6. Try reading easier books as a “smoke break” instead of Facebook, Twitter or the Internet.
We all hit that point during our workday when our attention fades, our stamina drops and we just need a break. If your habit is to check updates on social media to give your brain a reset, try chipping away at a book instead.
Pick something easy to read, like a leadership book or something on the practical side. By the end of the year, what would you rather look back on: the number of tweets you read, or the number of books you read?
7. Try carrying something to write stuff down on at all times.
How many good ideas have you lost because you couldn’t record them? How many important tasks have you forgotten to do because you didn’t write it down right when you thought of it?
The simple habit of writing things down is the easiest way to give your productivity a boost. It could be paper or digital. (Now, don’t go to Lifehacker to look up the best pocket notebooks or the best pens for note taking. Remember, that’s fake productivity. Throw the nearest scrap paper in your back pocket, or download Evernote to your phone.)
8. Try coming to a decision as soon as possible in your meetings.
In their fantastic productivity book Rework, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson argue that meetings are the number one productivity killer (and the second is like unto it: interruptions).
So, try this goal: Make all the talk conversation in your meetings drive toward the decision that has to be made. That might take a long time, especially if it is an important decision. My guess, however, is that you’ll find your meetings will be shorter overall, and that people will have a clearer sense of what “productivity” actually looks like for them.
The bottom line: It is more productive to spend time doing than talking. (This wasn’t their idea, it was God’s—Proverbs 14:23, “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” But we can give Fried and Heinemeier credit for reminding us.)
9. Try going to bed earlier at night.
Sleep boosts creativity. Furthermore, because we are holistic beings, the more we are rested physically, the easier it will be for us to be at rest spiritually (see #1).
10. Try drinking coffee in the morning.
There’s nothing like a little boost in the morning, right? Scot McKnight posted recently about his creativity habits, which include strategic coffee drinking; Michael Hyatt argues for it, too. And even the Mayo Clinic notes health benefits associated with moderate coffee drinking.
I have even found that a 2:30 p.m. cup of decaf is just the placebo I need to push through a groggy afternoon.
Despite all these tips, #1 is the most important. We should be thoroughly gospel centered in all that we do. Even in productivity. So in all of your work, rest in Christ.
