by Lina Salama
3rd Year Student in Accounting
One thing in life is certain: everyone has 24 hours in a day. Increasing our productivity helps us achieve more in less time, thereby making us smarter students and more valuable employees. The methods described below will help you boost your productivity.
Use the “Two-Minute Rule”
This rule is easy to follow: If it takes less than two minutes, then do it now. It was first introduced by David Allen in his bestselling book, Getting Things Done. Starting a task is often the most difficult part since we tend to procrastinate. Using this technique, you’ll discover that most tasks can be started in less than 2 minutes. Imagine your goal for the year is to read more books. Although you can’t finish an entire book in two minutes, you can read one page. Once you begin reading, you will most likely not want to stop after the first page. You’ll achieve your goal in no time!
Practice the Pomodoro Technique
This simple time‑management technique breaks your work sessions into intervals called pomodoros. They are as follows: 25 minutes of work intervals with 5-minute breaks in between, take a longer break every 4 work intervals. Essentially, this technique boosts productivity since it allows you to take regular breaks and creates a sense of urgency during each work interval. It has been scientifically proven that taking regular breaks helps boost productivity because our minds cannot focus on a single task for long stretches of time.
Eat the Frog (instructions unclear: frog stuck in my throat.)
Please do not eat a frog! This method was inspired by Mark Twain’s famous quote: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Create a to-do list with the most urgent tasks. The frog represents the most dreaded task on your list. Once you’ll finish that task, you’ll feel accomplished and everything else will seem easy in comparison.
Using the techniques described above, you should notice a difference in your overall productivity. Even using one technique at a time will lead to improvements. Choose one and try it out for yourself to see the difference. Work smarter, not harder!
