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Simplifying our digital life and simplifying our productivity go hand in hand because a lot of us do our work on computers these days.
How can we simplify our productivity and our digital life?
Simple Productivity
I’ve talked a little about MIT’s (Most Important Things). We narrow down the things on our to-do list to those that are most important. The idea of Stephen Covey, who wrote the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, often talked about a bucket or container of the things in our week. We often fill it up with all the little things; answer emails, go to meetings, check out things online, etc. Much of these pebbles fill up our day and week. The big things, the rocks, that are most important, then, have no room in our bucket. We have been busy, but we haven not been effective. We let the important things get put off while we do all the busy work.
Stephen Covey says, if we put the big rocks in first, then we can fill in the cracks with the little pebbles and sand. Our day is full as well but we have room for the big things, These are the MIT’s.
Make a list of 3-5 most import things that have a high impact on
- your life
- your business
- the team you are a part of
- your family
- the people you are serving
What has a high impact? For me, making this video is high impact. It is a high impact task, while answering emails is a bunch of little tasks. This content I am creating right now is so much more important. Of course you have to do the little things like emails and paying bills, otherwise they become big tasks. But you do not need to do them first.
- Pick 3 important tasks.
- Schedule them into your day first. Do your biggest rock first, before you do anything else that day.
- Do the little tasks after you complete the big tasks. Keep up with the little admin tasks after you finish your most important ones.
Focus on one thing at a time.
Simplify and focus on one thing at a time. Maybe you pick an important task, do ten minutes of complete focus, take a break, then do another ten minutes. You will be surprised by how much you get accomplished. Accomplished is about completing big things that are important to you and to the people you are serving.
This applies to if you are a house mom or dad. I like to read with my kids and consider that a big rock. If I read with my kids, it’s not just pleasure for me and pleasure for them. It is enriching their lives and bonding with one another.
Big rocks don’t need to be just work. I have 3 big rocks for work and 3 big rocks for my personal life. That is simple productivity. I do recommend at least 1-2 periods of admin work. It is less important but still needs to be done daily.
Simplifying Your Digital Life
This is something you can focus on in the next few days.
- simplifying email
- simplifying files
- simplifying photos
Choose simple tools that work and so you can easily find what you need. For example, these days I use Google Photos. I realize there are privacy concerns with them, and if that is a concern, use a different tool. For me, Google Photos is super simple, easy, and uploads all my photos from my phone. I do the same thing for my files. you can use Dropbox or ICloud or Google Drive. In Dropbox, you can upload photos and files and don’t have to worry about the computer crashing. For long-term storage, I use Amazon digital storage and is a little more tech-savvy.
If there are a bunch of things on your computer, back it up digitally. For passwords, I use 1Password. There is LastPass and KeyPass. You have one bucket in where all your passwords and credit card information is located. It remembers all my information and is synched with all devices.
Use tools that simplify and they synch effortlessly. If you can search quickly, you don’t have to file. You just archive and search.
Keep email fairly low, try to clear on a daily basis.
- To-do list
- Respond quickly
- Archive, delete, or unsubscribe
Do one step at a time with simple productivity and simplifying your digital life.