Personal productivity refers to the amount of tasks done in a defined time by oneself comfortably and consistently. And to improve the personal productivity is the way to enable oneself do more tasks in the same time than one could have done otherwise. It is very important to note the word comfortably and consistently. Doing some tasks quickly in a given situation, under stress, adrenaline rush and time pressure with compromise on quality is not increase in productivity. Its about habit to do tasks faster, efficiently and in an organized way keeping your life sorted. Following are some expert advice to help you boost your personal productivity in context of digital life.
Sharpen your tools
In context of Personal Productivity, this simply means that you should setup your tools in the way which helps you use that tool productively. First thing you should do when you work with any system, OS, App, is to go to its preferences section, check all the settings and set those up as per your liking.
Expert tip: You would not like to loose all your settings and set those up again when you switch systems or reinstall apps. Checkout the post about Syncing System And Applications Settings Like An Expert.
Knowing your tools
Knowing in depth, the important tools you use quite often, is going to save you a lot of time. Some times you will only know that there is a better way to do the same thing when you get to know about that feature of the tool.
E.g.
- Many of the digital tools provide quick switching feature like OS provides application switching, many note taking apps provide quick switch feature to quickly switch between recent notes etc.
- [Developers can relate more] When you just started using an IDE to code, you might not be knowing that the IDEs have so many quick ways to refactor and clean the code. You might not be knowing it still, if that is the case, it is recommended to definitely checkout its documentation to know about this and many more capabilities, for faster and cleaner code writing.
Some good and faster ways to know about the tools on your own than knowing it by seeing your friend using a feature and then you asking your friend – “How did you do that?”.
Checking documentation
Mostly all the tools have documentation around their features and how to use them. It is worth investing time in checking those to know a tool’s capabilities and how to apply those.
Checking update notes
Checking the updates section of the tools. It gives an idea of what the Company and developers of the tools are focusing on. If a company or developer is prioritizing a fix/feature and delivering that, definitely many people might be asking for that fix/feature etc, while you might not have realized the need of that fix/feature. This might help you realize the inefficiency in your processes and help you improve.
Enabling tips-suggestion in the tool
If you are starting to use a new tool/app, see if your tool provides features like Regular/Daily Tips etc. where the tool gives some goods tips about its features in a non-intrusive manner, so that you learn about the tool as you use it.
Minimize load on brain
Your brain should focus on one task at a time to be able to execute that effectively. Keeping your brain under burden to remember many things might not help in utilizing your brain effectively, so make sure you free up your brain with any other though going on in your mind. One effective way is to capture whatever is going on in your mind at a reliable place which you can refer to later and then remove it from your brain. Developing processes and habits which you can rely on without having to think too much is another good way. The section below about establishing processes and habits talks about it in detail. Refer to post Clutter-free Brain For Personal Productivity Boost, to effectively apply this advice in your life.
Minimize context switching
To be able to avoid context switching, you should have a proper plan to minimize distractions and disturbances during that task. While planning or before executing a task, you should be clear about the target you want to achieve, and you should ensures that you dont switch to any other task before achieving that. Keeping smaller targets will help in deferring any random task popping up, to the end to the ongoing task. It might not be very easy for even very experienced practitioner to be able to effectively apply this. Refer to post on Planning And Executing A Day In Digital Life to get expert advice and tips on applying this process effectively.
Optimize repetitive work
Be vigilant about the repetitive work you are doing. Optimizing those will save you a lot of time. If you cannot easily figure out how to optimize that, try searching the internet. you might not be alone or the first one to encounter this problem. There are many productivity geeks which might have already solved that problem for you, so try leveraging the workaround/solutions done by them for similar problem.
Optimizing something takes time, so make sure you are prioritizing the optimization of tasks in the order of time they save.
Establish processes and habits
Establishing process and habits, make you do things faster, efficiently and in an streamlined fashion. Having a reliable process helps your brain to execute a task effortlessly without worrying about missing something. Hence it also drains less of your energy, providing extra energy to execute other tasks.
E.g.
- Having one dedicated Inbox folder for any new bookmark you create on the browser. And have a habit to clean that folder at regular interval weekly, monthly whichever works for you by moving the bookmarks to a properly categorized bookmarks folder.
- Having a habit to check and respond to emails only at a particular time so that you don’t keep checking the email every now and then, whenever you receive any email notification. This will save you from getting distracted from the current work you are doing, enabling you to execute that task with focus, hence faster.
Refer to post Processes And Habits For Personal Productivity In Digital Life for some good habits to inculcate as early as possible to be more productive.
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