a task.<ul><li>Whether it can be eliminated, delegated, done today, or leave it for later.</li></ul>Divide your time: Give a clear start and finish time to your projects.<ul><li>It's better to have defined deadlines to avoid procrastination.</li><li>Time blocking can be helpful to work on specific activities during the day.</li></ul>

Multiply and divide your time

We can have all the time in the world, but if we don't have the energy to do the work, we won't get anything done.Activities that can improve our health and increase our energy are exercise, nutrition, and sleep.

ENERGY

TRAIN: <ul><li>Exercise: It increases our cortisol levels and body temperature which means we will be more alert and focused.</li><li>Nutrition: Eat healthily and reduce the consumption of junk food.</li></ul>RECOVER<ul><li>Sleep: Getting enough quality sleep is important to consolidate knowledge and erase the waste of your brain.</li><li>Mindfulness: Directing your attention to the moment can improve your cognition and reduce depression, anxiety, fear  or pain.</li></ul>

Train & Recover Energy

We can have all the time and energy to do stuff, but if we don't have a clear goal or objective, all that effort will end up being unproductive work. For this section, the key is to reduce distraction and increase traction to get closer to your goals.

DIRECTION

Traction: Getting closer to your goals.Distration: Getting further from them.To maximize your traction and minimize distraction we can use the pomodoro technique, distraction-free workspace, or deep work-mode.

Productive Focus

Some ideas and concepts from the course of The Productivity Equation from Mike and Matty. 

The Productivity Equation: Desing a Balanced and Productive Lifestyle

Time is a finite resource and like your capital, inventory or profits, the success of your business depends on managing it well. As an entrepreneur, time management would aid you in delivering work on time, upscaling your business, and ensuring that you live your life while you pursue your goals.

An Entrepreneur’s Lazy Guide to Time Management

In today’s world where being a workaholic is glorified, most entrepreneurs seem to overlook the fact that energy, like time, is limited, and there’s only so much of yourself that can go around in a day. If you have ever made time to do something, but you were too tired to do it when the time came, “you missed the first step“. Time management and Energy management go hand in hand, Here are 6 tips to help ensure that you have the energy to do your work when the time comes.<ol><li>Get more sleep</li><li>Get organized</li><li>Delegate</li><li>Stay hydrated</li><li>Eat breakfast and eat nutritiously</li><li>Exercise more</li></ol>

Energy: Starting at the Very Beginning

<ol><li>Important/Urgent: These tasks are done immediately and personally, e.g. crises, deadlines, and problems.</li><li>Important/Not Urgent: These tasks get an end date and are done personally, e.g. relationships, planning, and recreation.</li><li>Unimportant/Urgent: These tasks are delegated, e.g. interruptions, meetings, activities.</li><li>Unimportant/Not Urgent: These tasks are dropped, e.g. time wasters, pleasant activities, trivia.</li></ol>

Planning with the Eisenhower Priority Matrix

“I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”

It works like this:<ol><li>Decide on the task to be done. (You have done this at the Eisenhower stage)</li><li>Decide how long you want to spend on the task. This is important because “projects tend to expand with the time allocated for it.” </li><li>Set the Pomodoro timer (typically for 25 minutes).</li><li>Work on the task.</li><li>End work when the timer rings and take a short break (typically 5–10 minutes).</li><li>After three Pomodoro's are done, take the fourth Pomodoro and then take a long break (typically 20 to 30 minutes). Once the long break is finished, return to step 2</li></ol>

Working with The Pomodoro technique

“If you give yourself one thing to do, it will take all day. If you give yourself two things to do, you get them both done. If you give yourself a dozen things to do, you may not get 12 done, but you’ll get seven or eight completed.”

Although we aim for perfection in our plans, true perfection is impossible and at the end of the day, you must reconcile yourself with this fact. Don’t try to squeeze all of your remaining tasks into one final hour, instead allow your time for planning and practice to become a habit, stop when it’s time to stop and take your Rest.

Reconciling your Progress With Patience and Acceptance.

At the end of each month look at everything you have been doing, see how they have influenced your objectives, what you need to change and what stays the same.Ask yourself:<ul><li>Where did you spend the most time?</li><li>Was your quality bolstered?</li><li>What unanticipated events affected your plans?</li><li>Did you stick to the time limits?</li><li>Was your planning overall effective?</li></ul>

Time Audits

These are time management guides for small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Time is a finite resource and like your capital, inventory or profits, the success of your business depends on managing it well. As an entrepreneur, time management would aid you in delivering work on time, upscaling your business, and ensuring that you live your life while you pursue your goals. Energy: Starting at the Very…

A Lazy Entrepreneur’s Guide to Time Management

Find 100+ Tips for Time Management - Curated from inspiring sources like Books, Podcasts & Articles - Genuine Insights from like-minded Users like You!