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Dr. Pankaj Jain of GyanShala. (This may be a 10 min read but I’m sure it’ll be worth it)The manPankaj comes from Uttar Pradesh. After completing his engineering degree at IIT Roorkee, he went to Ahmedabad to work at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) , and then completed his PhD at IIM Ahmedabad. Here he spent time understanding the development sector. Upon graduation, although offered an attractive job at Tata Consultancy Services, he joined the advisory team of Dr. Kurien, who led the White Revolution. Dr. Kurien approached ministers and government officials to change policies to further Amul’s growth, and Pankaj prepared his briefs for meetings.After seeing that rural development moved slowly due to a lack of trained professionals in the sector, Pankaj took what he learned from Dr. Kurien and started the Institute of Rural Management Ahmedabad (IRMA). He created the syllabi for and taught courses on strategic management for the rural areas at IRMA, adding specialized faculty members in rural education, rural health, and other sectors. Through his efforts, Pankaj trained a strong cadre of more than 500 students a year who would catalyze rural development. Born out of Pankaj’s insight on rural management and development, IRMA is at the forefront of professionalizing the development of India’s rural sector. Over the years it has provided management training, support, and research facilities to students committed to rural development.Since IRMA focused on the cooperative model, Pankaj also introduced new topics, such as the role of COs in rural development. In 1994, he left IRMA to explore new areas and broaden his perspective. This led him to teach abroad in prestigious universities in the UK and US (MIT, NYU, and University of Leeds). Pankaj also consulted for Grameen Bank and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, advising them on their general management strategies.It was during the visit to Bangladesh is when he claims that the seed of GyanShala was planted in his mind. He says that he observed that India was a much developed country than Bangladesh, which is obvious. But then he noticed an interesting thing. He found out that in 1994 itself, the girls turnout for schools in Bangladesh was higher than that in schools in India. Also, the overall education related metrics of Bangladesh were on a neck to neck scale with this developing country called India. He knew India had no reason to stay behind.This made him dig deeper into the problem behind India’s education.The ProblemIn India, more than ten million school-aged children are excluded from the education system, usually because they come from marginalized communities and underprivileged backgrounds. For those in school, studies have demonstrated that the education they receive is of low quality, especially in primary school. For example, the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international study comparing student performance worldwide, ranks the quality of education in India 63 among 64 surveyed countries. Indeed, the number of students completing their primary education with inadequate numeracy and literacy skills is startling: the Annual Status of Education Report 2011 states that 48.2 percent of students in Grade 5 read at the Grade 2 level.The explanation for this is twofold. First, only 4.1 percent of India’s GDP is spent on education, as compared to Denmark and Sweden, rated among the top countries in education standards by PISA, which spend 8.5 percent and 7.7 percent. Since schooling is governed by state level laws legislated by approximately 35 governments in different territories, quality standards and investments in education vary.There is also a national shortage of teachers. With more than 220 million school-aged children, and one class composed of around 40 students, India would need 5 million qualified teachers just to teach math and science (students attend one math class and one science class per day). However, India barely has 2 million teachers. This analysis is confirmed by a 2010 report from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, which states that India would need 2 million new teachers by 2015. Moreover, teachers are not evenly distributed. Numbers at the national level show that 12.7 percent of primary schools have only one teacher while another 39.1 percent have only two teachers, meaning that more than half of the primary schools in the country have fewer than two teachers. With this ratio of teachers to students, educators are unable to give individual attention to students. Moreover, administrative responsibilities take an additional toll on their teaching abilities.In addition to facing an inadequate number of educators, there is also a lack of quality teachers. According to the Ministry of Human Resource & Development (MHRD), only 35 percent of government teachers are trained in teaching methodology, while close to 0.8 million remain completely untrained. Also, teachers generally lack the qualification and support to teach multilevel classes. Many initiatives have been put in place to tackle the problem of education quality, both from government bodies and citizen organizations (COs). Some are successful, but very few are able to ensure quality when scaling. Given India’s demographics, scale is a vital success factor for any efficient education model.To summarize India’s problems in education were largely due to the following factors:Lack of adequate teachers.Lack of quality teachers.Lack of a scalable model which could reach millions of students.The mentality of the parents to avoid sending their wards to school, owning to proximity concerns.Inability of the government to spend huge money on the infrastructure required to fuel the growth in education.Now, Dr. Pankaj Jain comes up with GYANSHALA to find an answer to all these constraints.GyanShala- The StrategyPankaj believes that to improve the problem of education quality in the immediate future, existing financial and human resources must be creatively allocated. His network of classrooms center around a core strategy of para-skilling. After carefully observing a traditional teacher, Pankaj saw that a teacher’s role could largely be divided it into three distinct parts: (a) preparation of curriculum and creating a schedule of teaching (b) daily interaction with students and mastering simple exercises (a majority of the time)and (c) answering questions and complex problems (rare and not urgent). He realized that each part requires a different set of competencies and qualifications and that some tasks could be undertaken by less skilled workers.To optimize the skills of quality teachers, he set up a “design team” of around 35 education professionals to design curriculums and standardized lesson plans. These plans provide a detailed guide of methods and exercises for communicating a lesson. For example, in Grade 3, the first 20 minutes are dedicated to singing a song, checking the date and neighborhood news, reading a story, or describing a picture. The next 30 minutes are allocated to a language lesson (15 minutes of actual teaching, 15 minutes of individual assignment on the worksheets). This 30-minute pattern is repeated for math. Then there is a 50-minute group activity module: children work in groups and rotate between activities. The last 20 minutes are dedicated to play and fun, as well as homework instructions. Although Gyan Shala curriculums are compliant with the official curriculum from the Ministry of Education, the design team often adapts it by mixing Grade 3 and Grade 5 math exercises, for example, in order to help the students’ progress faster.Standardized lesson plans coupled with recurrent training enables Gyan Shala to hire trained, local, “unqualified” women for daily interaction with the students and basic communication of lessons. These women typically come from the same community as the students and have completed Grade 12. They are selected on the basis of their communication and interpersonal skills and general comfort with the subject. In addition, every other Saturday is dedicated to training on curriculum updates and teaching skills, while two week-long workshops per year reinforce Gyan Shala’s values.With the design of curriculum and everyday classes handled by others, the “supervisors,” experienced teachers with a graduate degree, focus on supporting and supervising the network of “community” teachers. Acting as an interface between the design team and the teachers, each supervisor is responsible for around seven classes—visiting each class weekly in rotation, supporting and evaluating the teachers, and answering any complex questions the students may have. They also take care of all the administrative work, such as paying the classrooms rent and handling relationships with parents.Pankaj uses other processes to improve teaching quality and learning. In elementary school, one teacher teaches all subjects (English, Gujarati, math, and science). In middle school, teachers are specialized by subject and rotate between classes. Between rotations, one supervisor manages the break (so that students do not leave the classroom or get too distracted). Moreover, for each group of four specialized middle school teachers, there is one non-specialized extra teacher who can take over in case of illness; this extra teacher is trained to be up-to-date on all four subjects, and teaches one class every two weeks to maintain her teaching skills. Because the infrastructure is quite basic, Gyan Shala invests a lot to provide teachers and students with good teaching and learning materials, such as individual textbooks and worksheets. As a result, Gyan Shala student’s outperform their government school counterparts in all subjects—on average, Grade 3 students scored 63 versus 31 in language, and 87 versus 40 in math.To increase impact, Pankaj focuses on maximizing attendance. He ensures that schools are walking distance from students’ homes; classes are only three hours long, so children can focus on their studies as well as helping their parents; and to encourage more girls to attend classes, he appoints only women teachers. When a student is absent more than three times a month, a supervisor will visit the family. To further ensure that education remains affordable, Gyan Shala optimizes the staff salaries while charging reasonable fees to families. Hiring low-skilled teachers to work part-time significantly decreases costs. Moreover, infrastructure costs are kept low by holding classes in rooms of an average size of 15 square meters, rented from a slum family for around INR 3,000 (US$60) a month. Most importantly, fees are accessible (free in elementary school per government rules, and 100 Rps per month per child in middle school). As a result, attendance in Gyan Shala schools varies from 65 to 80 percent. To ensure that families have a financial stake in their child’s education, Gyan Shala charges a nominal monthly fee of INR 100 (US$2) per child in middle school. A child costs Gyan Shala INR 2,800 (US$56) per year in elementary school and 4,000 (US$80) in middle school (inclusive of class rent, learning material, and stationery). This is much more financially competitive than a government school, where the cost of one child can vary from 10,000 (US$200) to 25,000 (US$500) per year, excluding building and stationery expenses and the transport costs incurred by the student.The End ResultDr.Pankaj jain succeeded in creating a low cost, high quality and a scalable GyanShala for the children of India.Reasons for Low CostRenting classrooms on hourly basis predominantly around slum areas. (This solves the proximity issue at the same time keeps the costs low)No qualification required for teaching and use of local resources for teaching.Reasons for High qualityUse of a standard curriculum designed by highly skilled educators.This way majority of the total cost is concentrated against the cost of designing the curriculum. The cost of conducting a class is kept marginal. So if additional classrooms were to be introduced the increase in costs would be still minimal as only renting and other teacher costs are to be paid extra. The high curriculum designing costs could be avoided as the same curriculum could be adopted.How do I know this model worked?Starting with 10 classes in Ahmedabad in 2000, Gyan Shala today provides education to 30,000 students from Grade 1 to 10 in more than 1,000 classes. Gyan Shala’s presence has successfully expanded to other states in India: apart from Ahmedabad, Gyan Shala classes can be found in Kolkata, three cities of Bihar, and two cities in Uttar Pradesh.According to a survey conducted by the MIT Poverty Action Lab, Gyan Shala’s Grade 3 students perform 88 percent better in language and 99 percent better in math than Grade 3 students in municipal schools.Gyan Shala’s model has proven to be so effective that the government of Gujarat approached Pankaj to spread his methods. Pankaj then ran a two-year pilot with a few government schools.Now how many of us have seen a person who has studied in one of the most renowned institutes of India, actually let go off a lucrative career in micro-finance and do something for the children of our country?Well, not many.Let’s all be proud of this man and take a bow.Some pictures of the GyanShala classroom:

Without further information about your income, it’s hard to say what “affordable” is going to be for you.As for month-to-month options, many smaller landlords are only going to offer a one-year lease. At big, corporate apartment complexes, you can often sign a three-, six-, or twelve-month lease, but you’ll pay less in monthly rent for the longer-term lease. This is because your landlord needs to factor in downtime (loss of rental income, and possible capital improvements) when you vacate. If you have to pay rent for 12 months before being able to vacate, there is less downtime.In many cities with rent control, there are landlords who recognize the futility of long-term leases, so they just do month-to-month leases from the get-go. This is my situation. I signed a one-month lease in August 2011. Every year in July I get a certified letter stating my annual rent increase effective September 1, along with a worksheet provided by the City of Oakland and filled out for my specific unit and lease. My rent is very affordable: I pay just over $1,000/month for a large one bedroom. This is because my rent can only go up by the rate of inflation every year. And because of rent control, there is no need to do a new lease: my lease term is indefinite, terminable by me on 30 days’ notice, or by my landlord only if I am have breached the terms of or defaulted on my 2011 lease and such breach or default continues beyond any applicable cure period. There are a few other ways I could potentially be evicted (owner move-in, condo conversion), but I’m not particularly worried about this.A lot of people live way out in the ‘burbs to have more affordable housing: Stockton, Tracy, Hercules, Rohnert Park. If you make this choice, you must also factor in the increased cost of transportation into the heart of the Bay Area (where your job probably is located), and the toll having such a lengthy commute will take on your stress levels and your relationships.Probably the easiest way to make Bay Area renting affordable, though, is to have roommates. Most of us have done it, or still do it.

23 Time Management Techniques of Insanely Busy PeopleWant more productivity hacks? Here’s a special gift for you — access to my new biweekly invite-only productivity hacks for free!Time is finite.We all have the same amount of hours each day. You can’t store time, borrow it, or save for later use. You can only decide how to allocate it, spending it on activities of higher rather than low value. Time management is a game of choices: projects to pursue, tasks to complete, routines to follow.Adopting good time management techniques in your life isn’t about squeezing as many tasks as you can into your day. It’s about simplifying how you work, getting things done faster, and doing things better. By doing so, you’ll have more times for play, rest, and doing the things you love. Don’t try to work hard, invest in working smarter.“Time management is not a peripheral activity or skill. It is the core skill upon which everything else in life depends. “ — Brian TracyBelow, you’ll find a list of my favorite time management techniques. They are a set of principles, rules, and skills that allow you to put your focus on the things that matter, get more done and help you be more productive.Use them as a rulebook of your work. You will improve your productivity, accomplish more with less effort, improve your decision-making ability, reduce stress, and ultimately become more successful in your career.But remember: everyone is different. These are the time management techniques that I find useful in my life, but you might not. Adopt the ones that work for you and always seek to refine your own practices by regularly thinking about how to improve your time management skills.By writing your own time management rulebook, you’ll discover that there are really enough hours in a day for everything you’d like to do. It just takes a bit of rearranging and re-imagining to find them…#1 Organize Work Around Energy LevelsProductivity is directly related to your energy level.Find your most productive hours — the time of your peak energy — and schedule Deep Work for those periods. Do low-value and low-energy tasks (also known as shallow work), such as responding to emails or unimportant meetings, in between those hours.For example:If you are a morning person, do your most critical work when you get in the office. After lunch, your energy might crash a bit so it’s a great time to clean your desk, clean emails or update spreadsheets.Plan your work around your energy levels, scheduling critical work for peak productivity times.You should also know your energy levels by day: Tuesday seems to be the most productive day for most people, but find your own patterns. Here how Jeremiah Dillon, head of product marketing for Google Apps for Work, organizes his week around his energy levels:Monday: Energy ramps out of the weekend — schedule low-demand tasks like setting goals, organizing, and planning.Tuesday, Wednesday: Peak of energy — tackle the most difficult problems, write, brainstorm, schedule your Make Time.Thursday: Energy begins to ebb — schedule meetings, especially when consensus is needed.Friday: Lowest energy level — do open-ended work, long-term planning, and relationship building.Map your work and energy levels in a spreadsheet for a couple of weeks until you uncover your productivity patterns.#2 Plan Your Day the Night BeforeBefore going bed, spend 5 minutes writing your to-do list for the next day. These tasks should help you move towards your professional and personal goals.By planning ahead the night before, you’ll be better prepared mentally for the challenges ahead before waking up and there won’t be any room for procrastination in the morning. As a result, you’ll work faster and smoother than ever before.Spend a few minutes each evening before going to bed to write down everything you need to get done tomorrow.Make planning a part of your night-time routine and save yourself time and worries in the morning. Once you wake up, you’ll be able to just get to work.#3 Start the Day with Critical WorkMark Twain once said: “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”This is a golden time management technique: Find your most important task (MIT) for the day and tackle it first. Your MIT should be the one thing that creates the most impact on your work. Getting it done will give you the momentum and sense of accomplishment early in the day. That’s how big life goals are achieved: small continuous efforts, day after day.Each day, identify the most crucial tasks to complete and tackle it first. Once you’re done, the day has already been a success!How do you find your MIT? In Elon Musk’s words: “Focus on signal over noise. Don’t waste time on stuff that doesn’t actually make things better.” Look at your to-do list and decide which tasks help you get close to your goals and make progress in meaningful work.Put these at the top of your list so you can focus on them first. Resist the temptation of tackling the easiest tasks first.#4 Prioritize TasksKnowing how to prioritize your work is an essential time management technique. Projects, however small or large, need clear priorities. When everything is a priority, nothing is.You want to prioritize your “true tasks” first, the tasks that actually move the needle of your goals. To help you find them, use a productivity hack called the Eisenhower Matrix.Prioritize “true tasks”: urgent and important to-dos that have a direct impact on your goals.Here’s the step by step:Write down all your tasks. Don’t worry about the order (for now), just write everything you need to doNow identify what’s urgent and what’s important. After each task, mark them with “U” for Urgent and “I” for Important. Tasks can have one, both, or none. If none, you’ll need to purge themNow we need to assess value: look at your “I” tasks and identify the high-value drivers of your work. You want to find which tasks have priority over others and how many people are impacted by your workThe next step is to estimate time to complete each task. Order them from most effort to least effortFinally, insert the tasks into the Eisenhower Matrix. You now have a complete overview of all your work tasks#5 Delegate or Outsource TasksUsing the Eisenhower Matrix, you’ll find that some tasks are urgent but not important. When that’s the case, the best you can do is find someone who can complete these tasks for you. You don’t have to do everything yourself. Delegating or outsourcing some tasks can be a great way to multiply your efforts and get more done.If you work on your own, you can find a VA or hire freelancers. In a team, re-assign specific tasks to colleagues who are better suited to complete specific tasks.Delegate or outsource urgent but not important tasks to multiply yourself and keep you focused on the most important work.Here are the top things you need to know to delegate efficiently:Find to the right person: whoever you’re delegating the tasks to should have all the necessary skills and is capable of doing the jobProvide clear instructions: write down the tasks in a step-by-step manual be as specific as possibleDefine success: be specific about what the expected outcome is and the deadline to have the task completedClarity: have the tasks explained back to you and offer clarification when something is unclear, rewriting the specifications if needed#6 Automate Repetitive TasksTechnology has finally reached a point where we can automate a lot of our daily operations. By automating a few of your tasks, you save hours per week. You can then use that time for Deep Work or taking breaks. Putting some of your daily tasks on autopilot is key to working smarter.Use technology to automate daily repetitive tasks and use the newfound time to perform Deep Work or rest.Here are a couple of tasks you can automate in under 10 minutes:Create canned responses in Gmail canned for emails you keep writing over and over againSet reminders on Google Calendar so you never forget anythingProofread your writing automatically using GrammarlyUse Buffer to schedule and automate your social media posts in advanceAutomatically fill online forms using LastPass, saving all your passwords in one placeCreate spreadsheet templates for reports you have to do weekly/monthly#7 Set Time ConstraintsYou become more productive when you allocate a specific amount of time to complete a specific task. That’s why we create deadlines.But Parkinson’s law states: “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. So, if you reduce the time you have to complete a task, you force your brain to focus and complete it.Set deadlines even when you don’t need to. Scheduling less time to complete tasks and force your brain to focus.Here’s an example:You have to review and reply to an email, a task that normally takes you around 20 minutes. Reduce the time available to 10 minutes, set a countdown timer and work as hard as you can to beat it.The timer creates a sense of urgency and pushes you to focus and be more efficient, even if you end up having to go back and add a more time later.Use deadlines and time limits to your advantage. Even when you don’t have a deadline, set one. Your brain will acknowledge it. Knowing you only have one hour to complete a report will ensure you don’t waste 20 minutes on Facebook.#8 Eliminate DistractionsDistractions hurt your productivity and focus. A study from the University of California Irvine found that it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task after getting distracted.Best-selling author Gary Keller illustrated in “The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results” what happens when you get interrupted:When you lose your focus, it can take you twice as long to get back into the groove.Half an hour completely focused on a task is more productive than 2 hours switching between tasks. Eliminate distractions from your work to avoid task switching costs.Here are a couple of hacks to eliminate distractions from your life:Turn off all notifications on your phone, computer, and tabletLeave your phone in odd places that prevent you from immediately finding itWork with headphones (I use the Bose QuietComfort 35 and love them) as people are less likely to approach you with a non-urgent question or gossip if you look plugged in and on-taskIf you find interesting articles, save them to Pocket or Instapaper to read later, such as during the commuteThe internet is a distracting place. Turn-off your Wi-Fi when your tasks don’t require internet connectivityDon’t browse social media at work at all. If you can’t resist, designate “distraction time” and browse it for a couple of minutes. Take out of social media exactly what you wantUse “Do Not Disturb” functions on chat systems, such as Slack, Hangouts, and MessengerSimilarly, use Inbox Pause to stop getting flooded with new emails. Change your inbox to a GTD Gmail to become productive on emailIf you have an office, shut the door#9 Make Quick Decisions on Things That Don’t MatterWe make hundreds of small, medium, and big decisions every day. 90% of the decisions we make don’t matter. Success comes from identifying and focusing your energy on the 10%.Small decisions impact you for a day, such as what to wear or where to eat. Medium impact your life for a year, such as deciding to go back to school or rent a different room. In the long term though, very few decisions matter. Those are the big decisions: they are worthy of serious pondering, discussion, investigation, investment, and decision making.Invest your focus on big decisions and make quick calls on medium and small decisions.In “10–10–10: A Life-Transforming Idea”, Suzy Welch introduces a simple decision-making system. When you have a decision to make, ask yourself the following three questions:How will I feel about this decision 10 minutes from now?How will I feel about it 10 months from now?How will I fell 10 years from now?Busy people don’t spend a lot of time pondering over small and medium decisions. A great time management technique is to train yourself to be quick when making them as well.#10 Track Your TimeDo you know how much time you spend on each task? Most of us can guess, but our estimates are normally way off. A time-tracking app can help you take out the guesswork and provide real data on your productivity.RescueTime is a free app that tracks exactly how you spend time on the computer. It’s as easy as set it and forget it and you get a report at the end of the week breaking down your productivity. Log in to check other metrics, such as time spent on each task.Track your time to have real data on your work and uncover insights on how you can improve your productivity.After a couple of weeks, you’ll start noticing patterns and knowing where and how your time is leaking. By being aware of how exactly you are using your time, you can devise a plan to attack your leaks and how to get rid of them.Time tracking is a powerful time management technique that forces you to take a hard look at how your work and how you can optimize it.#11 Beat Procrastination with the 2-Minute RuleThis one comes straight from David Allen’s “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” methodology. He calls it the “2-Minute Rule” and it’s a great way to beat procrastination and get things done. It works for both your professional and personal life.There are two parts to the “2-Minute Rule”:Part 1: If it can be done in two minutes, just do it. Don’t add it to your to-do list, put it aside for later, or delegate to someone else. Just do it.Here are some examples of tasks you can do in two minutes or less:Answer an email from your bossSend an update to a colleagueMake a plan for the day while having your morning coffeeLoading the dishwasher right after the mealThere are a ton of tiny, seemingly trivial tasks that take less than two minutes yet you need to do every day.Part 2: If it takes more than two minutes, start it. Once you start acting on small tasks, you can keep the ball rolling. Simply working on it for two minutes will help you break the first barrier of procrastination.For example:Write a thousand words every day? Write 50 words in the next two minutesMeditate for 20 minutes a day? Sit down and meditate for two minutesWant to exercise for one hour a day? Do jumping jacks for just two minutes9 out of 10 times I end up working on the task for far longer than 2 minutes (I then continue working using the Pomodoro productivity hack).Use the 2-Minute rule to beat procrastination: if a task can be done in two minutes, just do it; if it takes more than two minutes, start it.#12 Say No More Often Than YesMost CEOs will tell you that saying “no” is one of the most important time management techniques. Saying “yes” often can be counterproductive, especially when you agree to do things that don’t contribute to your work and goals. Your time is a limited resource and you can’t let people set your agenda in life.Focus on doing great quality work rather than rushing through it all. Quality wins over quantity every single day.Warren Buffet said it best: “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything.”But how do you know which things you should say no to? What if you are passing on a life-changing opportunity? Luckily, Buffet has developed a two-step rule to help you set boundaries and become better at decision making:Start by writing down your top twenty-five career goals. Once you’re done, circle the five most important to youThe second step is to completely eliminate the other twenty goals. Go ahead and cross them offSay “no” by default to anything that doesn’t contribute to your top 5 career goals.Anything other than the five goals you circled in the first step are distractions getting in the way of reaching what you truly value in life. As such, start saying no to anything that doesn’t contribute to your “true goals”.#13 Take Advantage of Gap TimeWe have a lot of dowtime throughout our days: commuting, lines, waiting rooms, in-between tasks, small breaks in the schedule, etc.If we add all this time up, we have around 1–3 hours of “gap time” every day. Be as strategic about your breaks as you are about your day in general. While these short periods might not be enough to do Deep Work, we can still work on little things that contribute to your work, development, and growth.Here are a couple of things you can do to use “gap time” effectively:Learn a new skill, either for your professional or personal lifeRead books or articles you saved to PocketOrganize your computer, folders, calendar or workPlan your week, tomorrow, or the rest of your dayListen to a podcastLearn a languageTake a walk and think and let your mind wanderTake a productive pause to clear your mind.Use “gap time” effectively to develop new skills, strategic planning, and personal growth.By taking advantage of your downtime, you end up getting more done and having more free time for fun after work.#14 80/20 Your TimeThe 80 20 rule states that “80% of the output or results will come from 20% of the input or action”. In other words, the little things are the ones that account for the majority of the results.This is one of the best time management techniques you can use to help you regain focus and work on the things that bring the most impact. Do 20% of your tasks bring 80% of the results? Then prioritize your time to work on them.Use the 80/20 rule in your life and work to prioritize the input that brings the majority of the output.Here are other questions to ask yourself using this rule:Is 80% of value achieved with the first 20% of effort?Are 20% of the emails 80% of the important conversations?Do 80% of your distractions come from 20% of sources?Do 20% of your tasks give you 80% of the pleasure in your job?Is 20% of your team completing 80% of the work?Do 80% of problems originate with 20% of projects?Are 80% of customers only using 20% of software features?Do 20% of customers make 80% of the complaints?#15 Automate DecisionsForce your brain to make a lot of decisions and you end up depleting your willpower and suffering from decision fatigue. This hurts your decision-making ability: as the day wears on, you’ll start making fewer smart decisions. That’s why you are more likely to binge-watch Netflix while eating Doritos in the evening.To avoid mental exhaustion, automate decisions to free yourself from cognitive burden and not rely solely on your self-discipline. Let decisions happen automatically and smart decisions will happen by themselves.Here are examples of smart decisions you can automate:Transfer money to your savings account every time you receive a paycheckChoose all your outfits for your week on Sunday and hang them in the closet in orderSubscribe to a weekly fresh delivery of organic vegetables and fruits to your homeStandardize the typical daily meals you like the most, saving time in cooking and grocery shoppingPrepare your sports bag every night and put in your car. If you prefer running the morning, leave your running shoes near the bedAutomate all electronic gadgets to go into sleep mode at a certain hourYou can also automate many other tasks using IFTTT or Zapier. These apps connect many other apps and let them “talk” to each other, creating automation. Here are two automated tasks I use for email:Add Email Receipts to Spreadsheet: this simplifies tracking of online purchasesSave Gmail Attachments to Dropbox: all my attachments get sent to a specific Dropbox folder, where I can review them and delete or move to the appropriate folder#16 Single TaskMultitasking is a corporate myth that has evolved over time. The brain is designed to focus on one thing at a time. Switching between tasks can have damaging costs to our work and productivity.Develop the habit of single-tasking by forcing your brain to concentrate on one task and one task only. Put your phone away, close all the browser windows and apps that you don’t need. Immerse yourself in this task. Only move to the next one when you’re done.Force your brain to single task in order to do Deep Work and avoid task switching costs.A really great productivity hack that forces single-tasking is the Pomodoro Technique. Turn off all the distractions and set a timer for 25 minutes. In that time, you can only work on a single task.Use an online tool such as Marinara Timer to set your timer automatically or simply use the one from Google.#17 Break Down Big TasksFrom Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott: “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said. ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”We all have huge tasks that we get tired just thinking about the amount of work needed to complete them. We procrastinate by doing mindless tasks instead of starting them.To avoid this, break down your larger goals into small manageable tasks with realistically achievable milestones. This will help you map out all the small activities that need to be done and creating a timeline to do them. As a rule of thumb, each small task should take less than one hour to complete.Break down big tasks into smaller ones to avoid procrastinating and help you stay on track to achieve your final goal.Never put a huge project down as just one to-do on your list. Instead, put bit-sized to-dos that you can do one at a time. Take it “bird by bird”.#18 Work From the CalendarAnother great time management technique of insanely busy people is scheduling their tasks, working from their calendar instead of the to-do list. Using your calendar forces you to rethink your work from tasks to time units. That small change increases the likelihood of getting things done.To-do lists are where you list and define all your activities. The calendar is where you identify when you’re going to do those things and how much time is needed to complete them.In the words of Srinivas Rao:“When an event is consistently scheduled on your calendar, it’s much more likely to transform into an unconscious habit.”Plan and schedule your calendar ahead of time to avoid distractions and be in charge of your time.The more you plan and schedule your time with purpose, the less time there is for outside forces to take over your schedule. Don’t try to jam-pack your calendar though. Leave enough room for unforeseeable tasks that demand immediate attention. Move things around and reschedule as needed as your week progresses.Color-code your calendar by different types of activities. For example:Red for all work related activitiesGreen for meetings and communicationsYellow for daily routinesBlue for personal timeIf you prefer, you can color-code using different organizations: by project, by teams, or type of work.When it comes to productivity, your calendar is your best friend.#19 Take Fewer (But Better) MeetingsMeetings are the devil of the corporate. Few people like meetings and most dread them.Truth is, most things don’t need a meeting. If the purpose of the meeting isn’t either to make a decision or complete an action together, cancel it and communicate over email (e.g. updates on a specific project). As for outside the office meetings, switch to phone calls or video conferencesAs for the meeting that you do have to take, make them highly efficient and productive by following these simple rules:Do not schedule more time than needed. Most of the times 20 minutes is the sweet spotKeep the number of participants small.Send everyone an agenda and main points the day beforeKeep conversation on-track by reminding the participants of the topic: “Let’s schedule another time to discuss that later if it’s helpful since we only have 10 minutes left”Group your meetings back-to-back to have a clear start and end point for each oneOnly take meetings that have a clear agenda and a decision needs to be made. To run better meetings, have an end time and keep the number of participants small.#20 Let Go Off PerfectionismPerfectionism keeps you from being perfect.It’s easy to be caught up in an endless cycle of trying to do everything perfectly. But being a perfectionism can delay your work and make you miss important deadlines. The sooner you realize that delivering high-quality work on time is the most important skill, the faster you will advance on your goals and career.Perfectionism is actually fear disguised in sheep’s clothing, which shows itself as procrastination. Learn to accept that small details don’t matter, ship faster, and fix things afterward if needed.Aiming for perfection is a surefire way to delay or never complete a project. Choose to chase “good enough” instead.In the words of Mark Twain: “Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”#21 Have a To-Don’t ListIn Mathematics, there is a problem-solving technique called inversion. You start with results and work backward to calculate the causes. Inversion is a powerful tool because it forces you to uncover hidden beliefs about the problem you are trying to solve. You need to think how to minimize the negatives instead of maximizing the positives.Let’s say you want to improve productivity. Thinking forward, you would list all the things you could do to be more productive. But if you look at the problem by inversion, you’d think about all the things you could do that would diminish productivity.Enter the To-Don’t List.Create your own by writing down all the habits you want to quit and activities you wish to eliminate from your life. Think about your possible workday — long meetings with people you don’t like and boring repetitive tasks — and work from there.Create a To-Don’t list with all the habits you want to remove from your life. Use it as a guideline of what you don’t allow in your life.Here are a couple of examples:Do not email first thing in the morning or last thing at nightNo morning meetingsDon’t say yes unless you’re 100% certain you can deliverDon’t drink coffee in the afternoonDo not agree to meetings or calls with no clear agenda or end timeThe reason why inversion works is simple: what you don’t do determines what you can do.“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” — Steve Jobs#22 Batch Similar TasksWhat does processing all your emails in one sitting and cooking for an entire week on Sunday have in common? They use a productivity hack known as batching.The main idea behind this time management technique is to collect up a group of similar activities and do them all in one swoop. You can work efficiently on multiple tasks without losing your flow if the activities require similar mindsets. Batching forces your brain to be focused on one type of task at a time.Batch similar tasks and complete them at one time. Batching reduces the start-up and slow-down time, daily clutter, and improves focus.To discover which tasks you should stack, start by writing all your activities for the day and week. Now identify the ones that call for similar mindsets and batch them together. Try the batch and rearrange tasks if necessary.Here are a couple tasks you should batch together:Outlining all your blog posts for the upcoming week in one sittingProcessing all communications: emails, Slack, and phone callsUpdating several related worksheets at the same timeCompleting all your errands — grocery shopping, dry cleaning, post office — at one timeTo process batches faster, work on similar tasks for a set period of time using the Pomodoro Technique.#23 Take Time Off to RechargeIn today’s hyper-connected world, it’s easy to fall into the trap of being connected 24/7. We feel guilty during the weekend about not working ahead or completing an extra project. All the timeOur body and mind need rest to function properly. Taking time to recharge is crucial to sustaining motivation, passion, and productivity. Quick breaks during a stressful deadline can help you maintain focus, renew creativity, and make you feel more refreshed when you return to your task.For longer periods of recharging, take regular work vacations of at least a week off throughout the year. Bill Gates, for example, went into seclusion for one week twice a year to focus and plan. Many of Microsoft’s innovation ideas came from those “Think Weeks”.Schedule breaks throughout your day to help you recharge and take regular vacations throughout the year. Rest is the best medicine for sustainable long-term productivity.One Last Time Management TechniqueIt’s so easy to get caught up in our busyness that we forget to enjoy what we’re doing. The ultimate goal of work is enjoyment. You want to spend more time doing things that you enjoy.Work can and should be fun. It’s fun that drives motivation, passion, creativity, and productivity. Dread your job and no time management technique in the world can help you.Apply these 23 time management techniques as a way to maximize your happiness while at work, not the amount of time you spend working. Use the newfound time in activities you value, such as spending time with your family, working on side-projects, practicing a hobby or developing your skills.The enjoyment you get from these other activities will in turn fuel your work productivity.If you are looking for more productivity hacks, join my invite-only community: one new short curated productivity hack to your email, twice a week → get FREE access!