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:
- 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!)
- 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!
- If you use Technorati Tags then tag your post “ultimate guide to productivity”.
- Tag others in your post to spread the meme. Tag as many people as you like!
- 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.
[...] started it. A meme entitled “The Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing Project“. Ben’s asking for our best productivity tips and, bless his heart, Alister tagged me – [...]
[...] might not be what Ben Yoskovitz had in mind when he created the Ultimate Guide to Productivty, but it sure does get the job done. Some days I get voice mail and other days I catch someone in [...]
[...] In Response to a Book of 100 Tips I was kind of interested in the following post by Ben Yoskovitz, in which he asked for tips from over 100 people on “The Secret to Being Productive”. [...]
I have found something called morning coffee. It is a plug in for Firefox. It bookmarks pages that you want to visit each day for whatever reason. It lets you book mark some for certain days of the week as well. I find this helps for my marketing/client hunting purposes. I try to do at least an hour of that every day and this has all my lists ready to go for me. I just thought that I would share, maybe it could help someone.
Thanks
Giselle
Yeah, I’m not as productive as I can be. But it’s not a problem because life is not-the-way-how-to-be-super-productive. I have another goals
Hey its not only you who is not productive people are with more than 1 work at 1 time and they are multitasking.
valium …
…
percocet …
…
ambien …
…
My best tool to increase productivity is to put big headphones on my head and cut myself away with music from surroundings and start to work on the computer. Second best thing is to use Mind Mapping software to visualize my ideas and draw connections between them – it saves me a lot of time in comparison to arranging the ideas in my head.
Google Alert saves me so much time as I don’t need to go searching out there for relevant topics, things, or just to check if someone has copied something of mine online. Google Alert tracks it all for me!
home based business wahm…
It sounds interesting but I am not sure that I agree with you completely….
[...] I read productivity posts on Ben’s web site, some of the interesting tips I took note of [...]
Is this still on-going or no longer feasible…I'm interested to join because I have list of productivity tips…(just asking because you said this is ongoing and no deadline..but it seems…anyway, just want to ask if this is still on-going.
Thanks for sharing these info with us!
I will keep in touch with your blog reading…<img src=”http://www.buyonlinesteroids.com/image/white.gif” alt=”buy steroids” hspace=”2″ vspace=”2″ border=”0″ /><img src=”http://www.anabolicsteroids.ro/img/white.gif” alt=”anabolic steroids” hspace=”2″ vspace=”2″ border=”0″ />
The thing that's really helped me is to get an office. I guess a lot of people here 'work' in the lounge, in front of the TV etc… Don't! Do work in the office, don't work when you are not in the office. Simple but effective.
The thing that's really helped me is to get an office. I guess a lot of people here 'work' in the lounge, in front of the TV etc… Don't! Do work in the office, don't work when you are not in the office. Simple but effective.
have a really easy tip. First thing when I get in, I check email. Answer what needs to be answered, ignore the rest. Hit send. Review the rest one more time. Anything critical that needs attention? Didn't think so. Turn email off. Leave it off till lunch. Repeat above. It gives you chunks of time. thanks
have a really easy tip. First thing when I get in, I check email. Answer what needs to be answered, ignore the rest. Hit send. Review the rest one more time. Anything critical that needs attention? Didn't think so. Turn email off. Leave it off till lunch. Repeat above. It gives you chunks of time. thanks
101 Best Home Based Business…
Sometimes finding a creative post about Arts and Crafts Homebased Jobs ” Arts and Crafts Homebased Jobs – Know … is quite hard amonst all the rubbish around these days. I came across your post Thursday whilst searching about 101 Best Home Based Busi…
If you wish to up your work load, then invest in a Blackberry, you can't help but work all the time!!
I'll back again for sure, thanks for great article
[...] idea was originally started by Ben at the Instigator Blog and he called it The Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing Project. As good a name for a series about getting things done if ever there was one, and the concept is [...]
[...] for visiting!I got nudged by Ben Yoskovitz from Instigator Blog the other day, to chime in on his Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing Project. The gauntlet thrown? What’s your secret to being [...]
Beautifull post.
Great idea thanks for the tip
….be focused what u are doing at the moment..dont let the other things to distract u…and the best thing..allow a rest to yourself..dont think about problems in the bad before going to sleep..because..u wont solve anything anyway…just have a rest…and solve it in the morning focused and rested again…
[...] over at The Instigator Blog has launched an interesting group writing project to create The Ultimate Guide to Productivity, a collection of productivity tips from around the blogsphere. As with any effort of this sort, [...]
[...] invited by webee’s productivity post. Who was invited by Paul Enderson. Who was invited by Instigator Blog. Other excellent posts in this meme are Aaron’s 5 tips, Chris’s flow state and Tara’s [...]
[...] The Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing ProjectA meme for sharing productivity tips. Lots of links, lots of ideas. On the Instigator Blog. [...]