Tips for productivity from successful entrepreneurs

In the recent past, the boys wanted to become travelers and generals, but now, I'm sorry, startups. And there is nothing wrong or surprising here. In our time, when all the geographical discoveries have already been made, and the war has ceased to be a matter of honor, much better to create new things and ideas. Especially if they bring even a good income.

Therefore, we want to introduce all future startups and already held the secrets of the most successful people in this area. The basis of this article is based answers famous people on the internet business Quora question service: «What is your secret to productivity?»

The rule of "no meetings on Wednesdays"

dustin Moskovitz, Co-founder of Facebook and one of the developers of the popular project management service Asana, says that his team has a rule to leave one day a week free of all appointments, meetings and discussions.

The result is a continuous space for the whole day, which eventually turns out to be the most productive day of the week. dustin Moskovitz

Use smart cards

While the first scheme of associations emerged almost in ancient Greece, yet in their modern form of smart cards have become popular thanks to the British writer and psychologist Tony Buzan. Now this method of presenting information and solutions are widely used in all spheres. For example, paul Klipp, Founder Lunar LogicEvery Monday paints a new map with the tasks for a week, and then spend a few minutes each day to update it. To do this, it uses the service mindmeister.com, Resulting in approximately the diagram.

Try the "tomato" technique

Following the huge popularity of interval training in sports like time management method comes into the office. The essence of the "tomato" technology It is that you divide your time by 25-minute intervals, during which no diversion go about their duties. These workers are separated by intervals of 5-minute intervals of rest, during which you can relax. paul Klipp I use this technique, and it really helps him.

You might assume that the person is able to make up to 16 such cycles per day. In fact it is not. I am lucky, when it turns out to work, double-spaced with no distractions. But in those 50 minutes, I have time to do more than in the remaining seven hours of my working day, at least in terms of promotion of their most important tasks. Paul A. Klipp

Use to manage tasks Kanban

Kanban board is a simple visualization tool of your current tasks and achievements. We wrote about this technique in this review and here. The above-mentioned Paul Klipp uses this method not only to manage their time, but also for the organization of the team. That's how it looks when a worksheet kanbanflow.com.

Outsource small and labor-intensive tasks

When working on any project there are tasks for which impractical to take on the staff of a special employee. Perhaps these problems you have to solve only one time, or they are so small that only distract you from the main case. In that case, feel free to contact freelancers and freelancers. Matt DeCelles, Founder and director william Painter, Recommends sites like Elance and FiverrTo find professionals in literally any area - from programming to design.

Highlight its main business

When you want to schedule a future date, highlight the three most important things and write them on the sticker. DeCelles recommends to stick the sticker directly in front of him to his presence reminds you of priorities.

Use RescueTime, to see where your time goes

DeCelles also recommends that you install the program RescueTime on your computer or the corresponding browser extension. With their help, you can keep track of how much time you spend on visiting certain websites and use apps. You can see how the daily statistics and analysis of your activities for the week. On the basis of this analysis is derived overall assessment of your productivity and provides tips on improving it.

Come into the office earlier than others

Remco Van Mook, One of the founders of Virtu, recommends to appear at work for an hour or two before anyone else.

Maybe at first you do not like it too. But then you see that you can do it for a short time, even more than in the rest of the day, when all the staff will gather and will distract you for nothing. Remco Van Mook

Use Pocket, to put interesting articles for later

Gokul Nath SridharFounder and CEO LikewyssIt is a big fan of Pocket. This application will allow you to lose less time learning interesting material you found on the web. Just save them to read and be able to easily return to them later: on the way home from work in the evening or on weekends. Pocket downloads articles on your computer or mobile device, so you do not even need a web presence.

Remember the rule of two minutes

David Allen in his popular book «Getting Things Done» described the technique, which reads as follows: if the task can be accomplished in less than two minutes, do it right now. christian Sutardi, The founder of a startup LolaboxSuccessfully apply this rule to work.

I like this approach is that it is completely natural. You do not need to do any special software or gadgets. You do not need training and development of this skill, you can start doing so right from today. christian Sutardi

Do you have your own techniques that help in your work? Tell us about them (we will not tell you, honestly).