Productivity Hacks

This is a collection of ideas to improve the fruitfulness of the time I spend here on earth. I will keep adding or modifying it until I feel comfortable with the grind. 

The big picture

• Vision statement
• Mission statement
• Roles and goals
• Eisenhower matrix
• Activity Management
• Time Management

Way to plan, organise and execute

Action management

• GTD - Getting things done Method - helps to organise and manage actions aimed at stress free productivity.

Time management

• Pomodoro Technique  Helps to execute the actions that is determined beforehand.

Eisenhower Matrix

Roles and Goals

Example: You roles as a  Family member, team member, Friend, Entrepreneur etc and Goals

Action Management - GTD

1. Get everything out of your mind or email inbox. Collect them into a physical inbox. (may be a word file, Paper or physical files)

2. Sort them based on the question "Is it actionable in the immediate future?"

        If yes -  

                Classify based on Eisenhover matrix

                         do it immediately if it is important and urgent  or if it is important and will take only less than 2 minuites.

                          If not important try to delegate it. 

                If it cannot be done is 2 minutes plan and split it into actionable chunks and create a Action inventory sheet and schedule it based on urgency.

                Use Pomodoro to execute the actions. 

        If no  - Classify it as 

                1. Trash

                2. Someday

                3. Reference

3. Review actions every day and keep adding new actions each day. 

4. Review actions every week.

5. Review someday actions to see if they become important or urgent.

Time Management - Pomodoro

The Rules:

• A Pomodoro can’t be interrupted; it marks 25 minutes of pure work.
• A Pomodoro can’t be split up; there is no such thing as half of a Pomodoro or a quarter of a Pomodoro.
• If a Pomodoro is definitively interrupted by someone or something, that Pomodoro should be considered void, as if it had never been set; then you should make a fresh start with a new Pomodoro.
• You are not allowed to keep on working “just for a few more minutes” even if you’re convinced that in those few minutes you could complete the task at hand.
• When the Pomodoro rings, mark an X next to the activity you’ve been working on and take a break for 5 minutes.

Work flow

1. Activity life cycle - use GTD to manage activities and review the list of activities

2. Todo today sheet - Create a sheet with list of activites that needs to be done today and estimate the number of pomodors each will take.

3. Journal the number of Pomodoros per task and number of interruptions per pomodoro.

4. At the end of each day do a retrospective and mark which of the activities are completed. If not complete it means we have either over estimated or activites are more broad and needs to be broken down. 

5. Copy the unfinished activities to "Todo Today sheet" and also some more activities from Activity inventory sheet. 

References

1. GTD Book - https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0143126563?keywords=GTD&qid=1539682242&sr=8-1&ref=sr_1_1

2. Pomodoro Technique - https://www.amazon.com/Pomodoro-Technique-Illustrated-Easy-Pragmatic/dp/1934356506?crid=2KS7FPKMNL41N&keywords=pomodoro+technique+illustrated&qid=1539682269&sprefix=Pomodoro%2Caps%2C401&sr=8-1&ref=sr_1_1

3. 7 habits of Highly effective people - https://www.amazon.com/Habits-Highly-Effective-People-Powerful/dp/1451639619?crid=1D8DO68GMK5GY&keywords=7+habits+of+highly+effective+people&qid=1539682324&sprefix=7+habits+of+%2Caps%2C483&sr=8-2&ref=sr_1_2