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GET THINGS DONE
Handling
multiple tasks a day, is not only daunting, but can also
affect your
productivity and the way you manage your time.
THE 1-3-5 LIST
Entrepreneur Alexandra
Cavoulacos --founder of the career guidance
site, Muse--believes
that people have unrealistic expectations when
it comes to what they can get done in a day
. And, according to her,
the secret to productivity is prioritizing
tasks properly . Your daily
to-do list, she advises,
should not exceed nine items. And these
nine items need to be
divided: One big task, three medium tasks,
and five small tasks.
The 1-3-5 List, if you will.
Fill this list every
morning. If you are the type of worker whose daily
routine isn't set, then
leave one medium task and two small tasks
empty those will be
filled in the course of the day .But otherwise,
at any given time, you
will have a prioritized `to-do' list that tells you
what's important and
what isn't, so you will be able to get things done.
Tools You Can Use...
135 List for the Web: 135list.com Laterbox
for the Web: laterbox.co
TIMEBOXING & POMODORO
Timeboxing is the idea
of setting a specific amount of time for a task,
instead of continuing
work till the job is complete. But, for that
specific time, you do
nothing other than the intended task no
answering calls, no
checking e-mails, or anything else.
The most popular form of
timeboxing is the Pomodoro Technique
invented in the 1990s by
author and developer Francesco Cirillo,
and named after the
tomato-shaped kitchen timer that he used
when he was a university
student.
The idea is simple:
Cirillo says that the human brain isn't primed
to concentrate for long
periods. So he developed a system where
you work with intense focus in short bursts.
Divide each half hour
into 25 minutes of work followed by a
five-minute break. Those
total 30 minutes are “one pomodoro“.
After every four
pomodoros, take a long break of 15 to 30 minutes.
Then start pomodoros
again.
The 25-5 isn't a rule
set in stone. In a survey, timetracking app
DeskTime found that the
most productive people worked in
spurts of 52 minutes
followed by a 17-minute break (on average).
The basic idea is to
work on a task for one focused burst and then
follow it up with a
break where you do something that isn't work
at all.
Tools You Can Use...
Tomighty for Windows and Mac OS X:
http:www.tomighty.org
DON'T BREAK THE CHAIN
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld
was recently crowned the richest entertainer
in the world. So, if a productivity method
works for him, you should
pay attention. Years
ago, when asked how to get better at anything
you do, he had a simple
answer. Seinfeld's advice was to get a large
wall calendar and do one
definitive thing every day .
In his case, it was
writing a joke; for you, it could be learning a new
language or talking to
one new client. But every day, do that one
thing, and then mark off
that day in the calendar.
Soon, you will find
yourself working with momentum and the visual
accomplishment of your
marked days starts serving as a motivator.
Your “job“ stops being
writing a new joke or talking to a new client,
and it turns into “don't
break the chain“. Your hard work is right
there for you to see,
and you wouldn't want to waste that momentum.
Starting with one task
is ideal, but you could expand that to two or
more. But never overload
your daily to-do list. The idea is to make
your task simple and
realistic to complete.
Tools You Can Use...
Don't Break The Chain for the Web:
dontbreakthechain.com
Streaks Daily Habit Tracker for
Android:
http:www.pilanites.comstreaks Habit Streaks
for iOS:
habitstreaks.com
THE KANBAN METHOD
This is the productivity
method that drove Toyota to its engineering
success. “Kanban“
developed by Taiichi Ohno, a Japanese industrial
engineer who is
considered to be the father of the Toyota Production
System literally means
signboard in Japanese, and the technique is all
about a visual representation of your tasks and their progress.
The Kanban system uses
multiple columns, where each column
represents a crucial
process in a task.
For example, the columns
could be, “Waiting“, “In progress“, and
“Completed“. Each task
is written on a single Kanban card.
The card is then put in
the appropriate column, depending
on its current status.
Electronic Kanban
systems make it much easier to use the process
for individuals as well
as teams. The digital board of all tasks serves
as a great overview of
productivity, and makes it easier to choose
which task to do at any
point, and even take a task back one step
if needed.
Tools You Can Use...
Trello for the Web,
Android and iOS:
trello.com
KanbanFlow for the Web: kanbanflow.com
DAVID ALLEN'S GTD
Productivity guru David
Allen wrote the book Getting Things Done
in which he describes a
productivity technique by the same name.
The GTD phi losophy, at
its core, believes in a rigid set of guidelines.
Allen breaks down the
process into five steps...
1 Capture (Write down any task that comes up)
2 Clarify (Write every
single action needed for that task to be finished)
3 Organize (Write a due
date and prioritize the task by its importance)
4 Reflect (Figure out
your time availability and your current energy level)
5 Engage (Based on your
to-do list and current status, pick a task and
start doing it) It sounds simplistic, but in
action, the GTD system is
much more complex to
execute than the other systems.The clarification
and reflection, especially, are difficult
when you start off, but you'll get
better at them over time.
Given GTD's requirement
of having to capture tasks anywhere, expand
on them, and set
deadlines and priorities, you will need to use apps
that are cross-platform,
which allow for easy text writing and editing,
and which feature
colour-coding for importance.
Tools You Can Use...
Todoist for the Web, Android, iOS, Win,
and Mac OS X: todoist.com Evernote for the
Web,
Android, iOS, Win, and Mac OS X:
evernote.com
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Mihir Patkar TOI17oct15
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