Less is more - Part 2

Continuing from my previous post, here's the additional nuggets that I'd like to share with all. This is about asking ourselves the following questions regularly. It helps us to stay focused while eliminating the 'less important' (perhaps even unimportant) tasks.

1. If you had a heart attack and had to work 2 hours per day, what would you do?

2. If you had a second heart attack and had to work only 2 hours a week, what would you do?

3. If you had a gun to your head and had to drop 4/5 of time-consuming activities, what would you remove?

4. What are the top 3 activities that I use to fill time to feel as though I've been productive?

5. If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?

6. Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important?

Another tip to accomplish more in less time is this - shorten schedules and deadlines to force focused action and prevent procrastination. This is based on Parkinson's Law, which states that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. If you were give 24hours to complete an assignment, the time pressure forces you to eliminate the non-essentials and focus on execution. If you were given a week for the same task, you'll be spending your energy and brain juices for 6 days trying to perfect it. Often, when you look at the end result, the end product of the shorter deadline is almost inevitably or equal or higher quality due to greater focus. And when I think of my own past experiences, I fully agree with this :P

In conclusion, we can adopt these 2 approaches to increase our productivity:

• Limit tasks to the important to shorten work time (80/20 rule)
• Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important (Parkinson's Law)

Combining the 2 approaches offers the best solution: identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to income and set short and clear deadlines for them.

That's about all I wanna share. Hope you find it useful as much as I do :)