Productivity Must Dos In Your Life

Heuristics are rules intended to help you solve problems. When a problem is large or complex, and the optimal solution is unclear, applying a heuristic allows you to begin making progress towards a solution even though you can't visualize the entire path from your starting point. Heuristics have many practical applications, and one of my favorite areas of application is personal productivity. Suppose your goal is to climb to the peak of a mountain, but there's no trail to follow. An example of a heuristic would be: Head directly towards the peak until you reach an obstacle you can't cross. Whenever you reach such an obstacle, follow it around to the right until you're able to head towards the peak once again. This isn't the most intelligent or comprehensive heuristic, but in many cases it will work just fine, and you'll eventually reach the peak.

Heuristics don't guarantee you'll find the optimal solution, nor do they generally guarantee a solution at all. But they do a good enough job of solving certain types of problems to be useful. Their strength is that they break the deadlock of indecision and get you into action. As you take action you begin to explore the solution space, which deepens your understanding of the problem. As you gain knowledge about the problem, you can make course corrections along the way, gradually improving your chances of finding a solution. If you try to solve a problem you don't initially know how to solve, you'll often figure out a solution as you go, one you never could have imagined until you started moving. This is especially true with creative work such as software development. Often you don't even know exactly what you're trying to build until you start building it.

Productivity heuristics are behavioral rules (some general, some situation-specific) that can help us get things done more efficiently. Here are some of my favorites:

Worst first. To defeat procrastination learn to tackle your most unpleasant task first thing in the morning instead of delaying it until later in the day. This small victory will set the tone for a very productive day.

Timeboxing. Give yourself a fixed time period, like 30 minutes, to make a dent in a task. Don't worry about how far you get. Just put in the time.

Pareto. The Pareto principle is the 80-20 rule, which states that 80% of the value of a task comes from 20% of the effort. Focus your energy on that critical 20%, and don't overengineer the non-critical 80%.

Minuteman. Once you have the information you need to make a decision, start a timer and give yourself just 60 seconds to make the actual decision. Take a whole minute to vacillate and second-guess yourself all you want, but come out the other end with a clear choice. Once your decision is made, take some kind of action to set it in motion.

Resonance. Visualize your goal as already accomplished. Put yourself into a state of actually being there. Make it real in your mind, and you'll soon see it in your reality.

30 days. Identify a new habit you'd like to form, and commit to sticking with it for just 30 days. A temporary commitment is much easier to keep than a permanent one.

Intuition. Go with your gut instinct. It's probably right.

Add-ons. Tack a task you want to habitualize onto one of your existing habits. Water the plants after you eat lunch. Send thank-you notes after you check email.

Zone out. Enter the zone of peak creativity, and watch your output soar.

Challenger. Deliberately make the task harder. Challenging tasks are more engaging than boring ones. Compose an original poem for your next blog post. Create a Power Point presentation that doesn't use words.

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