Before looking at habits, goals, or how you motivate yourself to get the most out of every day, there is one simple question to ask yourself. This question (and your response) is a precursor to high productivity.

What Neuroscience Tells Us

Matthew Walker is a neuroscientist who wrote the international best-seller, “Why We Sleep”.

According to Walker, “morning types” make up about 40% of the population. Morning people like to wake up at dawn, enjoy doing so, and are productive in the early hours.  On the other hand, “evening types” account for 30% of people. They revel in going to bed late, burning the midnight oil and rising late in the morning (maybe even afternoon).

The balance of people lie somewhere in between and often can switch between the two. All of these patterns come under the category of chronotypes.

These types matter because, based on Walker’s research, insufficient sleep (which is less than  six or seven hours) can result in a whole lot of bad outcomes, including a diminished immune system, reduced blood sugar levels, and even anxiety.

Adequate sleep is influenced by whether you’re a morning or evening person, because your chronotype type affects when waking and sleeping time is most effective for you.

What If You’re Not A Morning Person?

Many of society’s routines and rhythms (getting up earlier, working breakfasts, being at work by 9am) are geared toward morning types.

In the last few years many articles have lauded the superhuman routines of business leaders who favour rising early in the morning. In many of these articles, there is a hidden assumption – to work hard equals getting up early. It’s simply not the case.

It would be easy for “evening types” to feel like they’re doing something wrong. Evening types may even try to follow the same routines,  even if it defies what comes naturally. If they do this, they run the risk of feeling average, fatigued during the day, and ultimately unsettling their productivity.

So, if you are an evening person, don’t fret just yet… a good portion of the world is saying:

“Hey, it’s okay to take your time. Do what works best for you. When morning people are winding up for the day, you’ll be hitting your stride!”

Take comfort in the stories that run counter to the morning trends.

Jeff Bezos, for example, takes his time in the morning. He prefers to get a good sleep rather than wake when the rooster crows. And he often wakes naturally, without an alarm clock. His mornings are spent getting ready for the day. In his words, he likes to ‘putter’ about.¹⁾

But there are limits for everyone. For example, if evening people stay up too late, they’ll still risk fatigue during their work day.

The key is not to overlook what our body tells us (regardless of whether you are a morning, evening or in-between type), so we start the day on the right foot.  No habit exists that will change our outcomes if we start the day in the wrong state of mind and body.

I’m an in-between type, with a gentle bias toward evenings. When a friend of mine had a goal to hit the gym at 5:30am, I wanted to support them enough to change my routine for a while.  I did this with extra planning, so I could prepare myself for the change and respecting the fact I’d likely find it difficult.

I went to bed earlier. I drank two glasses of water when I woke up. I was patient with my body whilst it woke (whereas my friend went hard in the gym straight away, and I allowed myself time to slowly get into the workout).

When I was trialling this new routine, someone recommended I go for a walk or do some light reading in the afternoons to re-energise. I was amazed what a difference this subtle technique made. Doing it this way, I worked within my “type” for 2 months so I could support my friend, without becoming fatigued at all.

So which type feels most natural to you? Morning, evening or in-between?

Much Is Still To Be Learnt In This Area

We are really just starting to understand the impact of morning and evening cycles on productivity.

In 2016, researcher Nolan Pope from MIT conducted a curious study. Pope reviewed a data set of 2 million students from seventh through to eleventh grade.²⁾

Matching school start times with student GPA and state test scores, Pope found having a morning class of either math or English increased students GPA by a significant amount. The results suggest that moving certain activities to the morning, from the afternoon, is enough to deliver big gains in productivity and performance over the longer term.

If we extended this to company settings, we might choose to do important planning exercises or our own individual thinking in the morning.  Again, Jeff Bezos is an example.  He plans his  most intellectually demanding meetings at 10am.³⁾

Pope’s research gives insights into whether mornings or afternoons may be best suited to complex cognitive tasks. It would be tempting to generalize these learnings to say we are all more productive in the morning. But taking into account the distinction of morning and evening types, there may be such a thing as too early in the morning.

How Leaders & Companies Can Put These Lessons Into Practice

These lessons have important implications for companies, teams and individuals. Recently I’ve met with a dozen different companies to understand how they structure their work days.  All of them had embraced flexible working hours for their people. But only a handful had also equipped their people with the tools to make flexible hours even more effective.

The most progressive companies established a culture of no meetings before 9:30am and no meetings after 4:30pm, to better cater for both morning and evening types.  Some early or late meetings are unavoidable, but the best companies treated these as the exception, instead of the norm.

What are your experiences? I’d be keen to hear. Please consider sharing your thoughts by adding a comment below.

The post Why Your Sleep Cycle Can Be The Key To Productivity appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

The book was Flow: The Psychology of Happiness. The author, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, studied literally thousands of people to find out the guiding principles for happiness. Part of this study also looked at the differences between people who are fully engaged in activities versus those who are not engaged (and may well be procrastinating!).

Some of the following guidance is shaped by this book, and some is from my own experience.

What ‘Flow’ Taught Me

When I first read the book I realised the characteristics of ‘peak experiences’.  Peak experiences are the times when we feel most energised, fulfilled and alive. Csikszentmihalyi calls these ‘flow’ experiences.

One of the best ways to avoid procrastination is to create the conditions for these experiences, in order to avoid boredom and overwhelm.

To create flow, we need to find a balance between the challenge involved in the task and the skill level we bring to the task.

When our skill level is up to the task (and sufficiently stretched by the task for it to be a meaningful challenge), we feel energised.

As our skill level increases, we can increase the complexity of the task. But we still need to be mindful of keeping a good balance between the task and our skill.

When these things are in balance, we can stay in the flow channel.

#1. Balance The Match Between Challenge & Your Skill In Any Task

If you want to learn a new talent, start by picking a task that matches your current skill level.

For example, if you want to draw, start by drawing a stick figure. When you’ve drawn a hundred of those, take on something more challenging.

When we repeat an action our skill level becomes better. It’s impossible to avoid. Fortunately, no one I know has become worse at something by doing it more!

Where many people come unstuck is that they select tasks that are well beyond their current range of skill.

It’s little wonder they feel deflated. And when we feel like that….guess what, we want to avoid that negative feeling. So often we procrastinate.

We substitute the pain of not being able to achieve the task, with the short term pleasure of a procrastination activity (like watching TV).

But, if we follow the rules of Flow, we would instead select tasks that are a better match with our skill level.  This gives us the best chance to see our skill grow.

This is exactly the feedback loop that is needed for skill development to be enjoyable.

I find the the ideal for me is to select tasks that are within a 15% stretch for my skill level. Any more and I’m feeding that Procrastination Gremlin. And that Gremlin sure is hungry!  Best we don’t feed it.

#2. Manage Overwhelm by Breaking Down the Activity

It’s easy to become overwhelmed by large goals.

Often these goals are the ones that are most meaningful to us, which is exactly why they’re worth accomplishing.

Instead of being overwhelmed by the magnitude of a large goal, we can simplify the goal by breaking it down into smaller steps.

If passing an exam feels too big, start by reading and summarising the first chapter of your study book. If getting a new job feels like hard work, start by creating a list of the 5 companies you would like to work for.

When we break down a larger goal into small tasks, we realise there are some smaller actions we can do to get started, right now.

#3. Separate Action & Thinking About ‘What If’

There are times to think about the future, and then there are times to just get on with it.

You’ll notice items #1 and #2 above relate to selecting the best tasks to work on. We select the right tasks by either matching the tasks with our skill or breaking down the tasks into bite size chunks.

When we’ve chosen the tasks, it’s time to focus 100% of our energy on them.

Often we start a task and then our mind wanders. We start to think about the ‘what ifs’…what if we don’t get this task done, what if we don’t succeed with the larger goal, and so on.

When we think about the ‘what ifs’ we disrupt the task we’re doing. And of course if we can’t complete the task, it’s hard to hope to achieve the larger goal.

Procrastination occurs when the small tasks we could do today, become blended with the fear of not achieving the larger goal. This creates worry and destroys our focus.  Our destroyed focus affects our ability to accomplish the task.  It’s a vicious cycle.

With mindfulness we can train ourselves to separate the activities.

When we’re doing a task, ideally we would dedicate all our energy to completing it. This might mean taking a block of time where we avoid distraction entirely (no facebook, no SMS, just doing) until the task is finished. When we have knocked off a few tasks, then we can provide permission to our mind to think about the ‘what ifs’.

It takes practice to train the mind to function like this. Train it to focus. Then train it to explore. The more we practise at separating these activities, the better the mind gets at doing them.

The post How To Avoid Procrastination & The Art of Flow appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

I tried Asana. Then I switched. I tried to match any application I could to David Allen’s Getting Things Done method. For a while, the other options were good. Then recently when Asana upgraded it’s interface, I decided to give it another try.

I love the new Asana.

The interface is clean and useful, without being distracting. The iPhone app gives me what I need when I’m in the moment, and the Desktop platform adds even more utility, with the expanded real estate of a large screen monitor.

Here are 9 features of Asana that make it a stand-out product in my view:

1. The Asana Interface Makes You Feel Like You Want to Get Stuff Done

The look and feel of Asana is beautiful. It provides functionality, without overwhelm. And many of Asana’s tools (open task detail, select projects, edit task detail) are just a click away. Many of the panels within Asana can be expanded or collapsed (there’s also a full screen view for tasks) which means you can focus on the things that make most sense to you.

2. Focus on Projects or Tasks…You Choose

The Projects panel on the left of the screen seems simple, but together with ‘My Tasks’, it really boosts the capability of this platform. I use the ‘My Tasks’ view to see everything I need to get done for the next 7 days. This keeps me focused on the things that matter during the week. But I also like to see the overall context for projects. So by going into individual projects, I can see all the milestones that need to be achieved to deliver that project. When a project milestone is due (and assigned to me), the task automatically drops into My Tasks, so I never miss a thing. Switching views between 7 Day Focus and Project views are incredibly valuable.

3. The Notes Panel is Incredibly Useful, Especially with Rich Text

The notes panel is where I keep all my notes on tasks. If I’m working on a task that spans multiple days, I add updates to the task status in the notes section. I also wrote this blog and others in the notes section of Asana. With a few keyboard shortcuts, Rich Text can be used easily, which helps to bring some of the functionality of a word processor (eg. bold items, add bullet points, etc).

4. Make Tasks Private or Collaborative

Any task in Asana can be made Private or Collaborative. By setting up Private Projects, users can store tasks they do not wish to be seen by others within Asana. But, if you want to collaborate with other members of your team, you can setup and assign tasks to team members that are not private. While at first this seems bizarre (because you are blending private and collaborative tasks in one platform) it makes sense after some practice, because any productivity tool should help the user accomplish all things, not just some things.

5. The Collaboration Features Help Teams Organise

Asana has some excellent collaboration features to help teams work together. Team members can assign tasks to each other, have text conversations, share files and update task notes. This takes work away from email (which everyone struggles to cope with these days) and into a central place where people can share, discuss and progress tasks. Asana is free for teams to 15 people, which makes it incredibly useful for small teams. This is especially relevant for non-profits, which often work with very distributed committees.

6. Switch Between Life’s Contexts

One of the features of Asana is to setup and manage different workspaces. So you can have a workspace for your Personal projects, another one for the Community Organisation you’re involved with, and another for your place of Work. Whatever life’s contexts, you can setup a work space for it. According to Asana “a Workspace is a collection of people that collaborate on projects and tasks”. As a Workspace Member, you can administer the workspace, including inviting or removing Workspace Guests.

7. Sections Give Amazing Flexibility

It would be easy to underrate the power of Sections in Asana. As a user you can create a section by adding a column to the end of any task title. Sections can be moved up or down in any task list. Here are some of the things you can use headings for:

• to categorise tasks lists (eg. grouping tasks that relate to each other, like ‘things to buy when shopping’)
• to categorise priority (eg. breaking task lists into high, medium and low)
• to setup processes and sequences (eg. when organising a picnic, setting up Sections for things to do before the picnic, at the picnic, after the picnic)
• to categorise activities (eg. fundraising, website, administration, etc)

Get the idea? Sections make Asana infinitely flexible not just for task management, but all types of organisation.

8. Leverage Repeatable Processes, Not Just Tasks

One of the features of Asana is to ‘archive’ and ‘copy’ projects. So if you run a particular process this year (say ‘Setup and run an Annual General Meeting) and that process will be just as relevant next year, you can easily copy and re-use the process. This saves tremendous amounts of time for processes that are repeatable. It means we no longer have to ‘rethink’ activities, but instead can search for similar activities we’ve run in the past, and benefit from that prior thought. Very neat!

9. Search, Search, Search

Finding notes or tasks quickly and easily is a dream with Asana. The search bar is exactly where it should be. Front and center in the top panel of the screen, the faint grey lines hinting at you, just in case you need it. You don’t even notice the search bar unless you’re looking for it, and as soon as you are, it’s there! Presto! Fantastic design. When you’re managing hundreds of tasks due soon or a year into the future, search helps you deal with the complexity of your bold plans. And it does this extremely well.

Photo Credit: Jeff Sheldon unsplash.com/photos/9SyOKYrq-rE

The post Why Asana is the Ultimate Productivity Platform appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

The question that sparked my interest was what learning strategies do “quick learners” follow.  Here is my response, which was republished on Inc.com.

***

Your question is a great one. And it forced me to reflect about the things I have learned across my interests in business, personal development, and martial arts.

Let me tell you, I’ve seen many slow learners understand subjects in far greater detail than people who can learn at a fast pace. If fact, slow learners can bring a deliberateness that sometimes is lacking in fast learners. So this can certainly be an advantage for you also.

Having said that, these are principles I’ve applied in my own learning that I feel are universal.

#1. Repetition.

I firmly believe repetition leads to mastery. When learning a new skill, practice that skill often. When learning a new theory, apply it wherever you can.

As Bruce Lee said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

Any skill refined through continuous practice over time will become formidable.

#2. Focus.

With so many distractions today–social media, multitasking, open-plan offices–we’re receiving constant stimuli.

We’ve lost the ability to focus. Yet focus is what is required to truly understand and absorb any subject.

To learn a new skill, I find time to focus on it in an environment free from distraction. When I’m reading about it, I’ll listen to music without lyrics, so the music does not distract me from the content of what I’m reading.

Steve Jobs said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”

#3. Context and detail.

To understand a specific subject, I find it useful to look at the big picture first. I like to understand the context of things.

So in a book I’ll read the table of contents before I look at the pages. This way I get a sense for where the overall context is headed. And when I read the details, I’ll understand how one theme relates to another. Detail is important, but at the right time.

Start too early on the details and you’ll miss the context of the whole. Miss details altogether, and understanding only stays superficial.

So I switch between context and detail so I learn the surface and the depth.

#4. Relationship.

Learning by understanding context and detail (the prior point) gives me a sense of the relationships among information. And this is very important for retained learning.

This is one of the reasons why, to recall the order of a full deck of cards, many people tell themselves a story involving all the characters in the cards. The story details the relationships of the cards to one another.

Building a meaningful relationship across the themes you’re studying is one of the best ways to accelerate and retain learning.

#5. Pace.

Pace is an excellent variable to play with.

For example, if you’re listening to a lecture, you could speed up the pace of the lecture x2.

Pace also serves another important function. It puts us under different types of pressure, and because of this, we adjust our learning method.

Putting ourselves through this variability builds our capacity, much in the same way that a long-distance runner may do hill sprints to work on his or her overall fitness.

In my own case, if I’m working on a presentation, I’ll try to say it at twice the speed on the final practices, to ensure that I can recall all the information I need under pressure.

If I can recall it at double the speed, I know it will be available to me at normal speed without stress.

This isn’t just about recall; it is about changing the dynamics of how we learn, to build flexibility into our learning methods.

I hope these are helpful to you. Best of luck with your own personal development.

The post 5 Ways to Learn and Remember Absolutely Anything appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

But there’s enough to get through in a single day, without having to scour trade journals.

What’s needed is a way for leaders to create their own market intelligence system, so they are better equipped to spot emerging issues before they happen. While there’s no such thing as prediction, there are ways to extend our foresight.

In this blog we’ll look at simple techniques that will allow you to set up your own intelligence system in as little as 30 minutes.

1. Register yourself with a good RSS feeder like feedly.

RSS feeders are a great way to aggregate different streams of content into one place. My personal favourite is feedly, which I use on my desktop PC as well as my tablet.

It’s easy to register and login to feedly. Simply use your Google or Twitter account, or an alternate login method.

2. Find blogs and sources of information that connect you with your industry.

The best sources of intelligence used to be trade information like magazines focused on a particular industry topic.

This is no longer the case. Today blogs provide direct and rapid access to expertise in any industry.

Of my intelligence system, about 70% consists of blogs written by experts. The rest is made up of internet publications that concentrate on special areas of interest. For example, The Verge is a great source of intelligence on emerging technology.

Use Google to locate and create a list of blogs and websites that represent the potential sources of your intelligence system. Once you have this list, setup each source as a ‘feed’ within your RSS feeder. Here is an example of mine:

If you wish, categorise these feeds into different subjects. This is a great way to streamline your reading habits.

3. Scan your new feeds on a regular basis.

Because there’s always new information, scanning through your feeds each day will keep you on top of any fast moving trends affecting your industry.

I scan my sources at least once a day. Whether it’s on the tram to work or just having a coffee, it only takes a few minutes to take a look at my latest feeds.

4. Save and share your favourite articles.

It’s one thing to read you sources of information, it’s another thing to save or share articles with others.

I save the articles I find most interesting. Preserving these articles by saving them allows me to create a digest of the information I perceive as most important. Over the course of a few months, I then have this invaluable intelligence backlog to keep my ideas fresh.

And you never know when someone will ask you for your perspective about the future.  It pays to have a list already on the go.

Another way to categorise content is to share it with others. I share articles I enjoy three or four times a day through Twitter and LinkedIn. As well as sharing high-level trends with peers, this helps me archive those articles I find most interesting. I can look back at my Twitter or LinkedIn posts at any time to see what I’ve shared in recent months. Sharing knowledge with others and hearing their views is also a fantastic way to tease out the implications of trends.

I guarantee you if you follow these simple steps you’ll build up an incredible intelligence system in no time at all.  Happy trend hunting.

The post How to Build Your Intelligence System in Less than 30 Minutes appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

In this post we look at five productivity tips to make us masters of time.

1. Identify a framework

Time Management is as much a philosophy as a practice. They key is to find a framework or philosophy that you can relate to.

Two frameworks I’ve identified with in particular are David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (GTD) and Steven Covey’s “7 Secrets of Highly Effective People“.

Allen’s simple GTD process is intuitive and simple to put into practice (Wiki Summary) . Stephen Covey’s 4 quadrant model of ‘importance and urgency” (Wiki Summary) give an excellent perspective on how to bend time.

Whether you identify with these framework or others, try a few philosophies until you find the one that best suits you.

2. Schedule time in your calendar for what’you will do the important

The only way to get the important things done is to make time to do them. Though simple, it’s the most crucial lesson of all. Put time aside first thing in the day do the the high priority work. Get it done first. Everything else….push it back in the day.

I hear you saying ‘there are some things that I can’t push back’. I would be the first to agree with you some things can’t wait – whether it’s paying that bill that’s due right now, or responding to your manager’s email. So this is more a principle than a hard and fast rule. I guarantee if you follow this principle 9 times out of 10, you will be surprised just how much of the important work you do get through.

Time is like a garden. If you don’t tend to it, the weeds will creep in. Make sure you’re spending more time on planting the flowers you actually want to see, rather than just trimming back those weeds.

3. Use your time by context

Did you know if you’re working on one task such as email, and then get distracted by a phone call, it can take your brain up to 20 to 30 minutes to refocus on your original task?

I was shocked when I first heard this. What’s more, it’s true! The emerging discipline of Interruption Science studies this phenomenon, and the loss of productivity that results from it. So, how do we get around this aspect of how our mind works?

One of the ways to be more productive is to focus your attention on a group of tasks based on context. For example, spend an hour doing email. Or an hour returning phone calls.

This way, though the subject of what you’re doing may change, the context of the task you’re performing doesn’t. You’ll be blazing through those tasks in no time.

4. Use tools to support your practice

Whether it’s software like Toodledo (a personal favorite), a diary by Kikki K, or Post It notes stuck to your computer screen – find the tool that fits your style.

It took me a long time to find my chosen tool. Or I should say ‘tools’.

Because I use devices regularly (phone, tablet, diary), I’ve chosen specific software for my Task Management and plain A4 paper which I can sketch on and scan at the end of the day.

My key principle – make sure wherever I am, on whichever device, I can check-in on my important tasks.

5. Book time for yourself

Do you ever feel like working life is getting busier and busier?

We receive more emails than ever before. More notifications from Facebook. Even as you read this there’s a good chance you’re receiving an SMS.

These tools are fantastic to keep us connected and many of us can’t imagine going without them. Yet at the same time it’s common to feel like there’s just too much to get through.

So in this ocean of busyness be sure to book time for yourself.

Resolve every week to make time for a run, or go for a walk. Why not see a movie with your favorite somebody. Whatever makes you happy, make sure you are taking this time for yourself at least 3 to 4 times a week.

This concept of ‘scheduling downtime’ is an important restorative activity to making you more productive. Give it a go. I’m sure you’ll thank yourself for it.

The post 5 Productivity Tips to Stop Time Rippling Away from You appeared first on Alessio Bresciani.

Over the last ten years I’ve taken an interest in the study and application of productivity.

More than ever we need to find new ways to manage the ‘busyness’ in life, while at the same time keeping our mind calm and uncluttered, so we have all our resources available to focus on our goals.

I want to share with you 6 digital tools I use every day and how they save me 350 hours per year.

1. Feed Reader

Feed Reader is one of the many RSS (Rich Site Summary) tools available. An RSS Reader allows you to connect to ‘blogs and online newspapers’, so that when they’re updated, the article comes directly to the RSS Reader.  This way you don’t have to visit the blog’s specific website every time you want new articles. These tools are enormous time savers because they bring the internet to you in a single location so you never miss an update.

How I use it

I’m passionate about learning new things. Fortunately, my work and study have always required me to explore new thinking, and this has often required research.  I use Feed Reader to synthesize over 50 sites into a single feed which I scan every day.

My process is:

• find blogs of interest and add them to Feed Reader
• read new ‘feeds’ and articles every day
• asterisk the articles that are of interest
• post articles (via Twitter, Linked In, or also email to colleagues) or save for specific reference purposes

How much time it saves me

It would easily take me between 2 to 4 hours a week to do the same amount of research I do through Google Reader in just 30 minutes.  That’s a minimum time saving of 1.5 hours a week.

2. Evernote

Evernote is a suite of software and services that allow people to take and archive notes on the web, on a smartphone, or a tablet. While the Evernote suite has many applications, I get the the most use out of Evernote itself.

How I use it

I’ve used many other note taking applications in the past. However, Evernote is among the very best and most practical.  I use Evernote to:

• capture and collect new ideas: whenever I stumble upon a new idea it goes straight into Evernote.
• manage an idea through stages: I use Evernote as the drafting tool to flesh out an idea. In the subject lines, I actually change categories as I go to manage the idea through these steps – ‘idea’, ‘draft’, ‘review’ and ‘finished’. Even this blog post started in Evernote and was 90% complete before I added it to this website.
• a second memory: there are some actions we do infrequently that are very important to our success. For example, planning goals and objectives, organising a family holiday that is 6 months away, submitting a tax return, and so on. I store my notes on these diverse subjects for reference during the year (or just so I don’t forget) in Evernote.
• search function: Evernote has a fantastic search feature, so all you need to do is enter a keyword to find notes you’ve written many months ago. Even better, the search  will also find documents that you’ve written by hand and scanned into the program. For this reason all of the diagrams that I draw go straight into Evernote (eg. process maps, charts, sketches, systems diagrams).

How much time it saves

I’m constantly using Evernote and would estimate I gain 1.5 hours a week in efficiencies (of writing, researching effectively, not forgetting, and having information accessible wherever I am).

3. Buffer

Buffer is an online tool that allows you to schedule social media updates in advance. For example, with Buffer I can ‘load up’ 10 social media posts on the weekend, and they’ll be distributed by the ‘Buffer’ app throughout the week.

How I Use It

Often people tell me ‘you send so many Tweets, I don’t know how you find the time!’. The truth is I’m very specific about how I use social media. Outside of responding to people’s comments (which I do daily), twice a week I spend 30 mns on updates. My process is:

• review articles or quotes I’ve read or flagged over the last week
• select the most interesting content
• load this content into my Buffer account, knowing these updates will be sent (2 or 3 per day) over the course of the next 3 to 4 days

I use Buffer to manage my Linked In and Twitter updates, though you can use this tool for many other social media applications.

How much time it saves

It’s said that every time you’re interrupted from completing a specific task, it will take you an additional 7 minutes to return to the same level of concentration you had before you were interrupted. This is why I manage my social media updates twice a week, instead of continuously during the day. For this reason, I would estimate that Buffer saves me at least 30 minutes to 1 hour per week.

4. Toodledo

Toodledo is an online task management application that helps you track tasks and optimise your productivity.

How I use it

I’ve been a long time advocate of this product. This is the fifth year I’ve used it, and I’m constantly refining the ways that I leverage the tool. I use Toodledo to:

• capture: capture all tasks which I’ve agreed to or have been assigned to me
• categorise: categorise the ‘context’ for the task (eg. whether it’s an ’email’ or ‘errand’ or ‘call’ and so on)
• schedule: schedule when I will complete the task over the next week or month
• track: track when tasks delegated to others are due and whether they’ve been completed
• notes: store and retrieve my notes about important meetings, research and ideas

Two of the biggest benefits I’ve received from using Toodledo are:

• freedom of mind: because I have a system for managing my commitments, I don’t have to retain them constantly in my thoughts. This leaves my mind free to focus on the important opportunities in front of me
• productivity: with Toodledo I am able to get more out of each day, and take a real joy in completing actions I’ve agreed to

How much time it saves

Toodledo would save me 2 hours per week through additional productivity and increased focus.

5. Gmail

I know, I know, I’m sure we’re all very familiar with Gmail. However, because it’s such a good tool, I feel it deserves a mention.

How I use it

As a long time user of Gmail, there are 3 ways I feel it trumps many other email solutions:

• search: it’s search feature is very fast. I’m amazed just how quickly Gmail is able to locate emails from years ago when I search for them.  And there are many occasions when I have to find previous conversations, receipts, booking references, and so on.
• junk mail: Gmail’s spam filter is very good. When using other email tools, I often found spam incredibly frustrating. Gmail does a great job of removing the junk, so I don’t have to.
• multi device: I have an Android phone, an iPad and an Android tablet, and I find Gmail works seamlessly across all these devices.

How much time it saves

Based on its abilities to quickly search for previous information as well as de-clutter my inbox from junk mail, Gmail would save me 1 hour a week.

6. Combined Calendar

If there’s one thing all busy families need it is a combined calendar. There are plenty to choose from, such as Cozi and Zoho Calendar, and my personal choice is Google Calendar.

How I use it

By far the greatest use I have for this calendar, is that I can see the calendars of other people that have shared their schedule with me. This is especially the case for family members and very good friends.

Instead of having to call around in order to plan events, with a shared calendar, I can see when everyone’s working or busy, and simply book time with them.

With this calendar I can also setup multiple reminders and I use this feature frequently. If I have an important meeting coming up, I schedule an alert 2 weeks prior to the event, then 1 week and then 1 day before. These structured alerts keep me thinking about what’s coming next.

How much time it saves me

By using this shared calendar in place of phone calls and emails, I save 30 minutes a week.

Added up, that’s 350 hours a year…

That’s right, taking the minimum times highlighted above in green, multiplied by 50 weeks (leaving out 2 weeks for holiday), that’s a whopping time saving of 350 hours per year.  Isn’t it amazing how saving an hour here and there can add up to so much time within a single year?

Question: What digital productivity tools do you use to manage chaos and reach your goals during the year? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

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