Sometimes our days are so crammed with things to do that ten minutes represents the difference between sanity and insanity. These ten timesaving suggestions are surprisingly simple and straightforward and can potentially help make a huge difference in your day.
1. Plan Ahead and Start Early
Ten minutes of dedicated time planning each evening will save you from twenty minutes of ad-hoc preparation each morning. Likewise, starting your morning on purpose twenty minutes early will inject at least thirty additional productive minutes into your day. Think about it.
2. Handle All Two-Minute Tasks Immediately
“The Two-Minute Rule” is single greatest tip I picked up from David Allen’s book Getting Things Done. If you roughly estimate that a task is going to take you less than two minutes to accomplish, do it right now. It’s a waste of time and energy to keep small tasks like this on your to-do list.
3. Group Similar Tasks Back-to-Back
Switching gears between different types of tasks can be tough. It takes most people several minutes to get into a productive mental groove geared toward a specific type of task. Therefore, it makes sense to group similar tasks in an effort to minimize the number of rough patches, and thus wasted time, between task orders.
4. Eliminate All Distractions for a Set Time
Distractions are everywhere. They arrive via email, cell phone, coworker inquiry, etc. I’ve found that cutting out all distractions for a set time is one of the most effective ways to get things done in less time. You can’t remain in hiding forever, but you can be nearly four times as productive while you are.
5. Take Notes and Make Lists
Nobody’s memory is perfect. If you don’t take notes and setup to-do lists for yourself you will end up wasting minutes of time trying to remember things that would have taken you seconds to write down.
6. Standardize Common Responsibilities
If you find yourself performing the same set of tasks on a regular basis then it makes sense to establish an efficient, standardized way of accomplishing them. Are certain tasks easier to perform in the morning? Are there additional resources that can be utilized only at a certain time? It’s up to you to find an efficient pattern, standardize it and follow it.
