Tag Archives: productivity

4 easy things for every morning

Productivity. Clarity. Direction.

I get those from these:

Four easy things for every morning:

  1. Move. Sometimes it’s a workout. Sometimes it’s just stretching. But something more than walking to the shower.
  2. Eat. Takes an extra five minutes, but it makes the next five hours more productive.
  3. Breathe. Just that for a minute or two. No planning, analyzing, strategizing. Just me.
  4. Speak. Sometimes to my gf, sometimes to my dog. If none are around, I speak anyway. First words of the day shouldn’t be to colleagues.

That’s it.

And oh, by the way. You just got four things done and you haven’t got into work yet.

Would you miss it?

A simple phrase to make you more productive, efficient and stress-free.  Oh, and it will do the same for your family, friends and customers. The phrase is a question, actually. “Would you miss it?”

“Would you miss it?” is good for spring cleaning. Pick up a blouse and ask yourself.

“Would you miss it?” is good for small businesses. Just ask the question of your customers. It especially works when considering any business purchase. Will my customers come back to buy because they miss this lamp I’m considering purchasing? “Will they miss it?”

“Would you miss it?” is especially good for software developers and consultants. Clients of these folks, too. Will Windows users miss the Start Button? Or, will the extra piece of functionality be so good that it will be missed if left-out? Or, will it over-complicate the system as a whole resulting in nobody ever saying, “I miss that awesome software, or website or store.”

Ask yourself, “Would you miss it?” If the answer is yes, you’re on the right track. If the answer is no, chances are you have a cluttered closet, a staggering business, or healthcare.gov.

The One Thing

If you woke up this morning without an agenda, it’s okay.

You might not be as productive.  You might not feel satisfied later. You might even be a little stressed trying to plan your day on-the-fly.

But feel good about this one thing.  This one thing you can put on your calendar.

This one thing will make you more productive today.  This one thing will make you more satisfied tomorrow.  And this one thing will cut stress from planning your day on-the-fly.

Schedule a time for the end of today to make your agenda for tomorrow.

That’s the one thing.

Pop-in ideas

Ideas pop-in all the time.  The concern about pop-in ideas is not, “Is it good?”  Nor is it, “Will it work?”

The concern about pop-in ideas is, “Will I forget?”

So why not write ’em down?  95% chance you’ll never act upon that wonderful pop-in idea.  But there’s a 100% chance you won’t worry about forgetting it.

CTRL ALT DEL your brain

Random access memory (RAM) is computer jargon.  It layman terms, it means desk space.  The more RAM you have, the more desk space you have.  More room for files, notes and programs.

Put too much stuff on your proverbial desk, your computer craps out.  Freezes.  Blue-screens.  Or just becomes devastatingly slow.

The human brain works the same way: Limited desk space for files, notes and programs.  The difference is that you can’t go to Best Buy and buy more RAM.

Just gotta close some programs.