Category Archives: productivity

Atomic Habit

Summary from atomic habit book that I’ve read.

Focus on process/system/activities instead of goals or results. You will get the result soon without you aware.
To make a new habit, make the cue visible, the bait attractive, the process to do it easy and the reward satisfying.
Habit stack – try to make a new habit on top of existing habit. For example, to read Quran everytime after solat.
Create an environment or surrounding that will help to form a good habit. Much better than motivation. It’s the “visible cue” that matters.
The seductive pull of social norms – people closest to us, majority around us or imitating the powerful/success people/icon. (pg .115)
Peer pressure – if everyone is doing one activity, we’ll also most likely to follow. So find the right peers.
The closer we are to someone, the more likely we are to imitate some of their habits (pg. 116)

Productivity tips working from home

This post is more for my personal notes. Here are something you can do to stay productive even working at home.

1. Set a clear goal. For example to complete task A, B and C and stick to it. You don’t have to set so many goals to achieve. 3 important tasks per day is good enough.

2. Prepare a comfortable work station. Yes you can work anywhere but this place is where you’ll spend most of your time productively

3. Stay away from distraction as much as you could. Stay away from TV, from children (while you work), from your gadgets as well if it has nothing to do with your work.

4. Stick to your own productive time. Range of time where you can do your work most effectively. It can be 2 hours in the morning and 5 hours at night. During this time force yourself to finish as much work as possible.

5. Take a quick 10 minutes break every now and then. After a long working period. For example 5-10 minutes break to go to the toilet and have a drink after 40 minutes of working

6. Just do it! This is the mentality we need. Think small thing to achieve in a short time. Just start doing it right away. If you can continue working after finish the small task, it is a bonus. The key here is to START

7. Prioritize. Do what important and has most significance first.

8. Break one huge tasks to smaller ones. Then focus to finish the small tasks one at a time.

9. Share achievements with others. Good to share achievements (read progress) with your boss or if you don’t have one, with your partners or friends.

10. Be responsible! You are an adult. You know you are paid to do the work or you must complete the work. So do it because it is your responsible.

Focus and single-tasking

Focus is important. To focus is to do only one single task at a given time. But this is very hard to do.

Follow the following steps

1. Remove all distractions – silent and put away the smart phones, disable all notifications (email, messenger etc), stay away from people who love to disturb you etc

2. start small – start with 10 minutes focus time to do one small task and let youurself drawn into the task further without you know. split tough and huge tasks to smaller ones to achieve. Most important is to have PROGRESS

3. take a meaningful break. Focus is tiring. So take a solid and meaningful 10 minutes break everytime you complete a tough task. For example, drink water, stretching, have a meaningful and necessary discussions with colleague, check emails/messenger etc