9 Effective Habits of People Who Get Things Done
No matter what you throw at them, some people seem to have the super-human ability to get things done. Not only that, they get it done fast! How do they do that when you’re struggling to find your energy from day to day? The good news is – there is no super human powers involved. Instead, just some simple habits that you too can cultivate quickly.
1. Eat Well
You are already aware that getting things done requires energy. Thankfully, you can be in complete control of this. Cut out sugar laden food. Learn to choose and enjoy healthful, balanced meals. And get plenty of water. You’ll feel a big difference immediately, helps you be more alert, focused and able to get through your to-do list faster and precisely.
2. Shut The Door
If your home office is in a room, make liberal use of the door. Make it clear to your family, when the door is closed, you are not to be disturbed – at all. Unplug the phone, silence your cell phone. Consider a do-not-disturb sign. If you don’t have the luxury of a home office, consider a noise reduction earmuff and tell your family when these headphones are on, you are unavailable. The plus to this – you can get one that plays music to put you in the right mood for work.
3. Set A Timer
Work expands to fill the time allocated. So don’t let it fill up your entire day. Use a timer to work on a single task in 45–60 minute blocks. Take a short 5 minute break after each time block. After you’ve worked 2–3 blocks, take a longer, 15 – 30 minute break. Try not to fill break time with social media. It’s OK to set the timer for a 15 minute do-nothing break where you kick back, put on some good tunes, close your eyes and relax.
4. A Single Task At A Time
You’ve read it countless times now. Multi-tasking hurts more than it helps. Pick a task on your list, do that and only that. You’ll complete it much faster with a whole lot clarity too. Don’t get me wrong. There are things that can be multi-tasked such as listening to a book while you get your daily walk. That’s because walking doesn’t use a lot of mental energy and you can use that mental energy to focus on the book. However, doing two or more tasks that require a lot of attention at one time, leads to lower performance and sometimes, outright procrastination.
5. Clear Your Workspace
One of the things that Benjamin Franklin did in his daily routine is to “Put things in their places”. He did this at the end of the day. I can only speculate that putting this task at the end of the day is his way of winding down, as well as setting himself up for a fresh start the next day. After all, who is motivated to work when you enter a messy office?
Whether you do it at the beginning of the day or the end doesn’t matter. What matters is doing it.
6. Plan Your Day
This sounds like such a tedious affair but there’s no rule that it has to be. Perhaps that’s why many refrain from this is. Because of over-planning. You don’t need an hour-by-hour plan. That doesn’t work anyway since distractions will pop up over the course of the day. If you have appointments, go ahead and block that time out first. Then, all you need is a short list of the top 3 things you must accomplish for the day.
Some say to do it the night before, some say to do it at the beginning of the day. Don’t let that deter you. Do this when it suits you best (first thing of the day or last). Just don’t skip it.
7. Do It Now
In “Getting Things Done”, productivity guru David Allen recommends adopting a 2-minute rule. If it can be done in 2 minutes or less, do it now. This stops minor tasks from filling your to-do list, making you less motivated to begin when you see how long the list is.
8. Eliminate or Reduce Notifications
Stop those new email notifications. Most emails don’t require your immediate action anyway. Turn off social media notifications especially those that tell you who followed you or who pinned your Pinterest image. You won’t miss a thing because when you decide to log into your account, it’ll show up there anyway.
Do the same for those apps on your phone. Be very choosy which apps you allow to send you push notifications. In fact, you should probably do this first because we tend to want to check our mobile devices first before email.
9. Systemize
No matter what line you are in, there are tasks that you perform repeatedly. This can happen in frequent, short cycles or longer cycles (e.g. Quarterly, Yearly). Create a template or system for these tasks. List out the steps and note the ‘gotchas’ that you have to check on. The less you have to think about how and what to do, the faster you will complete it.
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Great ideas!
I do all of these now except I have trouble with #8 & #9. Sometimes the interruption has to do with the project I’m working on right now, so I leave the notifications on, but (here’s the important & hardest thing to do) I IGNORE them if they DON’T have to do with my current project.
I’ve expanded a bit on #7; I ‘do it now’ while I’m on the phone, or in a meeting. For example: I was on the phone yesterday with a potential client and was typing an email to her with our To Do List on it (you know, things to do before or to bring to our face-to-face meeting) while we were on the phone and before I got off the phone I had sent it to her, asked her to read it over and if it covered everything we were going to do. I think it saved me a couple of hours of back-and-forth emails!
Again, great ideas and thanks for the list!
Ooh! I love that Viki. I have friends who do that – when we are working together on a project she’ll sit there and email the stuff that needs to be sent to me to start/complete the task.
Another thing about email – which is SO hard for me is to only touch it once. I learned this a while back and when I do it it’s great. It’s along the same lines though – get it done right now.
1, 3, 6, and maybe 7 are bad ones for me. See I have a lot to work on…lol.
Actually, I’ve just started implementing #6-planning my day. Used to do it years ago with a daily ‘to do’ list, but for some reason it seemed redundant to use a paper list when I was online all the time. But, the big BUT, could never get an online to do list that seemed to make sense to me. So, I’ve gone back to the paper one, and it’s working. Woohoo!
The other ones are a struggle. I tend to work for hours non stop until I get seriously hungry. Not the best way to work.
Great list.
Hey Bo:
I am coming to a conclusion that even with Evernote and other online systems nothing beats pen and paper! 🙂
I still keep a scratch pad in front of me for quick stuff and that sheet gets thrown away each day. If there are things on there that cannot be thrown away only then do I transfer to Evernote. And yes, I do use my paper planner from http://blogenergizer.com
Hey Bo, yep. I’m not always good with #6. Some days I still want to over plan. My brain keeps saying oh what about this, and what about that? Have to always resist adding to the list and only add to the list after the 3 major ones are done.
I too have a habit of working non-stop 🙂
Hi Lynette:
The timing on this post was amazing – I honestly was just thinking about ways to improve my productivity…attempting to go into the archives of my brain and remember some strategies. Before doing this I checked my email and there was your message about the very subject….Really Weird! 🙂 Obviously you can read minds and knew what I was thinking. 🙂
I have been working on number 1 but moreso recently as I have been really dragging my butt these days and I have some new found commitments to honor.
2, 3, 4 – I need to improve here. 5 – I started doing yesterday and was my desk ever a huge mess!….it looks so much better and I feel so much better when entering my home office.
6 – I use to do that one in the far past and I need to get back at that again. What deterred me from doing this is I use to over-plan. I thought I had to plan every half hour of my day and it became a pain so I gave up. The way you explained it is much better.
7 – Great idea – will start on this one right away.
8 – This is tough one and I have a lot of work to do here on this one – awesome idea as this one is huge time sucker.
9 – I can see the benefits on this one and will think this one through a bit more.
I can add to this list if you don’t mind…..In addition to cleaning the office desk everyday there is one strategy I picked up years ago and works really well. I have reduced chaos in my life through one technique and that is……
Making sure the bedroom is kept tidy and clean. The reason for this is it is the last thing I see before going to sleep and the first thing I see when waking up. It has been proven that a messy bedroom creates chaos in your life at a subconscious level. Hope this helps (not to mention it makes my wife happy LOL 🙂 )
Hey Carl! So you did notice my mind reading super power 😉 on a serious note. If only! Then again, not sure I would like that ability – more distractions LOL.
Anyhow yes, by all means add on. It is very interesting about making the bed.