Sometimes in the course of daily living you stumble upon someone that offers really helpful advice. It may be a preacher, a teacher or a motivational speaker. They have something to offer that really makes a difference in your world. While I’ve had many supportive people in my life, one of the most recent and most helpful has been Steve Pavlina. Steve runs a blog at Stevepavlina.com that specializes in personal development. Steve has hundreds of posts on everything from time management to how to become an early riser.
Steve has a very down to earth writing style and really tells it like it is. He has shared many life experiences online, some that I can really relate to and say “I’ve been there and done that!” Steve asked in a post today what people may have learned from his blog and how it has affected their lives? For me it is a simple thing. His article on “How to triple your productivity” is simple yet profound. And it has really helped me see wasteful areas in my life.
This one simple little post has given me many additional productive hours. The premise is simple, write down everything that you do in a day and separate the productive time from wasteful time.
Steve Explains: Here’s how to keep a time log. Throughout your day record the time whenever you start or stop any activity. Consider using a stopwatch to just record time intervals for each activity. You can do this during only your working time or throughout your entire day. At the end of the day, sort all the time chunks into general categories, and find out what percentage of your time is being spent on each type of activity. If you want to be thorough, do this for a week, and calculate the percentage of your total time that you spent on each type of activity. Be as detailed as possible.
When I measured my time I found I was spending about 25% of my time doing useful work. This was quite a bit higher than the national average of 18% but something I knew I could improve. After following his advice I really saw a big increase in productive activities. I scaled my time back as he instructed and found that I was doing more things in less time. What was so profound was the simplicity of the whole exercise. I can now routinely hit 30-50% productivity without much thought.
While I disagree with Steve on some spiritual things and I could never restrict myself to his vegan lifestyle, I do find his blog to be a real source of inspiration. He has posted articles on everything from “How to get off coffee” to “Improving microwave efficiency”. One of his recent posts reached a tipping point and his blog ended up high in the rankings on Technorati.
For a productivity boost, check out StevePavlina.com today!
