7 things you need to stop doing to be more productive, backed by science — medium
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11/28/2014 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science — Medium
https://medium.com/@cammipham/7thingsyouneedtostopdoingtobemoreproductivebackedbysciencea988c17383a6 1/13
Viktor Hanacek
When I was 17 years old, I used to work and study for about 20 hours a day. I went to school, did myhomework during breaks and managed a not-for-profit organization at night. At that time, workinghard landed me countless national campaigns, opportunities to work with A-list organizations and asuccessful career. As I got older, I started thinking differently. I realized that working harder is notalways the right path to success. Sometimes, working less can actually produce better results.
Consider a small business owner, who works non-stop. However, working hard won’t help himcompete with his multi-million competitors. Time is a limited commodity. An entrepreneur canwork 24 hours a day and 7 days a week (the most amount of time anyone can work, really). His or hercompetitor can always spend more money, build a bigger team and spend a lot more time on the sameproject. Then why have small startups accomplished things that larger corporations couldn’t?Facebook bought Instagram, a 13-employee company for a billion dollars. Snapchat, a young startupwith 30 employees is turning down offers from tech giants Facebook and Google. Part of their
11/28/2014 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science — Medium
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successes were based on luck — the rest is based on efficiency.
The key to success is not hard working but smart working.
There’s a notable distinction between being busy and being productive. Being busy doesn’t necessarilymean you’re being productive. Being productive is less about time management and more onmanaging your energy. It is the business of life. We need to learn how to spend the least amount ofenergy to get the most benefits. I am so lucky to work with an amazing team here at Filemobile.Everyone always challenges me and helps me sort my priorities to become more productive. I learnedto reduce my work week from 80 hours to 40 hours, and get a lot more work done in the process. Inother words, less is more.
Here are 7 I things I stopped doing to become more productive.
1. Stop working overtime and increase your productivityHave you ever wondered where the 40-hour work week came from? In 1926, Henry Ford, Americanindustrialist and founder of Ford Motor Company, conducted experiments with interesting results:when you decrease your daily working hours from 10 to 8, and shorten the work week from 6days to 5, your productivity increases.
11/28/2014 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science — Medium
https://medium.com/@cammipham/7thingsyouneedtostopdoingtobemoreproductivebackedbysciencea988c17383a6 3/13
Source: Calculating Loss of Productivity Due to Overtime Using Published Charts — Fact or Fiction
The more you work, the less effective and productive you are going to become over both shortand long term. “Scheduled Overtime Effect on Construction Projects”, a report issued by TheBusiness Roundtable in 1980 states.
“Where a work schedule of 60 or more hours per week is continued longer than about two months, thecumulative effect of decreased productivity will cause a delay in the completion date beyond that which couldhave been realized with the same crew size on a 40-hour week.”
Source: Calculating Loss of Productivity Due to Overtime Using Published Charts — Fact or Fiction
In an article for AlterNet, editor Sara Robinson referenced research conducted by the US military thatrevealed that “losing one hour of sleep per night for a week will cause a level of cognitivedegradation equivalent to a .10 blood alcohol level.” You can get fired for coming to work drunk,but it is deemed acceptable to pull an all-nighter.
Irrespective of how well you were able to get on with your day after that most recent night without sleep, it is
11/28/2014 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science — Medium
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unlikely that you felt especially upbeat and joyous about the world. Your more-negative-than-usual perspectivewill have resulted from a generalized low mood, which is a normal consequence of being overtired. Moreimportant than just the mood, this mind-set is often accompanied by decreases in willingness to think and actproactively, control impulses, feel positive about yourself, empathize with others, and generally use emotionalintelligence.
Source: The Secret World of Sleep: The Surprising Science of the Mind at Rest
It’s important for us not to overwork ourselves and get enough sleep to maintain a high level ofproductivity. Next time you’re wondering why you may not be working productively, the reason maybe simple as you being one of 70% of people who doesn’t get enough sleep.
Did you know?Leonardo da Vinci took multiple naps a day and slept less at night.
The French Emperor Napoleon was not shy about taking naps. He indulged daily.
Though Thomas Edison was embarrassed about his napping habit, he also practiced his ritual daily.
Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, used to boost her energy by napping beforespeaking engagements.
Gene Autry, “the Singing Cowboy,” routinely took naps in his dressing room between performances.
President John F. Kennedy ate his lunch in bed and then settled in for a nap—every day!
Oil industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller napped every afternoon in his office.
Winston Churchill’s afternoon nap was a non-negotiable. He believed it helped him get twice as much done
11/28/2014 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science — Medium
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each day.
President Lyndon B. Johnson took a nap every afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in order to break his day up into “twoshifts.”
Though criticized for it, President Ronald Reagan famously took naps as well.
Source: 5 Reasons Why You Should Take a Nap Every Day — Michael Hyatt
On a personal note, since I started getting at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep a day, I’ve noticed a change: Ibecame a lot more productive and got a lot more work done than when I worked 16 hours a day. Whoknew sleeping was such a great tool for marketers?
2. Don’t say “yes” too oftenAccording to the Pareto Principle, 20% of the effort produces 80% of the results; however, 20% ofthe results consumes 80% of the effort. Instead of working harder, we should focus primarily onthose efforts that produce 80% of the results and forgo the rest. We will have more time to focus onthe most important tasks. We should stop saying “yes” to tasks that bring low or almost no result.
“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say “no” toalmost everything.” — Warren Buffet.
This begs a question: what should you say “yes” and what should you say “no” to? If you can’t figure ifsomething is going to be worth your time, consider running a simple split test. Track everything youdo and optimize if it is possible.
Most of us say yes more often than we should because it is so much easier than saying no. Nobodywants to be the bad guy.
11/28/2014 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science — Medium
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In a 2012 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, researchers split 120 students in 2groups. One group was trained to use “I can’t”, while the other was trained to use “I don’t”. Theresults were interesting:
The students who told themselves “I can’t eat X” chose to eat the chocolate candy bar 61% of the time.Meanwhile, the students who told themselves “I don’t eat X” chose to eat the chocolate candy bars only 36% ofthe time. This simple change in terminology significantly improved the odds that each person would make amore healthy food choice.
Next time you need to avoid saying yes, say “I don’t”.
Another great trick to avoid activities that don’t add enough value into your life is the 20-second rule:
11/28/2014 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science — Medium
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give yourself 20 seconds longer for activities you shouldn’t be doing.
Lower the activation energy for habits you want to adopt and raise it for habits you want to avoid. The morewe can lower or even eliminate the activation energy for our desired actions, the more we enhance our abilityto jump-start positive change.
Source: The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success andPerformance at Work
3. Stop doing everything yourself and start lettingpeople help youAt some point in my career, I was managing a very large community and couldn’t handle it. I tried todo everything myself. I burnt out, but the community ended up taking over and managing itself.Surprisingly, members did a better job than I have ever done. I learned the power of community andwhy brands need user-generated content.
Consumers understand what they want and how they want it better than any marketer. Did you knowthat, according to Octoly, user-generated videos are viewed 10 times more than brand-generatedvideos on YouTube? When seeking information about a particular brand,over half (51%) of Americanstrust user-generated content more than the content on the brand website (16%) or media coverage onthe brand (14%). It’s important for marketers to open up and seek help from the brand’s community.
11/28/2014 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science — Medium
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Source: Earned Media Rankings on YouTube — Octoly
Being a great content marketer is not about creating the best content, but building a great communitythat will generate high-quality content for you.
It’s important for us to realize we can seek help when needed. We cannot do everything ourselves. It isbetter for you to let someone who can do a better job taking over some of your tasks. It will give youmore time to focus on your most important tasks. Instead of wasting your time trying to figuresomething out yourself, let the experts help you.
A lot of time, even if your friends can’t help you, having them around can help you become moreproductive.
Just having friends nearby can push you toward productivity. “There’s a concept in ADHD treatment calledthe ‘body double,’ ” says David Nowell, Ph.D., a clinical neuropsychologist from Worcester, Massachusetts.“Distractable people get more done when there is someone else there, even if he isn’t coaching or assistingthem.” If you’re facing a task that is dull or difficult, such as cleaning out your closets or pulling together your
11/28/2014 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science — Medium
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receipts for tax time, get a friend to be your body double.
Source: Friendfluence: The Surprising Ways Friends Make Us Who We Are
4. Stop being a perfectionist“We found that perfectionism trips up professors on the way to research productivity. The moreperfectionistic the professor, the less productive they are,” Dr. Simon Sherry, a Dalhousie UniversityPsychology Professor who conducted a study on perfectionism and productivity, tells UniversityAffairs magazine. Dr. Sherry found a robust correlation between increased perfectionism anddecreased productivity.
Here are some problems associated with being a perfectionist:
They spend more time than required on a task.
They procrastinate and wait for the perfect moment. In business, if it is the perfect moment, youare too late.
They miss the big picture while being too focused on small things.
Marketers often wait for the perfect moment. In doing so, they end up missing it.
The perfect moment is NOW.
5. Stop doing repetitive tasks and start automating it.According to a research study conducted by Tethys Solutions, A team of 5 people who spent 3%, 20%,25%, 30% and 70% of their time on repetitive tasks respectively reduced this time to 3%, 10%, 15%, 15%and 10% after 2 months of enhancing their productivity.
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11/28/2014 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science — Medium
https://medium.com/@cammipham/7thingsyouneedtostopdoingtobemoreproductivebackedbysciencea988c17383a6 10/13
Source: Using Automation Software To Increase Business Productivity & Competitiveness -TethysSolutions
A week ago, I spent 15 minutes writing a basic Python program. The idea was to generate content fromthe data, which I pulled from Twitter API using a Ruby bot, and use Hootsuite to bulk schedule them.While it used to take me an entire day to accomplish, it now takes me less than 5 minutes. Nowadays,whenever I do something repetitively (more than 5 times), I would ask myself if I can find a programto do it for me.
You don’t have to be a coder to able to automate your repetitive tasks. It’s nice to have the skills or theresources, but it’s not a requirement. If you cannot build it, buy it.
People often forget that time is money. People usually do things manually because it’s easy andrequires almost no research. It is manageable to moderate 30 images on Instagram for your user-generated campaign. But if you have to manage 30 000 photos and videos from 5 different platforms,you need a good digital asset management software. At Filemobile, we help people to solve thatproblem generate even more user-generated content. Just like managing rich media, you can easily
11/28/2014 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science — Medium
https://medium.com/@cammipham/7thingsyouneedtostopdoingtobemoreproductivebackedbysciencea988c17383a6 11/13
purchase a software to solve almost all of your problem on the internet.
If you still can’t find a solution, you can hire an expert to help you. Keep in mind that you need tospend money to make money and that time is your most valuable commodity.
Tips for marketers: check out GitHub or Google app script library. Often times, you’ll find freeready-to-use open source code that requires very little programming knowledge.
6. Stop guessing and start backing up your decisionswith dataIf you can optimize websites for search engines, you can optimize your lives to grow and reach yourmaximum potential.
There are so many research studies out there that can provide answers in a range of areas. Forinstance, did you know that most people are more easily distracted from noon to 4PM? This randomstatistic comes from recent research led by Robert Matchock, an associate professor of psychology atPennsylvania State University. Even if you can’t find the data you need, it doesn’t take a lot of time torun a split test.
For instance, last week we did a few tests to figure out the best way to optimize images for Twitter in-stream preview.
Keep asking yourself how you’re going to measure and optimize everything you do.
7. Stop working, and have do-nothing timeMost people don’t realize that we’re essentially locking ourselves in a box when we are too focused onsomething. It’s important to walk away from our work once in a while and have some alone time.Alone time is good for the brain and spirit, according to The power of lonely , an article in The BostonGlobe.
11/28/2014 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science — Medium
https://medium.com/@cammipham/7thingsyouneedtostopdoingtobemoreproductivebackedbysciencea988c17383a6 12/13
One ongoing Harvard study indicates that people form more lasting and accurate memories if they believethey’re experiencing something alone. Another indicates that a certain amount of solitude can make a personmore capable of empathy towards others. And while no one would dispute that too much isolation early in lifecan be unhealthy, a certain amount of solitude has been shown to help teenagers improve their moods andearn good grades in school.
Source: The power of lonely
It‘s important for us to take time for reflection. We often find the solutions when we’re not searchingfor them.
We don’t become more productive overnight. Like everything in life, it requires efforts. Changedoesn’t happen if you just sit there and wait for it. It’s important for all of us to learn more about ourbody and find ways to optimize our energy for a more successful and happy life.
This post was originally published on the Filemobile Blog
Disclosure: Filemobile is a client of my agency, KwinMedia.
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