Introduction
“If I had more time, I would have started building the next big thing in tech!”
How many times has it come to our mind?
We, as humans, want to achieve big things and that’s how it should be. But we can’t afford more than 24 hours in a day, right? Hence, we need to do things that are time-effective; things that will produce the maximum output.
In this article, I have come up with some popular, tried-and-tested principles that will help you save a lot of time and boost your productivity.
Here we go!
20% Input, 80% Output!
The 80/20 rule, otherwise known as the Pareto Principle, states that roughly 80% of outputs come from 20% of inputs.
In other words, 20% of your efforts.will produce 80% of the results. However, this doesn’t mean that you should work 20% of your overall time. Instead, it indicates that you should have certain tasks that will yield most of the result.
Try to make a list of tasks that you need to carry out. Then, point out the tasks that have the maximum priority. Do them first. Once they are finished, move on to the other tasks. This simple method will surely improve your productivity and yield better overall results.
Getting Into the Flow
This method is a straightforward one. You work for a good amount of time, say 2-3 hours, and then try to keep up your momentum.
Working for a long time non-stop actually helps you to get into the flow and makes you feel much more motivated than before. As a result, you will most likely carry on with your work rather than taking a rest. This is what a simple 2-3 hour non-stop session provides you with.
Just get started with your tasks and put all your focus into completing those tasks. Don’t get distracted. You will gradually feel more and more urge to keep doing your work, rather than doing something else.
Only Two Minutes!
There is another method that will help you become more productive. It’s called the two-minute rule. This suggests that if anything takes less than two minutes to do, then do it now.
You most probably follow a to-do list in your day-to-day life. If you don’t, I recommend you do so. It’s very helpful. If you do follow, you most likely have a long list of tasks that you need to carry out. Some of them can take hours, some of them can be just a two-minute matter.
What you need to do is to point out the tasks that will take less than two minutes to complete. Then, finish them immediately. Don’t postpone them. This will not only shorten your to-do list, but also help clear your mind. You will feel like you have accomplished something. Resultantly, you will feel much more motivated than before, which will help boost your productivity.
One Task at a Time
This one is rather a best practice than a method. You need to stop multitasking. If it surprises you, then let me tell you that multitasking is counterproductive.
Yes, you heard it right! Multitasking prevents you from fully focusing on a single task. Rather, your focus and concentration gets divided into the tasks that you are doing simultaneously. It results in your productivity being compromised.
You need to simply focus on a single task. Finish it, then move on to the next task. If you do one task at a time, then most likely you will be able to do more things as each task will take less amount of time to complete. Result? Boosted productivity!
The DRY Principle
DRY stands for Don’t Repeat Yourself. According to Wikipedia, DRY is a principle of software development aimed at reducing repetition of software patterns, replacing it with abstractions or using data normalization to avoid redundancy.
I know, the above explanation sounds hard!
In general sense, this principle tells you to simply automate repetitive tasks. It will improve your productivity and you will be able to accomplish many more things.
Point out the things that you feel are repetitive. It can be anything; an operation that needs to be repetitively written in your code or an email boilerplate that needs to be typed regularly or anything else. Point them out.
Then, automate those tasks. For example, write a function that will implement your operation as needed in your code or prepare an email boilerplate that you will just copy-paste when needed. Automate these repetitive tasks and boost your productivity, Simple as that!
Conclusion
The principles I mentioned above are relatively easy to pick up. So, what are you waiting for? Follow these methods and give yourself some extra time to further nourish your gaming skills!
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