Scheduled Productivity
5 Tips To Become Limitless
“How many seconds does it take to win second? As many as it takes to win first — if you don’t use them properly.” — Jarod Kintz
Note: Advises below are my personal “best-practices” and you may not agree to them at all, but that’s perfectly fine… people are different.
Most of the people are so great at wasting their time that they don’t even realise how years pass by... It’s a paradox, but most of them also want to be successful. Of course success means different things to different personalities, but behind each of it stands a hard-work.
I believe to work-hard productively you have to be organised, disciplined and committed. That way you’ll reverse your life by 180 degrees.
This is what I typically (but not always) do during a week:
- Get a good sleep & naps
- Work full time
- Run my own software development company
- Work on my ideas & side-projects
- Workout (3x times a week)
- Meditate (daily)
- Read a whole book (if it’s not too large)
- Learn something new (mostly a technology related)
- Cook something new & delicious
- Play a basketball
- Play video games
- Spend meaningful time with my girlfriend
- Am part of family activities
- Hang out with friends in the pub
- …still have free time to relax or do what I want (this one is especially important for a balance)
Here is how I do it all:
1. Waking Up Early
Do NOT oversleep. Time is the most precious asset we have and no matter what we can not get it back, it is amazingly fast. That’s why we should use it wisely. Don’t let time to “use” you.
Optimise your sleep schedule and wake up early. Sleep two times a day (biphasic sleep) instead of one major 8 hour sleep and don’t forget to take a nap!
Protip: You have to find your ideal sleep schedule yourself. Let your body & mind guide you through the process.
2. First Things First
Procrastination as we know it is the greatest time waster, unless it is structured. Most of the people either procrastinate their work until its urgent or follow the daily flow. We can not defeat it completely, but we can still perform with minimum time wasted.
My number one daily goal is to finish all important tasks before the noon, in my case right before taking a nap. Commit to it no matter what and the results with amaze you! The other half of the day becomes much more enjoyable.
Protip: Oliver Emberton beautifully explains procrastination. No, he nails it!
3. Pomodorissimo!
Nothing can be more unproductive than working unorganised. This is where Pomodoro Technique becomes handy.
Pomodoro Technique forces you to plan your work ahead, be organised, have small breaks (not to get burned), quickly get in The Zone and most importantly when you follow the process you get more done in less time (because of the time pressure).
Protip: For most of the people physical timer works better, I personally prefer an app in my smartphone.
4. Don’t Trust Your Memory
Our brains are programmed to have a short-term memory for one-time tasks. Even repeated tasks are being forgotten sometimes.
You NEED an Inbox (that’s what I prefer to name a to-do list) to store your thoughts that are important. You should have a paper and a pencil or an app to carry always with yourself. Caught important detail from a client? Write it down! Got a new product idea? Write it down! Wife asks you to bring some fresh eggs at home? Write it down too! And don’t forget to set reminders if you use an app.
Protip: If you can do it in less than 2 minutes then do it immediately, no reason to postpone.
5. Unplug
Work hard, play hard! Keeping work-life balance is uber-important! Since we are still humans and not cyborgs (yet!) we have to systematically take a deep breathe and relax…
Saturdays are my “day offs”. I sleep as much as I want (compensate sleep hours), eat whatever I want (Slow Carb Diet in action!), do whatever I want... It is absolutely OK for me to be lazy on Saturdays.
Protip: Don’t do your work on these days and avoid computer as much as possible.
My Current Routine
My schedule varies, but I always do my Pomodorissimos & workout! Workout is a great source of new energy. It also helps you sleep well.
I try to stick to this schedule:
- 6:30AM — wake up naturally
- 6:35AM–7:15AM —bath stuff, meditation & eggs for a breakfast (poached is preferable ☺)
- 7:30AM-9:30AM — work (one Pomodorro session, do personal business stuff)
- 9:30AM–10:00AM — dress up and go to the office
- 10:00AM-2:30PM — work (two Pomodorro sessions, do full-time work in less time!)
- 2:30PM–4:00PM — workout or learning new stuff (depends on a day)
- 4:00PM-7:00PM —unscheduled time for work
- 7:00PM-11:00PM — unscheduled time for personal stuff, business or having fun… or mix them all!
- 11:00PM-11:15PM — get in the bed, no matter what!
- 11:15PM-12:00 — reading time… it also helps me to get asleep, I almost always ask to myself while I read: “If I put this book down right now, would I be sleeping in 5 minutes?”. It’s a nice sleep readiness test ☺
REMEMBER: DON’T WASTE YOUR PRECIOUS TIME!
