Wednesday, October 22, 2014
In December 2013, I wrote a blog post titled ?
10 Essential Tools and Resources for Entrepreneurs to Get Stuff Done,? which highlighted 10 important resources that I use to help me stay productive.
It?s been a few months since I wrote that article, and I?ve changed and added some tools to the mix. Here are some additional resources that might help you be more productive like they?ve helped me.
Time Doctor One of the tools that I highlighted in my prior article was a time-tracking application called Paymo. Since then, I?ve switched to another tool called
Time Doctor, and wrote a
post on my personal blog about why I made the change.
Essentially, the Time Doctor marketing team read the post I wrote in December and offered me a free license for their app. After trying Time Doctor, I found some features that really helped me stay on track while I worked:
- The Time Doctor desktop app views my screen, recognizes when I might be diverting attention away from the task that I was working on, and asks via a pop-up whether I was still working on said task. This feature really keeps me focused and doesn?t allow my mind to wander.
- Also, whenever I step away from my computer while working on a task, Time Doctor tracks the time I?ve been away and asks whether I was on a break or working on that task, and logs my time accordingly. Apparently, I unconsciously step away from my computer pretty often, and this feature helps me track that time easily.
- Another nice feature is that the app sends me a daily email of the time I spent working so I can see how much I?ve been slacking off. That?s a pretty good motivator.
The Time Doctor team continued to follow up to gain feedback about what I thought about the tool. After a couple of weeks of testing the app, I switched and never looked back.
The Pomodoro Technique and Tomato Timer I?ve been using the
Pomodoro technique, which is a time management tactic where you work for 25 minutes then take a 5-minute break, and repeat these intervals throughout the day. To time these intervals, I use a simple Pomodoro timer called
Tomato Timer.
This technique is supposed to increase mental agility, concentration, and productivity, and it has been really effective for a couple of reasons:
1. It helps break up my day into more manageable, bite-sized pieces, instead of one long, nebulous chunk of time. This helps me better concentrate at the task at hand and the time I have to complete it, and minimizes the amount of time my brain spends sauntering away.
2. There?s something about seeing that clock tick down and racing to complete my task before time expires. When I complete my task before the clock hits 0:00, there?s a feeling of accomplishment and euphoria that really gets me going for the next task.
3. While it?s sometimes tough to stop working after just 25 minutes, the cumulative effect of the 5-minute breaks really help toward the end of the day and I?m often just as fresh around 6PM than I am at 8AM. Unfortunately the Pomodoro technique has absolutely no effect on the food coma I get after lunch.
The combination of Time Doctor, the Pomodoro Technique and Tomato Timer keeps me on-task and productive.
Stack Overflow I?ve been learning how to code and have been working on a web application a little bit each day as a side project. I?m confident that I would be 100% lost (as opposed to being 98% lost right now) if it weren?t for
Stack Overflow.
Stack Overflow is a question and answer site that seems to have the solution to every programming issue out there. Whenever I run into a bug in my software, which is basically every minute, I do a Google search and almost always wind up on a Stack Overflow thread. It?s an amazing resource for software developers of all knowledge levels.
Join.me For the most part, screen sharing really sucks.
I frequently use Google Hangouts and Skype to communicate with my team members, and while both of those applications have screen-sharing capability, neither of them work that well. Other tools force you to download a widget and register your credentials, which takes a long time. And when you finally set up the app, there is almost always a connection delay, causing my colleague to be talking about slide 8 of his presentation when I?m looking at slide 2.
With
Join.me, if someone is sharing his or her screen with me, I don?t have to download a thing. And there is rarely ever an annoying connection delay. On top of all that, it?s free.
I don?t know how they do it but Join.me just works really, really well, and has become my default screen-sharing app as a result.
Exercise Exercise has always been important to me, but its effect has never been as evident as it is now.
Sometimes I get really busy or travel a lot and can?t find the time to work out, and this lack of exercise has a clear negative impact on my overall mood and productivity. When I don?t exercise, my mind gets lazy, my body gets tired easily and I typically don?t eat healthily, making matters worse.
So I make sure to find time to work out at least 3-4 times a week. I try to mix up my workouts as much as possible by playing basketball, tennis, or softball, lifting weights, boxing, doing CrossFit and running. If I?m on the road and don?t have much time nor access to a gym, I?ll fit in some push-ups, sit-ups, and squats whenever I can.
Exercising is something that many people neglect when they?re really busy, but skipping workouts can have negative short-term effects on your productivity and long-term effects on your health.
Classical Music In the prior post, I mentioned that I listen to hip-hop, some rock and a bit of techno when I work. That?s still true today, but I much more frequently listen to classical music now.
There have been many studies performed on the effect of listening to music while working or studying ? like
this one from the University of Pheonix,
this one from the New Jersey Institute of Technology or
this one commissioned by Spotify ? with no clear conclusions on what type of music is best or if listening to music while working helps at all. For me, classical music helps me concentrate more effectively than when I listen to hip-hop or rock music because it doesn?t have lyrics. Thus, I?m not able to wail out the tune like I?m on stage at a karaoke bar. Instead, I can keep my butt in my chair, concentrate and crank out work.
Checking Email Less Frequently Oh, what a love-hate relationship I have with email.
Email is by far my primary means of communication, for better or worse. I get about 200 emails a day and read and respond to most of them, and that takes up a lot of time. While email is necessary, it?s not always productive.
I?m trying to minimize the number of times I check email so I can concentrate on doing real work.
On my worst days, I have Gmail open in a browser all day and just stare at the tab until an email pops up. I can?t help myself and it?s really annoying. On my best days, I?m consciously checking email only three times a day and reading and responding with a purpose. Sometimes it?s inevitable that I have to check my email but when I don?t, I am super-productive and able to concentrate really well.
After a few months, I?ve experimented with new tools, techniques and processes to help me get more stuff done. Hopefully these can help you stay productive as well.
What?s your take? We want to hear from you. Connect with CEA and Mike on Twitter. You can also follow Mike on his personal blog for future updates.