Ever wonder where the day went? It’s not uncommon to reach the late afternoon and marvel at why you didn’t gain more traction on your to-do list. That’s because the workstyle most of us use is reactive.Many of us are feeling overwhelmed, and remote working arrangements aren’t necessarily helping, because they increase the amount and forms of communication you must track. The challenge is our brain’s instinctual reaction to overwhelm.

Reactive Work Style

We have a hangover from our ancestors that doesn’t really work in the modern world. Anytime your ‘ancient’ brain perceives that something is more than you can handle, it sees it as a threat and triggers the stress response. Stress today is social stress, but it still sets off the automatic response of fight or flight.It’s possible to manage our thoughts so we’re not just reacting in panic mode all day long. Setting these boundaries will help you work in a more sustainable way.

More Work Is Stressful, Biologically

Part of your brain is always asking, “What’s wrong?” “How am I going to make it? “What’s next?” Self-inflicted stress is the frenzy and frazzles to get to the next item on the list.To get anything done during the workday with focused attention, you need to tap into your working memory. The human brain is limited to three or four thought chunks for only a few seconds.

Attention Management

Unfortunately, interruptions blow up working memory. We have the rise of what’s called ‘attention deficit trait. It’s not ADHD, but it mimics the same symptoms. Your attention span shrinks, you have a hard time staying on task, you flit from one thing to the next, and you have more time urgency because you’re falling behind.To regain your attention, calm your mind. Count backward from 100 to zero in your brain. Since we don’t do this every day, we have to pay attention to it. If your thoughts stray, just come back to the next number down the line. The exercise is relaxing and calming.

The Working Memory Is Always Stressed

Exercise is a good stress reducer because it brings your brain back to the centre. Or focus on your breath. It massively increases your attention. Deliberative breathing shuts down the acceleration of the stress response. It’s strongest in the immediate few minutes after the button gets pushed.We think because something’s in our head, we got to pay attention to it. We don’t. We can try to be thought-free, as hard as it sounds.

Focus On Your Breath

In order to have more attention, it’s important to set the terms of engagement with your devices. Disruptions erode your impulse control, and interruptions make anything you do seem more difficult and aggravating than it is. Humans are allowed to set the rules on the devices.The impulse control mechanism is located in a part of the executive attention function of the brain called effortful control. Interruptions shred it and make us self-distract and lose the ability to regulate impulsivity and stay on task. Managing interruptions, then, is key.

Interruption Management

Another boundary your brain needs is the ability to let things go in order to return to work. This is called “barking” management.Does your dog bark hours, days, months, or years after another dog walks past your yard? He drops the event as soon as it’s over like it never happened. But that’s not what humans do. We keep barking. We hang on to the event, and that’s what causes our stress—but we don’t have to.Hanging onto stress is rumination. We can play a big role in shutting down this ancient reflex by managing the thoughts in your brain.

Barking Management

We’re very verbal creatures, and a lot of words are flowing through our brains. They attach themselves in a random way. They fuse with thoughts, feelings, emotions, and moods in our brain and come out in the form of a thought.For example, if you have a confrontation with someone at work and your thoughts drive you to a conclusion that you can’t take it anymore, you’ll be worse off than you were because you’ve self-defined yourself as being in a bad state. Labelling your thoughts as thoughts separates you from knee-jerk, emotion-word fusings that hold you hostage to false beliefs.

Thought Labelling

We are not hard drives with hair.After two hours of time on task, the brain has to get off task to relieve strain and reboot.The brain needs daily, weekend, and vacation resets. Robinson says productivity goes up after 10-minute breaks, 20-minute breaks, and dramatically after a vacation. Recreation and relaxation also allow you to put away whatever you’ve been thinking about over and over and recover. If you don’t, you’ll come back to work the next day with the stress still there.

Refueling Management

So many of us feel overwhelmed. Setting boundaries allows you work in a more sustainable—and less reactive—way.

productivity

Productivity

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

mentalhealth

Mental Health

These are the 4 boundaries your brain needs to feel less overwhelmed

When we have to do something we don't want to do, like responding to never-ending emails or filing our taxes, finding flow can be impossible.Most people can't afford to wait for flow - learn other methods to do what needs to get done, no matter what.

Flow is elusive

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the term “flow” in the 1970s. He defines it as “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”Csikszentmihalyi wrote that during flow, “concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over to think about anything irrelevant or to worry about problems. Self-consciousness disappears, and the sense of time becomes distorted.”

What is “flow,” and why is it so hard to find?

Flow is great when you can get it. But the price of relying too much on flow is that when you can’t find it, you’re more likely to succumb to the vicious cycle of distraction—a horrible loop of frustration and perpetual time scarcity.<ul><li>If you feel anxious, restless, or poorly qualified for a task, for example, those internal triggers may drive you to pick up your smartphone to scroll through Instagram or check the news in order to forget that feeling for a while.</li><li>Likewise, a task that is not inherently engaging and enjoyable can elicit the internal triggers that lead us off track.</li></ul>

The dark side of striving for flow

Most people don’t know how to focus on things they dislike doing for very long. They constantly drift from one thing to another as soon as a task gets too hard, boring, or uncomfortable.There’s a way to stay focused on a task without waiting for the elusive state of flow. It’s called “play!” Play can simply be a tool that helps to sustain our attention long enough to complete the task at hand.Instead of trying in vain to find flow, we can do two things to turn any task into play:<ul><li>Add constraints.</li><li>Find the mystery.</li></ul>

Reimagining the task

That magical zone is great when you can find it. But what happens if you can't?

problemsolving

Problem Solving

timemanagement

Time Management

The Pursuit of "Flow" Is Overrated

A freelance business owner can find it difficult to unplug and unwind when on vacation. There always seem to be deadlines to meet, emails to answer, clients to manage and marketing to do. This is all driven by the fear that you'll lose work or clients if you slow down. Time off means a loss of money and day-to-day business admin piling up. However, taking time off is vital to avoid burnout.

Taking time off is essential

Build vacation into your schedule ahead of time. Then, block out the time you'll dedicate to vacation and plan around it when scheduling client work.

Plan ahead

If your time off will impact regular client schedules, notify your clients a few weeks in advance. Tell your clients you're taking time off. For example, "I wanted to give you a heads up that I will be taking some time off next month and will be unavailable from [date to date]. In the meantime, please keep sending work my way - I have the capacity for 1-2 projects a week before I take off."

Tell your clients early

For freelancers, time off work is time not making money. However, it doesn't mean you shouldn't take a vacation - it means you need to budget for it. For example, it could mean raising your rates and taking on more assignments in the months leading to your vacation. Set up a business account for your freelance income, then schedule regular automatic payments to your personal account so that you have a regular "paycheck". Build some savings in for a cushion.

Budget for your vacation

Without burning yourself out, front-load your work so that you can fit all your projects early. This is easiest when planning ahead and communicating with clients early so that they have a chance to send projects your way. It might mean doubling up on work for a few weeks, but it keeps your income steady.

Get ahead on your work

A key to freelance survival is setting expectations up front. Learn to say no to work opportunities scheduled on your vacation, and communicate with clients to set deadlines that work for both of you.  During a vacation, refrain from checking in on email or following up on work.

Set boundaries for yourself

Consider hiring a subcontractor to keep things moving when you have busy seasons where you don't want to say no to work. If you want to subcontract work during your vacation, start the hiring process early as it can take time to onboard the right people.

Consider subcontracting work

Create a few mantras to help ground you in reality.<ul><li>Your clients will be there when you return.</li><li>You have found work before, and you can find more when you return.</li><li>Vacation is essential. It makes you better at your work.</li></ul>

Work on your mindset

If you can't afford an extended vacation, start small with a few days or a long weekend. Stepping back to unwind will give your mind and body a chance to recharge and allow you to return with a fresh perspective and renewed energy.

Start small

Here are 8 tips for how to unplug on vacation when you run a freelance business.

career

Career

Here’s how to take time off as a freelancer

Coworking spaces have been popular in big cities for many years, especially for small businesses, freelancers, and other flexible workers. The pandemic showed many companies how much productivity and employee satisfaction was possible without a group office setup. So co-working spaces are becoming attractive opportunities for mixing the benefits of in-person meeting space with the flexibility to work when and where you want. Many companies may even choose to pay for a co-working membership for their team—but for individual workers who are considering footing the bill themselves, you have to make sure the math works out for you.

The Popularity of Coworking Spaces

<ul><li>Compare any direct alternatives: If you'd spend $4 per workday picking up a latte somewhere and your co-working membership includes a tasty unlimited coffee bar, you can factor in that savings.</li><li>Another source of benefits includes anything you don't have in your work-from-home setup currently (quiet rooms or meeting room use, communal printers and office supplies, snacks, dedicated parking spots, and an office address so you can receive mail)</li><li>For workers who normally don't see anyone all day if working at home, the community aspect of a co-working space can be the major advantage. For some, the community aspect could lead to the growth of their company due to collaboration. </li></ul>

Potential Cost-Saving Benefits

Many co-working memberships can quickly become more expensive than even a small traditional office space, however.The key, it seems, is to evaluate the options available in your area. Workers who have access to a quiet, private office at home will have to find more common co-working benefits useful than someone whose home is small or otherwise a poor fit as a workspace.

Costs and Considerations 

A guide to co-working spaces and their costs versus benefits, broken down with tips for different types of workers, from freelance to contract workers to company employees. Co-working spaces can be a great option for remote or hybrid employees. But most require a membership fee.

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

Is Joining a Co-Working Space Worth the Money?

The term 'planning fallacy' was coined in 1977 and deals with how most of us are terrible at estimating how long a project will take. We are overly optimistic but terrible at predicting the future. If the project has a budget, we may underestimate that expense too.
The Sydney Opera House was commissioned in 1957 and had an expected completion date of 1963. The budget was 7 million Australian dollars. After the plan had been scaled back, it was completed in 1973 at the cost of $102 million.

The planning fallacy

We are prone to choosing the most optimistic timetable to complete a project while doubting other information that could change our predictions. Even if we are given evidence of how we've been wrong in the past, we believe that our current forecasts are optimistic. The problem with our predictions is that we treat every task like it's a new problem. Then, we construct a tale of how we will complete this task but ignore the evidence from similar projects done in the past.

Why we trip over the planning fallacy

Ignore what you want to be true. Instead, use past experience to build a schedule.
In an experiment, two groups of students had to complete a one-hour computer tutorial. The students had to predict when they would finish the assignment. One group of students were prompted to think about past assignments similar to this one and use that knowledge to inform their prediction. The control group had no instructions. The result was that the first group correctly predicted how long it would take.

Overcoming the planning fallacy

We are terrible at predicting how well we will meet deadlines. Christopher Cox on how to rethink the planning fallacy.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Our Brains Make Us Way Too Optimistic About Meeting Deadlines

It is okay to long for the weekend occasionally, like when it is Thursday and the week-long workload has been too much. But if one is dreading Monday on a Sunday evening, the work environment may be toxic.
The best jobs can exhaust us, but if the longing for the weekend is a regular feeling, we may need to find a new job profile that is not diminishing us.

The Problem With Longing For The Weekend

Whatever work we do, we should take a day or two off to restore our mental state and rejuvenate ourselves.
If we find ourselves sick or anxious at the end of a weekend in which we had a blast, the job may be the culprit. If the job requires us to work weekends or always be on call, with the boss hanging a sword on our head, maybe we need to reassess how our job role is affecting our work-life balance, and switch if necessary.

Our Work-Life Balance

Work will never be simple, sometimes you’ll have bad days (even bad weeks), and yes, sometimes you’ll live for the weekend. And that’s because weekends are great. But here are four signs your love for weekends is probably a sign you should look for other jobs.

health

Health

When "Living for the Weekend" Is a Huge Red Flag

Every choice has a price, but when we are motivated, it is easier to bear the inconvenience of action than the pain of remaining the same.In other words, at some point, it becomes more painful to not do the work than to actually do it.

The essence of motivation

Motivation is often the result of action, not the cause of it. Getting started, even in very small ways, is a form of active inspiration that naturally produces momentum.

Active inspiration

Newton’s First Law applied to habit formation: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Once a task has begun, it is easier to continue moving it forward. In other words, it is often easier to finish a task than it was to start it in the first place.

The Physics of productivity

Setting a schedule for yourself seems simple, but it puts your decision-making on autopilot by giving your goals a time and a place to live. It makes it more likely that you will follow through regardless of your motivation levels.

Scheduling motivation

They remove the need to make a decision and provide a mindless way to initiate a behavior:<ul><li>To become more creative: Follow a creative ritual before you start writing or painting or singing.</li><li>To start each day stress-free: Create a five-minute morning meditation ritual.</li><li>To sleep better: Follow a “power down” routine before bed.</li></ul>

Building routines and rituals 

<ol><li>Make the start easy: You shouldn’t need motivation to start your pre–game routine;</li><li>While your routine should be as easy as possible to start, it should gradually transition into more and more physical movement;</li><li>You need to follow the same pattern every single time: Eventually, this routine becomes so tied to your performance that by simply doing the routine, you are pulled into a mental state that is primed to perform.</li></ol>

Making motivation a habit

We experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of our current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.Tasks that are significantly below our current abilities are boring. Tasks that are significantly beyond our current abilities are discouraging.

The Goldilocks Rule

<ul><li>Consider every thought you have as a suggestion, not an order. And none of these suggestions are orders. They are merely options;</li><li>Maintain perspective: Your discomfort is temporary;</li><li>You will never regret good work once it is done.</li></ul>

When motivation fades

Motivation is a powerful, yet tricky beast. Sometimes it is really easy to get motivated, and you find yourself wrapped up in a whirlwind of excitement. Other times, it is nearly impossible to figure out how to motivate yourself and you're trapped in a death spiral of procrastination.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

habits

Habits

The Scientific Guide on How to Get and Stay Motivated

<ul><li>Transfer money to your savings account every time you receive a paycheck</li><li>Choose all your outfits for your week on Sunday and hang them in the closet in order</li><li>Subscribe to a weekly fresh delivery of organic vegetables and fruits to your home</li><li>Standardize the typical daily meals you like the most, saving time in cooking and grocery shopping</li><li>Prepare your sports bag every night and put it in your car. If you prefer running the morning, leave your running shoes near the bed</li><li>Automate all electronic gadgets to go into sleep mode at a certain hour</li></ul>

Automate Decisions

Switching between tasks can have damaging costs to our work and productivity.Develop the habit of single-tasking by forcing your brain to concentrate on one task and one task only. Put your phone away, close all the browser windows and apps that you don’t need. Immerse yourself in this task. Only move to the next one when you’re done.

Single Task

“Time management is not a peripheral activity or skill. It is the core skill upon which everything else in life depends.”

Productivity is directly related to your energy level.Find your most productive hours — the time of your peak energy — and schedule Deep Work for those periods. Do low-value and low-energy tasks (also known as shallow work), such as responding to emails or unimportant meetings, in between those hours.

Work Around Your Energy Levels

Before going to bed, spend 5 minutes writing your to-do list for the next day. These tasks should help you move towards your professional and personal goals.You’ll be better prepared mentally for the challenges ahead before waking up and there won’t be any room for procrastination in the morning. As a result, you’ll work faster and smoother than ever before.

Plan Your Day the Night Before

A golden time management technique: Find your most important task (MIT) for the day and tackle it first. Your MIT should be the one thing that creates the most impact on your work. Getting it done will give you the momentum and sense of accomplishment early in the day. That’s how big life goals are achieved: small continuous efforts, day after day.

Start the Day with Critical Work

<ol><li>Write down all your tasks.</li><li>Identify what’s urgent and what’s important. After each task, mark them with “U” for Urgent and “I” for Important. </li><li>Assess value: look at your “I” tasks and identify the high-value drivers of your work. You want to find which tasks have priority over others and how many people are impacted by your work</li><li>Estimate time to complete each task. Order them from most effort to least effort.</li></ol>

Prioritize Tasks

<ul><li>Find to the right person: he should have all the necessary skills and is capable of doing the job</li><li>Provide clear instructions: write down the tasks in a step-by-step manual be as specific as possible</li><li>Define success: be specific about what the expected outcome is and the deadline to have the task completed</li><li>Clarity: have the tasks explained back to you and offer clarification when something is unclear, rewriting the specifications if needed</li></ul>

Delegate or Outsource Tasks

Putting some of your daily tasks on autopilot is key to working smarter.<ul><li>Create canned responses for emails you keep writing over and over again</li><li>Set reminders in your Calendar so you never forget anything</li><li>Proofread your writing automatically</li><li>Schedule and automate your social media posts in advance</li><li>Automatically fill online forms,  saving all your passwords in one place</li><li>Create spreadsheet templates for reports you have to do weekly/monthly.</li></ul>

Automate Repetitive Tasks

Set deadlines even when you don’t need to. Schedule less time to complete tasks and force your brain to focus.Parkinson’s law states: “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. So, if you reduce the time you have to complete a task, you force your brain to focus and complete it.

Set Time Constraints

<ul><li>Turn off all notifications on your phone, computer, and tablet</li><li>Leave your phone in odd places that prevent you from immediately finding it</li><li>Work with headphones as people are less likely to approach you.</li><li>If you find interesting articles, save them  to read later, such as during the commute</li><li>Turn off your Wi-Fi when your tasks don’t require internet connectivity</li><li>Don’t browse social media at work at all. </li><li>Use “Do Not Disturb” functions on chat systems.</li><li>If you have an office, shut the door.</li></ul>

Eliminate Distractions

Invest your focus on big decisions and make quick calls on medium and small decisions.Small decisions impact you for a day, such as what to wear or where to eat. Medium impact your life for a year, such as deciding to go back to school or rent a different room. In the long term though, very few decisions matter. Those are the big decisions: they are worthy of serious pondering, discussion, investigation, investment, and decision making.

Make Quick Decisions on Things That Don’t Matter

Track your time to have real data on your work and uncover insights on how you can improve your productivity.After a couple of weeks, you’ll start noticing patterns and knowing where and how your time is leaking. By being aware of how exactly you are using your time, you can devise a plan to attack your leaks and how to get rid of them.

Track Your Time

<ol><li>If it can be done in two minutes, just do it. Don’t add it to your to-do list, put it aside for later, or delegate to someone else. Just do it.</li><li>If it takes more than two minutes, start it. Once you start acting on small tasks, you can keep the ball rolling. Simply working on it for two minutes will help you break the first barrier of procrastination.</li></ol>

The 2-Minute Rule

Say “no” by default to anything that doesn’t contribute to your top 5 career goals.Your time is a limited resource and you can’t let people set your agenda in life.

Say No More Often Than Yes

<ul><li>Learn a new skill, either for your professional or personal life</li><li>Read books or articles you saved to for later</li><li>Organize your computer, folders, calendar or work</li><li>Plan your week, tomorrow, or the rest of your day</li><li>Listen to a podcast</li><li>Learn a language</li><li>Take a walk and think and let your mind wander</li><li>Take a productive pause to clear your mind.</li></ul>

Use “Gap Time” Effectively:

The 80 20 rule states that “80% of the output or results will come from 20% of the input or action”. In other words, the little things are the ones that account for the majority of the results.Use the 80/20 rule in your life and work to prioritize the input that brings the majority of the output.

80/20 Your Time

Break down big tasks into smaller ones to avoid procrastinating and help you stay on track to achieve your final goal.Never put a huge project down as just one to-do on your list. Instead, put bite-sized to-dos that you can do one at a time. Take it step by step.

Break Down Big Tasks

Schedule tasks, working from your calendar instead of the to-do list. When an event is consistently scheduled on your calendar, it’s much more likely to transform into an unconscious habitUsing your calendar forces you to rethink your work from tasks to time units. That small change increases the likelihood of getting things done.

Work From the Calendar

<ul><li>Do not schedule more time than needed. Most of the times 20 minutes is the sweet spot.</li><li>Keep the number of participants small.</li><li>Send everyone an agenda and main points the day before</li><li>Keep conversation on-track by reminding the participants of the topic.</li><li>Group your meetings back-to-back to have a clear start and end point for each one</li></ul>

Take Fewer  Meetings

Aiming for perfection is a surefire way to delay or never complete a project. Choose to chase “good enough” instead.It’s easy to be caught up in an endless cycle of trying to do everything perfectly. But being a perfectionism can delay your work and make you miss important deadlines

Let Go Of Perfectionism

Create a To-Don’t list with all the habits you want to remove from your life. For example:<ul><li>Do not email first thing in the morning or last thing at night</li><li>No morning meetings</li><li>Don’t say yes unless you’re 100% certain you can deliver</li><li>Don’t drink coffee in the afternoon</li><li>Do not agree to meetings or calls with no clear agenda or end time</li></ul>

Have a To-Don’t List

The main idea behind this time management technique is to collect up a group of similar activities and do them all in one swoop. You can work efficiently on multiple tasks without losing your flow if the activities require similar mindsets. Batching forces your brain to be focused on one type of task at a time.

Batch Similar Tasks

Schedule breaks throughout your day to help you recharge and take regular vacations throughout the year. Rest is the best medicine for sustainable long-term productivity.

Take Time Off to Recharge

Good time management techniques simplify how you work and help you get things done better and faster. Here are my 23 favorite time management techniques. They are a set of principles, rules, and skills that allow you to put your focus on the things that matter and help you be more productive.

23 Time Management Techniques of Insanely Busy People

Although it might feel natural to create your to-do list first thing in the morning, it's too late.Writing the list at the end of the day allows you to leave work behind and transition into personal time.

Writing The List In The Morning

Ideally, create a ‘top three’ tasks at the beginning of your to-do list. Long lists are a problem because most people aren’t aware that “we only have about three to six good hours of work in us each day.”People also tend to underestimate how long a task takes.

Including Too Many Tasks

Aspirational tasks, like writing a book, don’t belong on a to-do list; instead, create a separate bucket list. Daily to-do lists should be focused. If you have a big project you want to complete, you can put it on your to-do list if you chunk it out into smaller, more attainable tasks.

Including Someday Items

If it’s not a priority, it should not be on the list. Follow the 3-3-3 system when writing out your list:<ul><li>Delete three of the items since they probably aren’t that important.</li><li>Delegate three of the items to someone else, as they are not the best use of your time or talents. </li><li>Do three of the items that are the highest priority.</li></ul>

Treating Each Item Equally

Be as specific as you can be, so that when you’re taking on a task on the fly, you can just get it done. For example, instead of writing “expense report” on your to-do list, write “enter receipts into spreadsheet.”And skip the vague-sounding action words, such as “plan,” “implement,” or “develop” from your list of tasks.

Not Being Specific

Every day changes, so what you did today is not what you will do tomorrow. And what you think you are going to do tomorrow may change before today is over.Instead, create a fresh list for each day.

Using The Same List Until It’s Done

“If you have a full calendar and a full to-do list that aren’t connected, you’ll never have time to take action on your to-do list, short of robbing yourself of sleep, family time, weekend relaxation, or vacation.”Instead, block out time on your calendar to take action on your to-do list items.

Not Linking Your List And Calendar

When it comes to getting things done, sometimes the simple productivity methods are the best. Case in point: the to-do list. This handy tool keeps you on track by putting tasks top of mind . . . unless you're doing it wrong. Mistakes on your to-do list could be putting your workday in jeopardy, say experts.

These Seven To-Do List Mistakes Could Be Derailing Your Productivity

<ul><li>Listening to music with lyrics is distracting for most people. It’s best to avoid it when working on tasks that require focus or the learning of new information.</li><li>Listening to music with lyrics may help people working on repetitive or mundane tasks. </li><li>Classical or rock music allows people to identify numbers more quickly and accurately.</li><li>Ambient noise, or ambient music, at about 70 decibels can be the best kind of music for work productivity. But increasing it over 85 decibels hurts creativity.</li><li>Searching for the right artist can detract from workplace productivity but, once you know what works for you, music can become a tool for near-instant concentration.</li></ul>

Effects of music on productivity

Music has a real impact on human emotions and perception. Music activates different areas of the brain in different people, but there are general brain and mood patterns revealed by music research.For the most part, research suggests that listening to music can improve your efficiency, creativity and happiness in terms of work-related tasks.

Music and the brain

When nothing else seems to help make us productive, the right music can supercharge us. But in terms of our brain and work, what does music do and why does it help us? Studies about how music affects our brains and emotions have been ongoing since the the 1950s, when physicians began to notice the benefits of music therapy in European and U.S.