How To Get A Lot Done Daily.

I'm sure you sometimes wonder if truly I do all things I say I do. It can be impossible to think there will be a normal person who would be working about 10 hours a day, and still make out time to learn French, to learn Data Analysis, to read many books, to write daily blog posts, to want to write many novels and still to do the many unplanned activities that creep into each day.

The truth is I do all the things I claim to do. And today, I will share with you the tricks that help me achieve a lot daily, go after many unrelated goals and make the most of most days.

image: truelancer.com

I love to list out all the things I want to do. It helps me concentrate and gives me clarity. At any instant of the day I am always having at least two productive things I can do. You can never find me being unintentionally idle. 

After I have in my active mind all the things I want done. The many things you've seen me write about on this blog. I don't time my activities or have a time goal attached. It is extremely difficult to predict your day and if you do some creative work like I do, you can't time those work. You can't say it's going to take exactly two hours to finish coding a program. Then there are those things that will always interrupt your day. And they are not always bad; they could be an opportunity to meet someone you've been dying to meet. Often times, they are emergencies you can't put off. So what I do is that I promise myself to not waste my time on meaningless tasks. You will seldom find me watch a movie or go to a party or go visiting random people or reading gists online or discussing other people's actions (gossip) or getting involved in just anything. Getting rid of time wasters help me do more of the meaningful things I want to do. All without the guaranteed frustration planning each day to the minute would cause.

Now that I have eliminated time wasters and have a priority list, I go through the list like I go through a JAMB exam paper. I start with that I can finish easiest. I jump around from one task to another. I insert many short breaks. Usually, there will be some tasks that are urgent and must be done as soon as possible. I try to get rid of those as soon as I can. 

Finally, whatever task I am doing, I give it a laser focus. Almost 100% focus. If I'm about to take a nap and my phone rings, I usually won't pick it. I'm busy trying to take a nap. Focusing intensely on the task at hand ensures I get a high productivity. It makes every minute I spend on that task a productive one. Then when I feel myself getting bored, I take a break or switch to another task. 

In a day, I can read 3 books (maybe not entirely), work 10 hours, write a blog post, learn French, do some programming, make some marketing calls, take 9 short naps and still attend to the day's unplanned emergencies. The trick is in never getting bored. Once I'm bored, I switch to another task or take a break. For some people whose work is somewhat machine-like, and output is simply a result of time put in, this might be very difficult or impossible. If you work as a call center agent, you can't take a break or easily break out of getting bored. When I used to work as a technical support and pick between 50 to, maybe, 200 calls a day, getting a break was a herculean task. Bathroom breaks and lunch break were my lifesavers.