Getting Code Done: How to Stop Wasting Time and Start Investing it

Lost control over your schedule. You are now betting on energy drinks and endless search queries of ways to boost your productivity. In fact, if you are seeking ways to become more productive, chances are you’re already aware of the problem. The bad habits that are unconsciously triggering time wastage and pushing you towards laziness, procrastination and habitual social media usage.

For me, responding to mails and an interruption from my physical environment were the cause of weak productivity while starting out programming. For others, perhaps its the accidental opening of a web-page to read an article. Sub-consiously, you find yourself reading 2-3 more articles. Suddenly you find your way back after 2-3 hours of engaging with something else. Then you begin asking yourself where you were before. And your mind has to process all that before settling to do the actual work.

Take for instance Ivy Lee.

You’d think Ivy Lee is a person but Ivy Lee is a dead-beat simple way of remaining productive. Of course its name is after a person. A productivity  consultant, who in 1918 – came up with a daily routine for achieving peak efficiency.

Whatever its worth, here is what it means:

1. Write down six important tasks that should be accomplished the next day of your workday.
2. List the six tasks in order of their importance.
3. The next work day, work on each task first thing in the morning till its complete. Move to the next one.
4. Repeat the process every single day until you are done.

And that’s you my dear achieving peak productivity.

Ivy is your path to becoming the black panther of peak productivity.

However simple this might be. A barrel of difficulties come in between. All of which have you to blame. Why is this so?

Consider Michael, a freelance writer. Guy wakes up at 8:00 AM and spends his first 30-45 minutes on social media (Instagram or Facebook). The next 30 – 60 minutes are spent on whatsapp or messenger, another 5 – 20 minutes on Youtube videos and 20 -30 minutes of reading unworthy click-bait news articles.

If Michael was an Ivy Lee enthusiast, clearly it shows this would have deprived the productivity method off its glory. This is because the most important task comes first. Unless you are a social media account manager then, but Michael would be a very peak productivity ambassador.

Furthermore, comes in the problem of multi-tasking. Often people confuse between actual multi-tasking and distraction. A statistics by OnlineCollege.Org states that only 2% of the world’s population can multi-task effectively. For the rest of the world, at least 98% are actually trimming their productivity rate by 40% and reducing their Intelligence Quotient (IQ) by 10 points.

More people think they will complete more tasks and hence boost their productivity by multi-tasking. Besides, the age of smartphones makes it even harder not to multi-task. The average american will browse the internet 42% of his/her time, talk on the phone 29% and text 26% while watching television.  67% of Americans will even have the audacity to check and respond to their emails in the middle of a date.

Unfortunately, despite having a somewhat feeling of accomplishment in the pursuit for more. You are losing at least 546 hours annually to multi-tasking and disruptions.

Averagely the office worker will get 11 minutes disruptions between each task. After interruption, the worker will take at least 25 minutes before their mind finds its way back to the initial task at hand.

Was all this information a banger. Did it make you feel like there is hope at the end of the tunnel? Or you’re wishing you’d seen it earlier on because now it’s too late to turn the wheel back.

No!

It’s not too late to adopt a productivity boost

We wrote this guide to help everyone that has tried without much success to apply all the productivity tips found online.

The Ivy Lee Technique is inadequate because it fails to acknowledge time wasters. The very factors that trigger you into unproductivity. Since the first step to improving your productivity remains in identifying these triggers and time wasters:

We introduce to you a method mostly used by project managers, millions of freelancers and developers.

The Pomodoro Technique

This technique takes into account only 4 steps.

1. Break your Work into Tasks and Choose the First Task.
2. Set a 25 minutes timer and if you think 25 minutes isnt enough, there is room for adjustment. However note the timer should’nt be too long or else provide room for the implications of pomodoro.
3. Check whether the task is complete once the timer rings.The timer rings to signify the end of one pomodoro. For each of the tasks you have, restart this process, however:
4. Take a short break between each pomodoro. A break should last between 5 – 10 minutes. After completing at least 4 pomodoro, you can take a long break of at least 15 – 25 minutes.

The Pomodor Technique is simple and easy to follow. It creates a sense of urgency and efficiency. Hence providing a boost to productivity dramatically. Sign up for a free customizable Pomodoro timer at Pomzen.