Gain 1 month of productivity in an instant
This might be the best piece of advice you’ve heard all year, so hold on to your hat. Piers Steel holds the equivalent to the Nobel Prize for Psychology, and wrote a book back in 2011 called The Procrastination Equation. Hidden within the book he comes up with something quite remarkable. Here’s the quote……
Take back a whole month!
“Here is a trick that will give you an extra month of efficiency each year. It’s easy to implement, immediately effective, and doesn’t cost a cent. First, go to your e-mail program. Second, disable all the audio alerts and mailbox pop-ups... That’s it, there is no third step. Banishing e-mail notifications will make you about 10 percent more efficient and over a year that translates into one more month of productivity. The best work happens when you engage deeply on a single task. Every time you stop your flow, you have to once again decide to work and then it takes time to become fully re-engaged. Unfortunately, we are conditioned to answer e-mail instantly, responding to the tell-tale ‘ding’ like Pavlov’s dogs. Unless you have a pressing reason, check your e-mail at your convenience, during natural breaks in your productivity.”
Wow, that is incredible, a whole month back in your hands. He doesn’t back it up with any scientific research evidence, but I have been testing this out for the past 6 months, and for me personally it feels like at least 10% at the minimum.
Free up even more time
Since he wrote the book many of us have notifications flying in for many other apps on our PC and especially on phone applications, which must be making us even more unproductive. I turned these all off too, just leaving key ones from real people, ie Text Messages, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp. I make a choice when I decide to go in to all of my other apps, e.g. Email, Facebook, BBC news, Linkedin, and then pick all of the information in one batch.
How do you find your life with or without notifications, let me know in the comments.
Have a great day.
Jamie