May20

How to use lists to train your brain to be more productive

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How to use lists to train your brain to be more productive

Aaah, the joys of checking off all the tasks on your checklist is comparable to the feeling of success. Don’t you feel accomplished after being able to cross things off of a list? It makes you feel like you’ve made it and that you’ve got it together, doesn’t’ it?

All of us use lists to track down work projects and personal projects – especially since most of those involve many moving parts or other people. The most important reason why this work is because it serves as a central “command center” to keep you organized and on task.

Why do lists work?
List works because they break a project down into smaller goals. Smaller goals are inherently short term. If you’re going for S.M.A.R.T. goals, the list already takes care of the specific, measurable, and time-bound part of it. It’s now up to you to take care of the attainable and realistic part in S.M.A.R.T.

How can we use it to train our brain?
Whenever we experience success, even if it is in small doses, our beautiful and amazing brain releases dopamine – a chemical that is both hormone and neurotransmitter often connected to a feeling of pleasure, reward, and motivation. The release of dopamine whenever we complete a task facilitates “self-directed learning”. This is why we strive to keep repeating the same actions that drive us towards success.

Once we are positively motivated, we learn to take the same actions to get the same feeling over and over. Now, back to checking things off of our list. We feel a sense of accomplishment whenever we cross or tick things off of our list, right? That’s because our brain releases dopamine to help us feel good. If the goal is to cross as many things off the list, our brain rewards us every time we do so with the feel-good chemical. This ‘motivates’ us to keep doing what we’re doing to achieve positive results. It now becomes a habit.

Get into the habit of creating lists
You can use your smartphone for this. With apps like Google Keep, Google Tasks, Trello, etc. All of these have checklist functions that you can build on or even share with others. Or if you’re old school, good old trusty pen and paper will do. Just make sure that your list has all the important details of your task. For example, you can write down ‘go to the grocery store’ on your to-do list but a better way would be to write ‘go to the grocery store to get cleaning supplies’ and then proceed to list the cleaning supplies down. Makes more sense, right?

What about you? Do you like having lists written down or do you prefer to use mobile apps to keep your lists? What are the apps that you use? Care to share them with us in the comments? Always remember to stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help

May15

The perils of multitasking and how it reduces your work efficiency

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The perils of multitasking and how it reduces your work efficiency

Did you know that multitasking hurts your brain and sacrifices your effectiveness at work? We are all proud of our ability to multitask. Hell, it even holds a special place in our resumes, since it has been long touted as one of the skills that could get people hired. Don’t get me wrong, it is an awesome skill to have. Especially since we’re living in a world full of constant distractions – an inbox full of emails, pings of text and instant messages, post its, multiple open tabs, and free work lunches. Every and all things are constantly vying for our attention. And how to manage our time attending to all of them is one very big challenge

Sure, you can take care of all of it, all at once, right now. Sure! However…you might feel that you’re doing more – and you are – but you are actually getting fewer things done in the long run. So how do you streamline your workload, become more productive, and manage your time well enough to knock out some of the bigger stuff that you should absolutely be focusing on, all while being more efficient at your job? Well, first you stop multitasking and focus on one task at a time!

Here’s the science:
The brain cannot effectively switch between tasks since it takes the brain four times longer to recognize new things when you’re multitasking or doing tasks all together at the same time. Have you ever tried listening to a training video while encoding data into your company CRM? Well, how did that work out for you? I bet it didn’t. You wouldn’t be able to focus. Multitasking actually costs you time – which is the time you don’t have – that’s why you were trying to do them all at the same time in the first place, right? Studies also show that you have a much lower retention rate when multitasking, which is bound to cause you to make mistakes. And mistakes cost time – time to identify and rectify.

So what should you do?

  1. Take quick breaks from your screen, both at work and at home. This exercise forces you to:
    ○ Stop keeping your work screen in the background when you’re doing deep work like studying, thinking, analyzing, etc.
    ○ Stop using your TV screen as background noise when you’re resting recuperating, or relaxing.
    ○ Social media counts as a screen, so take a break from this as well. Don’t use your break time to check social media – I know it’s hard but if I can do it, so can you. You know how those cat videos and plant photos on Instagram are a huge time sucker.
  2. Avoid answering emails when you’re doing the bulk of your deep focus work – it won’t be the end of the world if an email gets unanswered for 45mins, if it’s urgent they’ll ping you. Which leads me to… keep your messaging apps muted. They are a distraction that you can’t afford while working.
  3. Schedule your day – plan your days around meetings and get your to-do list organized for the day + 2 days after. This will give you the flexibility to move things around and help you identify which tasks you need to focus on and which have to absolutely get done right away.

How about you, what are your tips on how to stop multitasking and focusing on deep work? Share them with us in the comments. Stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help

May7

How to improve your Google Search by using these little-used Search Hacks

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How to improve your Google Search by using these little-used Search Hacks

Google is the most widely used search engines. It dominates the market share, with 73% of searches being powered by Google and the rest being shared among Bing, Yahoo, Ask.com, AOL.com, etc. In a world where data and information are currencies, it’s a big convenience to have search engines that help gather answers and resources.

Since we use Google on a daily basis. It should make sense that we know how to use the search function in order to get the best results from the keywords we use, right? Everyone knows how to “Google”. It’s as simple as typing in keywords in the search bar. However, there are ways to optimize Google searches and help us find what we’re looking for even faster. Google has shortcuts that can help you save time and return the most accurate results. This is especially helpful for research and technical writing. Here’s how you can use shortcuts to save time and improve your searches.

Quotation Marks “”
Quotation marks help you search for an exact word, the exact set of words, or exact phrases. This is very useful if you’re searching for book entries, quotes, song lyrics, poems, etc. where you can only remember part of the whole text. For example, a quick search for “master of my fate, captain of my soul” in Google will return the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley.

Dashes –
Dashes can help you weed out unwanted terms. Think of the dash as a minus sign that will exclude the terms you don’t want to be returned from search results. For example, a list of vitamins-vitamin A will return a list of vitamins without vitamin A in it.

Tilde ~
The tilde is the short squiggly line to the left of the “1” key on your keyboard. Yes, that’s what it’s called. Using it in your search will list out all the similar terms, widen your search and pull out additional results that would normally not be included in search results. It acts as a synonyms searcher. For example, animals~magical will return magical, fantasy, and mythical creatures.

Site
Use this for searching results in sites that have their own search function or to search within a specific website. Best used if you already know the website to look for.

Link: link: query
This search hack can be used to search whatever may be linking to a specified URL. Use it if you’re looking to improve SEO through building links.

Two Periods
Two periods signify a range. It replaces the word “to”. Your Google search will only return results from within the specified range. This works for dates, prices, measurements, etc. For example, AI technology 2018..2019

Rel – related:query
You can use this search hack to search for websites similar to one another.

How about you? Do you know of any useful search hacks to use on Google search? Share them with us in the comments. Remember to stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help

Apr29

Simple ways to find out your priorities from a to-do list

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Simple ways to find out your priorities from a to-do list

Not every item on your to-do list is of equal importance. Be honest with yourself, some task won’t mean the end of the world if they don’t get done. When everything on your to-do list is a priority, then nothing is. This is why you should stick to 1 to 3 priorities and write them at the very top of your list. If you overload your to-do list with things that must absolutely get done, then nothing will.

We all know how hard it is to pick priority items when you have your plate full. So without further ado, here are 4 tips to help you prioritize your action items.

Write a to-do list
You should have seen this one coming. It is hard to pick out a priority task if you don’t even have a list. So get yourself organized and create a to-do list. List everything that you need to get done and categorize them into whatever system works for you. Some examples are:

Home
❏ Pick up dry cleaning
❏ Take kids to school
❏ Get ingredients for dinner

Work
❏ Draft newsletter
❏ Build a mailing list
❏ Send out newsletter campaigns

Or you can categorize them into activities:

Writing
❏ Create an outline
❏ Draft chapter 1

Layout
❏ Pick images
❏ Create template

Pick a system that works for you and stick to that.

Pick your priority tasks.
Pick one to three priority task per day (or a week, depending on what system works for you). The productivity powerhouse, Dr. John Maxwell said: “Things that matter most should not be at the mercy of things that matter least.” That should guide you in picking your priority tasks. Pick the task that has the most impact and importance.

Stop trying to do things yourself.
Yes, I mean learn how to delegate tasks that are urgent but not important. Items that require immediate action, but do not contribute to the goal can be delegated or better yet, automated. For example, email inquiries can be delegated, or you can create canned responses for the team to use.

However, I also mean stop trying to figure out the task by yourself. If you have a question, ask. If the task assigned to you seems vague, the burden of clarifying falls on the task giver, not on you. So go back to the person who assigned you the task and find out exactly what they need you to do. Otherwise, do not accept tasks without the necessary details needed to complete the work.

Find time to plan.
Find a convenient time to plan your activities. Carve out a quiet time when you can look at your schedule and upcoming activities so that you can plan your list accordingly. Friday afternoons could work so that your to-do list is still fresh on your mind. Or you could go for Sunday evenings so that you can plan for the rest of the week in advance. Do whatever works best with your schedule. Once your list is complete, you can pick out your priorities by day or by week – whichever works for you.

What are your top tips on prioritizing? Care to share them with us? Stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help

Apr23

5 Things you can do in the Evening for more Productive Days

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5 Things you can do in the Evening for more Productive Days

Does this happen to you? You’re off to bed, pajamas on, face washed, teeth brushed, ready to get some much-needed shuteye. You’re thinking “well, today wasn’t so bad. I forgot a couple of things but I promise tomorrow I’ll do better!” The morning after, the 3rd alarm rings, signaling that you are now late because you hit the snooze button twice. You skip breakfast, grab some coffee at the store and head off to work looking decent but not really fabulous. Your day now spirals into a game of catch up. Then again, you’re off to bed promising to do better tomorrow.

Here’s the secret: good days start the night before. So if you want to have a productive day being less stressed and less frazzled, then you should prep the night before. Start creating your productive tomorrow, today.

Here are some tips to get you started:
1. Get your things ready to go – make a list of all the things you need for your day and get them ready during the evening before. Make cold brew coffee that’s ready to pour into your favorite coffee tumbler. Get your gym bag ready if you plan on squeezing in a workout the next day. Pack your office bag. Ladies have different bags for different outfits so invest in a bag organizer that you can just transfer. Pick your work clothes out so that you don’t have to waste time rummaging through your closet in the morning.

2. The 5-minute rule – no it’s not about food. The 5-minute rule is about giving yourself 5 minutes to pick up things and put them back where they belong. This goes for shirts, keys, wallets, bowls, cups, towels, and trash..and whole host of other things. A quick run through the house to tidy up makes it easier for tomorrow.

3. Check your schedule – quickly check what your agenda for tomorrow is. What are you doing? When are you doing it? Who are you with? Prepare accordingly.

4. To-Do list – make a prioritized to-do list. Extract your 3 top priorities (try to keep it at 3, otherwise you will feel overwhelmed) and put them at the very top of the list. Everything else can be moved around except for our top 3. Keep your list short and focused.

5. Decompress – at the end of the day, decompress. Try not to think about work, the news, other worries, or the state of affairs of the nation before you go to bed. Turn off your tech 3 hours before going to bed (or whatever is doable). Just turn it off already. The blue light from the screens disturbs your sleep patterns. Once you get off the screen, think about what you want to achieve for the next day to help you get into a productive mindset. You can also use that time to give thanks for all that you are grateful for.

How about you. What are your evening wind down rituals to help you get ready for a productive day? Share them with us in the comments. Stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help