So you’ve already got your to-do list with all of your tasks laid out, in typical task management fashion. How do you know what to work on first? Obviously, deadlines will be the key determining factor, but when you are having trouble starting your work, here are some criteria that you can base your decision on:…
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Flow state and being “in the zone”
Let’s face it- you don’t always work as fast as you know you can, or aren’t quite as mentally involved in your work as you want to be. When you are working at your best, and are “fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity,”…
Read moreHow to be happy
Being productive involves putting yourself in a situation in which you can work best. Hopefully for you, this includes being happy! While we usually focus on concrete things to immediately improve personal productivity, sometimes we can overlook the bigger things that may also have an effect, such as happiness in life. So I’ve looked up…
Read moreProductivity: definition and measurement (GPD vs personal)
We often talk about how to achieve productivity, but never about what it actually is. So today, let’s discuss the broad definition of productivity, as well as a more specific variant, labor productivity/workforce productivity. Although personal productivity is generally more our focus, the different types of productivity are not entirely unrelated. The general definition of…
Read moreMaking a status report with Priority Matrix
Using the principles we explained in What is Scrum?, we can use Priority Matrix to create a daily or weekly status report that contains every action item that we deal with on a regular basis. This allows you, your team, or your supervisor to see exactly what everyone has been contributing. Here is one example of how…
Read moreHow to get better sleep and relieve stress
Being productive is about being able to work efficiently on a certain task(s) and produce results. However, without the right preparation, being productive can be quite difficult. This preparation begins in bed, where you prepare your body for each and every day. Here are some tips on getting better sleep and maximizing your productivity. Get…
Read moreStartups: how to prioritize tasks and make decisions
At Appfluence, we have learned a lot about creating a company from scratch, and what makes a product useful to our customers. Here are a few pieces of information that we would like to share about how to prioritize tasks and make decisions as a small business owner/startup company founder. Stay focused Create and maintain…
Read moreUsing design thinking to improve personal productivity
Design thinking is a methodology that encourages the use of empathy, creativity, and collaboration in solving problems or generating ideas. Companies like IDEO use design thinking as a foundation for their design consulting services, and these methods have relatively recently made its way into higher education. Stanford University, Northwestern University, and UC Berkeley are just a…
Read moreTop 10 time management skills for college students from a Stanford entrepreneur
Today, I’ll share some of the time management skills I used and learned as a college and graduate student. When I was pursuing my PhD at Stanford University, I had an insane amount of work juggling between TA-ship, coursework, research, consulting and pursuing my side projects (which became the company I co-founded). Having been through…
Read morePriority Matrix for Windows Onboarding
Get started with Priority Matrix for Windows Priority Matrix is a software tool based on the 4-quadrant paradigm. Priority Matrix improves your life by solving 3 problems: Prioritization. So that you work on things that matter. Organization. Keeping your information synchronized and accessible anywhere and anytime. Ease of use. Providing you features and visual tools…
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