You know all that jazz about quality over quantity. How multi-tasking destroys your productivity and so on… A while ago I found this image — courtesy of the one and only Tim Ferris which summarizes the main work principles beautifully: In summary:
- Check email ONLY:
- 10AM
- 1PM
- 4PM
- Send any time
- Set email to check every 3 hours.
- NO email on evenings.
- NO email on weekends.
- EMERGENCY? = Use phone.
- FOCUS 1–3 Activities max/day
- LOG 1–3 Succinct status bullets every day on team wiki
- MINIMIZE chat
- MAXIMIZE single-tasking
- OUT by 5:30PM ~ No excuses
These simple rules saved my bacon for years now.