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 Problem: When checking email, we often read a bunch of messages and reply to them later. The problem is we’re reading (and thinking about) those messages twice.

The Trick: You should only “touch” an email once. Open it, read it and then act on it. That might mean replying, forwarding, delegating, or putting it into a folder.

How it works: Ever notice the little “oooh!” feeling when new messages show up in your inbox? Our brains release a little of the neurotransmitter Dopamine (associated with the pleasure/reward systems) based on novelty. That’s why we find ourselves checking email all day long,(or visiting the same sites over and over again.)

We’re hoping to find something new.

Similarly, because replying isn’t as much fun as reading new emails we often push it off. When we finally get around to replying, we have to read them again, which wastes time.

Stop doing that! ;)

Topics: All Productivity Tips, How to Work Faster 7 Comments »