A guide to increasing productivity. How to Increase Your Learning Productivity

On average, the working week is about 40 hours. If you are not satisfied with the results of your efforts and do not have time to do everything planned, two options arise to improve the situation:

Work harder.
Increase efficiency.

Despite the apparent simplicity of posing the question, in real life it is difficult to choose one of the options. The majority follows the first path, the number of working hours increases, and work is taken home. Author The author of the site a Year of Productivity, Chris Bailey, received an offer to work for a month with a 90-hour work week. As a reward for this torment, he was offered the opportunity to relax the next month, reducing his workload to 20 hours a week. Chris decided to accept this offer and test the effectiveness of working in such a stressful environment in practice. He shared his impressions and conclusions on the pages of the site.

Long hours and productivity

I was simply analyzing the amount of work I was able to do throughout the day, and in the second week I noticed a pattern. Productivity increased slightly until Wednesday, but fell sharply on Thursday. On Saturday I didn’t produce even half of Monday’s results. There was only enough rest on Sunday until Wednesday, and this situation repeated itself every week.

Gym exercises, morning jog They always give me a powerful recharge; on Thursday, even playing sports didn’t help cheer me up. I felt lethargic, unable to concentrate on the tasks at hand, and looked for any opportunity to delay the start of work. I concluded that working long hours only increases productivity by short time, but the end result is much lower than with a standard 40-hour work week. This is one of the most important lessons I learned during the experiment.

Stay busy and productive

Very often an equal sign is put between these concepts. In fact, these are different things. I'm sure productivity doesn't increase with longer work hours. Productivity should be measured in a different way - answer yourself how many tasks you bring to their logical conclusion or intermediate results, if we're talking about about a long-term project.

A simple example. You come to work, are given or already know about a certain amount of tasks that need to be completed. You can start something, but get distracted by conversations with colleagues, check your email, or call a client back. The result is that the job has been started, but not completed, although you have been busy all day.

Feelings of productivity are deceiving

It is very difficult to make an objective assessment of your own productivity. We are often deceived into mistaking increased work for productivity. Cases with multitasking are especially indicative. You have time to participate in many processes and are sure that you have done a lot useful work. But analyze the actual results and compare them with a situation where you were focused on one issue. The result is obvious - in the first case nothing, in the second - a real breakthrough.

The same thing happens with a long working day. You experience noble weariness and feel like a hero. But try to impartially evaluate your results. For the first few hours, you worked very efficiently, but gradually fatigue got the better of you - you became more and more distracted, took a coffee break, and sometimes found yourself just staring at the computer monitor and not being able to come up with a single sensible thought.

Plan your work time in advance

This habit can significantly improve the quality of work. You begin to work more organized and achieve the desired results in less time. An example would be an office worker who gets caught up in urgent matters. He “puts out fires” and wastes a lot of time setting up and trying to figure out the problem. As a result, important tasks remain unfinished.

During the experiment, I saw that I was working with low impact and doing unimportant things. This was especially evident in the last hours of the working day. I was able to conduct an objective analysis of my effectiveness only some time after the end of this crazy month. The conclusion of working on mistakes is that by planning in advance, it was possible to prevent mediocre waste of time.

A minute of planning will save 10 minutes of work.

This is one of the most outstanding quotes from the great Brian Tracy. Regarding 10 minutes, one can argue that in life the results are more modest. But the principle of approach to work is extremely valuable. Without planning ahead, you can't act smart. You may work longer and harder than your colleagues, but the best results will be shown by your co-worker who spends less time working and plans his daily activities in advance.

Limit deadlines for completing tasks

This is very effective technique to increase productivity. Having some experience in your field, you are approximately aware of how long it takes to complete a particular job. Do you want to manage to produce significant volumes? Try to do more in a given unit of time. Example. It will take you about 3 hours to compile the report. Set yourself the task of doing this in 2 hours, cutting off any escape routes. You will definitely succeed if you focus on this work, do not get distracted and allow yourself breaks. If you know that you have a certain amount of time, you work less efficiently, stretching out the completion of a task until a predetermined deadline.

Do you remember the experiment with 90-hour and 20-hour work weeks? I set myself a goal of completing a standard 40-hour week in 20 hours. Everything worked out for me.

Replenish your energy reserves

If you steal time from your sleep to work, eat unhealthy foods, don't exercise, and don't get enough rest, your work efficiency will inexorably decline. You'll lose energy like a battery long time working without recharging. High-quality and regular rest will restore your energy supply, and you will be able to work less time, but more effectively.

Too long working hours destroy vitality

Everyone has encountered requests from their superiors to push themselves, force themselves and mobilize their last strength for a breakthrough in emergency moments at work. By forcing myself to work 15 hours a day and only resting on Sundays, I seriously depleted my resources. The last week of the experiment showed very alarming consequences:

I avoided important decisions.
- The brain simply refused to do the work.
“I had a hard time waking up in the morning and felt like a weak old man.
- Joy began to disappear, interest in life faded.

My experiment was very tough. But you must remember. By choosing to increase your working hours, you begin to destroy your vital energy.

Be honest with yourself

If you are lying to yourself, any attempts to achieve efficiency are useless. Answer the questions honestly:

How often do you postpone important but unpleasant things until later?
- How often do you give up on high goals after the first difficulties?
- Do you wake up early to go for a run, or promise yourself to start tomorrow and sleep until the last minute?
- How much time do you spend in front of the TV, knowing that important things await you?

These are questions worth asking yourself about any aspect of your life if you feel dissatisfied with the state of affairs. Honest answers will show you what needs to be done to correct the situation.

There are things in life more important than work

Work is important, but family, hobbies, friends and loved ones should always come first. If you lose the opportunity to spend time with loved ones or indulge in hobbies, you need to urgently think about your life and look for a way to fix everything. By working more, you don't get more things done or become more efficient. By reducing your work hours by increasing productivity, you free up time for more important things. This is worth remembering, it will become the best incentive for fundamental changes in the approach to work.

Yes, there are many people in the world who are in love with their work or business. As a rule, these guys are confident that they are carrying out an important mission. But if you work to ensure financial wealth, it’s definitely not worth sacrificing time that you can spend with your loved ones, children, and friends.

Flow emails doesn't stop? Do Facebook and VKontakte endlessly send notifications about new messages? Has your favorite news resource prepared a newsletter of the most interesting materials that appears as a pop-up window in your browser? Someone is talking on the phone in the hallway, and you feel like you know every detail of this family drama? Is your colleague breathing too loudly?

There are an endless number of distractions that interfere with your work to one degree or another. Some of them are objective, others are subjective, but, nevertheless, they can and should be fought. Below are five ways that are so simple that they are definitely worth trying. We bet at least one of them will suit you.

Listen to the right music

The power of music cannot be overestimated, and in this case it also plays an important role. It turns out that the type of songs you listen to during the workday can speed up or, on the contrary, reduce your rate useful action. A 2016 study published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior found that people who listened to South Korean group Brown-Eyed Girl, Katrina and the Waves' Walking On Sunshine, and Fab Four's Yellow Submarine were more likely to collaborate with colleagues and were in a pleasant mood throughout the day.

At the same time, those who listened to depressive music (in this study- heavy metal), were not inclined to collectively solve problems. It is interesting that the mood of the group that did without musical accompaniment, did not change, but no increase in productivity was noted.

Bring a sweater

Are you frozen? This can seriously affect performance. The results of one Japanese study suggest that "thermal satisfaction" (that is, when you can say that the temperature in a room is as comfortable as possible, and you would not like it to be warmer or colder) - important factor productivity. During the experiments, those participants who were not satisfied with the current temperature more often did not complete the assigned tasks than those who were more than satisfied with the “climatic conditions”. And this is a great reason to always keep a warm sweater, scarf or blanket in the office.

Turn on the desk lamp

If your work requires extreme concentration, then fluorescent lamps can help you with this. Japanese scientists who studied the concentration came to the conclusion that different conditions illumination is not the same. Thus, they found that additional lighting - for example, a desk lamp - increases concentration on current tasks by at least 5%. Unlike a ceiling lamp, which does not give the same effect. Do you want to get the job done quickly and efficiently, without being distracted by extraneous noise? Turn on the directional light and get started.

Make a to-do list

Experts from Columbia University examined 258 people and found that those who are constantly busy are more motivated to complete tasks than those who give themselves “moments of laziness” (which, as we know very well, very easily and even somehow imperceptibly turn into watch). The same scientists found that a list of tasks helps to plan time more effectively, and if you don’t meet deadlines, then try to stick to them, which also increases the efficiency of work in general. So take a couple of minutes at the beginning of your day to make a to-do list, and you'll notice that you'll end up doing even more than you planned.

Create nature around you

When researchers in Michigan tested the effects of industrial and natural environments on human productivity, they found that working in nature allowed participants to scientific experiment concentrate as much as possible. Thus, try to surround yourself with nature, even if you have to be in the office all day. For example, put a forest landscape on your monitor screensaver or buy a small tree that you can put on the table and admire it as an emotional release. By the way, a walk for 15-30 minutes also counts: it not only allows you to increase productivity, but also becomes a kind of “reboot”, after which you can begin tasks with renewed vigor.

This article will be especially useful for people who spin like a squirrel in a wheel, but at the same time the effectiveness of their activities is minimal; it will also be useful for those who tend to put off performing not very interesting duties.

Some tips may seem inappropriate to you (all individually) or already familiar, others you will find interesting and take into account.

How to increase productivity and have time to do everything you planned? How to concentrate on work and not be distracted by trifles while doing business? How can we finally begin to complete the tasks that have been facing us for a long time?

How to increase productivity

PLAN YOUR WORKING TIME

First of all, you need to turn planning your working day into a habit, make it a daily ritual. How does this affect work productivity?

Firstly, it makes it easier to remember. You won’t lose sight of both important and unimportant matters; all you need to do is look at your notepad or online diary. Scientists have proven that if you constantly think about how not to forget something, you will forget much more than if you just did your job and did not burden yourself with bad memory. Moreover, if you write down what needs to be done, not a single thing will go unnoticed.

Secondly, time planning sets priorities. Knowing the order in which to act is very important. Some things can wait, while others require immediate completion.

And thirdly, when we plan our time, we have more time - this is one of the basic rules of high productivity.

WITHOUT DELAY

The sooner you take action, the better. and the tone of your entire day is set in the first few hours of it.

HAVE PLEASURE FROM WHAT YOU DO

No matter how trivial it may sound, it is a fact - high productivity activity depends on the mood with which you approach completing tasks. Doing what you like is the most important secret to being productive! It is clear that we are often forced to do something that we are not interested in and do not like, and this is inevitable, but in any process we can find some positive aspects.

Work Productivity when doing difficult and unloved things may depend on self-motivation. Yes, sometimes it’s difficult to do something that’s disgusting, but things immediately begin to go as soon as we remember the goals to which fulfillment of these tasks leads us.

CLARITY OF PURPOSE

While working, you must clearly and clearly see and understand each of your subsequent steps and also clearly imagine the final result of your work.

If you work at home, then this has probably happened to you - you got up without completely deciding on your tasks, turned on the computer and started “working”. After a couple of hours of browsing news sites (or other sites), you realize that you have not moved. This clear example for the statement – “ If you don't have a goal, you don't do anything.».

REST

Your productivity will be higher if you periodically find time to relax. Here we are talking about both short breaks during the working day, as well as weekends (many take work home) and vacation periods.

Rest, alternating with work, gives vigor and enthusiasm, allowing us to return to work again and again refreshed and with a charge of new energy. Such means as changing activities, playing sports help to relax especially effectively, and a regular massage at home helps a lot, but it’s better to buy a massage table, for example, at www.mstol.ru, or you can visit a good relax salon.

Get enough sleep! Lack of sleep will lead to an inadequate perception of reality and reduce the effectiveness of activities.

If you have a sedentary job, get up from your chair more often; if your work also involves a computer, do not forget about exercise for your eyes; if you have mental work, dilute it with small physical activity. All this will certainly affect your productivity.

DON'T BE DISTRACTED BY THINGS

Once you get down to business, take care to reduce possible distractions to a minimum. This means no external stimuli and no interruptions in work for trifles (I do not mean the necessary breaks that I mentioned earlier). If you smoke every half hour, check your email every hour, answer phone calls, and still chat, this will have a bad effect on your productivity. In addition to the fact that you lose time, being distracted even for 5-10 minutes, it still takes you some time to restore the previous pace of work.

When you decide to work productively, it is better to warn in advance those who may distract you during a given period of time. If you have a remote job and work from home, tell your household to contact you only when absolutely necessary. If you work in an office, you can close the door to your office, and if this is not possible, put on headphones and turn on music (of course, if it does not distract you, but more on that below), or warn - “I’m working!” You shouldn’t blame anyone for your lack of productivity; you create obstacles for yourself. If others do not respect or value your time, it is only because your silence allows them to do so.

DIVIDE THE WORK INTO STEPS

Productive activity largely depends on the time frame that you allocate to a particular task. You should set aside a certain period of time to complete a specific job; set yourself mini-goals. You can even set a timer, limiting yourself to a time limit.

You can do the most difficult or unpleasant work first, and then take on what you like. Compared to what you have done, everything else will seem easy to do and this will encourage you to take further action. Or you can do exactly the opposite, do something easy and pleasant, this will allow you to get into a working rhythm, and then the mountains will be up to your shoulder. What suits whom?

It is better to divide large and long-term projects into smaller stages, then these projects seem more manageable, plus this makes it possible to evaluate the work that has already been done, even if there is still a long way to go until it is fully completed.

You can cope with the work that you constantly put off if you force yourself to work for some 20-30 minutes (or convince yourself by saying “ It will only take half an hour, during which time I will at least get something done"). If she scared you with something, during this time you will understand that not everything is so scary, because it is known that the eyes are afraid, but the hands do. And once you start, you may want to finish everything to the end.

The reason for decreased productivity may be being busy with several things at the same time. Focus on one thing at a time.

MUSIC WILL HELP YOU

“Music inspires, promotes the flight of imagination, provides the soul with wings, music gives life and joy to everything that exists, it encourages us to think eloquently...” Plato

Some people are brought to their senses by the sound of music. According to studies conducted by English scientists, the productivity of people who listen classical music and are busy with work, higher than that of people working in silence. In other matters perfect recipe It’s difficult to choose here - not only do everyone’s musical preferences differ (some may be inspired and stimulated by heavy metal), but music also affects everyone differently. In any case, it’s not difficult to check whether music bothers you or helps you while working.

GET ORDERED

Pay attention to your workplace. A cluttered desktop is not conducive to productivity, it only distracts and irritates with its clutter. Unload it, remove everything unnecessary and unnecessary, and carefully put what is necessary in its place.

IT'S TIME

It is necessary to take into account the fact that every person has a peak of activity - this is the time when you can do your work with less loss of energy and with the highest quality. You may not even know what part of the day is most productive for you. To determine these hours (the ones that are most productive for you), try working at different times.

There are also days when inspiration overwhelms you, you need to take advantage of the moment and do as much as possible on such days - beyond the norm.

These simple tips will help you increase your productivity, they are all time-tested and extremely effective! And remember, the more productive you work, the more time you will have for hobbies, recreation and loved ones.

P.S. In this article, not a word was said about laziness, because this is a separate topic - How to deal with laziness.

Increasing productivity is an integral element of success in life and professional activities. Why haven't many people taken this road yet? Read more in detail and step-by-step about increasing personal productivity and its importance in life in the following material.

You will learn:

Why do many people believe that increasing productivity is actually unrealistic?
What strategies and ways to increase productivity exist.
How to successfully increase productivity with simple tools.
Can working through force be considered an increase in productivity?

Dispelling myths about increasing productivity

“Organized life is lifeless and sterile.” Many people’s imaginations conjure up images of sterile office spaces that they saw in magazines, clearly understanding that this environment is fundamentally unsuitable for real life. This is partly true - workplaces specially prepared for advertising look beautiful, but are implausible. In fact workspace can be considered organized if conditions are met where we need a minimum of time to complete daily operations. That is, they are always at hand necessary items. If to search necessary documents If it takes at least half an hour or you need to make more than 3 clicks to launch the required program, you should think about improving the organization of your workspace.
“I don’t have time for time management” . This is usually said by people who have tried to mindlessly copy one of the fashionable Western systems. After all, if you make lists all day, record tasks and take into account time, then there will be no time and energy left for real things. But any organizational system requires an initial investment of time during study and implementation. However, over time, it fully justifies such investments due to increased productivity and significant saving time.
“Current systems lack flexibility” . According to many, organization systems are quite rigid and do not fit real conditions unpredictable, dynamic life. But in reality this statement is not entirely correct. Any of the time management systems is aimed at maximum flexibility and meets the requirements and expectations of a wide range of people.
“Productivity is workaholism” . Yes, using the system will help you become more organized. With increased productivity, you can complete your tasks much faster. But this does not mean that your subordinates will be happy with your long rest or early departures home. The freed up time is better spent on self-development, long-planned projects, and career advancement issues.
“Increasing productivity is not about creativity” . Successful creative personalities of our time are not just creators, but, above all, businessmen. Development of your own brand, promotion, contracts, conclusion of contracts, fees and other factors require more space than a pen or brush. Yes and for creative process Having a system in place can be extremely helpful. It is important to understand that creativity is work. And successful creativity is based on daily work. Competent work organization is useful in every field of activity.
“Organization, productivity – it’s so boring” . Many people believe that proper organization and systematization will deprive a person of the effect of surprise in life, of pleasant spontaneity. But that's not true. After all, if you have a clear goal, you can achieve it much more pleasantly and successfully.

Expert opinion

About David Allen's GTD technique

Alexey Soloviev,

Managing Director of Prostor Capital, Moscow

A few years ago, I realized that I had reached a critical volume of unfulfilled tasks that began to put pressure on me. I had to deal with current problems as they came, leaving no time to even think about my long-term goals. Then I thought about the need to stop and figure out how to get more done.

I once attended a time management seminar with David Allen, learning the principles of his GTD technique. The main principle of this technique was to focus on completing tasks rather than memorizing them.

Be sure to record all matters. Anyone will do convenient way- paper, computer program, recorder. It is necessary to divide tasks into categories - “today”, “delegate”, “this week”, “save for information”, “add to basket”, etc.

Do not respond to incoming messages right away. Many tasks come from people writing letters, callers. Not all of these requests require an immediate response. To save time, I decided not to respond to messages as they arrived. I don’t check my email all the time, they don’t answer messages and calls – that’s left for later. I check my accumulated messages twice a day. I answer some immediately when watching. I put others in long term plan or I delegate.

Link all emerging tasks to your long-term goals.

1.5 hours a day is enough for me to plan things. It may seem like a big waste of time, but for me it is an investment that allows me to successfully complete tasks and save more time.

Where to start increasing productivity

Recognize that most of what you do is useless. If you evaluate your work for the last work week, you will be able to see that 30 out of 40 hours were spent on unnecessary, unplanned, unproductive activities. If you think this doesn't apply to you, just do it for working week write in a notebook every 15 minutes. Indicate what you have done in the last 15 minutes. After completing 40 hours, count the time intervals. The result may surprise you, and you may understand that increasing productivity requires not so much the inclusion of new tasks as the abandonment of unnecessary ones.
Do the must-dos as soon as possible. We spend a lot of mental energy on postponing our affairs. Instead, it is better to complete urgent tasks as quickly as possible, and productivity will increase.
Reward yourself for doing important things. You can reward yourself for completing an important task. This will stimulate our brain to understand - we need to be in time in set time for a certain incentive.
Make sure your mind is pure. If you are overcome by different negative thoughts, feelings of guilt, shame for improper work, etc., then high level productivity will not be achieved.
Praise yourself for your achievements. The human mind is able to exert more effort if it is confident in the praise for its efforts. Praise yourself every day for 30 days and you will be surprised at the purity of your thinking.
Focus on what you are good at. A key aspect in increasing productivity. You should focus on what you are really good at; do tasks in which you are strong. Make these tasks a priority for yourself.
Focus on how to help the consumer of your product or service. If you concentrate on helping other people, your mind will important reason finish the job quickly. Our minds don't like solving pointless problems.
Don't lose touch with people. Sometimes, being alone, productivity decreases and is disrupted. creativity. A person is social, and without communication, the ability to concentrate on tasks decreases. Therefore, do not forget to communicate while working - this will significantly increase your overall productivity.
Change your environment. When immersed in a new environment, you allow your mind to become more creative with improved productivity. The basis of this effect is that the mind becomes more curious when the environment changes. If you allow your mind to be creative in relation to the world around you, then it will be more creative in its work.
Avoid striving for perfection. There may be situations where 90% of the project is completed in 10 hours, and 10% in 20 hours. But are the latter worth such a waste of time? Is it possible to complete the project faster by saving 20 hours?

10 Strategies to Increase Productivity

1. Parkinson's Law

British historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson in 1955 in the magazine The Economist formulated the following rule: “Work fills the time allotted for it.” Subsequently, this axiom became known as Parkinson's first law. We had this problem in our lives too. In particular, you have a month to complete the project, but you do the bulk of the work in the last week.

How to deal with the Parkinson's effect? Reducing our deadlines:

2. Flow state

If you're so focused that you don't notice anything going on around you, you've fallen into a state of flow. This often occurs among athletes who are focused on achieving results. However, to achieve this state Only a person who is passionate about the activity can do it. In flow, a person is completely involved in his process, focused on it, fully involved and focused on the result.

How to achieve your flow state

1) You should take a short break. Sometimes a 10-minute nap or a walk fresh air will allow you to “reset” your state, reducing personal stress.

2) You should start by breathing slowly, deeply, inhaling for a few seconds, followed by a slow exhalation, during which you need to press your tongue to your teeth, making a hissing sound (like a hissing snake). We do this manipulation several times.

3) We divide the problem into subtasks, otherwise you can unconsciously worry about solving it. It should be divided into several subtasks or a sequence of steps to reduce anxiety.

4) We clear our consciousness of unnecessary information - the brain is probably loaded with a lot of thoughts about work, problems, information about finances, and shopping. Take a pen and get everything down on paper so that your brain can concentrate on one task.

5) Take a shower – good shower Helps relax the muscles of the body and mind.

6) Think about what can relax you - memories of a loved one, the seashore.

7) Make the task more difficult – if the task is too boring and simple, you may simply lose interest in it.

8) Walk, move, jump, dance, make your body move.

9) Have a drink (not alcohol) or a snack, but not something sweet.

10) The right balance of satisfaction and anxiety. Ask yourself - how will you feel if you fail to complete the task? How will you feel after completing it?

11) Turn on music: this will charge you with optimism to complete the task. You can achieve greater effect with headphones.

12) Turn on multitasking mode for a short time. Of course, multitasking cannot be considered effective, but it is better than not completing tasks. We turn on multitasking for 5-15 minutes until you feel motivated. Chat with friends, turn on the TV, make a call. This will help you cheer up a little, but you shouldn’t make it a habit.

3. Single-tasking

Many continue to try to inherit the talents of Julius Caesar - wanting to do 5 things at once and succeed in everything. However, multitasking only leads to a decrease in personal effectiveness.

Threats of multitasking:

exhausts;
violates quality;
destroys social connections. With more information flows, it becomes more difficult to manage. If you write a letter to your partner while simultaneously talking to a friend on the phone, you will be inattentive to each task.

For proper productivity, you should return to single-tasking.

4. Two-minute rule

If a task takes less than two minutes, you just need to do it. Dozens of things that can be done in one minute, but are put off until later, together become a serious problem.

5. Internal clock

The biological processes of our body undergo serious cyclical fluctuations during the change of day and night. They are called circadian rhythms, which record periods of activity and decline. Circadian rhythms are subject to a 24-hour schedule - the time during which the Earth cycles around its axis. Our brain works differently at different times of the day and night. Therefore, you need to take into account the relationship between your circadian rhythms and certain daily activities.

According to a study by Dr. Steve Kay, representing the University of Southern California, it is better to solve analytical problems within two to three hours after waking up. In the morning, body temperature is slightly increased and blood flow to the brain is improved.

Activity decreases after lunch, given the redirection of energy to digestion. Better to use given time for creative tasks.

Evening is time for sports. A person in the period 16.00-18.00 hours has greater muscle strength, joint flexibility, with best job lungs, improved coordination.

You should listen to your body's internal clock. With the decision of important intellectual tasks before lunch, devoting time after lunch to creativity, and in the evening do not forget about physical exercise.

6. Reverse engineering

There is a concept of reverse engineering." It assumes the following: a new product is invented based on an existing one with a reverse algorithm of action. First, it is planned to study the operating principle and functions of the existing product, and then an analogue will be developed. The principle of reverse engineering is commonly used in the computer and mechanical engineering industries. However, it is also suitable for other areas of activity.

7. Three forces

Kelly McGonigal, a professor at Stanford University, in her book “Willpower. How to develop and strengthen,” notes that self-control is built on 3 forces:

“I will” are promises you make to yourself and keep.
“I won’t” are certain taboos imposed on one’s bad habits.
“I want” are your true desires.

If these forces are in disharmony, it will be difficult to achieve your goals. Thanks to their control, it will be possible to develop willpower and streamline affairs.

8. 52 minutes of work - 17 minutes of rest

Only robots are able to work without interruption, although they also fail. But many of us feel guilty if we drink coffee “for a long time.” But a person cannot remain as productive as possible all day. We need rest. The study by the developers of the Desktime system involved studying the habits of different employees. The result is this: the greatest productivity can be achieved when working according to the following scheme:

52 minutes - hard work, then 17 minutes - rest.

9. Pose

Professor Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist, has spent many years studying nonverbal body language. In her scientific research, she concluded that postures can influence feelings, hormonal levels and human behavior.

10. Validation of progress

Famous entrepreneur, author of the book “Business from Scratch. The Lean Startup method for quickly testing ideas" Eric Ries noted - “Working effectively on the wrong product is like driving a car off a cliff and being happy how quickly you pick up speed."

In this regard, we can note the mathematical allegory with the Sharpe ratio, which is a certain indicator of the efficiency of the system. The higher it is, the more profit the system will bring. Therefore, your actions must be constantly compared with the goal. Are you moving in the right direction? Perhaps you’ve lost your way and that’s why you don’t see your desired result?

How to work half a day and get everything done: algorithm from Gazprom

You take away your time when you spend hours answering unimportant emails, chaotically completing overdue tasks, and as a result you don’t get anything done .

David Allen, consultant to Gazprom and World Bank, shared with the “Commercial Director” magazine an algorithm for how a manager can free 4 hours a day from work.

1) You need to learn to say “No!” Sometimes everyone faces different offers and requests that you need to learn to refuse.

2) Try to learn something new as often as possible - there will be a desire to use new things in practice, and additional motivation will arise to increase the productivity of your work.

3) Find sources of life motivation and energy. For some it's a morning run, and for others it's relaxing with friends.

4) Stay confident own strength. For confidence in work and personal life, constant monitoring of the level of self-esteem is required. Learn to notice your victories and achievements, no matter how small - this will increase your personal confidence. There is no need to dwell on your mistakes and failures, just draw conclusions and move on.

5) Planning working time during free time.

6) Save mental resources. Every time you don’t want to work, but force yourself, you use a mental resource in the form of willpower. But this resource is limited. Every time you force yourself to work more than necessary, you gradually deplete your resource. Therefore, do not forget to rest and restore your energy.

You can increase productivity with yoga

Sergey Agapkin,

Physiotherapist, host of the program “About the Most Important Thing,” Candidate of Psychological Sciences

Many people go to work fresh and full of energy, but at the end they feel seriously tired. How to achieve increased productivity when constant stress in the office, significant physical and mental stress, which provoke exhaustion of the body?

Characteristic signs of the harmful effects of stress on health are insomnia or increased sleepiness, problems concentrating, loss of libido, and heart problems. Gradually, this contributes to the development of chronic diseases, including mental ones.

What should you do to increase productivity without causing health problems? I consider yoga one of the most effective solutions. After just a few months of simple activities, you can get additional energy so that the working day does not seem so exhausting.

Information about authors and companies

Sergey Agapkin, Physiotherapist, host of the program “About the Most Important Thing,” Candidate of Psychological Sciences. Received medical education with a specialization in “Physiotherapy and physical therapy”. In 1989, at the age of 13, while treating scoliosis, on the advice of an orthopedic doctor, he began to practice yoga. And since 1993 he began teaching it. Member World Association yoga therapists. Leading teacher at Agapkin Yoga Station.

Alexey Soloviev, Managing Director of Prostor Capital, Moscow. Graduated from Moscow State Technological University. N.E. Bauman. He worked in IT companies for more than ten years, developing plans to enter new markets. In the current company since 2011. Since 2014 - member of the investment committee and the board of director of the Internet Initiatives Development Fund "IIDF Invest". He is on the board of directors of Dnevnik.ru, Infratel, UMI and other portfolio companies of the fund. Prostor Capital Ltd. Field of activity: venture fund.

Translation

How many hours a week do you spend working? About 40, right? What do you think will happen if you work 90 hours a week?

The author of the website a Year of Productivity Chris Bailey decided to conduct such an experiment. What did this lead to? Read about the 10 lessons he learned in our translation of his article.

On average, people work approximately 40 hours a week or more.

There are two solutions to this problem on the surface:

1. Keep working 40 hours a week and don't succeed.
2. Work more than 40 hours a week and try to increase your productivity.

However, in practice this choice is not easy. Even though it seems that working for a long time will cope with a large number tasks, this is obviously a flawed reasoning: not because you will have less time for rest and recovery, but because in the long run your productivity will decrease significantly. This has been proven many times, so the thesis is completely obvious.

I consider myself a highly productive person, even though I once did nothing for a week. But now I can’t even remember when I was as unproductive as working 90 hours a week.

In February, I had an alternative: work 90 hours a week, only to work 20 hours the next. I wanted to see how extreme work would affect my productivity. Below are the 10 most important lessons I learned during the experiment.

1. Working long hours will increase your productivity, but only in the short term.

This is perhaps the most important lesson I learned for myself: you can achieve more by working long hours, but this will not last long.

In the long run, working long hours leads to more procrastination and less productivity. This is the reason why you start doing less without always realizing it.

In fact, after a 40-hour workweek, the study found, marginal productivity begins to decline until "working for eight 60-hour workweeks equals the productivity of eight 40-hour workweeks." And if we work 70 or 80 hours in 7 days, the break-even point will be reached in the third week.

When I worked 90 hours a week, I managed to get a lot done, but only during the first days of the week; after which I didn't have the time or emotional energy to recover, so my productivity really took a hit. I made sure that sleeping and going to the gym every morning helped me regain my energy, but it was still dropping by Wednesday-Thursday.

It's easy to fool yourself into thinking that a long work week will make you more productive, and in the end it does, but not for long. But personally, I believe that there are fundamental limits to overall productivity, and they can be overcome by working smarter, not harder.

Most studies show that the optimal number of hours to work during the week is about 40. After my experiment, I am inclined to believe this.

2. Just because you're busy all the time doesn't mean you're highly productive.

Eat big difference between busyness and productivity, but it is sometimes very difficult to grasp.

From my point of view, productivity has nothing to do with how much you work; it depends on how many things you complete. So, you can start doing many tasks and not complete any of them within a week. For example, if you have a 60-hour work week, but you spend all your time talking to co-workers, checking email, and doing unimportant tasks all day, you will be much less productive than someone who works 30 hours a week but is actually involved in important processes. .

Productivity is not how much you work during the day, but how much you get done.

3. Feeling productive does not mean having it.

Even if you feel like you're highly productive, that doesn't mean you are. In fact, sometimes the opposite is true:
When you multitask, you feel more productive than when you do one thing, but research has shown time and time again that this is not the case;
When you consume caffeine, you feel more productive because coffee affects the brain. However, the body gets used to caffeine, and this substance can reduce your productivity in solving creative problems;
You feel more productive checking your email 10 times an hour instead of preparing a report because you get feedback. But you are not paid for viewing mail, but rather for working and achieving certain results.

The same goes for constant recycling. I think working long hours makes you feel more productive and you feel less guilty about not getting all your work done on time.

4. Plan your time when you are not busy with work.

I believe that scheduling time when you are not busy at work allows you to more effectively address the quality of work, which allows you to work smarter, but not necessarily harder. As a simple example, if you work as an accountant, you could spend the entire day sharpening pencils (or the modern equivalent, checking email), or you could take a moment to step away from your routine and figure out what would bring the best results, and then do that. this work.

Intellectual activity makes us more creative, concentrated, energetic, because it allows us to see work from a bird's eye view. It allows you to see what you need to do differently to achieve more in less time. And although you may feel less productive, as with the example of single-tasking, you will be more successful.

When I forced myself to work 90 hours a week, I constantly noticed that I was working less efficiently, doing stupid things, but not achieving significant results at the end of the day: I noticed all this after analyzing my work a week after the end of the experiment .

5. Every minute spent planning will save 5 minutes of work.

Here's my favorite productivity quote from Brian Tracy:

“Every minute spent planning saves 10 minutes of work.”

I would argue about 10 minutes (I think a little less), but the principle is absolutely correct.

When all you do is work and you never take the time to plan, it's hard to work smart. Even if you always work harder than everyone else, without working smart, without doing extra-difficult tasks, you will never reach the level of productivity of other people who can work half as hard and achieve the same results.

When you stop working and plan your activities, you will become more focused and be able to focus your time and energy on a few concentrated goals, achieving greater productivity.

6. To achieve more in less time, set limited deadlines for completing tasks in your plan.

Selection limited quantity time to complete tasks is a direct path to increased productivity. Do you want to get more done? Spend more energy on completing tasks.

My favorite way is to allocate less time to the tasks I need to get done.

How less days(hours) are allotted according to the plan to complete the task, the more you push yourself, spend more time to complete the work. And vice versa, if there is a lot of time, then a person can take longer to make decisions and sit idle.

During the experiment, I had an alternative: work 90 hours one week, and only 20 hours the next.

It's funny, when I only had 20 hours to do 40 hour tasks, I found ways to get more done in less time. Since I had much less time than required, I had to use all my energy to achieve the goal.

The more you need to do, the more time it would seem you need to spend on work. This is what all people understand, and what, at first glance, seems correct. But in my experience, the less time you allocate to a task, the more you will accomplish in that limited time.

7. Take care of your energy and don't forget to replenish it.

As Brian Tracy, author of the fantastic book Eat That Frog, said, “If you want to stay happy and have high productivity, take care of your energy and remember to replenish it.” For example, when there is a lot to do and you only get a couple of hours of sleep, your productivity levels will decrease. But if you go to bed early and get enough sleep, you will be able to complete your tasks faster.

Energy is the fuel you burn throughout the day to get through work, and during the experiment I got rid of a lot of the things that energized me simply because I didn't have time for them. And if you want to do more in less time, you need to think especially carefully about replenishing your energy.

8. Overworking will drain your willpower.

Every time you force yourself to work when you don't want to, you use up a little willpower - a mental resource that can run out.

Forcing myself to work 90 hours a week expended a huge amount of mental resources, more than any other experiment. This led to a number of negative consequences:
I put off important things more often than ever before: sometimes for 3-4 hours;
My productivity dropped on Wednesday and Thursday of my 90-hour work week, with my brain simply refusing to do its job;
I realized that I was concentrating on unimportant, stupid tasks (checking Google Analytics, Twitter, email) instead of real work.

You may not force yourself to work 90 hours, but every time you force yourself to work more than you need to, you are depleting your willpower, which conflicts with energy and motivation, the main components of productivity.

9. One of the worst (and least productive) things you can do is be dishonest with yourself.

An issue that I often want to write about on my site is the need to be honest with yourself, because any productivity tactic becomes useless if you are lying to yourself. For example:
Are you doing what needs to be done or are you just putting it off until later?
Do you set high goals for yourself and then give up after a few weeks, or do you break them down into several stages and still achieve them?
Do you wake up the first time with your alarm clock or reset it 5 times before you get out of bed?
Do you listen to your brain when it says that it is tired from work and wants to rest?
Do you spend hours in front of the TV and then try to figure out where the time went?

Throughout the experiment, the more pressure I put on myself to be productive, the less honest I was with myself. I tried to put my guard down, trying to be productive when I wasn't feeling strong, which caused me to procrastinate, making excuses to do less today. Instead of being honest with myself and thinking about how much energy I was expending, I put too much pressure on myself and it reduced my productivity.

10. There are more important things in life than productivity.

Without a doubt, every second of work is a second that you did not spend on something less important, but more loved.

When I spent some time with my girlfriend while working 90 hours a week, I felt much better. There are things on the list of obligations that are important, but not urgent, and we most often refuse them in conditions of high busyness. I deal with this as much as other people.

When you overwork, that extra time that needs to be taken from somewhere causes you to give up simple things that give you energy (like spending time with your loved ones). As soon as you stop spending time on things for the soul, you begin a losing battle, becoming irritable and less productive.

In particular, working long hours has been shown to be no different in productivity than a 40-hour workweek (especially over the long term).

An important thing you can do to be productive is to plan your activities wisely. This will help you replenish your energy, work smarter, find interesting solutions, get rid of secondary tasks, and most importantly, control your work.

Good luck to you!