I got 99 problems…and my cell phone is probably one.
We recently talked about how distracting technology can be to your productivity and goals. In an age, when everyone can be immediately reached at the tap of a button, distractions are at an all-time high and our attention span is at an all-time low.
But there’s always two sides to every story, and we should give technology its chance to defend itself, right?
Technology is the double-edged sword prevalent in everyone’s life. It’s had an effect on every aspect of our culture: relationships, career, opportunity, well-being. It’s touched almost every part of the world in both the negative (I’m looking at you, selfie sticks…) and positive (access and opportunity to some of the poorest nations).
Welcome to 21st century problems! How do we find a balance between being connected and being a walking computer?
It’s all about slowly integrating solutions, even if it’s as simple as committing to one hour each day completely unplugged and only reachable by face-to-face contact…or carrier pidgeon.
Part of mastering that balance is learning how to leverage technology properly, not just how to avoid it. It’s taking technology and showing it who’s boss!
“I own you, you don’t own me, fool!” You tell ’em….
Take Back Your Time
The road to time freedom.
While those puppy videos on YouTube can be a real time-suck, people have also come up with really beautifully-designed software for taking back your time. (Technology is helping us save ourselves from technology! Whoa.)
- Email Game: The Email Game is an invention from Baydin Software, meant to give you the inspiration to power through your morning inbox. You seriously need to try this. You’ll find that most emails can be responded to within 1 – 3 minutes. Instead of letting emails sit for hours or days, you can quickly respond and move on. Inbox zero is REAL.
- Yast.com time tracking tool: This is a great tool for understanding where you’re spending your time. Just like with apps, if you’re not collecting data and analyzing your performance, you’ll never know what you’re doing right or wrong. Tracking your efforts will significantly help you grow.
- RescueTime: Another great time tracking tool. RescueTime helps you understand your daily habits so you can focus and be more productive
- Password management: Who can remember a hundred passwords? But having the same simple password (dragonboy76) you’ve had since you were 18 isn’t the answer either. Not searching for passwords, and being able to auto-populate my logins at the touch of button is a game-changer. Try these popular ones: Keeper, 1Password, LastPass.
Set Different Profiles on your Computer
We feel you, kid…
If you’re like many of us working from home, your work computer is also your entertainment computer (Netflix on the ready!), your browsing computer, and your contact with social media. All of these can drain hours out of the day if you aren’t careful and the more we integrate these work escapes into our daily lives the more often we find ourselves absent-mindlessly loading them up.
Have you ever had a social media black out? One minute you’re uploading new keywords for your app, and the next you realize you’ve been on Facebook for 20 minutes. “How did I even get here?”
To combat that, set yourself up with a new profile on your computer. Keep that profile free of any games, social media, video sharing websites, and personal email or documents. This will help you avoid falling into those pitfalls which can lead to long distractions, as well as provide a deterrent for doing them as you’ve greeted several extra steps to get to those 21st century addictions. Think of entering this profile as if you’re entering your “office.”
While you’re on this profile, use programs you can get that will lock you out of profiles during specific parts of the day ensuring that you’ve put in work hours.
- StayFocusd: StayFocusd increases your productivity by limiting the amount of time that you can spend on time-wasting websites.
- LeechBlock: A Firefox extension that acts as a free version of Anti-Social. It’s customizable as well but limited to just the one browser.
- WriteMonkey: Once activated, the tool transforms your computer into a full-screen writing environment that blocks out the distractions of standard computer interfaces. It’s free and customizable.
- Freedom: Don’t need to use the internet for work? Have a project to get done that can’t afford any internet distractions? Freedom is a program that will lock you out of the internet for a set time, removing all of those pesky interwebs distractions.
- Anti-Social: While it leaves the internet enabled on your computer, it blocks out typical time wasters like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. It can be customized to block other sites you find distracting as well, able to be completely personalized to your own needs.
Note-Taking & Brain Dumps: Just get it out!
Don’t be this guy…
As an entrepreneur, there is always so much going on at once. Often times, we’re running a one-man show until we start to see some success and can outsource more tasks. Our minds are going a thousand miles per minute, and our brain is cluttered with thoughts.
Part of your daily routine should be scheduling a time to brain dump. Get every thought and concern out, either on paper (recommended) or digitally if you want search capabilities. Tim Ferriss has a great blog post talking about the benefits of “dumping” first thing in the morning (cue immature bathroom joke), and how it actually helps you get more done through-out the day even if your brain dump had nothing to do with the day’s tasks. It’s about getting it all out, so you can clear up your mind for your most important, high-value tasks.
- Evernote: One of the most thorough note-taking and content management systems available. Write notes of all types, from short lists to lengthy research, and access them on any device. Collect web articles, handwritten notes, and photos to keep all the details in one place. Not to mention you can, find your work quickly with Evernote’s search feature.
- Good ‘ol pen & paper: Nothing beats physically putting your thoughts down by writing them out. It’s been proven that our mind retains more, and responds more, when we write rather than type.
- Workflowy: WorkFlowy is a great way to take notes, make lists, collaborate, brainstorm, and plan. It’s simple enough for a shopping list, and powerful enough to run a company. Each item can have sub-lists under it, and each of those sub-items can have their own nested lists, and so on. You can double-click on a bullet point and WorkFlowy shows you a new page for that item and all its sublists. Each item in your list is like a new document on its own.
Habit-Tracking: How to change your life.
You, too, can free yourself from giant cupcakes with enough practice!
Aside from tracking your habits, you should also be setting goals and practicing forming new habits. When you learn how to successfully start new habits and follow-through with them until they’re ingrained in you…your life will change drastically. Anything becomes possible when you learn to stick with habits, but we all know it’s not an easy feat.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned this year: you cannot go it alone. If you take anything away from this post, take that and implement it.
Find a buddy, sign-up for a habit-tracking software – just find something to hold you accountable.
- Coach.me/Lift: A habit tracking app that also allows you to set habits, follow “coaches,” or create a step-by-step plan for your habits. It also has a networking aspect where you can connect with people working on the same habit.
- Nozbe: If any of these resources deserved a little extra room above, it’s this one. Its focus is entirely on goal tracking, bringing together all of your devices so you can track and maintain goals you set for yourself.
- irunurun: While on the surface, and perhaps by design, this may look like a fitness tracking app, I could easily see it helping in motivation for any number of things. It allows for a comparison of goals between two or more people, which could help plant the seed for a healthy working competition between you and an invited guest.