Productive Working - Be lazy & get things done - Part I

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My math teacher always told me that mathematicians are lazy and so should we. Only do the minimal number of steps to reach your desired destination. Whether or not these steps are simple in themselves is another matter. But somehow this phrase stuck with me.
As I grow older I measured more value to my time. Doing my obligatory tasks efficiently gave me more time that I could spend on hobbies. So developed certain principles to get my stuff done, some of which I want to share today.

Overall Principles

Disclaimer: The following practices have been developed with an IT background and may not be applicable to everyone. However, I have tried to make the introductory practices as general as possible so that they can be used by as many people as possible.

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Time Managment

To increase our efficiency we need to measure the amount of tasks we can complete in a certain amount of time. Split the amount of time you have in equaly sized chunks like 15mins. Prioritize your tasks according to their importance and duration. If you complete 3-4 small tasks within the first 15mins of allocated time, the amount of overall work you will have to complete looks a lot smaller, and you are more motivated. This can be things like teaching garbage, putting away clothes or taking away a letter/package. For work allocate one or two chunks of our time for replaying to emails. Collect the mails over the day and replay to them on one session, don't let incoming mails distract you from your current task. Finish your current tasks and then start something new. Peaking at the mail or your phone will only take a second, but it will take you over 1.5 minutes to fully mentally switch back to the previous task. A wonderful article from Johnn Hari in The Gurdian diecribes how our all attention span decreased how expensive these context switches between tasks are. Tasks can be completed a lot quicker when you fully concentrate on one thing at a time.
When the amount of tasks becomes too much to sort in your head write them down or maybe even visualize them with a method like Gnatt diagrams: These diagrams allow to visually lay out your tasks and identify blocking tasks. These are tasks that have to be done before others can start. Before you can send a package you have to pack it first. When you wait for certain things to finish you can complete other stuff. For example while waiting for your oven to heat up your food you can clean and store the dishes from last day. Combining things like putting your cloths in the washing machine while heading downstairs to buy groceries allows you to complete multiple things in one run.

Take breaks

Keeping up with all the tasks of today's life is exhausting. So you need time to recharge. Keep this in mind when planing you day and allocate some breaks. When taking a break really stop what you were working on, stand up and do something that lets you relax for a little time. Don't feel bad for taking these breaks, they are in your schedule and there letting you brain relax a little. If you are disturbed by others tell them that you are having a break right now and will come back to them in 10 min.

Recurring Tasks

Routine

Certain tasks keep recurring and need to be done over and over again. Plan these tasks in advance, do not be surprised by them and try to develop regular processes so that they become a routine. Once these tasks have entered the daily routine, you can do them in your sleep. If you notice that the current task exhausts you, or you get stuck, you can take a break and while going for a walk you can complete some of these recurring tasks. The brain can relax during this time and you don't feel guilty for interrupting your current task, because you are doing other tasks. These breaks may help you to find a new point of view to the previous task. More than once the visit to the restroom or quick shower gave me a new approach for autually solving my previos task 😁

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Note: I also created a collection with my favorite shortcuts, scripts and tricks to work efficient as a programmer.
Read it here

See you!