Take It Easy on Your Brain!

We rely heavily on our brains to help us get more done. According to research, we do it way too much. We rely on our brains constantly to remember a litany of tasks on our mental to-do lists and to help us prioritize the list so we can and take the right action.

The problem is that our brains burn through much energy and attention trying to hold on to ideas, tasks, etc. that it doesn’t want to forget. It’s called the Zeigarnik effect. Think of it as a reminder system built into our minds that keeps pinging us when we know that there are things that we need to do and can’t forget about.

Eat That Frog!

Retired U.S. Army four-star General Stanley McChrystal gets a lot done. And it starts with his mornings, which are organized with military precision. Since his day is booked with work, he wakes up each morning at 4:00 AM to get in a 90-minute workout in before he heads into the office. This is the advice he dispenses for all of us to improve our own morning routines.

“Find certain things you know you should do, don’t like to do, or make excuses to avoid, and then do them every day or every other day, and then it just becomes a habit.”

7 Tips to Use Your Commute Wisely

Despite the recent uptick in people working remotely, most people still commute back and forth to an office. And that takes quite a bit of time out of each day. In America, workers spend about an hour a day commuting to and from work. When you factor that the average number of workdays per year exceeds 250, that calculates to the equivalent of more than thirty-one workdays, or six workweeks, spent in transit. The number becomes even more staggering for those who commute for long distances or routinely deal with heavy traffic.

How You Start Your Day is Everything

We may not realize it, but our brains burn through much energy and attention trying to hold on to ideas, tasks, etc. that it doesn’t want to forget. That’s why every task, commitment, and event should be written down or saved.

Work Batching Tips

In my last post, I introduced work batching as a strategy to help busy professionals save time by batching together similar activities into a single workflow. Time batching is effective because it builds structure and boundaries around blocks of time so that you can dive deep into specific tasks without the interruptions that commonly break up your workflow.

Batching works for both shallow and deep tasks. Shallow tasks, such as replying to email, data entry, and completing forms, require lower levels of productive energy. Deep tasks, like writing a proposal and preparing a presentation, require high levels of productive energy and high focus for longer periods of time.

Feedback from my "Break often but briefly" post

“Thank you for sharing these helpful tips about taking breaks. Somehow, I was already taking a walk, reading and eating during my breaks. I intend to continue doing them. However, I may explore listening music which I rarely do. Sometimes, one feels a sense of guilt when one takes a break. It is reassuring to know that it is beneficial.”

The clock sprung forward, but did you? 😩

For everyone who "sprung forward" over the weekend, it'll take some time for your bodies to adjust.

Even if you slept in, its still on its old schedule.

Here are some quick tips to help it adjust:

Stay consistent with your eating, bed, and exercise times
If you need to nap, keep it short

Break often but briefly

Breaking often to get more done may seem counterintuitive. I mean, who would think that that taking additional breaks would help you be more productive? Especially when you’re so busy as it is, and your to-do list is packed with things that must get done.

But hear me out. Because even if you pride yourself in your work ethic and your ability to concentrate for prolonged periods, your brain, your mind and your to-do list will thank me.

There are many reasons that we should be taking regular work breaks. Here are some of them.

Quit Repeating Yourself!

One of the biggest time wasters occurs when we repeat work that can be easily automated or duplicated (think: copy and paste.) This is true in every industry and position. Amongst coders, work repetition was so prevalent that it inspired the creation of the “Don’t Repeat Yourself” technique (or DRY Principle,) which discouraged the recreation of reusable code. While DRY, was made famous by coders, it is easily applicable to non-programmers as well.

Many of the things that we do often – such as replying to emails, crafting correspondences, writing articles, briefs, or proposals – unnecessarily take up large chunks of our day. At its core, DRY is about saving time by reusing work that’s already been done and materials that’ve already been prepared so that you don’t have to continually repeat the same work time and again.

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