{"id":4031,"date":"2023-02-03T17:26:02","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T11:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/?p=4031"},"modified":"2023-02-03T17:30:12","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T12:00:12","slug":"personal-productivity-getting-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/2023\/02\/personal-productivity-getting-started\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal Productivity: Getting Started"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8216;Time&#8217; is the most valuable resource we have. Yet, millions of us waste precious time on an almost daily basis, in the pursuit of our goals and objectives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are three simple but powerful techniques I have personally used, to make the most efficient use of my time&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Make Lists; Lots of Them<\/strong>! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I use &#8216;Google Keep&#8217; to manage all my lists. Every thing I think of, I enter in one my Keep notes (defaulting to List boxes, so I can check them off, as I get through them). Color coding helps me segregate between Work and Personal notes. For my personal ToDos, I use a simple structure of labeling them as &#8216;Soon&#8217; or &#8216;Later&#8217;, since I have come to learn that ToDo lists are almost never fully done. Yet, a lot can be achieved if one can keep track of all the scraps of information that pop into your head at inconvenient times.  <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Use Tags, Not Folders<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I avoid using Folders, and try to use Tags wherever possible. &#8216;Search&#8217; has got quite sophisticated over the years, and most software tools let you Search and Retrieve in seconds. My go-to email service is &#8216;GMail&#8217;, which has a powerful search built-in. Plus, Tags let me tag the same item with multiple tag names for retrieval. If you must use Folders for your email, keep them action-oriented: Today \/ This Week \/ Later \/ FYI should suffice for most of your needs. No point in overcomplicating things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bonus Tip: Spend an hour or two to unsubscribe from all the unread \/ junk email that has accumulated in your Inbox. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Commit to Calendaring<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I save every work-related item in my &#8216;Google Calendar&#8217;. I also use separate &#8220;calendars&#8221; for myself, my work, and a shared one for my family. It may feel a bit of an overkill at first, but here&#8217;s how it works. Firstly, you can switch on and off individual calendars to easily see what&#8217;s on your schedule. Secondly, having the right defaults for notifications and reminders ensures that you don&#8217;t miss out on anything of importance. Finally, at a glance, you can see how much of your time was spent in structured activities, and how much of downtime you <em>actually <\/em>had, so you can tweak it if needed.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just these three techniques, once they become a habit, can save you <em>countless<\/em> hours in wasted time, and put you ahead of most folks. What you do with all those newly-gained minutes will be entirely up to you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;Time&#8217; is the most valuable resource we have. Yet, millions of us waste precious time on an almost daily basis, in the pursuit of our<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,9,11,14],"class_list":["post-4031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-life","tag-quality","tag-technology","tag-work"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4034,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4031\/revisions\/4034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}