that article that told me how to live my life.
What’s an article that you read that blew you away?
Sometimes I hate myself because I read too much. OK, so I don’t hate myself because I read a lot, but because I talk about it a lot. I swear to God at least once a day, I’ll find myself saying in casual conversation, “I read an article…” To the point where I cringe when I say it. Because I am that girl. And nobody really likes that girl. Because where is she reading so many articles? And where is she getting them? And for goodness sake, why does she believe everything the articles are telling her? She needs to get a life!
So, you can imagine my surprise when I saw today’s prompt on The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge: What’s an article that you read that blew you away? That you shared with all your friends. That you Delicious’d and reference throughout the year.
And I COULDN’T THINK OF ANYTHING. Not a single article I read in all of 2009 was popping into my mind. I read articles all the time. I think about them non-stop and talk about them in situations where nobody else cares? So, why can’t I think of anything now? But then I remembered one article that I think of every day and try to implement into my every day life. Sort of.
It’s called 50+ Ways to Improve Your Productivity as a Freelancer (It’s really 51 ways, but I think they decided 50+ sounded better. I get it).
When I first saw the article, I though, “Pshh, like you can tell me something I don’t already know about productivity? Riiight.” I figured this article would actually decrease my productivity because just reading it would be wasting my time. However, I’m coming away from this saying it may have increased my productivity by about 2%. But with the potential for SO much more. And potential is what counts here.
Here are some of the article’s major gems:
#5. Organize Your Email Inbox (also related, #9. Empty Your Inbox When Possible): I’ve actually attempted this twice since reading the article. After my most recent attempt, I got one account down to 943 and the other to 324. But if you had seen the state of my e-mail accounts before this, you’d be giving me high fives all around right now. Anyway, give me two more sessions, and I’ll have my e-mail boxes empty. For at least 12 hours.
#11. Have a Daily To-Do List: I know, everyone already loves lists. I did too. But this made me realize I should start them again. So then I also decided to do this: #12. Evaluate Yourself at the End of the Day. But this all led to several problems because I NEVER finished the items on the list. And I’d get a pretty harsh self-evaluation. And end up going to bed crying. And when I woke up in the morning, the list was still there piling up. Until I ran out of room on the paper and had to just rip it up and throw it out. Only to start again. As you can imagine, this was good for nobody.
#23. Identify Your Most Productive Times of the Day: This is totally important to do! But my most productive times are early morning and late at night. Herein lies the problem. Please refer to #36 for more issues.
#27. Set Aside Time for Networking: Oh trust me, I DO.
#36. Get Enough Sleep: GREAT advice. And I’ve been trying. Getting more sleep means less time to do work, but it means you’ll hopefully be more productive and awake while doing so. Hopefully. However, there is no way to prove this. That I know of.
#38. Change Up Your Working Environment: It works! I can’t work in the same spot for more than 2 days in a row. I’m so much more productive if I go to Bruegger’s and stare at all the creeps that come in. No, really, I am.
And here are the things I just didn’t even bother trying:
#7. Work with Your Email Closed (OK fine, but can I keep my Blackberry next to me?)
#15. Allow a Specific Amount of Time for Surfing Online, but Keep it to that Amount of Time (But what if someone says something interesting on Twitter?)
#17. Reduce Your Feed Subscriptions (But where will my distractions come from? And what if I miss a really great article??)
#19. Reduce the Number of People You’re Following on Twitter (Oops. Can’t help it?)
#30. Hire an Assistant (OH REALLY? An assistant will help me be more productive. Well then, by all means, hook a girl up)
#42. Keep Your Workspace Clean (There will be absolutely no photos in this post. I repeat, no photos)
#50. Set Working Hours (Oh, you mean other than 24/7? But how will I ever be productive then?)
See? This article is chock-full of useful advice. I may not use all of it, but I think about all of it. A lot. And I talk about it too. Which all likely makes me less productive. But at least I have the information in my head. You can lead a horse to water…