33 rules to enhance their own productivity
Heuristics - method of solving problems, which is opposed to formal methods based on mathematical models.
The optimal solution is very complex problem is often unclear. The use of heuristics can take action even if it is impossible to imagine in what way will be able to solve the problem.
Assume that you are going to climb to the top of the mountain, and there is no paved route. Here are some heuristics may be used in this case: Head straight to the top as long as you meet an obstacle that can not be overcome. When you come across such an obstacle, go around it to the right side as long as it can move again to the top. It is not the most intelligent heuristics, but in many cases it is possible to achieve using goal.
The heuristic does not guarantee either that you will find the best solution or that you will find it all. However, in certain situations it works. Its strength is that it helps to overcome the hesitancy and start acting. And acting, you explore the area making that improves your understanding of the problem. Getting more and more information about the problem, you can make improvements to the current operation, thereby improving the chances of finding a solution. In dealing with the problem, the solution of which is not known, you can find it in the course of work, and such, which you were not even aware before you begin to act. This is especially true for creative work, such as software development.
Heuristics are used in different areas, but my favorite - personal productivity. Heuristics productivity - a set of rules, both general and depending on the situation, to help people to do the work more efficiently. Here are some of my favorites:
1. destroy it. The most effective way to deal with the problem - delete it. If it is not necessary to do, remove it from the agenda.
2. The daily goal. Without focus easily distracted. Set goals for each day in advance. Decide what you need to do. And then do it.
3. The first - the worst. To defeat procrastination and delay on then you need to learn how to do the most unpleasant jobs in the morning, instead of postponing it to another time of the day. This small victory will allow for a very productive day.
4. The peak of activity. Determine the time at which you work most effectively, and plan on him important tasks. Above the secondary tasks not work at peak activity.
5. The zone without interaction. Place blocks of time for work that requires concentration, one after the other. Plan simple tasks and tasks that you can be distracted doing in the area of cooperation, and important tasks - in the area without interference.
6. Mini kilometer posts. When you start the task, define a goal that must be achieved before you stop working. For example, if you are working on a book, you can decide not to get up until then, until you write at least 1000 words. To achieve this goal in spite of everything.
7. Limitation of time. Allow yourself a specific time, such as 30 minutes, to shift the problem from the scene. Do not worry about how far you can go. Just work during this time.
8. The grouping. Group together similar tasks, such as phone calls or errands into one unit, and straightened with them in one go.
9. Early Bird. Get up early in the morning at 5 am and immediately begins to work on the most important task. Most likely, before 8am you make more than most people do in a day.
10. Corner of silence. Take a laptop without Internet access and WiFi, and go to where you can work till you drop without the risk that distract you, such as the library, the park, the coffee shop or at your backyard.
11. Temp. Deliberately select a rhythm and try to act a little faster than usual. Speak soon. Walk faster. Print faster. Read faster. Come home early.
12. Relaxation. Reduce your stress, creating a relaxing and tidy workplace.
13. Agenda. Issue written agenda to all participants. This greatly increases the efficiency of their attention. And it can be used for phone calls.
14. The Pareto principle. The Pareto principle, or the principle of 80-20, argues that the 20% effort for 80% of the results. Focus on these important energy 20% and not less important overboard 80%.
15. Prepare-Aim-IPT. Defeat delay starting to operate as soon as the set a goal, even if the action is not well planned. The plan can always tweak along the way.
16. The decision for a minute. As soon as you feel that you have gathered all the information needed to make a decision, set the timer and give yourself exactly 60 seconds for it to take it. During this minute may vary and doubt yourself all you want, but once it's over, you need to make a choice. Once the choice is made, you need to take some kind of action in this direction.
17. Deadline (deadline). Put the deadline for completion of the assignment and use it as a reference, not to go astray.
18. Promise. Tell people about their decisions, they will help you not to abandon them later.
19. Punctuality. At all costs, come on time. A better early.
20. Read during pauses. Read during pauses, for example, when you are waiting for the start of the meeting, standing in a queue or wait until the coffee is brewed. If you are a man, you can read when shaving (preferably over that it was electric). You can read 365 articles a year.
21. Resonance. Imagine that you have achieved your goal. Carry it in your head, and soon you will realize it in life.
22. Glittering prizes. Give yourself frequent gifts for their achievements. Watch the movie, read a book, go to a professional massage or spend a day at an amusement park.
23. The second quadrant. Feature truly important tasks from the merely complicated. Take time to work on the critical tasks of the quadrants 2, which are often important and rarely urgent, such as exercise, writing a book or search for a mate.
24. Continuity. At the end of the day, determine the problem on which you start work the next day, prepare the materials in advance. The next day begin working on a task immediately.
25. Divide and conquer. Divide complex projects into small and specific task. Focus on one of these jobs.
26. The single-tasking. Once you have started to carry out a task, work on it until you finish it 100%. Do not switch between jobs in the middle. When things distract you, just write it down in order to find out later - when you're done.
27. Make the accident. Select a random challenge of a larger project, and complete it. Pay by random. Make a phone call. Write page 42 of his book.
28. Insanely bad. Overcome procrastination by completing the task deliberately disgusting, knowing that no one need to share the results of the work. Write a blog post about the taste of salt, create badly dysfunctional website or business plan that guarantees the bankruptcy in the first year. If the outline of your project so bad, then you have no other way but to the top.
29. 30 days. Determine what new habit you want to create and stick to it for 30 days. The temporary commitment is much easier to keep than a permanent one. Read article Success in 30 days
30. Delegate. Convince someone to do the work for you.
31. Cross-pollination. Engage in martial arts, start a blog or join a drama club. Often ideas from one area can improve your productivity in the other.
32. Intuition. Trust your intuition. She's probably right.
33. Optimization. Identify the process that you perform often and write it down step by step. Make them improve on paper. Then test the improvements in the work. Sometimes hard to see what is right under our noses without a microscope.
Heuristics - method of solving problems, which is opposed to formal methods based on mathematical models.
The optimal solution is very complex problem is often unclear. The use of heuristics can take action even if it is impossible to imagine in what way will be able to solve the problem.
Assume that you are going to climb to the top of the mountain, and there is no paved route. Here are some heuristics may be used in this case: Head straight to the top as long as you meet an obstacle that can not be overcome. When you come across such an obstacle, go around it to the right side as long as it can move again to the top. It is not the most intelligent heuristics, but in many cases it is possible to achieve using goal.
The heuristic does not guarantee either that you will find the best solution or that you will find it all. However, in certain situations it works. Its strength is that it helps to overcome the hesitancy and start acting. And acting, you explore the area making that improves your understanding of the problem. Getting more and more information about the problem, you can make improvements to the current operation, thereby improving the chances of finding a solution. In dealing with the problem, the solution of which is not known, you can find it in the course of work, and such, which you were not even aware before you begin to act. This is especially true for creative work, such as software development.
Heuristics are used in different areas, but my favorite - personal productivity. Heuristics productivity - a set of rules, both general and depending on the situation, to help people to do the work more efficiently. Here are some of my favorites:
1. destroy it. The most effective way to deal with the problem - delete it. If it is not necessary to do, remove it from the agenda.
2. The daily goal. Without focus easily distracted. Set goals for each day in advance. Decide what you need to do. And then do it.
3. The first - the worst. To defeat procrastination and delay on then you need to learn how to do the most unpleasant jobs in the morning, instead of postponing it to another time of the day. This small victory will allow for a very productive day.
4. The peak of activity. Determine the time at which you work most effectively, and plan on him important tasks. Above the secondary tasks not work at peak activity.
5. The zone without interaction. Place blocks of time for work that requires concentration, one after the other. Plan simple tasks and tasks that you can be distracted doing in the area of cooperation, and important tasks - in the area without interference.
6. Mini kilometer posts. When you start the task, define a goal that must be achieved before you stop working. For example, if you are working on a book, you can decide not to get up until then, until you write at least 1000 words. To achieve this goal in spite of everything.
7. Limitation of time. Allow yourself a specific time, such as 30 minutes, to shift the problem from the scene. Do not worry about how far you can go. Just work during this time.
8. The grouping. Group together similar tasks, such as phone calls or errands into one unit, and straightened with them in one go.
9. Early Bird. Get up early in the morning at 5 am and immediately begins to work on the most important task. Most likely, before 8am you make more than most people do in a day.
10. Corner of silence. Take a laptop without Internet access and WiFi, and go to where you can work till you drop without the risk that distract you, such as the library, the park, the coffee shop or at your backyard.
11. Temp. Deliberately select a rhythm and try to act a little faster than usual. Speak soon. Walk faster. Print faster. Read faster. Come home early.
12. Relaxation. Reduce your stress, creating a relaxing and tidy workplace.
13. Agenda. Issue written agenda to all participants. This greatly increases the efficiency of their attention. And it can be used for phone calls.
14. The Pareto principle. The Pareto principle, or the principle of 80-20, argues that the 20% effort for 80% of the results. Focus on these important energy 20% and not less important overboard 80%.
15. Prepare-Aim-IPT. Defeat delay starting to operate as soon as the set a goal, even if the action is not well planned. The plan can always tweak along the way.
16. The decision for a minute. As soon as you feel that you have gathered all the information needed to make a decision, set the timer and give yourself exactly 60 seconds for it to take it. During this minute may vary and doubt yourself all you want, but once it's over, you need to make a choice. Once the choice is made, you need to take some kind of action in this direction.
17. Deadline (deadline). Put the deadline for completion of the assignment and use it as a reference, not to go astray.
18. Promise. Tell people about their decisions, they will help you not to abandon them later.
19. Punctuality. At all costs, come on time. A better early.
20. Read during pauses. Read during pauses, for example, when you are waiting for the start of the meeting, standing in a queue or wait until the coffee is brewed. If you are a man, you can read when shaving (preferably over that it was electric). You can read 365 articles a year.
21. Resonance. Imagine that you have achieved your goal. Carry it in your head, and soon you will realize it in life.
22. Glittering prizes. Give yourself frequent gifts for their achievements. Watch the movie, read a book, go to a professional massage or spend a day at an amusement park.
23. The second quadrant. Feature truly important tasks from the merely complicated. Take time to work on the critical tasks of the quadrants 2, which are often important and rarely urgent, such as exercise, writing a book or search for a mate.
24. Continuity. At the end of the day, determine the problem on which you start work the next day, prepare the materials in advance. The next day begin working on a task immediately.
25. Divide and conquer. Divide complex projects into small and specific task. Focus on one of these jobs.
26. The single-tasking. Once you have started to carry out a task, work on it until you finish it 100%. Do not switch between jobs in the middle. When things distract you, just write it down in order to find out later - when you're done.
27. Make the accident. Select a random challenge of a larger project, and complete it. Pay by random. Make a phone call. Write page 42 of his book.
28. Insanely bad. Overcome procrastination by completing the task deliberately disgusting, knowing that no one need to share the results of the work. Write a blog post about the taste of salt, create badly dysfunctional website or business plan that guarantees the bankruptcy in the first year. If the outline of your project so bad, then you have no other way but to the top.
29. 30 days. Determine what new habit you want to create and stick to it for 30 days. The temporary commitment is much easier to keep than a permanent one. Read article Success in 30 days
30. Delegate. Convince someone to do the work for you.
31. Cross-pollination. Engage in martial arts, start a blog or join a drama club. Often ideas from one area can improve your productivity in the other.
32. Intuition. Trust your intuition. She's probably right.
33. Optimization. Identify the process that you perform often and write it down step by step. Make them improve on paper. Then test the improvements in the work. Sometimes hard to see what is right under our noses without a microscope.
