How to Work Better

The less full your inbox is, the less you have to deal with and the less you have to filter through when the next email comes in.

A ‘zero inbox’ is a truly wonderful thing. Use your inbox as a todo list, and archive emails you don’t need.

If you aren’t using social media, keep it closed. If you’ve finished checking email, close that. If you aren’t browsing the web, close your browser. Don’t even leave something open in the background. Multitasking makes it hard to focus and makes tasks take longer (because you’re constantly distracted).

This includes notifications of new emails, new likes, new mentions. Everything. If it appears on your screen, turn it off while you’re working.

0-45 minutes at a time or so. Then take a break, stretch, pee, drink some water, stare blankly out the window, check social media. Stop after a minute or two, then get back to it.

Get some air, eat a snack, meditate for 10 minutes. Come back with a fresh mind.

It’s amazing how much you can get done in a day if you aren’t passively sitting on a couch and staring at moving pictures.

You’d be amazed at how food affects your mental state. It can make you tired, hyper or unable to concentrate. So figure out what foods do that and avoid them. You’ll probably also see a correlation between fresh, whole foods and being able to focus more.

Remove folks you aren’t finding value in. It’s nothing personal, and you can still think they are awesome people. Focus on relationships and value, and less on the numbers game.

Everyone has a time of the day when they seem to be able to focus more and get more done. During that time, turn off your phone and email, never schedule meetings and remove distractions.

Do you really need to know when someone friends you? Mentions you? Suggests a book? Invites you to an event? Don’t let those networks bombard your inbox with notifications. You can log into these networks and check messages, mentions or likes when that’s what you’re actually doing.