Displaying All Posts by Andre Kibbe

Break Hacks

How long should you work before taking a break? The typical recommendations I see in the blogosphere are (a) every 50-60 minutes and (b) every 90 minutes. My advice: take breaks when you actually need them rather than taking them on schedule.

Be careful with advice given by writers. It may not be wrong, but it may very well be domain-specific. In other words, a clerk in a copy store can probably work two or three times as long as a writer without needing a break. A construction worker may only be able to optimally work half as long. Think about the nature of the work you do and learn to rightsize your breaks accordingly.

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Calendar or To Do List? Two Task Management Tools Compared

Andre Kibbe 24th February Productivity Leave a Comment

How do you plan and track your daily activities, with a calendar or a to do list? Some productivity gurus claim that putting everything on your calendar ensures that it never gets done, or that you’ll cross off what you don’t get done and just reschedule it for the next day — which defeats the purpose of scheduling. Other gurus claim that putting everything on a list, where items aren’t tied to a time and date, ensures that they never get done, since they lack specific queues to get started or deadlines to finish.

If the choice is mutually exclusive, I think they’re both wrong. Calendars and lists are related, but serve different purposes, not unlike clocks and timers. You can use a clock as a timer, but it’s not the best tool for the job.

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Four Strategies for Increasing Email Productivity

Andre Kibbe 16th February Productivity Leave a Comment

If you want to know what people value most, look at which email subject lines get the fastest replies from them. You’ll find that issues you consider priorities aren’t valued equally by others, and vice versa, which makes one-size-fits-all policies like “check email twice a day” or “turn off email notifications” awkward to implement company-wide.

Regardless of the medium, one person’s communication is another person’s distraction. So how do you get anything done in a culture where expectations for email turnaround are frustratingly vague? How do you deal with your own email overload? Click Here to Read Article …

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The 80/20 Rule Revisited

Andre Kibbe 9th February Goals Leave a Comment

The 80/20 Rule can save massive amounts of time and energy when properly understood and applied. As with many observations described as rules, failing to understanding the operating principles underlying the 80/20 Rule leads can lead to some pretty academic debates about its veracity, which ultimately leads inaction.

Repopularized in Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek, the 80/20 Rule is a shorthand term for a series of observations made by an Italian political economist in the 19th Century, Vilfredo Pareto (hence the other name for the 80/20 Rule, the “Pareto Principle”). He noted that 20% of Italy’s population owned 80% of its wealth. He saw this reciprocal distribution play out in other domains: 20% of all of the pea pods sown in the ground produced 80% of the peas, for instance. But just how universal is the 80/20 Rule, and can you apply it in your work and life? Click Here to Read Article …

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Declutter Your Desk with a General Reference Filing System

Andre Kibbe 5th February Office Life Leave a Comment

First, a confession. I don’t do what I’m about to recommend, at least not anymore. My current job involves zero paperwork, but in my previous, paper-based job, I was able to manage a mountain of paperwork while maintaining a pristinely clean desk. If you’re willing to put in a few hours to set up the general reference filing system I describe, you’ll not only find it easy to keep your desk free of clutter, but you get to the point where seeing extraneous paperwork build up on your desk will feel as unsettling as not showering. Think of clutter management as information hygiene.

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Killer Chrome Extensions for Productive Browsing

Andre Kibbe 2nd February Productivity Leave a Comment

When it comes to pure speed, Google Chrome stomps all over other browsers. Still, Firefox remains a popular choice for power users due to its wealth of extensions for just about any browser task imaginable. Fortunately, extensions for Chrome are proliferating at a fast and furious rate. Let’s take a look at some Chrome browser extensions that will make your online productivity equally fast and furious.

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Full Engagement at Work

Andre Kibbe 22nd January Productivity Leave a Comment

Most of today’s companies still value presence over performance. The amount of time employees spend in the office matters more than what they accomplish during that time. The expectation of putting in long hours, regardless of whether or not it’s warranted, breeds a habit of filling time by creating non-critical activities, drifting into excessive socializing, or getting caught up in trivial office politics. For those of us who actually want to be productive rather than busy, being surrounded by counterproductive behavior can be frustrating.

How do you replace busyness with productivity? One powerful way is by increasing your presence-to-performance ratio.

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The Zen of An Empty Computer Desktop

Andre Kibbe 21st January Productivity Leave a Comment

Decluttering your cubicle or desk can greatly minimize visual distraction in the workplace. Seeing last week’s memo out of the corner of your eye can trigger your brain to periodically reevaluate its relevance. There’s no point in wasting cycles on redundant processing.

But what about your computer desktop? If you want to take workspace decluttering to its logical conclusion, getting rid of icons on your desktop is worth exploring.

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