#productive #productivity Archives - First Sun Consulting, LLC | Outplacement Services and Career Transition Firm

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#Leadership : Secrets of the Most #ProductivePeople – How to Check Email on Vacation and Still Enjoy Yourself…Smartphones Often Blur the Line Between Professional & Personal Life, so If you Must Check your #WorkEmail , Follow these Guidelines to Set Some Limits.

July 5, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Let’s be real. If you’re going on vacation this summer, you’re probably going to check your email. More than 62% of travelers make it a point to check their work-related email and voice mail, according to a new poll by Travel Leaders Group, a travel agency.

Email is a hard habit to break because we’re attached to technology, says Vicki Salemi, career expert for the job site Monster. “In most jobs, we never shut off, so going on vacation can be particularly challenging because you want to instantly disconnect once you put your ‘out of office’ on, but it’s not that easy for most,” she says. “You may feel like you’re missing out, or that a project will fall behind if you’re not constantly checking emails.”

Smartphones often blur the line between your professional and personal life. You may be making reservation plans on your device and convince yourself that a quick perusal of work email to clean your inbox while you’re away won’t be so bad, Salemi adds. “Next thing you know, an hour has gone by, and you’re completely in the work zone when you should be detaching and relaxing instead,” she says.

If you’re going to check it anyway, it helps to plan how it fits into your vacation, and to set limits.

PREPARE

A week before you leave, let colleagues and clients know you’ll be gone, giving them time to get information from you before you leave. Let key players know how to reach you in case of a true emergency, such as calling or texting immediately, to reduce your worries that you’re missing something urgent, says Elaine Varelas, managing partner of Keystone Partners, a career management firm.

“Make sure your out-of-office reminder is set with a note advising that you are away on holiday and will respond to email after your return,” she says. “And advise colleagues that unless the subject includes ‘please respond’ or ‘urgent,’ you will respond after your vacation.”

Delegate your projects and direct people elsewhere during your absence. Be specific in your out-of-office response, says Salemi. For example, “For billing inquires, contact [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][insert colleague’s name here]” or “For technology issues, contact [another colleague’s name here].”

Zapier is a tool that links the apps you use at work, such as Gmail, Asana, and Slack, to automate daily tasks. During vacation use it to automatically push inbound emails into Slack so the team can stay in the loop on external communications while someone is out of the office.

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SET BOUNDARIES WHILE YOU’RE GONE

Check emails in the morning before anyone else is awake, says Varelas. “Do it alone, so others don’t feel overlooked or as if they aren’t your first priority during your planned time off,” she says.

Keep it short, says Salemi. “For example, 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening to only respond to emails that require action,” she says.

You may need an accountability partner, adds Salemi. “Make a pact with one of your travel mates that if they see you on your phone responding to a message that’s work-related—and yes, they can ask for you to hand over your phone to check—you owe them a small amount of money, such as $5 or $10,” she suggests.

Also decide where you’re allowed to check emails. “If you’re on a beach, on a boat, in a museum, don’t check emails, enjoy the moment and your surroundings,” says Salemi. “Only check emails when you shouldn’t be in the moment instead, like in your hotel room, on the balcony, or prior to working out.”

DON’T ENGAGE

Reading email is different than responding to email. “As soon as you engage in any manner, such as forward, reply, or read triggering a message read-return receipt, people will start emailing more, assuming you are online,” says Varelas. “Do not encourage this.”

If you absolutely must respond, do it as efficiently as possible. “And certainly never after any alcohol becomes part of a vacation activity,” says Varelas. “Do not let any negative reaction to work email impact your mood with your vacation pals. They are on vacation, and wish you were, too.”

PREPARE FOR RE-ENTRY

Organize your email as you scan it. Salemi suggest creating folders and move emails within certain categories into their respective folders such as “follow up,” “budgeting” or “the team.” This will help you handle it more efficiently when you return.

Then block out an hour at the top and bottom of your first day back, says Varelas. “Give yourself time to address the email that piled up while you were gone,” she says.

Unplugging from email—even if you just decreased the amount of time you usually spend—can help you enjoy your time away. “One of the most important things to remember is that studies have shown you’ll be more productive after you return from vacation if you’ve truly logged off to the best of your ability,” says Salemi. “Your boss and company will thank you, especially as your morale and creativity will hopefully be boosted after you’ve given yourself the time you needed to literally reboot.”

FastCompany.com | July 3, 2018 | BY STEPHANIE VOZZA 4 MINUTE READ

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#Leadership : Time Management Experts Share Their Secrets For Staying Productive During The Holidays…An Overloaded Calendar can Make December Feel Like the Least Productive Time of Year. But with Some Small Shifts, it Doesn’t Have to Be.

December 14, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

It may be the most wonderful time of the year, but it’s also the busiest. Chances are your social obligations are picking up as well as your off-hours tasks. How do you get everything done without sacrificing productivity at work?

It might not feel like it, but it’s possible to meet goals, beat deadlines, and keep your clients happy during the holiday season, says productivity consultant Peggy Duncan. It just takes time and task management. Here are six ideas for being productive at work during the holiday season:

1. INFUSE HOLIDAY SPIRIT INTO YOUR WORK

Set a few goals that you want to achieve by the end of the year, then break them down into 25 specific tasks, suggests Lisa Zaslow, founder of Gotham Organizers, a New York-based professional organizing consultant. “Use an advent calendar to reward yourself when you hit your milestones,” she says.

Also, take a tip from Santa and make lists, checking them twice, Zaslow says. For example, plan your holiday preparations so you can be fully present and productive while you’re working. “If you’re constantly Googling for gift ideas while trying to finish your year-end report, you won’t be effective at either task,” she says.

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2. SET INTENTIONS

Decide ahead of time the experience you wish to have during the holiday season, says Peter Bregman, author of Four Seconds: All the Time You Need to Replace Counter-Productive Habits with Ones That Really Work.

Create the physical environment that makes it more likely that you will follow through on your intention.

“Do you want undistracted time with the family? Do you want to spend just 30 minutes a day checking email and disconnect the rest of the time?” he asks.

Decide the outcome you want and set an intention. Then create the physical environment that makes it more likely that you will follow through on your intention.

“If you want undistracted time with the family, leave your computer and phone [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][behind]. Or if that’s impossible, disconnect your phone from email,” says Bregman.

3. DECIDE WHAT YOU DON’T WANT TO DO

Just say no to the things that you don’t want to do, says Carson Tate, author of Work Simply: Embracing the Power of Your Personal Productivity Style. For example, no holiday parties the week before Christmas, no end-of-the-year business newsletter, no office secret Santa.

“Who says you have to do everything?” she asks. “You do not. Release any guilt about saying no. Every time you say yes to something, you are saying no to something else.”

Instead, say yes to the things that bring you joy and no to the things that suck the life right out of you and turn you into Scrooge, says Tate.

4. MAINTAIN YOUR PACE

Don’t get swept up into a manic pace just because it’s the holidays, says Andrew Mellen, author of Unstuff Your Life. “I remain focused enough to keep my own pace, regardless of what is happening around me,” he says. “That allows me to get work done and still enjoy my downtime, rather than racing around day and night.”

5. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF DOWNTIME

With more people out on vacation and fewer meetings and calls happening, use the opportunity to catch up on those tasks you never have time to do, such as filing, decluttering your desk, and planning for the new year to come, says Lorie Marrero, author of The Clutter Diet.

“Get even more purposeful by aligning with management to do an entire office clean-out day, with everyone joining in,” she suggests. “Wear jeans, order pizza for everyone, get extra shredding and recycling bins delivered, and make it happen.”

Or use the slow time to learn something new that could streamline your work going forward, adds Duncan. “This could include learning more about the software you use every day,” she says. “That’ll help you spend less time working, but get more done in the New Year.”

6. USE HOLIDAY PARTIES AS INCENTIVES

Instead of extra activities like holiday parties being a hindrance to productivity, they can be a productivity booster if you use them as incentives, says Elizabeth Grace Saunders, time coach and author of The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment.

“Give yourself certain task goals, like, ‘As soon as I finish this presentation, I can head out to the holiday mixer,’” she says. “The excitement about getting to the event as soon as possible can help you have extra focus and boost your speed at getting things done.”

FastCompany.com | STEPHANIE VOZZA | 12.13.16 5:17 AM

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#Leadership : 5 Ways to Keep Your Productivity High All Day…Ever Hear of the Ivy Lee Productivity Method? You’re About To.

November 20, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

In 1918 Ivy Lee, a productivity consultant, counseled Charles Schwab, then the president of Bethlehem Steel, to adopt this plan for his employees. Schwab did just that, saw productivity soar and presented the consultant with a $25,000 check — a princely sum back in those days.

There are a few things we can actually control in our life; sadly, time isn’t one of them. But we can control how productively we use it. Certainly we need to: Most of us have been in situations where we wished there were “more hours in the day” to get things done.

However, a recent Stanford study throws water on that notion, suggesting that simply devoting more time to getting things done isn’t as helpful as it would seem.

The study revealed that productivity falls off dramatically after a 50-hour work week, and that those working 70 hours accomplish little more with those additional 20 hours. So, the issue isn’t about having more time to get things done, it’s about using the time you already have more wisely. Consider these five productivity hacks to optimize your daily hustle.

1. Start your morning right.

How you start your morning sets the tone for the entire day.

Waking up earlier and getting into full activity mode can help you get more done the entire day. You should also start your day on a positive note. While most people tend to focus on what they’ve not been able to accomplish the previous day, resetting your priorities and attacking the new day’s goals is key to making the best use of your time.

Keep the phone and emails aside and start with some mind-stimulating exercises such as lifting weights and doing yoga. The workouts will get your blood flowing and pump you up for work, while yoga will help you clear your mind.

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2. Employ the Ivy Lee productivity method.

This an old productivity strategy recommends that you close each day by writing down a list of six important things you want to do the next day. Each task is listed according to its level of importance. The most important one comes first, the least important, last.

Your aim is not to clear your tasks as soon as possible but to focus only on completing the first task. Move on to the next task only once you’ve completed the first one. Do this until everything is done.

James Clear, productivity expert and author, explains in a blog post how in 1918 Ivy Lee, a productivity consultant, counseled Charles Schwab, then the president of Bethlehem Steel, to adopt this plan for his employees. Schwab did just that, saw productivity soar and presented the consultant with a $25,000 check — a princely sum back in those days.

3. Try polyphasic sleep.

According to research reported in the New York Times Magazine, sleep deprivation costs businesses in America more than $63 billion annually. While it’s in our nature to sleep only at nights — which for most people is insufficient — taking short naps or siestas during the day may be just what you need to keep your productivity high.

Polyphasic sleep is a sleep hack that aims to boost productivity by disrupting the normal straight seven-hour sleep (monophasic sleep). With polyphasic sleep, you sleep only 30 minutes every six hours. This approach gives you roughly five hours’ extra sleep in a day, while your body still gets the rewards of a normal six-to-seven-hour sleep.

4. Always wear a cheerful outlook.

Our productivity seems to be connected to our mood. That statement seems obvious, but now there’s proof: A University of Warwick study found that happy employees work harder. The study established that by working alongside cheerful people, employees studied were 12 percent more productive.

If you yourself aim to see increased productivity at your business, stick with employees who are cheerful and happy and stay away from those who tend to share negative stuff. You can also contribute to the productivity levels of others by staying happy yourself — which is great for everybody.

5. Drink coffee.

Hey, all you java fans, multiple studies show that drinking coffee can boost our productivity levels. Jeff Bickley, founder of Gayo Kopi, an exclusive coffee brand, validates this in a chat.

“Coffee can play a powerful role in boosting our productivity,” he says. “Throughout the day, a compound known as adenosine is produced, as neurons in the brain are fired. We end up feeling tired and worn down as a result of its continuous production.

Coffee helps combat this by impersonating the A1 receptor, which helps block adenosine.”

So bring on that mocha latte.

Entrepreneur.com | November 20, 2016 | Ayodeji Onibalusi

#Leadership : How To Keep Working Productively When You’re Under Extreme Stress…You’ve got a Big Job with Bigger Responsibilities. Then Disaster Strikes. Here’s How to Keep it Together.

November 7, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Say you’re a high performer who’s risen through the ranks. Now you have even bigger responsibilities. Or you’re working your way toward a promotion and need to show your skills and professionalism in the best light. Then the phone call comes. The results of your medical tests weren’t good. Or you suddenly have to take care of a loved one in an emergency. Or there’s an unexpected financial hit that could spell catastrophe.

Whatever the situation, your life just got much more complicated. While intuitively you know that these things can happen to anyone, the anxiety of dealing with such troubling events, coupled with the pressure to continue to perform in your job, amps up the stress to DEFCON 1.

“A curveball like that requires sharpening your coping skills and expanding them so that you can deal with what’s being demanded of you,” says clinical psychologist Alicia H. Clark, adjunct professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. And there is a strategic approach you can take to help you cope and perform better, even when you’re operating under extreme stress.

IDENTIFY WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL

Part of the anxiety that occurs during such urgent situations comes from feeling a loss of control, says Matthew Digeronimo, a retired nuclear submarine lieutenant commander and coauthor of Extreme Operational Excellence: Applying the U.S. Submarine Culture to Your Organization. He recommends identifying the things you can adapt or adjust to regain some of that feeling of order. “If a family member is ill, you might not be able to control the illness. But you can control the manner in which you rally around that person. You can control your working hours, or the way you react to it,” he says.

Part of the anxiety that occurs during such urgent situations comes from feeling a loss of control.

If you can schedule meetings or calls during your high-energy times, or work from home one day a week, take advantage of those options. Use the power you do have to adapt your life to deal with your new situation for the time being, he says.

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IDENTIFY THE “MUST-DOS”

We all have tasks that need to get done to fulfill our responsibilities. However, high-performing individuals often go beyond the basics and take on other to-dos—that’s often what makes them high performers, Clark says. Now is the time to scale back to the most necessary and immediate task. Ask yourself these key questions:

Where can I cut back?
Where can I save time?
What can I put off without much consequence?

For example, do you need to take that trip to China now? Or can you cut back to visiting two states instead of three on your next trip? Can support staff handle some of the legwork on that upcoming report? Once you have a sense of where your time needs to be spent, you can create a list of priorities to ensure you’re getting the essentials done. Then you can decide whether you have time or energy to take on more.

ACCEPT “GOOD ENOUGH”—FOR NOW

This is also a good time to let go of perfectionism and accept “good enough,” Clark says. When you’re good at and take pride in what you do, it can be tough to do the minimum acceptable job. Sometimes, that’s what’s necessary to free up time and energy you need for other things to prevent burnout, she says.

SLOW DOWN

Extreme stress can affect decision making as well. Recent research from the University of Pittsburgh found that anxiety affects the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which regulates problem solving, impulse control, and emotion regulation.

If necessary, take more time to make decisions or take action to be sure you get it right.

Unlike typical periodic stress, where you may feel the pressure of events that happen from time to time, unrelenting stress doesn’t give you time for recovery, says Richard Citrin, PhD, founder of Citrin Consulting, a talent and leadership development consultancy, and author of The Resilience Advantage: Stop Managing Stress and Find Your Resilience. So your decision-making abilitymay be taking a beating.

As a result, you need to be more intentional about what you’re doing. Gather your facts methodically, and if necessary, take more time to make decisions or take action to be sure you get it right, he says.

SHARE SELECTIVELY

Another decision you’ll need to make is what—and how much—to tell those around you. Should you tell your boss that your parent is ill? Should you tell your boss or coworkers that you’re going through a divorce? There’s no one-size-fits-all solution here, Digeronimo says.

It’s important to practice good self-care.

If the situation will require you to change some of your work habits or be out of the office, then it’s probably a good idea to tell your boss the basics and share your plan for managing the situation. He thinks it’s not a good idea to share too much with coworkers, as it can breed gossip and office politics. “For most of us, our coworkers are not our source of support,” he says. “I think it can only add to your stress level if you share these types of details with them.”

GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK

When Citrin’s daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago, he and his wife both had full-time careers. He says that one of the most important lessons he learned throughout the experience was to accept help from other people so that he could free up time to help his daughter. He says it can be hard for people who are used to handling everything themselves to ask for or accept help from others, but even allowing a neighbor to bring over a meal can relieve one of your many demands. Clark adds that it’s important to practice good self-care, including getting enough sleep, exercising, and trying to manage your stress.

Chances are that you’re going to have to juggle a personal emergency with your work at some point. Understanding how to keep your work life intact while managing extreme stress requires a combination of cutting back, being mindful, and taking care of your own needs, so you can address both work and personal demands.

FastCompany.com | GWEN MORAN | 11.07.16 5:43 AM

#Leadership : 10 Bad Habits You Must Eliminate from Your Daily Routine…When it Comes to Productivity, the Little Things Make All the Difference. Quit Sabotaging Yourself with These Bad Habits.

October 25, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

You are the sum of your habits. When you allow bad habits to take over, they dramatically impede your path to success. The challenge is bad habits are insidious, creeping up on you slowly until you don’t even notice the damage they’re causing.

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” — Warren Buffett

Breaking bad habits requires self-control — and lots of it. Research indicates that it’s worth the effort, as self-control has huge implications for success.

University of Pennsylvania psychologists Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman conducted a study where they measured college students’ IQ scores and levels of self-control upon entering university. Four years later, they looked at the students’ grade point averages (GPA) and found that self-control was twice as important as IQ in earning a high GPA.

The self-control required to develop good habits (and stop bad ones) also serves as the foundation for a strong work ethic and highproductivity. Self-control is like a muscle — to build it up you need to exercise it. Practice flexing your self-control muscle by breaking the following bad habits:

1. Using your phone, tablet or computer in bed.

This is a big one that most people don’t even realize harms their sleep and productivity. Short-wavelength blue light plays an important role in your mood, energy level and sleep quality. In the morning, sunlight contains high concentrations of this blue light. When your eyes are exposed to it directly, the blue light halts production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and makes you feel more alert. In the afternoon, the sun’s rays lose their blue light, which allows your body to produce melatonin and start making you sleepy. By the evening, your brain doesn’t expect any blue light exposure and is very sensitive to it.

Most of our favorite evening devices — laptops, tablets and mobile phones — emit short-wavelength blue light brightly and right in your face. This exposure impairs melatonin production and interferes with your ability to fall asleep as well as with the quality of your sleep once you do nod off. As we’ve all experienced, a poor night’s sleep has disastrous effects. The best thing you can do is to avoid these devices after dinner (television is OK for most people as long as they sit far enough away from the set).

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2. Impulsively surfing the internet.

It takes you 15 consecutive minutes of focus before you can fully engage in a task. Once you do, you fall into a euphoric state of increased productivity called flow. Research shows that people in a flow state are five times more productive than they otherwise would be. When you click out of your work because you get an itch to check the news, Facebook, a sport’s score or what have you, this pulls you out of flow. This means you have to go through another 15 minutes of continuous focus to reenter the flow state. Click in and out of your work enough times, and you can go through an entire day without experiencing flow.

3. Checking your phone during a conversation.

Nothing turns people off like a mid-conversation text message or even a quick glance at your phone. When you commit to a conversation, focus all your energy on the conversation. You will find that conversations are more enjoyable and effective when you immerse yourself in them.

4. Using multiple notifications.

Multiple notifications are a productivity nightmare. Studies have shown that hopping on your phone and e-mail every time they ping for your attention causes your productivity to plummet. Getting notified every time a message drops onto your phone or an e-mail arrives in your inbox might feel productive, but it isn’t. Instead of working at the whim of your notifications, pool all your e-mails/texts and check them at designated times (e.g., respond to your e-mails every hour). This is a proven, productive way to work.

5. Saying “yes” when you should say “no.”

Research conducted at the University of California in San Francisco shows that the more difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout and even depression, all of which erode self-control. Saying no is indeed a major self-control challenge for many people. “No” is a powerful word that you should not be afraid to wield. When it’s time to say no, emotionally intelligent people avoid phrases like “I don’t think I can” or “I’m not certain.” Saying no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments and gives you the opportunity to successfully fulfill them. Just remind yourself that saying no is an act of self-control now that will increase your future self-control by preventing the negative effects of over commitment.

6. Thinking about toxic people.

There are always going to be toxic people who have a way of getting under your skin and staying there. Each time you find yourself thinking about a coworker or person who makes your blood boil, practice being grateful for someone else in your life instead. There are plenty of people out there who deserve your attention, and the last thing you want to do is think about the people who don’t matter when there are people who do.

7. Multitasking during meetings.

You should never give anything half of your attention, especially meetings. If a meeting isn’t worth your full attention, then you shouldn’t be attending it in the first place; and if the meeting is worth your full attention, then you need to get everything you can out of it. Multitasking during meetings hurts you by creating the impression that you believe you are more important than everyone else.

8. Gossiping.

Gossipers derive pleasure from other people’s misfortunes. It might be fun to peer into somebody else’s personal or professional faux pas at first, but over time, it gets tiring, makes you feel gross and hurts other people. There are too many positives out there and too much to learn from interesting people to waste your time talking about the misfortune of others.

“Great minds discuss ideas, average ones discuss events and small minds discuss people.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

9. Waiting to act until you know you’ll succeed.

Most writers spend countless hours brainstorming their characters and plots, and they even write page after page that they know they’ll never include in the books. They do this because they know that ideas need time to develop. We tend to freeze up when it’s time to get started because we know that our ideas aren’t perfect and that what we produce might not be any good. But how can you ever produce something great if you don’t get started and give your ideas time to evolve? Author Jodi Picoult summarized the importance of avoiding perfectionism perfectly: “You can edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page.”

10. Comparing yourself to other people.

When your sense of pleasure and satisfaction are derived from comparing yourself to others, you are no longer the master of your own happiness. When you feel good about something that you’ve done, don’t allow anyone’s opinions or accomplishments take that away from you. While it’s impossible to turn off your reactions to what others think of you, you don’t have to compare yourself to others and you can always take people’s opinions with a grain of salt. That way, no matter what other people are thinking or doing, your self-worth comes from within. Regardless of what people think of you at any particular moment, one thing is certain — you’re never as good or bad as they say you are.

Bringing It All Together

By practicing self-control to break these bad habits, you can simultaneously strengthen your self-control muscle and abolish nasty habits that have the power to bring your career to a grinding halt.

A version of this article appeared on TalentSmart.

Entrepreneur.com | October 25, 2016 | Brad Bradberry

#Leadership : 18 Tools That Saved Time and Grew My Business…These Affordable Tools and Apps Helped this Entrepreneur See Marked Growth Throughout 2016.

October 10, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

We’re getting closer to the end of the year. It’s been a very exciting year for me achieving most of the goals that I’ve set so far. And of course, it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of some tools that have provided great shortcuts.

The tools shared in this post fall under three categories:

Tools that helped me apply a simple productivity system.
Tools that saved me time by paying less money.
Tools that had an impact on my business growth.

Are you ready? Let’s tackle these:

Tools for my productivity system.

There is a system that I’ve been following for more than a year now that has had a great impact on my business. It’s composed of three simple steps:

Plan the right way.
Start the day right.
Take action with focus.

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You could check my previous post here to learn more about it, How This 20-Year-Old Built His Business While Studying Dentistry. And if you plan to implement it, check out this checklist.

Here are the tools:

Google Docs: A great tool I use to do all the planning for the tasks I want to accomplish.
Wunderlist: Helps me create to-do lists on the go and great for doing tomorrow’s to-do list.
Accomplish: It helps me easily create my schedule for the day. This is my best calendar app that suits all my needs.
Clear focus: Taking action with focus hasn’t been easier with the help of this great tool.
7 Min Workout app: Not only does this app have the normal seven minute exercise, but also it have many different variants with different durations
Headspace: A gem tool that changed my focus throughout the day.
Freedom Journal: One of the best journals. I like their app which reminds me to write in the journal in the morning and at the evening.

Tools that saved me time.

Usually, these are resources where I pay a few dollars to save me time or resources where I could save a few minutes by grouping tasks together.

Upwork (formerly known as Odesk): This is not a tool but it is a great way to get low-value tasks done leaving me time to focus on higher value tasks.
99designs: I’m sure you know how time-consuming design work can be. When redesigning my logo, I spent a ton of time trying to communicate my vision to designers only to receive concepts I wasn’t happy with, which ate into other projects. Using 99designs, I was able to save a lot of time because of the great amount of designs I get. I pick the one I like, ask for reiterations till I like it and then pay.
Thrive content builder: Having a great design that attracts the attention of new readers is very hard. I used to outsource this job, but with this tool, I don’t need to.
Auto Text Expander chrome expansion: Great tool to share common sentences without typing them out completely.
Buffer extension: Publish on all my social networks without entering them one by one.
Pocket: Save important posts that come your way to read them on the weekends.

Tools that helped my business grow.

There are a few tools which help you increase your business growth without much work on your end. These are the tools that helped me do just that this year:

Thrive Leads: This tools helped collect more emails from my website without spending time messing with the code.
SumoMe: It provides you with a great set of tools. I like to use the share, content analytics and heatmap tools. Did I mention it’s free? I’m doing just fine with the free version.
Active Campaign: Creating automation with ease to convert new subscribers and customers has never been easier. Forget infusionsoft with its complexity and the hefty price you pay initially and monthly. You pay a fraction of that with Active Campaign.
Optimizepress: Started using it lately after all the buzz I heard. It deserves every penny of the $97 I paid for it.
Buzzsumo: Great tool to help me identify popular topics and posts in my “industry +” who are sharing it.

There are many tools out there but these are the ones that had the most impact on my business and my life so far in 2016.

Entrepreneur.com | October 7, 2016 | Ahmed Safwan

#Leadership : This 100-Year-Old To-Do List Hack Still Works Like A Charm…The “Ivy Lee Method” is Stupidly Simple, and That’s Partly Why It’s so Effective.

August 25, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

By 1918, Charles M. Schwab was one of the richest men in the world. Schwab (oddly enough, no relation to Charles R. Schwab, founder of the Charles Schwab Corporation) was the president of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, the largest shipbuilder and the second-largest steel producer in the U.S. at the time. The famous inventor Thomas Edison once referred to Schwab as the “master hustler.” He was constantly seeking an edge over the competition.

Accounts differ as to the date, but according to historian Scott M. Cutlip, it was one day in 1918 that Schwab—in his quest to increase the efficiency of his team and discover better ways to get things done—arranged a meeting with a highly respected productivity consultant named Ivy Lee.

Portrait of **Ivy Ledbetter Lee** from the early 1900s.[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Photographer unknown, via JamesClear.com]

Lee was a successful businessman in his own right and is widely remembered as a pioneer in the field of public relations. As the story goes, Schwab brought Lee into his office and said, “Show me a way to get more things done.”

“Give me 15 minutes with each of your executives,” Lee replied. “How much will it cost me?” Schwab asked. “Nothing,” Lee said. “Unless it works. After three months, you can send me a check for whatever you feel it’s worth to you.”

THE IVY LEE METHOD

During his 15 minutes with each executive, Lee explained his simple method for achieving peak productivity:

At the end of each workday, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than six tasks.
Prioritize those six items in order of their true importance.
When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task.
Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.
Repeat this process every working day.

The strategy sounded simple, but Schwab and his executive team at Bethlehem Steel gave it a try. After three months, Schwab was so delighted with the progress his company had made that he called Lee into his office and wrote him a check for $25,000.

Complexity is often a weakness because it makes it harder to get back on track.

A $25,000 check written in 1918 is the equivalent of a $400,000 check in 2015.

The Ivy Lee Method of prioritizing your to-do list seems stupidly simple. How could something this simple be worth so much?

What makes it so effective?

ON MANAGING PRIORITIES WELL

Ivy Lee’s productivity method utilizes many of the concepts I have written about previously.

Here’s what makes it so effective:

Basically, if you commit to nothing, you’ll be distracted by everything.

It’s simple enough to actually work. The primary critique of methods like this one is that they are too basic. They don’t account for all of the complexities and nuances of life. What happens if an emergency pops up? What about using the latest technology to our fullest advantage? In my experience, complexity is often a weakness because it makes it harder to get back on track. Yes, emergencies and unexpected distractions will arise. Ignore them as much as possible, deal with them when you must, and get back to your prioritized to-do list as soon as possible. Use simple rules to guide complex behavior.

It forces you to make tough decisions. I don’t believe there is anything magical about Lee’s number of six important tasks per day. It could just as easily be five tasks per day. However, I do think there is something magical about imposing limits upon yourself. I find that the single best thing to do when you have too many ideas (or when you’re overwhelmed by everything you need to get done) is to prune your ideas and trim away everything that isn’t absolutely necessary. Constraints can make you better. Lee’s method is similar to Warren Buffet’s 25-5 Rule, which requires you to focus on just five critical tasks and ignore everything else. Basically,if you commit to nothing, you’ll be distracted by everything.

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It removes the friction of starting.The biggest hurdle to finishing most tasks is starting them. (Getting off the couch can be tough, but once you actually start running, it is much easier to finish your workout.) Lee’s method forces you to decide on your first task the night before you go to work. This strategy has been incredibly useful for me: As a writer, I can waste three or four hours debating what I should write about on a given day. If I decide the night before, however, I can wake up and start writing immediately. It’s simple, but it works. In the beginning, getting started is just as important as succeeding at all.

It requires you to single-task. Modern society loves multitasking. The myth of multitasking is that being busy is synonymous with being better. The exact opposite is true. Having fewer priorities leads to better work. Study world-class experts in nearly any field—athletes, artists, scientists, teachers, CEOs—and you’ll discover one characteristic that runs through all of them: focus. The reason is simple. You can’t be great at one task if you’re constantly dividing your time 10 different ways. Mastery requires focus and consistency.

The bottom line? Do the most important thing first each day. It’s the only productivity trick you need.

James Clear writes about self-improvement tips based on proven scientific research at JamesClear.com, where this article first appeared. It is adapted with permission.

FastCompany.com | JAMES CLEAR | 08.22.16 5:00 AM

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#Leadership : 9 Bad Habits You Must Break To Be More Productive…Bad Habits Slow you Down, Decrease your Accuracy, Make you Less Creative & Stifle your Performance. Getting Control of your Bad Habits is Critical, & not Just for Productivity’s Sake.

July 10, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Nothing sabotages your productivity quite like bad habits. They are insidious, creeping up on you slowly until you don’t even notice the damage they’re causing.

Bad habits slow you down, decrease your accuracy, make you less creative and stifle your performance. Getting control of your bad habits is critical, and not just for productivity’s sake. A University of Minnesota study found that people who exercise a high degree of self-control tend to be much happier than those who don’t, both in the moment and in the long run.

“By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character.” — Grenville Kleiser

Some bad habits cause more trouble than others, and the nine that follow are the worst offenders. Shedding these habits will increase your productivity and allow you to enjoy the positive mood that comes with increased self-control.

1. Impulsively surfing the internet. It takes you 15 consecutive minutes of focus before you can fully engage in a task. Once you do, you fall into a euphoric state of increased productivity called flow. Research shows that people in a flow state are five times more productive than they otherwise would be. When you click out of your work because you get an itch to check the news, Facebook, a sport’s score, or what have you, this pulls you out of flow. This means you have to go through another 15 minutes of continuous focus to reenter the flow state. Click in and out of your work enough times, and you can go through an entire day without experiencing flow.

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2. Perfectionism. Most writers spend countless hours brainstorming characters and plot, and they even write page after page that they know they’ll never include in the book. They do this because they know that ideas need time to develop. We tend to freeze up when it’s time to get started because we know that our ideas aren’t perfect and what we produce might not be any good. But how can you ever produce something great if you don’t get started and give your ideas time to evolve? Author Jodi Picoult summarized the importance of avoiding perfectionism perfectly: “You can edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page.”

3. Meetings. Meetings gobble up your precious time like no other. Ultra-productive people avoid meetings as much as humanly possible. They know that a meeting will drag on forever if they let it, so when they must have a meeting they inform everyone at the onset that they’ll stick to the intended schedule. This sets a clear limit that motivates everyone to be more focused and efficient.

4. Responding to e-mails as they arrive. Productive people don’t allow their e-mail to be a constant interruption. In addition to checking their e-mail on a schedule, they take advantage of features that prioritize messages by sender. They set alerts for their most important vendors and their best customers, and they save the rest until they reach a stopping point in their work. Some people even set up an autoresponder that lets senders know when they’ll be checking their e-mail again.

5. Hitting the snooze button. When you sleep, your brain moves through an elaborate series of cycles, the last of which prepares you to be alert at your wake up time. This is why you’ll sometimes wake up right before your alarm clock goes off — your brain knows it’s time to wake up and it’s ready to do so. When you hit the snooze button and fall back asleep, you lose this alertness and wake up later, tired and groggy. Worst of all, this grogginess can take hours to wear off. So no matter how tired you think you are when your alarm clock goes off, force yourself out of bed if you want to have a productive morning.

6. Multitasking. Multitasking is a real productivity killer. Research conducted at Stanford University confirms that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully.

But what if some people have a special gift for multitasking? The Stanford researchers compared groups of people, based on their tendency to multitask and their belief that it helps their performance. They found that heavy multitaskers — those who multitasked a lot and felt that it boosted their performance — were actually worse at multitasking than those who liked to do a single thing at a time. The frequent multitaskers performed worse because they had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to another. Ouch!

7. Putting off tough tasks. We have a limited amount of mental energy, and as we exhaust this energy, our decision-making and productivity decline rapidly. This is called decision fatigue. When you put off tough tasks till late in the day because they’re intimidating, you save them for when you’re at your worst. To beat decision fatigue, you must tackle complex tasks in the morning when your mind is fresh.

8. Using your phone, tablet or computer in bed. This is a big one that most people don’t even realize harms their sleep and productivity. Short-wavelength blue light plays an important role in your mood, energy level and sleep quality. In the morning, sunlight contains high concentrations of this blue light. When your eyes are exposed to it directly, the blue light halts production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and makes you feel more alert. In the afternoon, the sun’s rays lose their blue light, which allows your body to produce melatonin and start making you sleepy.

By the evening, your brain doesn’t expect any blue light exposure and is very sensitive to it. Most of our favorite evening devices — laptops, tablets, televisions, and mobile phones — emit short-wavelength blue light, and in the case of your laptop, tablet and phone, they do so brightly and right in your face. This exposure impairs melatonin production and interferes with your ability to fall asleep as well as with the quality of your sleep once you do nod off. As we’ve all experienced, a poor night’s sleep has disastrous effects upon productivity. The best thing you can do is to avoid these devices after dinner (television is OK for most people as long as they sit far enough away from the set).

9. Eating too much sugar. Glucose functions as the “gas pedal” for energy in the brain. You need glucose to concentrate on challenging tasks. With too little glucose, you feel tired, unfocused and slow; too much glucose leaves you jittery and unable to concentrate. Research has shown that the sweet spot is about 25 grams of glucose. The tricky thing is that you can get these 25 grams of glucose any way you want, and you’ll feel the same — at least initially. The difference lies in how long the productivity lasts. Donuts, soda and other forms of refined sugar lead to an energy boost that lasts a mere 20 minutes, while oatmeal, brown rice and other foods containing complex carbohydrates release their energy slowly, which enables you to sustain your focus.

Bringing It All Together

Some of these habits may seem minor, but they add up. Most amount to a personal choice between immediate pleasures and lasting ones. After all, the worst habit is losing track of what really matters to you.

A version of this article appeared on TalentSmart.

Entrepreneur.com | July 8, 2016 | Travis Bradberry

#Leadership : 14 Habits Of The Most Productive Remote Workers… From Hardware to Soft Skills, Here’s What it Takes to Master the Art of Working Remotely.

June 12, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Working from home sounds like an idyllic situation, in theory: You can roll out of bed each morning (or afternoon, even) and get started on your day without having to dress up, brave traffic, or engage in mindless chit-chat around the communal coffee machine.

However, not going into an office every day presents its own set of challenges, like determining how to separate your home life from your work life, and making sure you’re feeling connected to your colleagues and clients, among other things.

To help ensure that you’re on the right track while working remotely, we consulted seasoned work-from-home veterans who shared their top tips for staying productive—and thriving—in their careers.

OUTFITTING YOUR OFFICE

Whether you have a whole room dedicated to a home office or prefer working from the couch in your living room, having the right setup can keep you productive while on the clock.

1. They make sure they have the equipment they need.

It’s important to invest in the quality of your workspace by getting equipment that helps you do the best work you can. When I transitioned to an at-home employee, I went out and bought a similar version of the computer I was used to working on so that my productivity levels wouldn’t suffer from an inferior, slower setup.
—Brit Casady, 24, Lehi, UT, graphic designer

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2. They invest in ways to stay active at home.

My favorite part of working from home is the fact that I can work on my treadmill desk. I can kill two birds with one stone by exercising while I work. I’ve found that being able to walk helps keep me focused and because of that, I’m able to succumb less to the distractions that come from working at home. On the days I work on the treadmill, I typically spend two to four hours on it—that adds up to about 10 to 15 hours per week. I pretty much do any kind of work on my treadmill, from writing posts to sending emails to creating social media content and so on. At a two mile-per-hour pace, it’s not so fast that certain tasks are difficult to do because I’m walking.
—Brent Hale, 30, Sparks, NV, online entrepreneur and owner of IncomeAddon.com

MANAGING DISTRACTIONS

Let’s face it—distractions run rampant wherever you work, whether it’s in an office with coworkers or in your own kitchen. Keep productivity zappers at bay with these strategies.

3. They get organized with the “three-minute rule.”

I allow three minutes to tend to anything I feel I need to respond to immediately that is not on my to-do list. Give yourself three minutes every hour of your official ‘work hours’ to scan and respond to important emails, put shoes that accumulate around the doorway in the closet, etc.—if it takes no more than three minutes. It puts your mind at ease and reduces at-home work distractions without derailing your day. It also helps you spend less time cleaning the house and dealing with administrative tasks when the workday ends.
—Stephanie Taylor Christensen, 38, Columbus, OH, freelance writer, yoga instructor, and mother to a 6-year-old

4. They don’t let socializing get in the way of working.

Notify friends that you do have work hours, even if you are at home. For the longest time, I had friends popping over at all times of the day whenever they were free! Make sure you are assertive and tell them what your hours of work are and that you stick to a no-visit schedule during these times.
—Laura Fredrick, 28, Marlton, NJ, public relations professional and owner of Laur PR

5. They let their kids visit their home offices occasionally.

With a home office and three kids, it’s not easy. My advice? Get a white board. When the door is closed, do not disturb. But if it’s open—and leave it open as much as possible—my kids can come in and draw on it and leave me little notes. It’s magnetic, so they can put stuff on there for me to display. Everyone is happy.
—Gregory Pavliv, 38, Bloomfield, NJ, music teacher and owner of Music Teaching Guru

6. They minimize online distractions.

One of my favorite productivity hacks comes with the help of an app called StayFocusd. When working from home, Facebook and Twitter can be a major distraction. StayFocusd helps you avoid these distractions by restricting the amount of time you can spend on them. The Google Chrome extension lets you set specific time restrictions on certain websites with a 10-minute default option. Once your time has been used up, the sites you have selected to block can’t be accessed for the remainder of the day.
—Lori Cheek, 43, New York City, founder and CEO of Cheekd.com, an online dating app

7. They time-delay their email responses in order to manage expectations.

I time-delay every single email I send. I have gotten people out of the habit of thinking that they control my workday and that they will get an immediate response. I time-delay up to a full day if I feel it’s necessary. Inbox by Gmail has been critical in helping me maintain my inbox. I love it because I can simply save messages for later, create my own bundles (like per project or sender) and remind myself to do things. It has been tremendously helpful as far as keeping my mailbox from getting out of hand.
—Ashley Sharie, 27, Washington, DC, CEO and founder or Aspire Business, a business consulting firm

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CONNECTING WITH CLIENTS

Checking in with colleagues and customers can be challenging when you don’t see them every day. This is why it’s important to put your best foot forward in all of the interactions you do have.

8. They build in prep time for client meetings.

When you work from home, your schedule can be all over the place—workout classes whenever, meetings at different places and different times. Plus, I don’t know about you, but if I don’t need to get dressed in professional clothes, I won’t. My calendar helps me in that regard. Each time I schedule a meeting with someone outside of my home, I set my alert for 30 minutes or an hour before, depending on how long it will take me to get there. Then I set another alert for two hours before. This is my “Go take a shower and make yourself presentable” alarm. Without it, I would show up to many of my meetings looking and feeling frazzled.
—Alden Wicker, 29, New York City, freelance writer and founder of EcoCult.com

9. They err on the side of over-communication (sometimes).

We’ve found that most workplace tension is caused by inadequate communication—particularly when you are unable to speak with colleagues in person due to remote work situations. When you are unable to speak to clients or colleagues in person, make sure they know you are on the case by always being crystal clear. Frequent communication with your supervisor and co-workers can help reinforce bonds of friendship and trust, making collaboration easier throughout your time at a company.
But when it comes to email, remember that less is more: Try to communicate your message using as few words as possible to save time for your reader. When crafting a written message, it’s easy to get lost in long blocks of text and drift off on tangents—particularly when you need to explain a complicated concept to a coworker. To keep yourself focused and on-message, consider using bulleted lists to help structure and explain your thinking. The natural segmentation of bullets and ability to indent can help you keep your thoughts logical, organized, and succinct.
—Sam McIntire, 26, San Francisco, founder of Deskbright, an online learning platform designed to help people thrive at work

10. They speak up during conference calls.

In a remote environment, it’s often easier to sit quietly during conference calls. But it’s really important to go into a conference call with at least a few specific talking points to discuss. It not only shows that you’re prepared, but it also helps to move the conversation forward in a productive way, rather than hemming and hawing while you think of something to talk about.
Also, challenge yourself to ask two questions during a meeting. This really forces you to pay attention to what’s being discussed. Even if a topic of discussion isn’t directly related to your job, it’s a nice idea to ask questions, both to learn more about the company and your coworkers and to show that you’re paying attention and engaged.
—Brie Weiler Reynolds, 34, Dallas, director of online content at FlexJobs

STAYING ON A SUCCESS TRACK

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut managing your daily to-dos, but periodically taking a step back to evaluate your overall performance can help make your work-from-home experience a success.

11. They give themselves yearly reviews.

In December or January, I conduct a yearly review. This is partially to reconcile my numbers and partially to see which of the services I offer pay the most on both an hourly and total-dollars basis. In my year-end review I note items such as gross annual income, average hourly rate, average rate per word, average days from invoice to payment, total hours worked (plus average hours per week), total number of words edited or written (this is more for personal curiosity than anything), most lucrative service by total dollars and finally, most lucrative service by hourly rate.
—Anitra Budd, 37, Minneapolis, freelance writer and editor

12. They block off time for professional development.

Leave open space [in your schedule] for planning and networking meetings, as well as time to reflect on what is working and what is not working. Perhaps Friday afternoons or Monday mornings where you block off time in your calendar to set up your week and revisit your goals.
—Cara Maksimow, 43, Chatham, NJ, clinical therapist and owner of Maximize Wellness Counseling and Coaching

13. They keep their schedules flexible.

Know your schedule—your actual schedule, not a clone of the in-office working model. If you know your home or parenting responsibilities will make working in the morning tough but you’ll be uninterrupted at night, you’ll be more productive by planning your day that way rather than attempting to mix home and work. Be realistic about it so you can build boundaries based on efficiency. The end result is an enormous increase in both your productivity and your sanity!
—Monica Reccoppa, 42, Totowa, NJ, financial manager at Cardwell Beach, a creative marketing agency

14. They write a goal list.

I have my personal and professional goals written down and posted at my desk. This allows me to see them every day—it’s easy to get caught up in task-mode and only focus on checking off items from your to-do list. Having written goals displayed openly forces you to remember the larger reason why you are performing these tasks and take a step back to examine whether you’re on track to meeting the goals you set for yourself.
—Casey Bond, 29, Manhattan Beach, CA, editor of StudentLoanHero.com

FastCompany.com| June 8, 2016 | NATASHA BURTON

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#Leadership : How Being Busy Makes You Unproductive…”Beware the Barrenness of a Busy Life.” –Socrates

March 30, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Being busy has somehow become a badge of honor. The prevailing notion is that if you aren’t super busy, you aren’t important or hard working. The truth is, busyness makes you less productive.

When we think of a super busy person, we think of a ringing phone, a flood of emails, and a schedule that’s bursting at the seams with major projects and side-projects hitting simultaneously. Such a situation inevitably leads to multi-tasking and interruptions, which are both deadly to productivity.

“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” –Socrates
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David Meyer from the University of Michigan published a study recently that showed that switching what you’re doing mid-task increases the time it takes you to finish both tasks by 25%.

“Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes,” Meyer said. “Disruptions and interruptions are a bad deal from the standpoint of our ability to process information.”

Microsoft decided to study this phenomenon in their workers and found that it took people an average of 15 minutes to return to their important projects (such as writing reports or computer code) every time they were interrupted by emails, phone calls or other messages. They didn’t spend the 15 minutes on the interrupting messages, either; the interruptions led them to stray to other activities, such as surfing the Web for pleasure.

“I was surprised by how easily people were distracted and how long it took them to get back to the task,” said Eric Horvitz, the Microsoft research scientist behind the study. “If it’s this bad at Microsoft, it has to be bad at other companies, too.”

Beyond interruptions, busyness reduces productivity because there’s a bottleneck in the brain that prevents us from concentrating on two things at once. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully. In a breakthrough study, René Marois and his colleagues at Vanderbuilt University used MRIs to successfully pinpoint a physical source for this bottleneck.

“We are under the impression that we have this brain that can do more than it can,” Marois explained.

We’re so enamored with multitasking that we think we’re getting more done, even though our brains aren’t physically capable of this. Regardless of what we might think, we are most productive when we manage our schedules enough to ensure that we can focus effectively on the task at hand.

We are naturally drawn to being busy despite the fact that this hinders our productivity. As it turns out, you really do have to slow down to do your best. When you don’t, the consequences can be severe.

If you read my recent article on mindfulness, you’ll recall that practicing mindfulness increases your ability to focus and concentrate because it increases brain density in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). As it turns out, multitasking has the opposite effect on this critical brain area. Researchers from the University of Sussex compared the amount of time people spend on multiple devices (such as texting while watching TV) to MRI scans of their brains. They found that high multitaskers had less brain density in the ACC. It’s as if being busy all the time (via multitasking) trains your brain to be mindless and unproductive.

I doubt these findings completely surprise you as we’ve all felt the distracting pull of competing tasks when we’re busy. So why do we keep doing it?

Researchers from the University of Chicago have the answer. They found that the belief that busyness is a sign of success and hard work is so prevalent that we actually fear inactivity. A recent study there coined the term idleness aversion to describe how people are drawn to being busy regardless of how busyness harms their productivity.

The researchers also found that we use busyness to hide from our laziness and fear of failure. We burn valuable time doing things that aren’t necessary or important because this busyness makes us feel productive. For instance, responding to non-urgent emails when you know you have a big project that you need to finish. It’s tough, but you need to recognize when you’re using trivial activities to shield yourself from sloth or fear.

Bringing It All Together

We are naturally drawn to being busy despite the fact that this hinders our productivity. As it turns out, you really do have to slow down to do your best. When you don’t, the consequences can be severe.

How do you keep from getting too busy? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

Travis co-wrote the bestselling book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and co-founded TalentSmart.

Forbes.com | March 29, 2016 | Travis Bradberry