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The Rescue Card

The Problem: There’s a LOT to do but you’re having trouble getting started on any of it.

The Solution: A simple “rescue card” can get you back on-track.

How it works: When you’re feeling tired, bored or distracted it’s hard to think clearly. The card is there to give structure to your thinking when your mind is wandering, kind of like a smarter version of yourself that’s guiding you back on track.

Making your Rescue Card: Grab a pen and a piece of paper or an index card, and go somewhere you can think. (If possible print this out and take it with you.) Now, simply write down a short step-by-step process to get back on track.

There’s no right or wrong for what gets you back on-track… everyone’s card will be different.  For now just write down a few steps and don’t worry about getting it perfect. You can rewrite your card as you figure it out what works for you.

To give you some ideas, here are the steps on my own rescue card:

1. Close everything that’s distracting you.
2. Stand up, and (starting with your left foot!) step away from the computer.
3. Using a timer, take a 5-minute break.
4. Choose a tiny todo item (~3 minutes)
5. Sprint! Do it with a sense of urgency.

That’s it.

You can carry your card with you, or put it near your computer where you’ll see it. When you get off-track, follow the directions.

PS: Have fun with this idea! If it’s boring and serious, you won’t remember to do it.

Topics: All Productivity Tips No Comments »

How to take a break

Have you ever taken a break at work and realized that you’re not actually enjoying yourself? You might be surfing the web or checking your email, but really you’re just looking around for something interesting.

The Problem: When your break is over, you don’t feel refreshed.

The Secret: A break isn’t “not working” for awhile, it’s letting go of work. Ideally you want forget about work completely, but still remember to come back.  Tricky.

The Solution: Use a timer to keep track of time. A portable one is ideal because you can take it with you when you stand up and walk out of your office!  That’s right. No more breaks sitting in front of your computer.

How It Works: You can’t relax or have fun when you’re watching the clock. In fact, we often associate fun with “losing track of time.”

Let the timer worry about time, you go out and have some fun.

Break Ideas:

Walk once around the block.
Do 10 pushups.
Take a shower.
Put on some music. Dance. Sing.
Go outside and take a few deep breaths.
Take a 5 minute mini-nap.
Play a video game (off the computer.)
Go find your dog or cat. Pet it.
Meditate. Be the rock.
Drink a tall glass of water.
Refill your coffee or tea, if that’s your style.
Play with your kids.
Attack a punching bag. Hiyyyya!
Do some simple exercises.
Drink some fresh juice.
Go for a bike ride.
Make yourself a smoothie.
Do some yoga.
Read a book.
Daydream…

Topics: All Productivity Tips, Boost Your Energy, Happiness!, Work-Life Balance 6 Comments »

Happiness with a Messy Desk

With everything going on at work, we often spend our time working in a physical state of ‘constant mess’, which affects our effectiveness and even our ability to think.

I’ve been trying this next tip for about 2 months to create a little “Island of Zen” to my work space.  It’s working…

The Challenge: It’s hard to think when your work space is messy.

The Solution: Mark off a “Clean Zone” on your desk that you’ll keep clean and empty at all times.

The Secret: Your desk may always be messy. That’s ok. If you can keep part of it 100% clean you’ll feel less overwhelmed at work, and it’ll be easier to handle everything else.

How It Works:

1. Mark off this area physically – it has to have edges you can see.

2. One Rule: No matter how messy your office gets, nothing goes here unless you’re actually working on it.

3. When you notice that your clean zone has disappeared from sight (it happens), simply clear away the mess until you can see the borders again.

Here’s a picture of my desk:

1. Inbox.  An easy way to get started or back on track – you can just throw everything in your inbox.

2. Printouts of shortcuts I commonly need to look up for software I use (Gmail, Adding events to iCal, RememberTheMilk)

3. Folders for major projects

4. Happiest day of my life!

5. 27′ iMac.

6. My office was the master bedroom of our house, this lets me work with headphones (so I can listen to music while ankle biters are sleeping) and still know if someone comes into the room. No sneaking up on me!

7. Top 3 priorities for the day (from “The 3-minute Plan“), clipped onto the monitor.

8. Sawhorses from Amazon.com — this is a standing desk, described on my personal blog here.

Ok, let’s have a little fun with this one!

Spend 5 minutes making your Clean Zone, take a picture and send it in here.  No need to clean up anything else, that’s the whole point.

I’ll add them to this post, and we’ll have examples of Clean Zones from around the world.

Have fun!

Clean Zones from Around the World:

Andrea in Missouri.

Ben in Washington, DC.

Shannon from Houston, TX: I suffer with a messy desk - I can find everything I need (most of the time). I am going to try keeping my "Clean Zone" to see if it works for me.

Scott’s DFZ (Distraction Free Zone) in Stow, MA

Evgenya in Washington DC: Thanks Aaron for the great tips!

Thanks for the pics guys!

Send us a picture of your Clean Zone!

Topics: All Productivity Tips, Happiness! 21 Comments »

How to break out of a “procrastination loop”

The Problem: You’re procrastinating, and even though you want to be working you just can’t seem to break out of it.

The Solution:

1. Stand up and step away from your desk. It sounds like a small step, but this is the most important part of this idea. Just remember, “Feeling Stuck –> Stand Up!”

While you are standing, shut off whatever was distracting you. Do not sit down.

2. Change your environment by taking a short walk, and once you’re moving start picking up the pace until it feels like you’re hurrying. Try to feel like you’re building up momentum. When you get back you’re not going to “settle into work,” you’re going to hit it like a train!

3. Hit it like a train.

The Secret: It’s easy to think that your body simply follows instructions from your brain, but each is affected by the other. Here we’re getting our mind back on track by cranking up our body.

Want a quick example of using your body to affect your brain and your mood?

1) Notice how you feel right now.
2) Stand up and shake it out.
3) Stand up straight and confidently, and hold your head up high.
4) Look around to see if anyone is looking.
5) Smile ridiculously BIG!

How do you feel? Any different than you felt 30 seconds ago?

Topics: All Productivity Tips, Overcoming Procrastination 17 Comments »

How to let go of work and fully relax

The Problem: You never relax fully if work is always on your mind.

The Solution: Separate work from the rest of your life by choosing a period of time and declaring, “No work allowed!”  A great place to start is not checking your work email when you’re not at work.

If an entire evening or weekend is too much, start small. For example, you might decide that you won’t touch work between 7pm and 8pm. (You can always expand your time off when the world doesn’t end.)
The Secret: Turn off work physically. Shut down your computer, leave your cellphone in a drawer and close the door to your office. This sends a signal to you and everyone else that you’ve checked out of work.

Take a deep breath, lower your shoulders, smile and go have fun.

Personally I leave my laptop and cell phone upstairs when I come down after work. By making it harder to sneak a peek at my inbox, I’m thinking about work less and I’m more relaxed. This little tip has made me (and my family!) happier, so I hope you’ll try it.

Topics: All Productivity Tips, Happiness!, Work-Life Balance No Comments »

Don’t let the internet kill your productivity

The Problem: Getting sidetracked by checking email or your favorite websites.

The Solution: When it’s time to get some serious work done, take some deep breaths, give yourself a big hug and…disconnect from the internet. If possible, unplug your router or your ethernet cord and put them in another room so you have to stand up and do something physically to get back online.

How it works: You’re putting an obstacle between yourself and distraction. When distractions can’t “sneak up on you” you feel more in control of your work. Later, when you do waste a little time online, you’ll actually enjoy it MORE because it was a choice.

Unplug and be free!

Topics: All Productivity Tips, Block out Interruptions, Stop Distracting Yourself 2 Comments »

Worry Folder

I ran across this next idea a few years ago. It’s made a big
difference for me so I wanted to share it with you.

The Problem: You’re worrying about so many things, it’s hard to work or sleep.

The Tip: Write the word ‘WORRIES’ on a folder in big bold letters.
Using index cards or paper, write down anything that’s bothering you and put it in the folder. When you can’t think of anything else, take a big deep breath and see how you feel.

The Secret: Your conscious mind knows there’s no point in worrying about things you can’t control. Your subconscious mind doesn’t work that way, and it’s trying to help you remember everything when it keeps you up at night yelling, “Hey! Why aren’t you working on all these really important things right now?”

How It Works: Writing things down lets your subconscious mind relax because your worries aren’t only in your head, they’re also ‘safely’ in that folder there.

It sounds a little strange.. but it works!

Topics: All Productivity Tips, Happiness! 10 Comments »

Time Boxing

The Problem: Projects expand to fill the time available; the more time you have the longer the project will take. Here’s a trick that’ll show you how to work faster.

The Trick: Give yourself a short time limit to complete the project. For example, “I’m going to finish this in one hour.”

How It Works: We don’t like to work on things that will take “as
long as they take.” When you add a time limit you can see the
finish line, and it’s easier to get started.

PS: This tip was written in 30 minutes. Usually I spend an hour!

Topics: All Productivity Tips, How to Work Faster 9 Comments »

The 3-Minute Plan

The Problem: We often jump straight into work, and spend the day reacting to what other people want and neglecting our priorities. At the end of the day we think, “Argh! I never worked on _______!”

The Trick: Before you start work, take three minutes and decide your top priorities for the day. You’re never going to get everything done – what is MOST important for today? Write them down and put them somewhere you’ll see them all day.

The Secret: You’ll find that simply having priorities will give you a sense of empowerment and control over your work, even if there are days when you can’t stick to them.

Why this works: When you first start working, your mind is fresh. It’s a GREAT time to write, plan or do creative work. With your priorities in place it’s easier to choose what to work on first and avoid “stumbling into your day”.

Topics: All Productivity Tips, Time Management and Priorities 15 Comments »

The Butterfly Pad

The problem: “Butterflies” are distracting thoughts that pop into our heads while we are working. If we pay attention to them, it’s easy to spend the day “chasing butterflies”, switching constantly from one thing to another.

The trick: Keep a pad of paper and a pen handy. When a butterfly
pops up write it down quickly and keep working.

The secret: When doing creative work, changing focus costs time because when you come back to a project you have to remember where you were, what you were thinking about and what you were about to do.

Why it works: We’re not very good at holding thoughts in our heads
while we do other things, so we interrupt ourselves to do something
right away so we won’t forget it. Writing it down means it’s out
of your head, but not lost. It’s “safe”, and you can stay focused
on what you were working on.

PS: Even small butterflies (“Oh, this will just take two minutes”)
are dangerous when your goal is to stay focused.

That’s it. Have a great day.

Topics: All Productivity Tips, Stop Distracting Yourself 7 Comments »

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