Why high energy levels start with your first meal

All our talk about productivity assumes that you ensure there to be enough energy in the tank needed to get all your stuff done. After all, you can only do as much as your energy levels permit. Sure, you can trick your system for a bit with caffeine and other stimulants, but that approach is neither healthy nor sustainable.

The strategies that I share to help you maintain high energy levels throughout the day will come as little surprise. We all know that what we eat and how we care for our bodies are central to being able to engage in our work at consistently high levels. Yet so many of us fail to practice what we know, which results in low energy and a sense of underperformance.

How to productively knock out those 2-minute tasks

Blocking out time on our calendar is great for diving deep into specific tasks. But you might be thinking, what about the many tasks on our plates each day? You know, the ones that require but a few minutes, that you can knock out in around two minutes? What should we do then?

Author and productivity consultant David Allen is famous for his “2-minute rule.” The rule is: "If it takes less than two minutes, then do it now." The reason for this is simple. For many of these tasks, like replying to an email or calling someone back, the effort needed to keep remembering them, or even to write them down in a way that you’ll actually remember later, exceeds just getting them out of the way.

Quit Repeating Yourself!

You’ll often hear productivity experts (this author included) preach the need to “work smarter, not harder.” But what does that mean, in practical terms?

Computer programmers have an answer with a concept they use to write more efficient code: Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY). In software engineering, DRY is the principle of reducing repetition in the code, referring to a single source—or "snippet"—of reusable code whenever you need it.

While the Don’t Repeat Yourself technique (or DRY Principle) was made famous by coders, it is easily applicable to non-programmers alike.

Go all in on your tasks

Now that we’ve focused on removing distractions and blocking out time, the next step is to go all in on specific tasks (“single-tasking”) and avoid multitasking like the plague.

Multitasking refers to when we try to achieve multiple things simultaneously, such as returning calls or listening to messages while reviewing and editing reports. It has become widely popular as we perceive that doing more things at one time is better than doing fewer things.

Schedule tasks and block out time

The reason why time-blocking works is simple. When a task is jotted down on a list, odds are that it will take a while for it to be completed (many listed tasks never get done at all.) Or you may choose to work on the list “top down” even when items that are further below will deliver stronger benefits.

When a task gets scheduled, however, you are committing to getting that specific thing completed at a particular time and expect to have it finished when the period has ended. In effect, you’re telling yourself, “This one task is of great importance to me, and I will devote time and singular focus to it, to the exclusion of everything else.” It is as if you’ve created a meeting with yourself that cannot be interrupted. You prepare yourself mentally for the task and go all in.

Why and how leaders can monitor and review

As each project is unfolding, stay on top of things and correct or redirect when necessary. This motivates colleagues (who don’t feel abandoned) and helps you catch problems early on. Recognize key milestones, such as completed steps and sub-components, along the way. Obviously, inexperienced colleagues will need more direction, tighter controls and oversight than seasoned ones.

Be Prepared to Delegate

Delegation offers many benefits to managers, direct reports and organizations. And yet it remains one of the most misunderstood and underutilized techniques in leadership practice.

Schedule tasks and block out time

Time-blocking works since it helps us to focus on getting our work done right then. This is critical because our brains need constant focus when we’re at work. Absent focus and discipline, Parkinson’s Law will likely kick in. This law states that our work expands to fill the time available for its completion. So, a task that should require 20 minutes may take double or triple that if we don’t focus on it and instead just “let it happen.”

Manage and prioritize your to-do list

Few productivity tools elicit divergent opinions as does a to-do list. Despite their longstanding as the method of choice for productivity enthusiasts, to-do lists have come under recent fire as an antiquated system that must be improved upon or dropped.

Gary Keller, best-selling author of "The One Thing," argues that, “Long hours spent checking off a to-do list and ending the day with a full trash can and a clean desk are not virtuous and have nothing to do with success. Instead of a to-do list, you need a success list -- a list that is purposefully created around extraordinary results.”

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