10 Productivity Tips

1. Switch off your email
2. Ruthless prioritisation
3. JFDI
4. Make time to rest
5. Keep people informed
6. Make contingency time
7. Secure yourself
8. Your environment
9. Your computer
10. Manage your body

1. Switch off your email

Email is a great tool, but it can easily dominate your working day.

Most people will get more done by switching off email and actually working.

If you find yourself jumping straight into action every time your mail client goes "ping!", stopping whatever it is you're doing, and going to see what the message is, you need to ask who's boss in the relationship!

The truth is - most emails aren't urgent. You usually don't have to respond straightaway. You usually don't need to know about them straightaway. So, turn the damn thing off so that you can get some real work done!

I give myself up to one hour in the morning to sort my new mail. Then it gets turned off until lunchtime, when I check it again. I'll deal with lower-priority messages late in the day, when I'm perhaps more tired.

If you can't bear to shut down your mail client, would you consider...

• Turning off the message preview option?
• Turning off the audible alert?
• Setting your email only to collect once every hour?

2. Ruthless prioritisation

What percentage of your day do you spend writing lists entitled "Things to do - Urgent!"?

Most people have more stuff to do than time to do it in. That's a simple fact. I call it "the Glastonbury syndrome".

I went to the Glastonbury Festival in 1992, and it was great, except that, at any one point in time, there were at least 20 different things happening that I wanted to do!

There were usually 3 bands I wanted to see, a comedian in the comedy tent, some circus stuff, tai chi, stalls in the green fields full of alternative energy stuff, didgeridoo workshops, and hippies to hang out with at the stone circle...

It was so hard to work out what I wanted to do next, I spent most of my time worrying about what I wasn't doing, instead of getting the most out of what I was doing!

This is the way it is for most of us in our jobs. We just need to accept it and move on to getting stuff done. If we worry about all the possible things you could do, you'll end up not doing anything.

After years of list-writing on paper and whiteboards, colour-coded prioritisation in Outlook, calendar-fiddling etc., I've settled on a simple system of ruthless prioritisation.

• In the morning (after checking my emails), I look at my Inbox to remind myself what's on.
• I step back from myself in that place and time, and judge instantly what's most important for the company.
• I write down the things I'm going to do that day, and put them in order, often putting the least appealing or most challenging stuff first (as I know I'll feel better having done them).
• I shut down Outlook and move on to step 3 below...

3. J.F.D.I.

Just F**king Do It™

I've worked with a lot of clever processes in business and software development. The most useful of all is JFDI.

If you've been ruthless about what needs to be done, there's no more thinking to do. Any further energy or time spent on prioritisation is energy and time wasted. Prioritisation should take a few deep breaths, a dash of courage and a pencil.

As soon as you've done your list of things to do today, ignore Items 2 onwards. Focus on Item 1, and JFDI.

Don't worry about what's next, be your own super-manager.. You know the team leaders who take all the pressure of you by saying, "This is all I want you to concentrate on right now.. Leave the rest to me."? Be that guy for yourself! Tell yourself, "All you need to think about is Item 1. Forget about the rest."

And JFDI.

You'll get more done that day, and you'll be happier

In the words of the ancients, one should make his decisions within the space of seven breaths. Lord Takanobu said, “If discrimination is long, it will spoil.” Lord Naoshige said, “When matters are done leisurely, seven out of ten will turn out badly. A warrior is a person who does things quickly.”

When your mind is going hither and thither, discrimination will never be brought to a conclusion. With an intense, fresh and undelaying spirit, one will make his judgments within the space of seven breaths. It is a matter of being determined and having the spirit to break right through to the other side.

Recommended reading for JFDI

Simply Brilliant: the Competitive Advantage of Common Sense: The Bestselling Guide to Getting Things Done

By Fergus O'Connell

Level Introductory

This is a unique book, which essentially gives you the core concepts of project management in easy-to-understand from.

What comes out is a stark understanding of how to make things happen and do it right, with less confusion, greater confidence, and less margin for error.

4. Make time to rest

It's an illusion that you can work all the time God sends, and get more done.

If you work too many hours, and don't get enough sleep, enough rest, down-time, chilling time, whatever, you will slow down. It's common sense. Like a car engine, your brain and body cannot perform at maximum revs for very long. Without knowing it, you'll start to compensate by slowing down, and if you don't stop voluntarily, you'll risk breaking down.

Learn to spot when you're tired, and maybe give youself an easy task to do. Or, even better, just take a break. A 10-minute "life-saver" sleep can work wonders.

Another great skill to learn is to trust yourself enough to know that you'll get stuff done so much better when you're more awake, and to tell yourself to get some rest. (It's being your own best manager again.)

5. Keep people informed

If you have multiple projects running simultaneously, with lots of people depending on you, you may find yourself stressing about the pressure.

Another simple technique to prevent stress when things feel like they're getting too much is to go through the people who are waiting for something from you and simply say,

"I haven't forgotten about you. I'm very busy right now, your job is important to me, I don't want to rush it, and it's booked in for [...]."

The worst thing you can do is hide your head in the sand and wait for people to get upset and hassle you.

It's always better to tell the truth and to be pro-active. Think, how can you take your challenges and spin them into opportunities?

Let your clients know you're working, you're busy, but that they matter to you, by dropping them a 10-second email telling the simple truth. They'll feel happier, they'll trust you more, and they'll be less likely to get on your case, distracting you from what you're working on right now (which is Item 1).

6. Make contingency time

Stuff can take longer than you think. When booking in work, book in more time than you think stuff will take (contingency). Depending on the type of work you're doing, you may need to add 15-75% contingency. Design probably needs more time than template production or coding.

If you fill your calendar from dawn till dusk with a series of jobs planned to the hour, you have a line of dominoes. As soon as one job slips, your computer crashes, you need to leave the office for an urgent errand, or some weird relative phones for a long chat, your dominoes will topple. One job runs over into the next job, into the next job, and suddenly everyone's work is late, and you're stressing again.

However, if you leave contingency time in your day/week, you have a buffer to soak up any over-run. And if you don't need it for one job, you can always start the next job early, or take time to clear some email or update your blog etc. etc.

7. Secure yourself

You depend on your computer for your livelihood. Think how much you would lose if you lost all your work. How would you feel? Bad, huh? Take steps to protect yourself if the worst happens.

Please do not get into thinking "It won't happen to me". I thought that, and it did happen to me, a few weeks ago.

I worked all week and then until 4am one night on my AJAX CMS product. I was due to demo the work to 3 of my team the following morning, in a local café.

Thinking it would be best to start from a clean sheet, I went in and deleted a bunch of content, also including the cms directory itself. I was working on Windows and did a Shift+delete, which by-passes the recycle bin.

According to Lizzie, my face went totally white, as I realised that I'd deleted the only copy of the previous few days' code, and figured out just what that meant. The upshot was, I tried to recover as many files as I could, but had lost most of the previous week's work. It took me 3 days of pain to catch up.

What can you do to secure yourself?

• Get a proper antivirus and firewall, especially if you're working on Windows!
• Back up your stuff, automatically if you can, but manually as well. I back up onto:
  • my office server, which itself is backed up onto an external hard disk which is taken off-site (in case of fire)
  • my USB key (cheap and easy)
  • occasionally also onto secure online storage
• Keep your work computer clean and orderly. Don't install hundreds of programs you don't need.
• If you do code, use version control software, like CVS, which takes copies of every file at every key point, and enables you to roll back to previous versions if you mess up your code.
• Save your work every few minutes. Get used to hitting the &Save& keyboard shortcut continuously, whatever you're working on.

8. Your environment

Obviously, if you work in an environment that is conducive to productivity, you'll do more and better work. If your environment makes it harder to work, er, it'll be harder to work.

Are there things that distract you, or otherwise make it difficult to get your work done? When working hard, I normally listen to music on iTunes (organised into playlists to suit every mood from meditative, chlliing, idling, get up & go to angry) and using good-quality headphones. This helps me cut out external noises.

Do your desk, chair and keyboard fit together to help you work comfortably?

• Check that your back is upright (imagine you have long hair and someone is lifting you up straight by your pony-tail).
• The top of your monitor should be at eye level, so that your neck is straight with chin down and eyes forward.
• Your feet should rest easily on the floor or a foot-rest, without causing tension in your legs or buttocks.
• Your spine should be straight, not hunched forwards and not twisted, which will cause muscular problems in your back and shoulders.
• You should be able to use your keyboard and mouse easily, from a position of neutral balance.

Get into the habit of checking your posture and comfort level while working. If you can't get yourself comfortable, for goodness' sake get the advice of an ergonomic consultant. It may cost you (or your employer) money, but there's no point cutting your career short due to something like RSI or back injury, which could be prevented.

9. Your computer

You probably use your computer most of the time you're working. Does it help you work continuously?

Your computer should always be the one waiting for you, never the other way round. If it takes 5 minutes to start up (or reboot), maybe it needs the OS reinstalling, or maybe you need a new computer.

Do you have enough memory? I wouldn't spec anything less than 1GB of RAM on a new computer, 2GB if I wanted to run Windows Vista!

Are your keyboard and mouse/pointing-device comfortable?

Again, keep your work box as clean and dedicated as you can. Also, if you're on Windows, de-fragment your hard disk every few weeks, run your virus scanner, maybe run a memory optimiser, and turn off unnecessary services.

10. Manage your body

The human system (body and mind) is a complex machine, with sophisticated management processes already built-in. To get the most out of the system, it's best to work within the limits of the system than to try

Here are my tips... Of course, everyone is different, and what works for me may not work for you.

Avoid stimulants

Caffeine and other stimulants make me feel like I can do more, and I often can do more than I would have done without the coffee, but I pay for it later.

What many drugs do, in effect, is let you borrow energy from tomorrow. It works for a few days, but eventually you've borrowed over your limit, and you have to pay it back.

If I use coffee / Red Bull etc. to help me do more, I pay for it at some point. I'll either get so mentally tired that I have to take a break, or I'll hit the wall and get sick.

Keep fit

A fit body has more energy.

Your circulation and breathing will be more effective, you'll sleep better and hold yourself better, which means you'll be less prone to muscular or skeletal problems caused by long hours at a computer.

It's so worth taking the time to exercise, you may find you get more done in your working time, although you've taken time out to keep fit.

You'll also stimulate endorphins in your body, which improve your mood and help you think clearly and keep positive. Exercise itself is also a great opportunity to free your mind and look at business problems from a different perspective.

Eat right

Eveyone's body is different, and everybody has different dietary requirements. I've learnt a bit about the foods that give me a steady level of energy throughout the day, and which ones can make me sluggish.

Drinking plenty of water should work for everyone. Dehydration is very common, especially in busy work environments, and it decreases your physical and mental performance significantly.

Some recommended time-saving resources

A few resources I use, which help me save time and get more done.

FreshRAM for Windows

Helps recover system resources wasted by greedy programs.

box.net online storage

Cheap and easy to use. Also lets you share files with co-workers and clients.

DriveDiscovery (Windows)

Helps you recover lost files (erm)

Apple iTunes

My music player of choice. Makes managing music files and playlists as easy as pie.

Bose noise-cancelling headphones

Expensive, but worth every penny. Help me concentrate wherever I am. Comfortable, high-quality headphones that also listen to the background white noise and play the inverse pattern. Cuts out 80% of tiring background hiss when travelling, even if you don't play music through them.