productivity

How To Use The LapTop Trick To Increase Productivity

May 24, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

3752325_f520

One of the problems with being productive on the computer is that it seems as if we have an infinite amount of time. In the span of days, weeks, months, and years, some people believe they couldn’t possibly need any extra time. This is what results in many people being unproductive when they work on their computers. An infinite amount of time eliminates the sense of urgency.

However, there is a fix to the problem. There is a way to create urgency. What if you had several days to write 10 blog posts? Chances are you would write some blog posts on some of those days and not write a single blog post on other days. In addition, those blog posts may get crammed together in the end.

Now what would happen if you only had 6 hours to write 10 blog posts? That would be 1 blog post every 36 minutes. That is still a lot of time to write a blog post, but now you are writing 10 blog posts in 1 day. How does that happen?

The answer is using the LapTop trick. We are all fooled into thinking that we have an unlimited amount of time. However, we are all mistaken. The best way to tap into the urgency is by removing the power cord from your computer. Then, work in a different room from where your power cord is, and continue to write blog posts and do other productive things until your computer dies or you get all of your tasks done. Removing the power cord removes the thought of having an infinite amount of time. Removing the power cord allows you to realize that you don’t have a lot of time left, and as your computer drops under 50% power, you will further realize that you do not have a lot of time left. As your computer gets closer to dying, your sense of urgency will increase. Soon, you will be able to complete tasks in several hours that once took you several days to complete.

The LapTop trick is a secret way to boost your productivity. We do not have an infinite amount of time, and this trick will allow anyone to realize that time is a valuable but also limited resource.

The Biggest Mistake People Make When Using Sticky Notes

May 22, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Sticky notes are a very effective way to boost your productivity. Although sticky notes have been proven to work, there is one mistake that too many people make. This mistake prevents people from accessing the true potential of sticky notes.

Are you ready for it?

The biggest mistake people make when using sticky notes is letting the sticky notes accumulate. A sticky note is designed to remind you about a goal so you can get that goal accomplished. If you have 1 sticky note on your desk with three goals, you are reminding yourself to accomplish three goals. However, if you have 10 sticky notes on your desk with three goals each, then you are reminding yourself to accomplish 30 goals.

If you only had to pick one or the other, would you rather have three homework assignments due the next day or 30 homework assignments due the next day? When sticky notes accumulate, you are given more work to do. The only problem is that the workload becomes overwhelming. Sticky notes get thrown into the garbage, goals get crossed out, and the end result is no productivity.

If you want to use sticky notes to boost your productivity, then I applaud you. It does work. However, when you use sticky notes, you need to make sure there is never an accumulation. A desk cluttered with sticky notes results in less productivity and drains your attention away from the work that you are doing.

4 Good Ways To Use Sticky Notes

May 21, 2014 by Marc Guberti 1 Comment

sticky note pile

One of the big reasons my productivity has gone up is because I use sticky notes. Every day, I use sticky notes for a variety of methods, and at the end of every month, I put all of my sticky notes into a designated envelope for that month. The number of sticky notes in these envelopes have dramatically increased over the months that I started–just like my productivity. In order to increase your productivity, you need to know the proper ways to use sticky notes. These are the Big 4.

Write down your daily goals. Since sticky notes are designed to be made and thrown out quickly, only write down your daily goals on your sticky notes. Writing down your daily goals will allow you to stay on task.
Make sure you can easily see your sticky notes. I put all of my sticky notes right next to my computer. That way, when I glance away from my computer screen, I look at the sticky note and see all of my goals. If you want your sticky notes to grab your attention, only use yellow sticky notes and only write with a black marker. The human brain registers yellow faster than any other color, and black on yellow is just as noticeable.
Write down a plan to accomplish a certain goal. If you have a big goal for the day, write down how you are going to accomplish that goal. When are you going to take breaks? When you are working at your goal, what steps of action will you take to accomplish those goals? These are the things that you can write on your sticky notes.
Write down things that you want to remember. Ideas come and go. As the idea remains as a memory for a longer period of time, it becomes easier to forget about that idea. Having sticky notes with you solves the problem. If you think of a brilliant idea for a blog post, but you have to go somewhere for a few hours, write the idea on a sticky note and leave it by your computer. That way, you will remember the brilliant idea when you go back to writing on your computer.

Those are the 4 ways that you can effectively use sticky notes. By effectively using sticky notes, you will increase your productivity and get more work done in a shorter amount of time. If you use sticky notes every day, your goals that once appeared impossible will be in reach.

5 Reasons To Break Up With Bad Clients

May 16, 2014 by Marc Guberti 10 Comments

Difficult Client

Many people make the mistake of focusing on gaining clients instead of focusing on the most important clients. These people believe that they can change every client so that every client becomes a quality client. The problem is that the process takes too much time, and in the end, the client never changes. Ever. Instead of trying to make all of your clients happy, only focus on the clients who are the most important ones you have. Here is why you need to do that.

Breaking up with bad clients will save you oodles of time. Imagine the amount of time it takes to write reports and talk to the client. That can take up several hours every week. Imagine how much time you would save if you could break up with 5 bad clients.
You can focus more of your time on the good ones. Now that you have more time, your conversations with the good clients can get longer, and you can provide more insight in your reports. Focusing on your good clients allows you to treat them like VIPs. Giving them the VIP treatment will encourage them to do more business with you in the future.
Bad clients will not refer you, but the good ones will refer you. In addition to saving more time, you are able to spend more time with the clients who are more likely to refer you to their friends. The good clients are the ones who tell others about what you do. Those are the kinds of clients who you want to talk to, not the ones who do not like what you offer and wouldn’t even think about referring you to their friends.
You get to keep a positive attitude. You probably have a few clients who simply ramble on about their problems and bring you down. Breaking up with those clients will allow you to keep a positive attitude and be a happier person. Not only will this have a positive effect on your business, but it will also have a positive attitude on your life.
It will be easier to get more quality clients. Quality clients are hard to come by. However, if you focus on your quality clients, those clients will refer you to some of their friends. Those friends will most likely be quality clients as well. In addition, you will discover the characteristics that your quality clients have. Then, you can find consumers with those characteristics and tell them about your business.

Those are the five reasons why you need to break up with bad clients as soon as possible. By eliminating the bad clients, you will be able to focus more of your time on your quality clients–the ones who pay on time, make you happy, and enjoy your service. What are your thoughts about breaking up with bad clients?

How To Track Your Time

May 15, 2014 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

Tracking Time

Time is our most valuable resource. However, not everyone is tracking how their time gets carved out day by day. Instead of identifying how long they stay on social networks, most people make an educated guess. However, an educated guess is not good enough. Chances are you know your strengths and weaknesses in time management. However, what few people know is how powerful their strengths are and how flimsy their weaknesses are.

In order to measure your strengths and weaknesses, you need to track your time. Before you start something, write down the time that you started. When you move on to another activity, write down the time that you stopped. Then, write down the time that you started your next activity and continue the process.

Here is an example: I start writing my book at 5 pm and stop at 6 pm. Then, I look at my Twitter feed from 6 pm to 6:30 pm. Then, I write blog posts from 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm.

By continuing this cycle, you will be able to identify how much time you are spending on certain activities. Maybe you are spending more than an hour looking at your Twitter feed. It is better to catch yourself than it is to make an educated guess. In addition, continuing this cycle and creating this kind of schedule will allow you to identify what you did on your most productive days. If you wrote blog posts from 11 pm to 12 am on 1 day, and you wrote blog posts from 6 am to 7 am, you would be able to identify the time in which you are the most productive for a certain task.

By tracking your time for a week, you will be able to find common patterns. You will be able to identify where you spend most of your time and what goals you need to spend more time on. Write everything down in a notebook so you are able to look back at your results months later. Although this process does help you find out where you are carving your time, the process of writing times and activities is a long one. My recommendation is to track your time once a week every month and compare your results. Then, you will be able to see how you should be carving your time throughout the day.

Time is truly our most valuable resource. In order to get the most out of our most valuable resource, we need to track how we are using time. The numbers may surprise you. What are your thoughts on tracking time?

10 Productivity Hacks That You Did Not Expect

May 14, 2014 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

In order to get more goals accomplished, we need to be productive for as much time as we can. There are many things that prevent us from being productive such as television, surfing the web, and other forms of procrastination. However, there are several productivity hacks that can boost your productivity. While some of these productivity hacks are obvious such as setting goals and fulfilling deadlines, there are other productivity hacks that are not as obvious. These are the 10 productivity hacks that are not as obvious.

Exercise. Exercising has been proven as a great way to boost productivity. Exercising requires determination, and after you are done lifting the weights or running around your neighborhood, you will be able to take that same determination to your work. In addition, exercising allows you to clear the mind and do something that does not require you to sit behind a desk.
Have a chain of accomplishments and keep that chain going. If you want to boost your productivity, get a calendar and put a red “X” on each day that you accomplish your goal. Having this visible chain will make you want to keep that streak going for as long as possible. Once you have a good streak, you will never want that streak to end. In order to keep the streak going, you will have to boost your productivity.
Meditate. Meditating clears the mind and empowers the soul. Once you are finished meditating, you will feel empowered as you continue your work. Instead of stopping and encountering writer’s block, meditation gives you the imagination you need to finish writing blog posts and books.
Uninterrupted work. Social media has a big impact on our productivity. A big mistake people make is to check their social networks while working “for a few minutes.” Those few minutes turn into 30 minutes that you lost. If you are working on a goal, the work you do needs to be uninterrupted. Make sure your phone is out of sight and that you will not do anything else to procrastinate.
Start work earlier and work fewer hours. You do not need to work for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days every year to get your goals accomplished. The secret is waking up earlier. We are at our peak of productivity when we wake up in the morning. As a result, you will be able to get more done in the morning. Then, you will not have to work as long throughout the day.
Get a second monitor for your computer. A common reason why many people are not productive is because they have too many things up on their computer. If you are one of these people, then you need a second monitor. One monitor can contain all of the clutter while the other monitor only contains your work. If you want to be even more productive, get two monitors.
Don’t think about how much time your goal will take. Many people overthink the situation. I was a big overthinker with my Twitter following. When I was gaining 100 followers every day, I calculated too often how long it would take for me to reach 100,000 followers. Now, I no longer do any of those calculations. In the end, performing a calculation does not get me any closer to my goal. Instead of thinking about how much time your goal will take, start thinking of some ways to make your goal happen faster.
Achieve three goals per day. Three is the magic number. If you are just starting to be more productive, giving yourself 10 goals to accomplish in 1 day will overwhelm you. However, only giving yourself 1 goal will make that day too easy. Three is the magic number that will make your day not too overwhelming but not too easy either.
Declutter your working space. If you are the type of person with a lot of papers on their desk, sticky notes all over the place, plants, and other things on your desk, then you need to clean that desk. Clutter encourages distraction. If you lift your head from your computer screen and stare at the clutter, you will be wasting valuable time. What you need to do is declutter your working space so you are able to be more productive. Another benefit is that by having nothing on your desk, you will pay more attention to the sticky notes that you place on your desk.
Learn to say no. Not everything is worth doing. If you say yes to everything, then some of your time will be wasted on doing things that are not important. Do not be afraid to say no. Saying no will save you a lot of time in the long run.

Those are the 10 productivity hacks. By implementing these tactics, you will be able to increase your productivity. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you use any other productivity hacks? Please share your thoughts and productivity hacks below.