This is a guest post by Mike Schoeffler, founder of iPhone running application Roadbud. He writes a refreshingly approachable fitness blog.

I hesitate to take issue with Jason’s Sacrifice your health for your startup — particularly after his wife gave her up-close-and-personal. His main point is dead on — we need to unhealthily obsess over our creations. But take this too far and your productivity drops off the cliff. As founder of a run/bike app startup, I can write off my workouts. I have a ready excuse for squeezing in a little “sweat equity” — I need to get in shape to know my customers’ issues. However, I also know firsthand that exercise increases total productivity. I avoid colds and I have more mental staying power. Plus, I have a better attitude when I don’t resemble shtik fleysh mit oygen (Yiddish for a piece of dead meat with eyes). Technology startups can be horrible for your body. Not mangle-your-arm-in-a-press horrible. But we have all sat in front of a computer for hours on end, tapping on the keyboard and lost in thought. Your only movement is reaching for the can of Mountain Dew or grabbing the bag of chips. Maybe you tear yourself away long enough to call for pizza delivery. Perfect for veal, not so much for humans. It wasn’t always this way. Joel Spolsky notes that in times long gone, programmers got washboard abs while waiting for the compiler. Think about exercise in light of a situation we’ve all faced: all-night coding sessions. Remember the all-nighters you pulled, heroically pumping out code until dawn to make a big deadline? Seemed like you were getting lots done while you took a bullet for the team. The truth is your programming was probably awful. Even a few hours’ sleep would have prevented your spaghetti mind from dumping spaghetti code. The worst part: as you got more sleep-deprived, the better the whole idea looked. Workouts are the same -- as you drop further into sloth, inactivity seems smart. Only the uncommitted have time for exercise, right? Exercise is pretty useful for anyone in a startup even without the health and stamina benefits. Just as your best ideas appear while you’re soaping up in the shower, elegant solutions spring up when you’re out running. Your mind is searching for something to think about besides your body’s pain. And while you don’t have a pen in the shower, you can always use your cellphone if a brainstorm strikes during a run. ... Let’s say you’re ready to start an exercise regimen. What next? Some of us already know how to work out – we’ve just given ourselves license to be lazy in this one area. If you’ve never been in shape, start gradually. Choose an activity you already enjoy (biking is my favorite). Regular exercise is far more important than going Charles Atlas overnight. Couch To 5K is a great place to start. A little goes a long way. You already knew you don’t have time to train for a marathon. Maybe get in a quick run before work – you’ll feel great all day. Or inch up to a hundred pushups while prepping for a sales call. Zen Habits has a detailed list of exercise hacks to help ease you into the habit. The critical thing is to just get started. Close your door, wipe the crumbs off your pants, and give me ten pushups now! What are your fitness tips? Leave a comment and join the conversation.

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How do you plan and track your daily activities, with a calendar or a to do list? Some productivity gurus claim that putting everything on your calendar ensures that it never gets done, or that you’ll cross off what you don’t get done and just reschedule it for the next day — which defeats the purpose of scheduling. Other gurus claim that putting everything on a list, where items aren’t tied to a time and date, ensures that they never get done, since they lack specific queues to get started or deadlines to finish.If the choice is mutually exclusive, I think they’re both wrong. Calendars and lists are related, but serve different purposes, not unlike clocks and timers. You can use a clock as a timer, but it’s not the best tool for the job.Calendar Management Best PracticesBy far, calendars are the most popular way to manage tasks. Walk into any office supply store and look at its selection of day planners, and you’ll probably see most pages devoted to calendar entries, and one page per week devoted to tasks. The iPhone has a calendar, but no native to do list application; the same applies to Android phones.But calendars are clumsy as to do lists. Weekly and monthly paper-based calendars offer limited space for entering multiple items, compelling the user to either leave off many otherwise doable tasks, or describe agendas in general terms that require further thinking to make them actionable.A well-formed task list gives enough detail to get started immediately rather than just suggest a general course of action, which is usually an outcome disguised as an action: “Get refund” is an outcome; “Call customer service” is an action. Actions descriptions that granular will be greater in number than what can be crammed into a typical calendar blank.When to Use CalendarsEven an extremely busy person should guard against having a cluttered calendar. I have plenty of things to do, but I strive to keep as much off of my calendar as possible.The more items you have on your calendar, but more potential your schedule has for getting out of sync. If you’ve scheduled A, B and C in sequential order, then doing B implicitly depends on first completing A, even if there’s no relational dependency between the two tasks. By artificially putting tasks in sequential order, the margin for error for each one getting done directly impacts all subsequent tasks, creating what programmers call cascading errors.Suppose your first task for the day is “Talk to Mark re product launch,” and your next task is, “Edit monthly report.” But it turns out that Mark’s not at his desk. After a few minutes of walking around the office to see if he’s lingering elsewhere, you go back to your own desk. Since he’s late, you decide to spend the time thinking about exactly what you need to go over when Mark arrives. It feels productive, since you’re still focused on what you “have to” do, but in reality, you being idle.That’s because your calendar put you in a “Talk to Mark” frame of mind, even though the item wasn’t a scheduled meeting (he wasn’t aware of your intentions). After all, your calendar says you’re supposed to talk to Mark before you can do anything else. But editing your monthly report has no dependency on your discussions with Mark, or lack thereof. If the tasks had been on a list instead, you would have been more inclined to respond to Mark’s absence by looking at your list and asking, “What else can I do?”So what should go on your calendar?Appointments (obviously)Objectively time-dependent or date-dependent events: a package that won’t arrive until Wednesday, a package you have to mail by the end of today, a trade show you’re considering attending (even optional events can be time-bound)Things you deliberately want to defer until a more appropriate time, such as holding off on buying a shiny new gadget until after you’ve paid your taxesBlocks of extended time for high-focus activities: writing sessions, batched phone call or email sessions, joggingLeave tasks that don’t have a time dependency off your calendar. Avoid writing down artificial start times or deadlines for them, for two reasons: (1) to minimize the potential for cascading errors and (2) to plan for unplanned but inevitable interruptions.Keeping an uncluttered calendar doesn’t mean doing less. Instead of using your calendar to see how much you have to do, you’re now using the whitespace in your calendar to gauge your availability. Availability for what, you ask?Using Your To Do ListSome people think that not allocating a specific time to a task gives themselves too much rope. I’d suggest the opposite: that they’re wound too tight.Untimed action lists could be seen as collections of items to do whenever you get around to them, but I look at my lists as collections of items to do as soon as possible (I structure my tasks into context lists, hence the plural references to “lists”). I review my lists the way most people review their watch.“As soon as possible” doesn’t mean in haste. It means looking at my calendar for the first opening in my schedule, then using that whitespace to go to my lists and look for the highest leverage action I can take in that discretionary time. Discretionary time isn’t idle time. It’s time to review your list to see which task fits best in the window available, then doing it from start to finish, as opposed to scheduling a 12-minute task into a 30-minute slot on your calendar, and then “thinking about” it for the remaining 18 minutes.Your calendar and list work together. If you’re booked solid with a day full of meetings with no gaps, you don’t have to look at your list, since none of those tasks are time-dependent, and therefore, by definition, can wait. If you only have a couple of appointments that day, you have a window of opportunity to blast through your list. When you reach the whitespace in your calendar, go into “list mode.”

Are you happier when you’re working, or when you have time off? Easy answer right? We work in order to have free time. Everything from basic economics to our deepest intuitions tells us that we must be happiest during our free time. Turns out we were wrong.

Flow, Flipped Intuitions and A Scientist’s Name You Can’t Pronounce Mihály Csíkszentmihályi did careful research that discovered that some of our deepest intuitions about work, play and what makes us happy were completely backwards. He discovered that most people were, in fact, happier at work than at rest. More, he found that people tended to think they were happier in their free time, and would choose to have more free time than work, even though it made them unhappier. How did Csíkszentmihályi find this? He did it by having study participants keep pagers (then a new technology) that would go off at random intervals of the day. During those intervals, study participants would not only record what they were doing, but also their emotional state in the current moment. By adding up this data, he reached the surprising conclusion: people were happier at work, even though they didn’t realize it.

Why You’re Happier at Work Csíkszentmihályi’s answer to this question was based on the concept of flow. In his research, this is the optimal state of human experience. It is attained when working towards a challenge that perfectly meets our skill level, engaging every mental faculty without overwhelming us. This state of flow, because it requires both challenge and the application of skill, is more commonly attained at work than during relaxation. As a result, people report higher levels of well-being at work. Why Free Time Makes Most People Unhappy Our drives don’t match up perfectly with our reality. We are motivated to relax, but relaxing itself doesn’t create the experience of flow. As a result, we strive to find more free time, even though we tend to use it on passive activities that never allow us to enter flow. The Solution Isn’t to Become a Workaholic I don’t believe the solution is simply to work more. Although that may fit within Csíkszentmihályi’s research, I do believe there is a good reason why people avoid work even though they are happier when working. I believe that reason is commitments. Commitments are often necessary to be accomplished and productive. Without some pressure, either external or internal, it’s likely I never would have built this business, stayed in shape or attended classes. However, commitments have a psychic toll on us. If you followed the findings I presented above, and turned yourself into a workaholic, you may feel flow more often. Or you may end up a burned-out wreck, one step closer to an asylum. I’ve experienced this road personally. As I wrote in this article, I made the mistake of confusing the flow-induced happiness of work with adding extra commitments. I survived, but I ended up becoming less accomplished, more stressed and considerably less happy. Commit to Less, Engage in Mastery More But Csíkszentmihályi’s research never suggested adding more commitments. His findings simply indicated that people tend to be happier at work because that environment was more conducive to flow. The solution, I will argue, has nothing to do with working more. Instead, it has to do with designing your free time so that you have more opportunities for flow. Noncommittal Mastery Noncommittal mastery is the process of engaging in intense learning and skill-building environments. Ones where the challenge of the activity and your skill are always in equilibrium. However, you engage in those elements without any outside pressure and little internal pressure. I’ve been using this approach for some time now, and recently I’ve been trying to apply it more deliberately. I recently wrote here about how the noncommittal path to mastery is how I’m pursuing bodyweight fitness. I’ve also been using it to improve my cooking, bicycling, graphic design, computer programming and reading. In my experience, I’ve found noncommittal mastery tends to achieve less and more slowly than intense commitments. That is, my business projects tend to progress faster and more consistently than my bodyweight fitness training, because I have added pressure. But, when you’re designing your free time, accomplishment isn’t the point–flow is. And if, by pursuing noncommittal mastery, I get to have more interesting flow experiences without adding new stress, I’ve succeeded. How to Create Mastery as a Side Dish Another way to explain noncommittal mastery is mastery as a side dish. Instead of the main course (your biggest focus in life) it is an addition that can be equally enjoyable without becoming an obligation. I’ve experimented with two ways to incorporate side-mastery into my life. One, which I’ve found usually fails. And a second which works much better. The mistaken way to add mastery into your life is to create more pressure to do it. When you tell yourself you “should” start cooking more elaborate meals, learn to write fiction or read difficult books. Unfortunately the “should” method tends to turn the otherwise fun activity into a mild commitment. Instead of being free time it starts to feel a bit like work. The psychic toll of pursuing the activity goes up and your desire to pursue it freely goes down. This is not the way. A better, but less obvious, way to integrate more side dishes of mastery into your life is to reduce the barriers to play. Instead of creating pressure, you reduce all the obstacles that make you less likely to pursue noncommittal mastery and more likely to waste time in passive activities that leave you less happy. Removing the Obstacles to Enjoyment One way you can remove obstacles is to integrate the mastery-seeking activity into your current routine. Bodyweight training was an easy integration for me because I’d already established the habit of going to the gym several times per week. Cooking became easier to pursue once I got the right tools and ingredients. I’ve written before that biking is facilitated by my current city. Another way you can remove obstacles is to get past the frustration barrier. By taking an introductory course in yoga, dance or French cuisine, you can get to the part where applying the skill is actually fun. Or simply make the mastery-seeking activity more available. One way I’ve been able to read more books per year? Always have books to read on my desk. Always having one or two good books in the to-read pile ensures I always have the chance to practice. Why Following this Advice Means Rejecting Your Intuitions My proposed solutions of noncommittal mastery and removing obstacles are just my experiences. You can discount them as anecdote if you disagree with me, just as you can discount most of my rants and opinions in this blog. However, Csíkszentmihályi’s research isn’t opinion. It isn’t anecdote. It’s scientific research that has a more surprising conclusion than I would ever attempt to thrust upon you: that most people are less happy in their free time. To all the people that reject the concept of active leisure, and believe the happiest life is the passive, relaxed one, I ask you to question your intuitions. Because the research says otherwise. Perhaps, like I did, you’ll discover it isn’t the activity you want to avoid but the commitment. And you may find that the most enjoyable moments of life aren’t the easiest or least exerting, but those completely engaged in play.

Oh, how we all long for the weekend. There’s a certain buzz in the air once Wednesday passes by (ergo, we’re over the hump) and in the home stretch of what is known as “The Work Week.” Well, to some of us anyway. There are, however, those who work hard and play…er…occasionally. The cubicle is not necessarily everyone’s work environment, nor is a 9 to 5 schedule everyone’s to adhere to. Schedules can be static or fluctuate, often depending on the type of work but there is also the likelihood that it is the person themselves that dictates the work day—and work habits. Everyone needs to take—and make—time where work yields to fun and frolic (or, in my case, football). There’s several reasons that we all have to do this consistently—I like to refer to them as The Four RE’s. (I’d have called them “R’s” but I believe those “R” spoken for.) While you can do them in varying order throughout your “weekend” it is important to note that if you’re new to the idea and practice of adding value to it, you should start by implementing them in the following manner until you’re well-rehearsed: RElax You’ve had a long week; face it, five days is a long haul no matter the work involved. You need to spend a little time relaxing. What your idea of relaxing is will differ from your co-workers and friends; you may like to garden while one of your colleagues likes to practice bonsai. It doesn’t really matter. Sleep in if you can or want to; enjoy the morning paper or a book – preferably on paper, but a good…umm…ol’(?) review of your RSS feeds works just as well – or simply take notice of your surroundings while doing very little to nothing at all. Just do it. Relax and you’ll start to add value to your weekend…and be able to better handle the next RE… REcharge With only a couple of days to spare, it’s important to refuel, revitalize and recharge the batteries. I’m not talking about your mobile device batteries (although charging them while leaving it off and out of reach isn’t a bad idea if you can make it happen); I’m talking about your constitution – your inner batteries. Burnout can easily take hold if you are always “turned on.” What happens when you leave your mobile device on all the time without plugging it in? I don’t want to use the term “it dies” – so I’ll use “it runs out of juice” instead. Both can apply though, depending on how you look at it. Even if you spend some time recharging, you’ll at least be able to get back to work for the upcoming week with ample energy to last. Plus, you’ll have the ability to perform the next RE… REview I can’t stress enough the importance of this one. You need to keep tabs on yourself, both at work and at rest. The most opportune time to reflect on your week is when you’re clear enough to do so – and the weekend should provide that clarity. I say “should” in that if you’ve not implemented any of the RE’s leading up to this point, then you’re not in any shape to do this one yet. It is crucial that you review the past and “preview” the future when you’re not occupied with other matters. Once you’ve finished this process – which generally occurs throughout the weekend with final realization near the end of it – you’ll be on your way to (or immersed in) the fourth RE… REady The weekend provides you with a ton of opportunities. In fact, some of your best experiences will happen during your time away from the office – some of which will help you when you’re at the office. But you’ve got to be able to see them and take advantage of them when they present themselves. You’ve got to be REady. Finding yourself in this state is a process that will happen with practice. With the other RE’s taken care of, this one will enable you to do spontaneous activities during your free time. Your mind won’t be cluttered with things that matter elsewhere but have no foundation in your current place or time. This means being focussed; being prepared; being able to go with the flow. It ultimately means just being the best you can be wherever you are. The value of your weekend is whatever value you choose to give it. Your weekend may not be everyone else’s – both in terms of days of the week or how you choose to spend it. The value of your weekend may not matter to you so much; but it should. Because how much you value your weekend is a direct reflection of how you value something far more important: You.

In my last article, I alluded to the teachings of the venerable Barney Stinson, many of whom consider to be The Master of Awesome. Not only does he “walk the walk” and “talk the talk”, but he can also pen a solid opus about it. I recently read his work, The Bro Code, which is essentially a bible for the brotherhood of men. If you adhere to the carefully/comedically crafted code, you’ll become a “balanced bro.” Needless to say, I’m working on it. I’ll get there eventually.

But, as usual, Mr. Stinson got me thinking: Why isn’t there a code out there that helps you keep an awesome mindset at work? I was on to something. However, someone was on to it before I was. His name is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, noted psychologist and author of Flow—the Psychology of Optimal Experience. Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced “chicks sent me high”) explains how when you’re in a state of flow, anything you’re doing can be truly awesome. The Basics of Getting to Flow “Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi So how do you get to this place? Well, here are some of the basics you can put into place to help you “achieve flow”: 1. Get Evolved Then Get Involved One of the first things that is a factor in “getting to flow” is to immerse yourself in whatever task is at hand. This is much easier to do when you enjoy your work, so if you’re not there then find a way to get there. Nothing will hamper you progress more in life than doing something you don’t like doing for work…no matter how much you get paid. It makes it difficult—if not impossible—to achieve a state of flow when you can’t find joy in your work. Right now, I’m totally immersed in writing this piece. Nothing else is distracting me. Now, it took some mental prodding to get me here, but now that I’m here I feel the words just flowing through me. It’s a really freeing feeling to have. 2. Addition Through Subtraction Flow only works if you commit yourself fully to a lot of focus on a very limited area of tasks and goals. If you’ve ever watched the night sky you’ll find it’s much easier to focus on a shooting star than on fireworks…and that’s how your mind works. Remember, when you split your mindset, your focus splits as well. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that negative energy coming from outside sources needs to be cast aside as well. Disgruntled colleagues and impatient clients are just two examples of the many counterproductive elements that can disrupt your flow. Eliminate them either through limited or no engagement during the process. I’ve found that flow generally happens for me when no one’s around. For those things that you know you need absolute solitude for, schedule to do them when outside distractions will be nonexistent (or at the barest of minimums). Oh, and unless your task is to “research web articles” or something similar, turn off the Internet. Seriously. Use an application like Freedom, the LeechBlock extension or something else to do it. There is no bigger tool for destroying flow than the very thing that enabled you to come here in the first place. The word “enable” is used for a reason here, folks. On second thought, just turn off your computer. After you’re done with this, of course. 3. It Does Matter If It’s Black Or White Flow is more readily available to you when you know the stakes. Goals and expectations must be clear. A loose deadline makes flow that much more difficult to attain—mainly because procrastination can rear its ugly head. If these aren’t set for you, set them for yourself. Be ruthless. The state of flow is so all-encompassing that you need to be strict with yourself so you can get there easier. Self-discipline is such a key factor. One of the things that helps me with this is to have a junior legal pad (white for my own creative work, yellow for my regular workplace) next to me while I’m working. Before I get down to work, I write down my objectives for that session (usually about 3-4 items at a time—very similar to Leo Babauta’s Big Rocks). I keep them manageable, a mixed bag of things that will take some time with stuff that won’t. Don’t put too much on this list at once or you’ll feel overwhelmed and both flow and progress will grind to a halt. Highlight each item (or cross them off, whatever works for you) as you finish them. Once you’ve done ALL the tasks listed you can either add 3-4 more to the pad or close up shop for the day. By keeping these basics in mind and making them a regular habit, you’ll find yourself in a position to feel a great sense of accomplishment and have achieved what you needed each time you get down to work. You’re no longer going to be working as hard towards getting to flow. Flow will be there when you’re ready to get back at it.

Photo by Matthew Hogan PhotographyEditor’s Note: I originally wrote this for ZenHabits back in June 2008, but I’ve brought it over as I think NS readers will find it interesting!Have you ever written out a list of goals you’d like to achieve and thought, ‘How can I get all this done’? Or seen an opportunity that you’ve had to pass by because you are just flat out? Life is a torrent of choices and possibilities, and often it’s hard to let them go. Should you compromise? Or do you just need a better game plan?As an easily excitable person, I have a really hard time constraining myself to doing just a few things. Every project seems worth doing, every opportunity worth taking. Still I know that for many people, work is a way to make enough money to relax and enjoy life. If that sounds like you, then you may not get much out of this article. However, if your days are filled to the brim and yet you still can’t wait to start that new project, then I am speaking to you!In the last few years I’ve become a successful blogger, co-written two books, built a web startup that employs lots of people, sold all my possessions to travel the world with my lovely wife, and co-founded an annual non-profit event. It sounds like a lot, and in a way it is. But there’s no reason not do more with our lives. After all, we only get one.Here are seven techniques that could potentially enable you to do more with your time. Have your own personal additions? Leave a comment, because I for one am always looking for more ideas!1. Find the Platform That Gives You The Time You NeedAside from sleeping, your work life very likely takes up the most hours in your day. So it makes sense that the greatest savings in time and productivity can come from how and where you work.Your aim should be to align your work and your goals of what you want to get done. While it might be that your goals can be achieved through a job, I found that the biggest change in my productivity has come from starting a business.When I worked for someone else, I spent a lot of time working on their projects. Consequently everything else took a back seat and was allocated to the early and late hours of the day, and only received a small portion of my energy.When working for yourself, you have mastery over your hours, how you divvy them up and what you spend the lion’s share on.To gain mastery of your own time, you sometimes need to sacrifice now for gains in the future. I took a major 6 month hit of working terribly long hours for two full-time jobs – my regular work and building our start-up – so that I could achieve the platform that would give me more freedom later on. My wife will tell you it really wasn’t much fun and there was some real lows, but it was a sacrifice we both think was worth it. Now I am able to work for myself full-time while travelling the world – and those six months of sleepless nights and heavy stress seem a small price to have paid for this lifestyle.2. Plan, plan, plan!If you want to make the most effective use of your time, you need a plan. Without one, trying to do a lot will give you a major stress attack. Whether it’s daily to-do lists, business plans, or a productivity system, choose your weapons and put them to use.Personally I have two planning tools that I use constantly. Next to me I keep a notepad with daily to-do lists. They usually span two A4 pages because I like to do some serious multi-tasking.I also carry a Moleskine notebook with me literally everywhere I go. I spend a couple of hours a week writing ideas, goals, plans, and lists in it. What’s coming up next, how to increase income on a website, lists of actionables to launch a new project, the chapters for a book, points to write in an article. You name it, it’s in there, combined with enough squiggles and doodles to impress the most idle mind.All this planning means that my time in front of a computer is spent purely executing. There’s less wondering ‘what next?’ or ‘what should I write?’ and more getting things done.3. Work SmartI love the idea of working smart because it is a great enabler to getting more done. The tricky thing is figuring out what exactly “Work Smart” means. I have found the best way to think of it is to ask yourself this one question:If you only had a year left to do the things on your lists, would you be satisfied with what you’re spending your time on today?Deadlines have a way of quickly prioritising things and revealing what is trivial and what is essential. The biggest enemy to getting a lot done is the inane and trivial tasks that it’s so easy to get bogged down in. Distractions, unnecessary emails, low-yield tasks and jobs, and all kinds of wastes of time. Cut out the time wasters and you have more time for the important stuff.The biggest deadline of course is our own mortality. Faced with that question, pretty much everything that isn’t truly important fades away. Steve Jobs of Apple put it best in his Commencement address at Stanford in 2005:When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.4. Push Yourself, But Don’t OverjuggleYou won’t get a lot done if you don’t try to do a lot. For every person the number of tasks, projects, and things they can keep in their heads at one time is different. So it’s important to find your ideal load where it’s enough that you’re a bit uncomfortable, but not so much that you find yourself feeling overwhelmed.It’s important to be a little uncomfortable because you need stress for peak performance. A little stress will bring out your A-game. This is called “eustress” and if you think about a time when you’ve delivered a great speech, run a race, or pulled out a top performance at work, you will find you’ve been in this sort of stress zone.If you overdo it though, you break through into another type of stress, called “distress” and here the anxiety and panic effects become a hindrance so that your productivity starts to drop.It’s tricky to find the balance, and I find I periodically overshoot and break into the bad stresses and pressures. When this happens, it’s best to bite the bullet and drop or delay a project or two. Relieve the pressure and pull back into the right level of difficulty.5. Team Up, Delegate, Outsource, Don’t Try To Do It All Yourself!One person no matter how optimised, skilled and driven can only produce a fixed amount. If you really want to get a lot done, you need other people on board.Working with other people increases the amount of resources in both time and skill that you have at your disposal. It will help you to achieve much, much more. Of course it isn’t easy to do and there are a number of natural barriers that you will need to cross. Some important things to realise:You need to accept that you can’t do it all yourself.Because it’s hard to let go of things, oftentimes you will put up the most resistance to plans to work with others. I often have to forcibly tell myself “I can’t do this, it’s just not physically possible to be everywhere, doing everything.” Realise that it is a choice between doing less and holding on to it all tightly, or letting go and accomplishing your goals.You need to accept that others might not do things the way you would. This is perhaps the biggest hurdle for many people in working with others. You know that you can do a certain thing just so, but someone else will inevitably do it his or her own way. Accept it, and you’ll come to realise that you also open up to things being done much better than you could have done them! And even when it’s not as good, it’s often a sacrifice that is worth it in the long run.Realise that working with others needs to benefit everyone involved. Other people are not your tools to achieving your goals. You can’t simply use others to pursue your own agenda without thinking about them. If you are teaming up with someone, you need to figure out how everyone can win out. If you are hiring people you need to make it worth their while.Realise you need to be systematic to make it work or you just escalate your disorganisation. Working with others is not a magic formula to increase your productivity. If you aren’t ready for it, adding more people to your endeavours will have the opposite effect and slow you down. You need to plan and be systematic in how you work so that everyone knows what they are doing, and works together efficiently and productively.6. Work Hard!A common desire is to amass multiple achievements, but well… not actually have to do a lot. If that is possible, it’s news to me. Last I checked, working got results, and working hard did even better.So you have to make a choice. What’s it worth to you, what are you prepared to sacrifice? And just as importantly what are you not prepared to sacrifice? It’s important to have boundaries and not lose sight of what is important in life, so figure out what works for you.Earlier we discussed working smart, well if you work smart and work hard, then you’ll really get a lot done.7. Don’t be Bound by What Others Tell You Is or Isn’t PossibleIf you don’t think something is possible, guess what? It isn’t. People do some pretty wild and unbelievable things. You’re a person, what makes you think you can’t do them?In life you will encounter a lot of cynicism and disillusion, you’ll be told that certain things are or are not possible. Listen at your peril, as these are self-fulfilling prophecies.While everyone has doubts, it’s important not to let them overpower you. If you’re feeling particularly low on confidence, there are still many things you can do to get over that. For instance:Start Small There’s no need to take on the whole world in a day, and building up to things is the best way to get over low confidence. Tackle a set of smaller projects or milestones, and accomplish them. Give yourself some positive feedback to build on and then go upwards from there.Just Start If you spend your time looking up at the top of a mountain, the climb seems a lot more daunting than if you just start with the bit in front of you. I often just jump into projects and ideas, deliberately not thinking them through, because I know that once I start, things inevitably work themselves out.Give yourself time Everyone needs time to accomplish their goals, and as a general rule, things usually need more time than you would think. I can’t even count the number of projects that have taken me waaay longer than I had hoped or planned for. But looking back, none of that matters. There is only what you did and what you didn’t do.Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mhogan35/ / CC BY 2.0

Ever since early man first scratched his desire to “Make fire, find food” and “Don’t get eaten” on a cave wall, goal-oriented people have been approaching each new day in a similar fashion, jotting down in one form or another the upcoming tasks that require their attention.The “To Do List” hasn’t much evolved since those dark perilous days in terms of its primary purpose: the need to plan our day and manage time effectively, but there has been a progression in terms of its complexity.Today, the need for better to do lists — from how to write them, what should and should not appear on them, and most importantly, how to get the most from them — has never been more important.Put aside 15 minutes at the end of each day to write tomorrow’s to do list.When “To Do” ItIronically, the first thing to do each day should not be your to do list—it should already be waiting for you when you arrive at your desk. After all, there are much more important things to be doing first thing in the morning, like getting that first all-important coffee. Put aside 15 minutes at the end of each day to write tomorrow’s to do list.Writing a to do list the day before has many advantages over planning your upcoming day on the morning in question. After all, you have just completed a day’s work and hence should have a good idea of where you are in the grand scale of things. What didn’t you get to today? What tasks will naturally fall into tomorrow’s to do list?Writing tomorrow’s to do list can also be a cathartic exercise; a way of recognizing that everything does not all need to be done in one day.Have you just had one of those days and are now left with that dreaded “I’ve got nothing done” feeling? Write tomorrow’s to do list. You’ll feel better for it.Plan in advance. Look ahead a few days. Is there a big chunk of work looming on the horizon?To Do:Do check tomorrow’s calendar and schedule. Tomorrow’s to do list will likely consist of meetings and any crucial deadlines that are fast approaching.Do plan in advance. Look ahead a few days. Is there a big chunk of work looming on the horizon? Maybe tomorrow is a good time to make a start on it.Do consult today’s to do list and focus on any outstanding tasks. These remaining jobs will likely feature on tomorrow’s list.To Don’t:Don’t start tomorrow’s to do list at the very end of the day, as doing so will likely result in merely jotting down the more obvious of upcoming tasks on your agenda. To do lists help focus and guide you through the day and dedicating a few minutes to the process will save you time in the long run. Most comprehensive to do lists take less than ten minutes to draft.Don’t try and foretell the future. Avoid adding to tomorrow’s list tasks you think might crop up. Your to do list is a fluid entity, and you can always add to it tomorrow if need be.Red tasks (usually) need to be done today no matter what.Color Coded Prioritization Introducing color to your to do list is a simple and effective way of clearly defining and easily categorizing the numerous and varying tasks at hand.When it comes to prioritization, people use different criteria to determine how their tasks should be ranked. Generally, however, the tried and trusted traffic light system works best. Red tasks need to be done today no matter what. Amber tasks are important but it’s not the end of the world if they slip into tomorrow, while green tasks are usually jobs of such low priority that not doing them might have no adverse effect at all.There are numerous ways to designate a particular task with a color. Some people might rate financial impact as the prominent factor and designate the red flag to tasks that either cost (or gain) the company money. For others, it’s simply a matter of how irate their boss will be if the task in question isn’t done in the designated time span.As every business and employee is different, the most universal system is to rate each task between 1 and 3 in terms of importance and again in terms of urgency. Multiply the two numbers together with tasks rated 7 and over designated red, 4 – 6 as amber, while any task with a number between 1 and 3 becomes a lowly green task.After your to do list is completed, quickly scan through the items and classify them with the above numbers in your head. Grab some fluorescent pens and mark each task with its respective color, and then review.To Do:Do take into account previously skipped tasks. If you’ve bumped a task from one day to the next, this task should automatically get a higher priority.Do ignore the rating scale above when appropriate. Something with very high urgency but low impact could still be deemed a red task and vice versa. Purchasing a leaving gift for a departing colleague might by 1 in importance and 3 in urgency (making it a green task) but you should make it a red anyway, as it needs to be done quickly. The scale is not perfect and there will always be exceptions to the rules.To Don’t:Don’t make everything red. Not only would that demoralize you completely, it’s important to remember that prioritization is relative. In theory, you should have an equal number of tasks of each color. The logic here is that it’s simply not possible to give everything the same priority. Something always has a higher relevance than another task upon reflection. Also, a task that is red on one day could also be amber another day. It all depends on what other tasks are on the list.Go Digital There are a number of very good products on the market that make the hassle of finding colored pens and scraps of paper totally redundant. Remember the Milk and Todoist are two of the more popular applications out there with free versions that are likely more than adequate for your to do needs.Digital to do lists are also a great way of keeping a historical record of your workload. How often do you keep old post-its or journals of what you did a few years ago?These applications allow you to bundle tasks into groups and quickly assign color-coded prioritization. Digital to do lists are also a great way of keeping a historical record of your workload. How often do you keep old post-its or journals of what you did a few years ago?To Do:Do try out different products before settling on the one for you. What works for one person may not work for you.To Don’t:Don’t rely completely on online versions. Sometimes there’s nothing better than just jotting down a quick list in a meeting or when you’re away from your desk. You can always transfer these tasks to the respective application later.Don’t get fancy. These applications will take up more time to manage, complete and maintain. Inventing a complex system will only have you fumbling with hot-keys and an assortment of groups rather than quickly adding and completing your tasks.What Not To Do It’s human nature to want to scratch task after completed task off your list but your to do list should only consist of unique tasks for the day. “Reading Email” may indeed qualify as a legitimate task but it’s a safe bet that you likely do this every day and will do it without prompting or reminder.Cluttering your to do list with mundane and ancillary tasks might allow you to scratch off a larger number of tasks for the day but you’re actually defeating the purpose. A to do list is a formulated plan, not a shopping list.“Reading Email” may indeed qualify as a legitimate task but it’s a safe bet that you likely do this every day and will do it without prompting or reminder.To Do:Do keep your to do list concise and devoid of recurring or regular tasks. If you fill in a time-sheet each day, you don’t need your to do list to remind you of this.To Don’t:Don’t bend the truth. Lunch is not a task. Neither is making coffee—unless it’s a coffee meeting. That’s different.Don’t flood your list with superfluous micro-tasks. It’s tempting, but over-filling your list in order to feel like your making headway through your workload is counter-productive.If a task is very small, actually do it rather than adding it to your list. Use your to do list as inspiration for getting a host of small things done before you leave for the evening. Confirm a reservation, order stationary, clean up your desktop. We can get a lot of quick things done at the end of the day if we put our minds to it.Quantify Your Results Tasks on a to do list should be punchy, succinct and contain at least one action verb. Words like “Finish” and “Complete” are what you’re looking for. Stay clear of terms such as “Start” or “Investigate”. Starting something is easy. Focus on the stopping part. Similarly, if you find one of your to do list tasks to be a tad nebulous, it’s likely going to be quite hard to strike it off with a satisfactory “Done!” swipe of your pen.Stay clear of terms such as “Start” or “Investigate”. Starting something is easy. Focus on the stopping part.Avoid describing the action and pin-point the result. A task like: “Talk to Jeff re: options of what to do about the GUI” has no definitive outcome. You can talk to Jeff but how do you know you won’t be talking to him again about the same topic tomorrow unless you set an objective? To do lists have the handy knock-on effect of strengthening direction and making people goal-oriented. “Talk to Jeff and agree on an option for the GUI.” Now we’re getting there!To Do:Quantify your results. Never bog your to do list down with tasks that are immeasurable. Such indefinite tasks are guaranteed to never get off your list. If you know a task can’t be completed on the day in question, either aim for a percentage of the task in a set time scale or identify a milestone and set this as your goal instead. “Work on financial report” will have you there until midnight. “Complete sections 1 and 2 of financial report” will have you home at a respectable hour.To Don’t:Don’t put the completion of a task on your list that has a deadline in the future. Adding “Complete report before Friday” on Tuesday’s list is a prime example of a task that is just going to be ignored until Friday. Of course, your to do list should not only comprise of today’s work schedule but also elements of tasks that will end sometime in the future. Break these tasks down into logical units and focus on the segments. “Friday’s Big Report: Complete analysis of shipping data today” is a good task for a Tuesday.Don’t try and chronicle your day. No one is that prescient. Remember that a to do list is not a diary. To do lists should never be in chronological order or take the format of an essay. You’ll spend more time planning the day rather than actually working it.Your to do list will probably tell less than half the story of how you spend your working day.You’ve Got More To Do Than What’s On Your ListIf you ever feel that your to do list is ruling (or ruining) your life, you need to take a step back and review how you are drafting your lists. Your day will undoubtedly consist of many tasks that you did not plan when drafting your list the day before. An impromptu request from your manager to write a report? Urgent call to head-office to mitigate a growing situation? Your to do list will probably tell less than half the story of how you spend your working day.Always leave enough room for day-to-day tasks and other unplanned events that naturally appear during office hours.To Do:Do remember that some things will take longer than expected while other tasks will take less time than originally planned.Do review your list with an objective eye. If your to do list is full of tasks likely to take up the majority of the day, consider possibly moving some orange and green tasks to the next day or see if you can delegate certain tasks to other members of staff.To Don’t:Don’t get demotivated if, at the end of the day, there’s more things unfinished on your list than completed. Maybe you earmarked too much for one day or a number of unforeseen events absorbed a lot of your working time. “Didn’t-Do Remorse Syndrome” is the feeling of looking at a mostly incomplete to do list and feeling despondent due to not getting through as much as you originally had hoped to.To do lists are not sacrosanct and should be seen as your aspiration for the day. We all aim to get a lot done in the time we’re at the office but some days are better than others. Accept an unfinished to do list as what it is: an opportunity to finish it the next day. There’s nothing stopping you from moving the open tasks to tomorrow’s list and tackling them again with a new day’s freshness.