All the productivity systems ever invented, all the to-do list sticky notes ever stuck to your desk, and even all the caffeine you’ve ever injected can’t stop you from slowing down and losing focus.

Great productivity isn’t about working all the time.

Great productivity is about being effective when you’re working.

And one key to being effective when you’re working is to make sure you’re not working all the time.

Got that?

It’s impossible to go 100% all the time. Even the most energetic, dynamic and psychotic person can’t be giving it all, constantly. That means you need to take a break.

What’s important is recognizing when your attention and energy are waning. Wait too long and you’ve just spend a half hour staring at the computer screen getting frustrated by your inactivity. Take a break too early and you’re eating into precious productive time.

For starters, I try working in short bursts, which means I can take a quick break between tasks. But often I move from one task to the next and don’t take a break, so this isn’t a perfect system.

I use a few key indicators to tell me it’s time for a break.

1. Boredom. When something starts to feel tedious or uninteresting, take a break. Come back in 15 minutes and look at the task with fresher eyes, or start on something else.
2. Distraction. When you’re constantly checking email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. it means you’re losing focus. It’s important to admit to yourself that you’re distracted – you’re no longer being productive – so take some time to “goof off” and catch up on your friends’ whereabouts and activities before getting back to things.
3. Lack of Precision. When your work gets sloppy or you can’t get something quite right, take a break. Lack of precision will lead to frustration, more distraction and less productivity
4. Being Unconscious. When you suddenly crash face first into your keyboard…it’s too late.

What’s your best productivity tip? We want to know!

Help us write The Ultimate Guide to Productivity by posting your productivity tips on your own blog. Get others to do the same so the group writing project meme spreads and we can collect everyone’s ideas.

Jimi Hendrix once asked, “Are you experienced?” Well…

This is neither the time or place to get into that sort of debate, but something we can talk about, and something we all struggle with, is productivity.

Although multitasking is a very popular concept, I’m not a huge fan. And I struggle daily with productivity, given the myriad of distractions I face. Twitter and MyBlogLog alone take up chunks of time I’ll never get back.

So what’s your secret to being productive?

Today I’m announcing the start of a new Group Writing Project Meme to create the Ultimate Guide to Productivity. It’s simple:

1. Write a post on your best productivity tips. Challenge yourself by picking your single best productivity tip (although this isn’t a requirement; you can give us more if you want!)
2. Include links to other people that have written posts, or include their tips in your post with proper attribution.
   

   Note: I’m not asking that you link to everyone in the group writing project meme; pick the ones you want to connect with. You certainly can link to everyone, but it’s not a requirement. I like leaving more decision making power in your hands so this isn’t just a link grab, but you’re thinking about what your audience & community wants to read about.

   A link back to this post is appreciated though, to help spread the word!

3. If you use Technorati Tags then tag your post “ultimate guide to productivity”.
4. Tag others in your post to spread the meme. Tag as many people as you like!
5. If you link back to Instigator Blog and email me I’ll make sure to include at least 2 links back to you. But this isn’t a requirement, it just helps me keep track of what’s going on.

Each person tagged should write their own post and repeat the process.

Since this is something that I hope spreads for quite some time, there’s no deadline or end to the project. Hopefully we see a trail of tags, posts and links for many weeks to come.

I’ll do my best to collect all of the tips, to give us The Ultimate Guide to Productivity.

Without further ado, here’s my Productivity Tip of the Day:

Work in short bursts. The length of a productive burst will vary from person to person, but I’ve found myself to be most productive in 1-1.5 hour increments. Even 30-45 minute bursts are good. Focus on a solitary task during that time, bury yourself in it, but get out quickly. Take a short break, rinse and repeat.

And since I’m kicking the writing project off, I’d be curious to hear from Alister Cameron, Adam Kayce, Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, Andrew Wee, David Armano, Tony Clark, Mike Sansone and Chris Cree.

But everyone else, feel free to take on the group writing project and start it off yourself!

(PS. Feel free to use the graphic at the top of the post with proper attribution.)

Are You Productive? What’s your secret? Please Share!

Update: Some participants in the project have started talking about producing an e-book of the content under the Creative Commons license, where the content would remain free and sharable with proper attribution. Please join that conversation and let us know what you think.