Yes! I think there's a danger of becoming addicted to ways to be more productive. Arguably, someone who daily reads a productivity blog should be producing a lot, but you might wonder if that is the case...
Too much knowledge doesn't imply too much work, You are right. In fact what matters like always is the execution. If you have a process to remain productive, what matters is to execute that process well and with discipline.
That process might not be very great or best in class, but well executed bad ideas always lead to better result than badly executed good areas. Here is my hack for remaining productive. Which I have tinkered after reading David Allen's 'Getting things done'.
I have a table which has the following common fields. Task, Deadline, Started, Finished, Log, Priority and Next Step. A little modified from David's actual GTD. This table helps me do many things, first plan my tasks, next set a deadline to achieve it. Started and finished fields help me measure how much time I have taken to get it done. Log gives me an idea of complexity. Priority decides what needs to come next after what. Next step keeps me on tip of heels always generating new work for me.
I review this every night before going to sleep. And at least once a day if I'm hitting the daily deadlines. Now comes the most important of all, its called 'DISCIPLINE'. If one is not disciplined none of this ceremony works. Infact I would say better get disciplined before you get into all these techniques. Discipline is a personality trait, It has to be developed with patience, perseverance and practice. You don't get disciplined by tinkering /etc/hosts you get disciplined by making it happen even without tinkering /etc/hosts.
Another important part is review. You must review your progress every now and then. My review happens every Sunday afternoon, the review happens by measuring what I have done. What will I do and is all that really sufficient to meet my daily, weekly, monthly, six monthly, yearly and then life goals.
I make it a point to apply this not just to work, but even to my hobbies. My music practice and other stuff. Most of the users here have suggested very fine ways of measuring productivity I guess I will employ some of those techniques during my review process.
That process might not be very great or best in class, but well executed bad ideas always lead to better result than badly executed good areas. Here is my hack for remaining productive. Which I have tinkered after reading David Allen's 'Getting things done'.
I have a table which has the following common fields. Task, Deadline, Started, Finished, Log, Priority and Next Step. A little modified from David's actual GTD. This table helps me do many things, first plan my tasks, next set a deadline to achieve it. Started and finished fields help me measure how much time I have taken to get it done. Log gives me an idea of complexity. Priority decides what needs to come next after what. Next step keeps me on tip of heels always generating new work for me.
I review this every night before going to sleep. And at least once a day if I'm hitting the daily deadlines. Now comes the most important of all, its called 'DISCIPLINE'. If one is not disciplined none of this ceremony works. Infact I would say better get disciplined before you get into all these techniques. Discipline is a personality trait, It has to be developed with patience, perseverance and practice. You don't get disciplined by tinkering /etc/hosts you get disciplined by making it happen even without tinkering /etc/hosts.
Another important part is review. You must review your progress every now and then. My review happens every Sunday afternoon, the review happens by measuring what I have done. What will I do and is all that really sufficient to meet my daily, weekly, monthly, six monthly, yearly and then life goals.
I make it a point to apply this not just to work, but even to my hobbies. My music practice and other stuff. Most of the users here have suggested very fine ways of measuring productivity I guess I will employ some of those techniques during my review process.