What is your most valuable tip for getting into your productive zone for working? (190)
Definitely keep a clean desk and inbox. Before I leave work for the evening, I clean off my desk. When I get to work every morning, I always have a clean desk. The only stuff that can be found on my desk are projects that require action that day.
The same can be said for my inbox. Every evening I clean it out. The next morning only contains emails that I’ll read/work on that day.
Michael Morton from Marketing Monster (rss)
Pavlovian conditioning.
Here’s where procrastination can really hurt you in the beginning. If you go into your home office (or cubicle or whatever) and do nothing, that’s the vibe you’ll get from that environment.
But if, from day one, you go into the office and do nothing but work, and when you’re finished working you leave, then Pavolvian conditioning will take effect and you’ll get into the productive zone just by walking into the room, closing the door and sitting at your desk.
http://www.joelfalconer.com from Joel Falconer (rss)
To enter the productive zone i start with clearly defined short-term goals. I use an action planner to focus on specific tasks which enables me to set a schedule of work which keeps my productivity high. To keep in the zone i keep distractions to a minimum during these productive bursts, by closing down unnecessary applications such as IM, email, twitter etc. I set up fixed times when i check email and stick to it, its tough but i find if its so easy to get distracted.
Grace Smith from Postscript5 | Freelance Web Design
I am careful to do difficult work in the morning, when I’m at my sharpest, and to save busy work for the late afternoon and night.
I can also give myself a “second wind” by switching from one kind of difficult work to another. Writing, then switching to editing, then switching to thinking, helps keep me going.
Gretchen Rubin from The Happiness Project
Eliminating distractions and making sure I’m comfortable. When I’m really serious about getting stuff done, I’ll disconnect myself from the Internet, close my door, put on some headphones, and just focus.
I like to go to the library, check out a laptop and work off a USB drive. If I use an unfamiliar computer I don’t have to worry about all my interesting bookmarks enticing me to stop working and I don’t have any of my distracting applications handy.
Gather everything you need to do the work before you begin. Turn off the phones, shut down email and minimize the potential for distraction.
Ariane Benefit from Neat & Simple Living (rss)
For me the trick lies in choosing the right music. I should like the music enough to start feeling good about my working environment, but on the other hand I should not like it too much so I won’t start singing instead of working.
Jeroen Sangers from El Canasto (rss)
It has to be “Eliminate the clutter”. How can you concentrate and be productive when you have things lying all over the desk shouting “look at me, look at me!”
A tidy working space enables you to focus on your immediate task rather that the bill that need paying/letter that needs replying to you that lying next to what you’re supposed to be concentrating on.
Katy Whitton from Flipping Heck! Productivity, Project Management & Motivation Blog (rss)
Everything unplugged. No chat, no email, no phone, no IM, no Twitter no web browsers open… turn off the Internet if you have to. The less distracting inputs you have running, the more focused you can become.
Focus on three things: diet (including water), exercise, and sleep. If these three things become stable and regular, so will everything else, as your circadian rhythms and energy levels become balanced.
Charlie Gilkey from Productive Flourishing (rss)
Staying out of the non-productive zone, i.e., avoiding the internet like the plague!
GTD Wannabe from GTD Wannabe (rss)
Routine, routine, routine. I eliminate distractions like email and my reader by allowing myself breaks every couple of hours or so. Since my “work” involves reading and preparing kits for book clubs, I tend to set page-goals throughout the day. I.e., once I’ve read or written a certain number of pages, I take a break to check email and move around a bit. I also capitalize on my most productive time — morning — and try to get the bulk of my work done by mid-afternoon.
Kristen from BookClubClassics (rss)
Sound: know what level of sound is helpful to you. There are times when I need things absolutely quiet and others when I can tolerate 50% noise.
Timing: as the day goes on, my resistance to difficult tasks grows so the first four hours are essential.
Pacing: one hour at a designated task is probably the most that I could give to the job. Change it up with some manual labor (filing, walking, cleaning) in order to jog the brain.
Mike St. Pierre from The Daily Saint
Using the 48 minute singletasking idea, it’s imperative to close out all distractions (close the door, turn off the TV etc). I make sure I have a water or coffee and that I have a well planned out desk or workspace.
One place, one focus, 48 minutes
John Richardson from Success Begins Today (rss)
Just start.
But it should never be work. Work is not productive. Work is just tedious.
Play is productive because play is fun. If what you are doing is fun, it will draw you in and before you know it you’ll get to the point where you can’t wait to get up in the morning because you will want to dive into your “play” again.
Fred Gratzon from The Lazy Way to SUccess
To get into flow I find it helpful to put on some instrumental music, clean everything off my desk except what I’m working on and get a glass of water. Then I close my eyes for a few seconds and visualize a good outcome to my work, open my eyes and get to it.
I also find that setting a limit to how long I’ll work on one task is helpful. It keeps me from feeling like I’m stuck with a task until it’s finished.
Maria Gajewski from Never the Same River Twice (rss)
Keep logs. I believe the productive zone differs from person to person, in time, in circumstances, in mindset.
The only way to find out what works for you, is to keep logs. What were your most productive hours? What did the environment look like? What were you thinking? Music? Food?
Find out what the setting is for you, and make sure you get in that setting as often as possible (or desirable).
Lodewijk van den Broek from How to be an Original (rss)
Hey Mark.
There is loads of information here.
Some points I will take away from this would be keeping logs, because I do that sometimes and I then quickly see what worked for me, like Lodewijk said. I use instrumental music and drink water like Maria said, so we match there. Fred’s tip is a good one I need to implement so what I am doing is in the playful category.
The multiple suggestions about removing all distractions is what I rarely try, but I have had some great success when I did that, so I’m not sure why I don’t do it more. I will keep it in mind.
That Pavlonian conditioning from Joel is one I do make use of, in that I have certain items geared towards “Crush It” mode, and only use those at that time.
What a package here. Thanks for creating this.
Thanks for this — these are some great perspectives. Personally, what I do is try to keep my attention on my body — feeling my feet on the floor, and my back against the chair, and this keeps my mind from drifting into irrelevant stuff.
Hi Mark- I saw the nice mention of my blog, The Happiness Project, here. I very much appreciate you shining a spotlight on my blog! Thanks and best wishes, Gretchen
No problem. Thanks for taking part in the interview.
These are fantastic ideas and practices. But my environment does not handle some of them. Example, I have no office, only a cube with no door and allot of traffic going to the mail room and back. The acoustics are lousy and you can hear everyone’s conversation in the entire room. Next my supervisor will keep calling me every 30 seconds (not kidding at all) with a single question which I answer and then another call with another question generated from the previous call and so on and so forth. If I do not answer, then he walks down and asks. I cannot do anything about it and it drives me crazy. I read a while back that for every interruption on the average it takes a maximum of 10 to 15 minutes to regroup. In that case I would have to take work home to come out ahead. I have had one quadruple bypass at 44; I do not desire another one because of stress. Any and all comments are welcome for helping me with my productivity. Thank you.
While not knowing exactly what your job is, here are a few suggestions. You might consider proactively asking your boss if there is anything he needs. Let him know that you are going to forward your phone and try to focus on a particular project for the next 45 minutes, but wanted to check with him first to see if there was anything he needed.
If you don’t have an office you might be able to use a conference room or some other area. Once again approach your boss and let him know what you are going to be doing (or ask permission if you need to).
Another idea would be to try to work when there aren’t as many people around. For example, if you came in a few hours earlier in the morning or stayed later in the evening. I would suggest coming in for an hour early for a week to see how it works for you. If it seems to help, ask your boss if you can shift your work hours to come in an hour early and leave an hour early as an experiement. Let him know you’ve tried it for a week and you think it really helps you get through work that requires concentration much quicker. If you can give him specific examples that is great. For example, if your boss is familiar with a particular report that normally takes 3 hours, he may be very interested if you say you did it in 30 minutes by doing it before anyone else was there for the day.
Also check your employee handbook. There may be some policies already to allow flexible work schedules. I wouldn’t use them to demand anything, but it would be helpful to know if your company has something in place already.
One other thing. Don’t trap your boss. Many bosses will oppose change because they are worried they can’t put things back once they let you try something new. So instead of asking “can I shift my work schedule ahead one hour” ask “can we try an experiment to shift my work schedule ahead one hour and then re-evaluate how well it works in a week?”
Good luck. I hope at least some of those suggestions will help with your situation.
Thank you for the suggestions. I should have told you that my profession is computer programmer/analyst. Sorry for not mentioning that initially. Also I have the responsibility for routers, switches and security appliances. Another thing is that my boss is an accountant with no information systems back ground. He has no clue on how long something should take. Everything is ASAP to him. I really do not know if switching hours would work. He is here beyond the 8 hour work day. Talking is frustrating in itself and I have tried anticipating his questions to no avail. It is tough.
Well that is quite a job combination. :) One trick that might work with your boss is to frame things in terms of what you are going to have to stop doing to deal with the next emergency. So if he says “I need you to work on B right now” you might say “Ok. I was working on A, but I can switch to B if that is higher priority at this point.”
If you can establish the mentality that adding a task doesn’t cause things to occur in parallel it will help you. Another idea is to write down everything he/she asks for and ask him/her to prioritize the list for you.