40 HOURS WORKING

Here are his tips for staying productive:
1.
Work backwards from goals to milestones to
tasks. Writing “launch company website” at the top of your to-do list is a sure
way to make sure you never get it done. Break down the work into smaller and
smaller chunks until you have specific tasks that can be accomplished in a few
hours or less: Sketch a wireframe, outline an introduction for the homepage
video, etc. That’s how you set goals and actually succeed in crossing them off
your list.
2.
Stop multi-tasking. No, seriously—stop.
Switching from task to task quickly does not work. In fact, changing tasks more
than 10 times in a day makes you dumber than being stoned. When you’re stoned,
your IQ drops by five points. When you multitask, it drops by an average of 10
points, 15 for men, five for women (yes, men are three times as bad at
multitasking than women).
3.
Be militant about eliminating distractions. Lock
your door, put a sign up, turn off your phone, texts, email, and instant
messaging. In fact, if you know you may sneak a peek at your email, set it to
offline mode, or even turn off your Internet connection. Go to a quiet area and
focus on completing one task.
4.
Schedule your email. Pick two or three times
during the day when you’re going to use your email. Checking your email
constantly throughout the day creates a ton of noise and kills your
productivity.
5.
Use the phone. Email isn’t meant for
conversations. Don’t reply more than twice to an email. Pick up the phone
instead.
6.
Work on your own agenda. Don’t let something
else set your day. Most people go right to their emails and start freaking out.
You will end up at inbox-zero, but accomplish nothing. After you wake up, drink
water so you rehydrate, eat a good breakfast to replenish your glucose, then
set prioritized goals for the rest of your day.
7.
Work in 60 to 90 minute intervals. Your brain
uses up more glucose than any other bodily activity. Typically you will have
spent most of it after 60-90 minutes. (That’s why you feel so burned out after
super long meetings.) So take a break: Get up, go for a walk, have a snack, do
something completely different to recharge. And yes, that means you need an
extra hour for breaks, not including lunch, so if you’re required to get eight
hours of work done each day, plan to be there for 9.5-10 hours

Source : http://www.inc.com