Don’t Agonize, Organize – Florynce Kennedy

Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort – Paul J Meyer. Top 8 Productivity Hacks will help you become productive (as is obvious). It consists of some tips, tricks and ideas to make you more efficient.

Productivity Hack #5 – A Place For Everything And Everything In It’s Place

Do you have to search for keys everyday? Or have a pile of clothes on the bed (all over the house actually)? Is your drawer full of important papers in which you just can’t find the one you are looking for? Then this old adage can do wonders for you – ‘A place for everything and everything in it’s place’.

• Allocate Place(s) For Everything:

  Have dedicated place(s) for each and every item in the house. While usually, one place is preferred, you can also have multiple places based on your convenience. Just remember, the more places you assign to an object, the more places you will have to look for it.

  For instance, we have small wooden containers at central locations in the house – it’s usually used for keys, cards, coins etc. Stuff which you might want to empty out of your pockets once you return home. Having multiple containers ensures that we don’t get lazy and put them anywhere since one is always accessible.

• Rarely Used Items:

  For rarely used items like candles, torch, papers etc, rather than thinking where to place them, think where will you search for them – this usually will give you the right place for those items. This also comes handy when you are filing papers.

• Tag Items:

  It is very easy to dump everything in suitcases and put them in attic. However, when time to search comes, it gets really difficult. This destroys the entire purpose of organizing everything well. Hence, tag items – use a post it or stick a label and write down everything you have in your suitcases, boxes etc.

  For ease of use, it is also practical to put same kind of stuff together. So that you don’t have to go through everything to find what you need.

• Place Items Back Immediately:

  The entire purpose of allocating place(s) is to use them correctly. As soon as you finish using the item, place it back immediately. Do not keep it for later. You already know … later never comes.

  This is applicable even if you are in a hurry. It won’t take you more than five seconds (one minute max) to put items back in order. So do that right now instead of keeping it for later. Coming back to an untidy house or work place is de-motivating.

• Enroll Others:

  You cannot do this alone. Everyone who lives in the house has to take responsibility to keep it clean. If there are kids, then you train them to place everything back into it’s place. You would be doing yourself and them a big favour by taking time to teach this.

• Improvise:

  If you are following this system well, and placing everything back most of the time, the items which don’t get placed usually are giving you a feedback – that the place allocated to them is not right. Simply put, if your system is not easy to use, chances are you will skip using the system or not enjoy it. Hence, keep improvising till you find an ideal location for each.

• Have A Clean House Routine:

  After the habit to put things back to their place is formed, everything remains organized. However, when you are starting with this, chances are lot of things will not be kept back in the right place. Hence, have a clean house routine – that is, have a fixed time every day when you will tidy up entire house. The more times you can do this, the better it is. Initially it might seem that this is taking up time, however, as you keep doing this everyday, you will find lesser and lesser things to put back in place.

Elsewhere:
Mise en Place is a French phrase which means “putting the right thing in the right place”. Marelisa at Abundance Blog explores how can you use Mise en Place as a productivity tool with practical example of applying the same to weight loss and de-cluttering and organizing.

Read Other Hacks:
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Don’t Agonize, Organize – A Place For Everything & Everything In It’s Place is a post from: Avani-Mehta.com Download & Share: The Fabulous Motivators E-Book.

Be Pleasant Until 10 o’clock In The Morning And The Rest Of The Day Will Take Care Of Itself – - Elbert Hubbard

Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort – Paul J Meyer. Top 8 Productivity Hacks will help you become productive (as is obvious). It consists of some tips, tricks and ideas to make you more efficient.

Productivity Hack #4 – Maximize Your Mornings

It is said that morning sets the tone for your entire day. Hence, starting your morning on the right note could make a world of difference to how good or bad your entire day goes. To maximize your productivity, try out following approaches and see which one works for you -

• Eat That Frog

  There just isn’t enough time for everything on our “To Do” list and there never will be. Successful people don’t try to do everything. They learn to focus on the most important task and make sure they get done.

  There is an old saying that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that it’s probably the worst thing you’ll do all day. Using ‘eat that frog’ as a metaphor for the tackling the most challenging task of your day – the one you are most likely to procrastinate on, but also probably the one that can have the greatest positive impact on rest of your life – from Back Cover of Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog! – 21 Ways To Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

  If you are interested, Shanel Yang has written an excellent review of the book. You can read about it here.

• Eat The Tadpoles

  Martin Wildam cites that sometimes, the frogs are so huge that they can take up your entire day. This results in neither the big nor small tasks getting completed. This results in a lot more work the next day. If the tadpoles (smaller tasks) are not worked upon, there is a risk that these too turn into all time consuming frogs. And hence, eat the tadpoles first.

  This approach works for me, since it feels great being able to check off a lot of things from my to do list right in the morning. It kind of gets me into the super productive mode.

• The 10 O’clock Rule

  To start your morning on the right note, prepare for it the night before. The 10 o’clock rule from Life Clever asks you to set an alarm for 10 pm every night. As it beeps, start preparing for the next morning by doing simple tasks like planning for breakfast, getting clothes ready, check your calendar for next day’s activities etc.

How do you maximize your mornings? What has worked and hasn’t worked for you? Share in the comments.

Read Other Hacks:
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How To Maximize Your Mornings is a post from: Avani-Mehta.com Download & Share: The Fabulous Motivators E-Book.

Begin What You Want To Do Now. We Have Only This Moment, Sparkling Like A Star In Our Hand – and Melting Like A Snowflake – Marie Beyon Ray

Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort – Paul J Meyer. Top 8 Productivity Hacks will help you become productive (as is obvious). It consists of some tips, tricks and ideas to make you more efficient.

Productivity Hack #3 – Manage Your To-Do List

Almost all of us maintain our to-do lists in one form or other. Listing down every task frees mind of worry. It allows mind to focus on now with the confidence that no task will be forgotten.

• To Do List Is Not A Wish List

  To-do list enthusiasts often forget that a to-do list is to take down tasks which you have to do and not those which you wish to do. Turning a to-do list into a wish list makes list too huge and impractical to manage. The list becomes so overwhelming that it starts getting ignored. It is essential to classify items as tasks or wishes before entering them into to-do list.

• Separate To-Do List For Each Category

  I find having a separate to-do list for different categories very efficient. I have lists for household, study/research, blogging, general etc. This makes it easy for me to simply pick up a list and start working on it. I don’t have to scan for items which I can do – since they are already categorized.

• Keep To-Do List Accessible

  I keep each to-do list at a convenient place (based on it’s category) along with a pen for ease of use. One mega benefit of keeping lists at accessible places is that there is no reason to postpone adding items to the list for later. This ensures that I don’t forget adding any items to the list. This also helps to avoid creating multiple lists for a single category.

• Finish What You Start

  A half finished item creates no impact on the to-do list. You obviously can’t half check it or half cancel it. To shorten your to-do list, finish what you start. One main reason to finish off what you start is that if you don’t come back to it later, the time and energy that you have put in so far has all gone waste. Nothing can be more unproductive than that!

• Block A Day For To-Do List

  For those who have a huge to-do list which by it’s sheer size becomes a demotivator, block a day to finish off everything on your to-do list. There is nothing which moves me forward faster than having one dedicated day for canceling items on my list. Don’t forget to reward yourself every time you finish your to-do list.

How do you manage your to-do list? Do share in comments.

Read Other Hacks:
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How To Make Most Of Your To-Do List is a post from: Avani-Mehta.com Download & Share: The Fabulous Motivators E-Book.

Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives – Anthony Robbins

Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort – Paul J Meyer. Top 8 Productivity Hacks will help you become productive (as is obvious). It consists of some tips, tricks and ideas to make you more efficient.

Productivity Hack #2 – Know Your Target

One way to never miss an aim is to shoot first and create a target later where-ever the arrow lands.

Unfortunately, that is not how real life works. To hit the target, we need to know the target. No matter how much we practice on our aim and our shot, without knowing the target, we cannot hit a bulls-eye.

Ditto when it comes to productivity. To know your target means to –

• Know What’s Important In Your Life

  It doesn’t make sense to work hard and improve yourself in some area which doesn’t matter to you.
  You can increase productivity by gaining clarity on what is important to you and what is not.

  As you focus more on your priority list, you start producing results in areas that matter. You put all your efforts in the right place. In addition to that, by knowing what is important to you and focusing on it, you begin eliminating any time you spend on what is not important.

  Sit back for a minute and think what would it take for you to believe you have had a great life. Write out your answer and align your life as per your answer.

• Know What’s Important Right Now

  Lack of clarity and focus are the biggest contributors to being unproductive.

  I don’t know whether this happens to you or not, but this used to happen to me often – I would find myself wasting time doing unnecessary things for hours without even realizing that I am doing so.

  To set this right, before starting any work, I simply tell myself what am I doing – for instance, writing an article, researching on xyz subject, etc. This helps me stay focused on the task in hand.

  I often repeat the exercise after every hour or so. If I have drifted off to doing something else, I can catch myself and start working in the right direction. Over a period of time, the ability to stay focused increases and these hourly reminders though helpful, are not needed.

• Know Which Productivity Tip Is Beneficial To You

  If you search for productivity in Google, you will find more than 86 million results. Not to mention, the staggering amount of books on productivity that are available. It is impossible to apply each and every tip and try out all applications which claim to increase your productivity.

  Hence, first, pick an area where you would like to increase your productivity. And focus on tips available in that area. Try out tips which make sense and will give maximum results. Stay put with those which work for you. If the tips or productivity application doesn’t work for you, scrap it. Not all tips will apply to you.

How do you pick up areas to apply productivity tips to? And how do you select which productivity tip to apply? Do share in comments.

Read Other Hacks:
• Motivation:
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• Productivity:
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• Life Hacks:
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Know Your Target To Hit Bulls-Eye is a post from: Avani-Mehta.com Download & Share: The Fabulous Motivators E-Book.

The first rule of focus is “Wherever you are, be there”. – Source Unknown

Photo Courtesy of Harshad Sharma

There is no doubt that increased levels of focus and concentration can do wonders to our lives. Being able to focus on current task without distractions, without interrupting thoughts would make our productivity levels jump. While removing external distractions and getting organized do help staying focussed and be more productive, they do not help in raising our focus levels.

Staying focussed is a practice. And like anything else, the more we practice, the better we get at it. How to get razor sharp focus? Following is one of the several techniques one can use to raise levels of focus and concentration:

Focussed Meditation Technique:

Choose a location
Choose a place where you can meditate without distractions – no phones, no people, less noise etc. The idea is to avoid as many distractions as possible. Over a period of time however, with enough practice you will be able to meditate whenever and wherever you want.

Choose your sitting position
While crossed legged position is the most commonly used sitting position, it is not compulsory. Sit in a position you are comfortable in. In which you can relax and not fidget too much.

You can also try standing and sleeping positions if you want to. Standing for long period of time is very uncomfortable. And in sleeping position, the risk is of actually falling asleep.

Choose any object
Choose any object you would like to focus upon. A candle flame, a rose, an idol are commonly used. But you need not be limited to these. A pen, a ball, a tree, a plant, a book, a bottle, a picture … anything that catches your fancy will do. Only conditions are:

• a. The object should be at eye level – now you don’t want to strain your neck, do you?
• b. The object should be of adequate size – not so small that you have to squint and not as large as a cupboard or wall. The idea is to focus on something specific.

Using eyes – visual sense is very common. Feel free to try out auditory, tactile and olfactory senses as well. I find focussing with eyes on a concrete object easier. It is very difficult to focus with help of other senses on scent of incense, touch of wind, music etc.

Focus the object
Focus the object. Observe it. And keep observing it. Concentrate on it with everything that you have got. Concentrate with your entire mind. Don’t think about anything. Let your mind be thought free. Just see the object.

Keep focussing
It is all right to lose focus. If you find getting lost in thoughts or getting distracted, don’t beat yourself up. Simply acknowledge you lost focus and re-focus. Thinking about how you lost focus or can’t focus is also not focussing and is getting distracted.

That’s it. This might sound easy but it’s not. If you would like to see how much have you progressed, focus for same amount of time everyday. Everytime you lose focus, make a mark on a piece of paper. Your goal is to be mark free

Increase Focus and Concentration Levels Through Focussed Meditation is a post from: Avani-Mehta.com Download & Share: The Fabulous Motivators E-Book.

It sometimes seems to me that I don’t own my mind, it has choices of its own. I want it to focus, generate ideas, be constructive … (In short do as I say!); And it is busy with it’s own task list. It wanders off into past, future, movies, books, conversations … anything and everything except where I want it to be. Times like these have been really frustrating and a cause of lot of unhappiness. Especially, when a deadline is nearby and I need to focus and be productive.

This was true till I found solution to work with my mind, get it to focus and help it to help me. Here are 6 ways to get mind to focus when it does not seem your own:

1. Deal with it as you would deal with a kid
First and foremost, stop getting agitated about not being in control. The more we resist, the more the problem persists. It’s as if mind is like a child. The more we ask it to not to do something, the more it does the same.

So, if we don’t resist it, what do we do? We allow it to be where it is. And hear it out. What are its concerns. What is so important that it is ignoring our immediate need. Sometimes, sitting in silence for 5-10 minutes is all it takes to get everything out and clearing the mind. Once mind is clear, you are all set to use it the way you want.

2. Let the mind vent out
Sometimes, listening is not enough. Sometimes the need is to to talk, share with someone and offload things within. There could be some sadness, some worry, some pestering thought, if mind could just share with someone or write down, it would be enough to settle down.

3. Give mind clear and specific requirements
Be clear what is it that needs to be done. And what are the steps for doing it. Confused, unclear instructions will not yield satisfactory output. Calm yourself and state in simple and clear language list of things that need to be done and need your immediate attention.

4. Do not overload
Pick up one item at a time and deal with it. Don’t think about others. Be as fast as you can with whatever item you have picked up. Not worrying or trying to focus on other items will help finishing off tasks faster.

5. Take a break – get refreshed.
Sometimes all that’s needed is a little bit of refreshment. And there are so many ways to do this in small amount of time. Here’s my list:

a. Have some food (if you are ignoring your tummy needs).
b. Drink some tea/coffee.
c. Splash your face with cold water.
d. Go for a walk in nature
e. Take a bath
f. Medidate
g. Hear some music
h. Work out
i. Sing a song

6. Be Creative
Last but not the least, this list is not exhaustive. Be creative and find more ways to work with your mind and help it stay focussed.

Books On How To (Increase) Focus And Concentration

This article featured in following carnival:

• Carnival of Healing
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• Effortless Abundance

6 Ways to Get Mind to Focus When It Does Not Seem Your Own is a post from: Avani-Mehta.com Download & Share: The Fabulous Motivators E-Book.