Work Smarter Live Better & Make Time
These two books are kind of on a similar theme i.e., being productive in work and life. They are about effectiveness and efficiency offering practical tricks, tips and thoughts about how to work and live better, less distracted and get important things done. Make Time thought of itself as a framework for choosing what you want to focus on, building the energy to do it, and breaking the default cycle so that you can start being more intentional about the way you live your life.
I find several useful points from these books that have direct applications in my life.
Efficiency
How do you use your email?
I check my email many many times a day. I’ve got several years old emails sitting in my inbox. From time to time, I open them up, read them, and think I’ve got to do something about them, but not now, closed and leave them there. This process is repeated many times over. Things are piling up. This book offered a different approach and a different way of thinking.
Email clients e.g. Outlook, Mail, Thunderbird etc. are poor task management software. They can not tell you about due date, urgency, priority or importance of what you need to do. We should see them for what they really are i.e., a receptacle or a ‘letterbox’. They are there to receive mails. We don’t leave our physical mails in letterbox just to remind ourself of what to do neither should we treat our email inbox.
We should “process” our emails in batch i.e., once or twice a day as appropriate to our roles.
Focus on making decisions, not acting or completing the tasks in the emails.
Read email and decide
1 Do I need to do something?
1.1 No-delete or archive it
1.2 Yes-estimate how long to complete the task? When to do it?
1.2.1 less than 5 minutes, do it now
1.2.2 more then 5 minutes, when and schedule it.
1.2.2.1 short tasks put in Reminder, set date to do the tasks
1.2.2.2 long tasks put in Calendar on date you will complete the tasks with the estimate length of time you think you would need.
Once this is done, delete or archive that email
One touch means one decision and move to the next email. That means we don’t reread emails which is unproductive and a waste of time.
When the time comes to complete the tasks, focus on acting, executing, getting that task done.
Distractions kill efficiency
Focus works need time and energy, we need to build momentum. App notifications are like a wrench sitting ready to be thrown in momentum building machinery. By opening the app, checking what’s going on, learn something unimportant and getting back to the task at hand, this process is a drag on efficiency because it takes time and energy to refocus and rebuild momentum. Notifications are disruptions of our work flow.
Most apps these days are designed by default to draw our attention to spend as much time as possible on them. That’s how they make money. We don’t need to accept app default settings, we can modify notifications to suit our needs. When install apps and permission for default notifications setting is asked, our default response should be ‘don’t allow’. Unless you have compelling reasons for the opposite, stick with don’t allow.
Now you can start looking at notification setting for each app and ask yourself; do I need to be notified about this immediately? Will I, most of the time, do something about the knowledge gleaned from notifications? If the answer is no, turn notification off or or modify it to suit your needs e.g., notifications in batch at a set time of the day (or notification summary in iOS) etc. It’s easier to change environment than to rely on willpower to change your behaviour so change app setting to fit your needs.
Email is also a big distraction. Checking email feel like work, but if there’s nothing productive comes out of it, it is a big time waster. Do not check email all the times. Check email at a set time and process them in batch
If you respond to notifications or emails right away, you are sending signal both to them and to yourself: I’ll stop what I’m doing to put other people’s priorities ahead of mine no matter who they are or what they want.
Interesting out of office message template
‘I will be on leave until (date) and won't have access to my emails while away. In order to avoid being inundated with "out of date" emails when I am back and to be quickly back on focusing on important matters, emails that are received while I'm on leave will be automatically delete If the matter is important, could I ask you to resend this email on or after (date). Thank you for your help in making me more productive.'
Communication perhaps should be done in batch too
Create speak to … file
List all the stuff that need to be discussed and with whom
Effectiveness
From Work smarter
Think quarterly-long-term strategy
What do I want to achieve? High impact activities: what are the two or three projects or activities that if I did extremely well - and nothing else over the next three months - would have a significant impact long-term on my performance and my business?
Plan weekly: make them a must not just should
Think of high impact activities and focus on them. We don’t have all the time in the world to do everything so be selective and dedicate our time and energy on these.
Act daily
Think specific, create a compass plan
Review and change if necessary. Success is rarely a straight line.
From Make time
High impact activities from Work smarter are called Highlight in Make time. Similar concept but more granular details.
Your Highlight isn’t the only thing you’ll do each day. But it will be your priority. Asking yourself “What’s going to be the highlight of my day?” ensures that you spend time on the things that matter to you and don’t lose the entire day reacting to other people’s priorities. Highlight doesn’t have to be work-related. It can be anything.
Today Highlight
What do I want to be highlight of my day? Choose one priority to dedicate our time to.
It should take about 60-90 mins
Three key factors on which the highlight should be based i.e., urgency, satisfaction and joy.
Some help choosing highlight
Make a list of the big things that matter in your life
Choose the one most important thing
Choose the lower order
Explode Your Highlight
When you’re not sure where to start, try breaking your Highlight into a list of small, easy-to-do bits.
Each item includes a verb. Each one is specific. And each one is small and relatively easy.
Shifting your focus to something that your mind perceives as a doable, completable task will create a real increase in positive energy, direction, and motivation.
Tiny doable to-dos help you build momentum and lock into Laser mode
Pavlov’s dog trick
Playing the same song or album every time you start your Highlight, or choose a specific song or album for each type of Highlight tell and train your brain of your highlights, build habit and routine. Song you like is a reward in itself.
Might do list in Reminder app
It’s just a place to put all tasks (take them out of our heads so we don’t have to think about them) waiting to be decided at a later date if it’s a highlight or a trivial. If it takes less than 5min, do it now. If longer, decide on when and how long. Short, put in To do list with time to do the task. Long/highlight put in calendar. Organise it in the same way as email. Inbox = might do list.
Random thoughts list in Reminder app
Good ideas can emerge while walking, showering daydreaming, wandering. Jot them down, take them out of our heads so we don’t have to think about them and get distracted from the task at hands.
Energise
We can’t be productive nor effective in a weak body. Make time believes that life today is so out of sync with our hunter-gatherer bodies. Back then we walked long distance across great plains. Meals were intermittent. We were hungry most of the time. We slept when it’s dark and got up when the sun was up. To keep our bodies in a reasonably good conditions, the book suggests;
20-30min exercise everyday, HIIT sounds good.
Walk when possible, no need for perfect parking spot, park far and walk
Inconvenience yourself-take the stairs
Stay hungry-hunter-gatherer life style, don’t get to eat every time you feel hungry.
Eat real food i.e., no or minimal processed food
Eat without screens so you don’t just go auto-pilot eating which leads to overeating. You can have a good conversation over a meal or better appreciate food texture, form, flavour and derive more pleasure from it.
Spend time with your energy-giver people, have meaningful conversation. Paradoxically, you will have more time after this as you are more energised and can focus better.
Forest bathing. Walking, spending time in natural environments lifts our moods.
Meditation-Make time suggests Headspace app
Lower light intensity in the house a few hours before bedtime, use candles etc-signal the brain, it’s almost bedtime. You can also get a dusk and dawn simulator
Take a nap
Sleep in on weekends to catchup doesn’t work. Keep it regular
This is an interesting conclusion.
From Work smarter
Happiness is something everyone understands but is hard to define. How do you measure the happiness of one person versus another one? I don’t think happiness is linked to the amount of money you have. I firmly believe that happiness is progress. Happiness is linked to being clear on your goals, what you want to achieve in life, and moving towards achieving them. Happiness is knowing that you are progressing towards your dreams and goals.
From Make time
Unlike work, the satisfaction from sailing wasn’t tied to external rewards; it was an intrinsic motivation that came from learning hands-on skills, seeing the world from a different perspective, and finding joy in the process.
I just wonder, can we truly find joy in the work we do?