- Start work at 9am<p>- Work for five hours till 2 (with short break for snack), only on very important stuff, no distractions/interruptions like email/chat etc. This time is for writing, designing, coding.<p>- After lunch, work on emails, planning, organising, less important stuff etc for 2 or 3 hours<p>- Finish at 6, personal stuff afterwards<p>As long as there are no distractions, and I get 5 hours of uninterrupted, valuable work done every morning, then I end up being very productive. Much moreso than the old 14 hour days I used to work where all activites run into each other and blur into endless drudgery.
I don't think there's a single method that is optimal for all people. For example, I think there's an inflection point in your optimal strategy when your tasks pass the point where you can actually do all of them.<p>For myself, I like to reframe the issue. Instead of "Look at all my tasks, which one is highest priority?", which takes lots of mental energy, I just concentrate on NOT doing things that don't support my goals. This allows me to tackle small chunks and build momentum.<p>One of the best ways to get something done is to NOT do things that don't contribute.
I find GTD extremely attractive, but any attempt to implement it in my life (and I've tried a few times), has been an abject failure. A few things I've found helpful, though, to minimizing time-wasting generally are:<p>1) Stop playing video games, or if you can't bear the thought, add some "friction" to make it harder to do without thinking (in my case, I have a few favorite Windows games, but since I have a MacBook, I need to open a VM to play the game. That additional requirement forces me to think whether I really have the time to do it.<p>2) Do repetitive tasks in groups (sort of obvious).<p>and 3) (I've had some success with this, but it's extremely hard to stick to) Don't leave your email client open unless you absolutely have to- continually interrupting the current task to see the most recent ad from Amazon, or some email forward, is a huge time sink. Surprisingly few emails are actually urgent.
Structured Procrastination, RescueTime, and some tips from Marc Andreessen:<p><a href="http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the_pmarca_guid.html" rel="nofollow">http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the_pmarca_guid.html</a>
1) Work on 1 computer, receive email on another (KVM switch works well for me)
2) Always follow this order: write code, write blog, read blogs.
3) Stop eating out -- it's not actually faster (at least when you work from home making something right there is faster and cheaper)
4) Just do it. Don't procrastinate. Don't check things online (download stats, visitors logs, etc.). Don't distract yourself with work that doesn't get you anything.
5) Stop watching TV when you have something interesting or arduous to do. Finish it first.
6) Stop playing video games when you have something interesting or arduous to do. Finish it first.
7) Don't over think posts on news.ycombinator.<p>-- Get back to work. :-)
For me, this pretty much sums it up:<p>"What's the best thing you could be working on, and why aren't you?"<p>from<p><a href="http://paulgraham.com/procrastination.html" rel="nofollow">http://paulgraham.com/procrastination.html</a>
A Ouija board and Mac Mail's todo list. Some spirits keep spelling out "GTD" (the book remains on my shelf), but I just haven't found the time to read it.
Not sophisticated, and only a first step to get some kind of traction, but using it can make a real difference to me:<p>a) Define your main project<p>b) Choose an activity that you like and that comes naturally as procrastination<p>c) Choose a reasonable time ratio between them, and respect it<p>As an example, every hour of surfing the web <i>has</i> to be (sooner or later) compensated by three hours of work on the main project.
It's a good idea to manage tasks, not time. Which is what GTD aims to do, isn't it? And only the chores should be managed--things that you wouldn't spend your time doing if you had the choice. Real work should be enjoyable, and when you try to manage it, it turns into a set of chores.
I use Things as a task manager as a sort of 'GTD-light'. I haven't found the need to follow any particular system religiously.<p>I also use RescueTime to keep me in line.
I use omnifocus. It will be perfect on iPhone. Now, it's only of limited use. I use it more for organizing my thinking then my day down to the hour. I find if my thinking is organized, and I know how to do what I want to get done, managing time just happens without requiring further effort. If your thinking isn't organized all the time management in the world won't help you.