Glen Stansberry at LifeDev has shared his experience on his “evening computer fast” which he kept his computer shut down for 5 days from the evening until morning.
He is a developer, and this is pretty difficult as his work relies on the computer. I can totally understand difficulty as I am an IT person as well who live by the Internet and computers.
I do agree with his point:
But the danger of having your “workplace” at home is a grave one. It’s way too easy to mix business with pleasure, especially when you use the same tools for both.
At night, I definitely mixed both professional work and entertainment together.
That’s the reason he tried to use less of the computer to boost his productivity when he faces with a computer. The results are quite good:
The same is true with my study. When I knew that the computer was going to be turned off at the same time every day, my productivity soared to new heights. Now that I only had a static, limited amount of time, I had to squeeze the most out of it. I had to plan, and only work on the most important things that had to be done that day.
By working less I also found that I was more refreshed and willing to work the next day. The anticipation of the things I got to work on was much higher. AND, I was able to plan more the night before about what I was going to do the following day. With the combination of meticulous planning and anticipation of what I “got” to do the next day, work was tons more enjoyable.
Have you ever tried to work less and you actually accomplished more? Share your experience with us!
The 5 Day PM Computer Fast: Why I Got More Done In Less Time – [LifeDev]
I find that to be absolutely true. I’m exceptionally ADD, which makes for a very frustrating work day.
Someplace in my obsessive readings about personal productivity over the last 20 years, I came upon the idea of picking a task and a time limit. The task was loosely defined sometimes, but the time limit never was.
The idea is “Do what you can on this in 15 minutes then STOP, no matter WHAT.” One of the important facets of this is to pick a task that you can’t possibly accomplish to completion in the amount of time alotted. I personally find a vital constraint to keep me working because the second I think that I might “have time” (which unfailingly translates to my head as “have EXTRA time”) I seek to absorb the extra and start noodling around with something else.
Sometimes I’ll pick a half-hour stretch for a particularly large task but that strains my focus if I’m not very interested in what I’m doing; something I can rely on not being able to rely on.
The amount I can accomplish with enforced time boundries is astronomically greater than I can while just noodling around with my todo lists in front of me.
Steve Pavlina found the same thing – by cutting back hours significantly, he got a lot more done.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/triple-your-personal-productivity.htm
[...] LifeHack have just linked to and article about switching off in the evening. Turn off your computer (and phone) and go do something else. Sounds good in principle, but what – if you are really honest – if you don’t want to? [...]
I guess that allows Steve Pavlina more time for his astral, out-of-body travels.
[...] Get More Done In Less Time by Reducing Your Work Time? – lifehack.org [...]
[...] Get More Done In Less Time by Reducing Your Work Time? – lifehack.org Sounds silly, makes sense, go read. (tags: gtd organization productivity work) [...]