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the-productive-professionals.md

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1. INTRODUCTION

  • Don't measure productivity by how much time you spent on it (dedicated time alone does not help achieve any success)
  • It takes time to build good habit & get results.
  • Optimise your time, see what you are good at and what you want from your life
  • Shift your focus from the result to the method —
  • Find something in the process that makes you happy.
  • Channel that happiness into maintaining a routine to continue working.
  • As you keep on working, you will give yourself time.
  • And you will eventually pull through the learning curve.
  • Have right mindset about your work.
  • Take your time, Take breaks, Take care of your mental health.

2. DISTRACTION

  • Live in the present moment.
  • In physical meetings, don't start using mobile phones.

A) PHYSICAL SEPERATION

  • Switch off mobile internet data when you have work that demands your utmost attention.
  • Keep your phone away from your working area.
  • Out of sight, out of mind.”

B) PHONE CALLS

  • Tell your loved ones that they should text you more and that they should only call when it is absolutely necessary.
  • For work, communication is the key. Tell your manager that your internet connection will be off when you are at home (caution)
  • Use "stayFocused" Chrome Extension.
  • Active zen Hours when you are completely away from Internet. tell yourself that our species has survived thousands of years without the internet, so you can definitely manage a few hours without it.

C) DECLUTTER YOUR DESKTOP

  • You don't need 100 files, shortcuts on desktop screen. Arrange them once according to need/ category.
  • Also keep your desk clean, remove things that you don't need for your work.

D) WRITE IT ON PAPER

E) SWITCH OFF YOUR MOBILE NOTIFICATIONS

  • The fear of missing out ruining our culture, avoid it.
  • You don't need to reply every text instantly.
  • You don't need instant updates of everything.
  • And you most certainly don't need reminders from brands. ...Trust me, you're not going to miss out on anything.

F) DO NOT DISTURB MODE

G) FOCUS MODE

  • it's there in almost every decent phone these days; use this feature.
  • you can customize DND and focus mode according to your need.
  • notice your "screen time" and take actions accordingly.

H) STAY AWAY FROM GROUP CHATS

  • exit from toxic WhatsApp groups.
  • If you can't exit, mute them, achieve them.
  • Anyone can trigger any discussion there and you waste reading meaningless conversation.

3. PROCRASTINATION

  • Reason : Lack of immediate reward-punishment mechanisms
  • Ex. we seem to easily procrastinate when it comes to exercise because we don't see any immediate changes in our bodies.
  • Avoidance of discomfort, fear of failure, and low energy levels also contribute heavily to procrastination.
  • Solution: Smart energy-allocation, dedication, self-mastery, and a healthy lifestyle.

A) ROUTINE (what to do)

  • Once you have a routine that every day after work you will focus on a task X that you had decided you must complete, task X will be far easier to start and complete.

B) DECIPLINE (what to do)

  • Start small

C) PRIORITIZATION

  • Every week, sit for an hour and decide what you want to work on for that week.
  • If you have a lot of options, ask yourself what is the most important thing that you want to work on.
  • Do it weekly, monthly, quarterly...
  • Ensure, you start small, achieve tasks daily.
  • Use the two-minute trick.
  • (Instead of telling yourself, "I am going to sit and write for two hours today", tell yourself that you will simply sit and write for two minutes. Those two minutes would have the power to break your inertia).
  • Excercise : The best way to build up your stamina for the day, to ensure that you generally have energy remaining after coming home from work, is to exercise
  • Check your: body, sleep, and food.
  • Practice slow deep breathing before sleeping to get relaxed.
  • At times, making your progress visible can help you maintain momentum.
  • Declare your goals publicly is one way to stay accountable.

4. PHYSICAL HEALTH

  • Take enough food, sleep and rest.
  • Health is an investment ; play long term game.
  • If you're thinking about cutting on your sleep, please first cut down on watching videos on Youtube, TikTok, Netflix, or any other video-hosting or social media platform. Optimize your time for sleep.
  • Join gym to stay fit, not to make 6 pack abs. know your goal beforehand.
  • Or simply do Home workout, cycling, run, walk everday.
  • Garbage in, garbage out, Don’t eat junk food.
  • One good alternative if you don’t want to join gym is : Sports.
  • Cricket, badminton, swimming, tennis, table tennis, squash…anything
  • You’ll stay motivated, enjoy it and stay fit. Also you make friends.
  • You improve your stamina, creativity to tackle different situations, learn new things, improve your focus on game and there are lots of benefits.
  • There are days when you don’t feel to do anything mentioned above, then have a small walk. If you are on a long phone call(friend/parent..) then walk while you’re on phone.
  • Listen to podcast while walking.
  • Yoga - Increase Endurance, Flexibility.
  • Meditation - For the mind, Peace.
  • Do regular health check-ups
  • Prefer home cooked food, fruits instead of ordering online.
  • Random example: Calculate your per day salary, if you feel sick for 1-2 days then you lost that Money + it has bad impact on health; instead invest that money in health.
  • learn to spend money on your health. That is one of the best investments you would make.
  • If you have fitness tracker then set alerts for Drinking water, blinking eyes, walking after perticular interval.
  • Track your progress. Number of steps, sleep hours etc. It will give you some direction.
  • Computer vison syndrome - common problem for techies.
  • Read hard copy instead of soft copy if you have a choice.
  • 20-20-20 rule : Every 20 minutes, look 20 meters away, for at least 20 seconds.

5. TEAMWORK

  1. Develop a vision - Why the team has been created and what the goal of each member is.
  2. Be approachable leader.
  3. Give every member importance.
  4. Be a specialist in your field.
  5. Lead by example.
  6. Instructions without practice don't carry much weight.
  7. Provide honest feedback.
  8. Praise and admire in public but criticize and rectify in private.
  9. Encourage the personal growth of teammates.
  10. Celebrate accomplishments.
  11. Offer on-the-spot incentives.
  12. We only do work when we are answerable to someone.
  • The solution to this popular problem is to get a teammate, a learning buddy, or a project partner.
  • That will motivate you whenever you don’t feel like working, and you will help your teammate(s) whenever they feel the same.
  • Always strive to create a win-win situation.

6. MANAGE ATTENTION

  1. If you are getting bored or sleepy in a lecture, is to start taking notes..0
  2. Active participation - achieving everything will decrease the quality of your work.
  3. Managing attention at work:
    • Define your focus hours
    • Decide on overlapping hours
  4. Learn to document.
    • Encourage yourself and everyone else around you to continuously document and share what you learn. Make it easy for others to find and access those documents. This will ensure that you don’t get disturbed and your workflow does not break outside of collaboration time.
  5. No hello, async communication is key
    • Don't just say "hi" , "hello" and left the chat. Tell them why you approach to them.
  6. Get a room, or a sign
    • read a book called "deep work"
  7. Flow is not a myth
    • While working on something, have you ever lost your sense of time, not felt tired or hungry, and felt that the working process was so enjoyable that the process felt like its own reward?
    • I am sure you have experienced that deep concentration-fuelled work. Such a state is called ‘flow’. In layman terms, it may also be called ‘being in the zone.’
    • Ex. hackathon
  8. Requirements to achieve this "flow"
    1. Distraction-free environment
    2. Incremental wins - cut big job into smaller pieces
    3. Tasks should be doable
    4. Tasks should not be boring
    5. Increase the difficulty of your tasks, add twists or new challenges to them.

7. SOCIAL MEDIA

  • Avoid online drama
  • Follow accounts which will inspire you, accounts related to your profession.
  • You become what you consume
  • Find chat rooms, telegram groups, discord servers, slack, subreddits - interaction spaces related to whatever you want to learn more about, or whatever you want to create more.
  • Once found, get your foot in the door.

8. PLANNING

  • Take a pen and notebook and pick one of your half-finished projects. Write your desired end state for that project and then break it down into sub-tasks - each accomplishable in one hour.
  • Ask yourself, "Do I really need to build this?"
  • MVP - Market Viable Product.
  • We get into the details of things - related yet unimportant.
  • Do the most important thing first.
  • Shipping early and soon provides you with some very important advantages.
  • Have deadlines for tasks.

9. MARATHON LEARNING

  • Have Proper sleep b efore
  • No junk food
  • Keep Learning materials ready beforehand
  • Devide and conquer - break down tasks/subtasks
  • Take care of the essentials.
  • Food, Snacks, AC, Stable and high speed Internet connection, backup internet connection, laptop battery, distraction free environment.
  • Remove distraction
  • Don't check instagram, Facebook etc.
  • Don’t torture yourself unnecessarily by keeping in touch with others.
  • Don't give up
  • Use your office leaves for marathon learning
  • Side projects - Take breaks on Monday/Friday, so that you have 3 continuos days to build something.

10. SUBCONCIOUS PROGRAMMING

  • Some basic ideas get repeated over and over again, and also showcase how harnessing the power of our subconscious can lead to miracles.