28. Reduce the use of social media.
According to Jones, using social media may have unintended effects, such as decreasing your attention span.
Jones explains that if you scroll down your Instagram feed and spend two minutes doing so, you will consume over 50 different pieces of information. This is something you do not need. Social media teaches your brain to be more impulsive and have a short attention span. You won’t be focused on anything for longer than five minutes. This is a problem.
29. Meetings should not exceed 25 minutes.
We’ve all done it. Someone starts talking off topic in a meeting which should have been fairly straightforward. You start sweating thinking about the things you haven’t accomplished.
In her book 25 Minute Meetings: Half the time, Double the Impact Donna McGeorge advocates limiting meetings to under half an hour. In an interview with Fast Company she said she was inspired both by the Pomodoro Method and Parkinson’s Law. This law states that people will extend their work to fit within a given amount of time, even if they are not required.
30. Limit meetings to a maximum of seven people.
Goerge tells Fast Company she also considered the Ringelmann Effect when writing her book. This effect states that people are less productive in larger groups. She explained that “the moment you have more than seven people, you won’t get input from everyone,” in an interview.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is famous for his ” Two-Pizza Rule” which states that he will never invite more people than the number of pizzas needed to feed two attendees. The meeting will be less likely to go off topic with fewer attendees, and everyone can leave the room quickly.
31. Today, write down your to-do list for tomorrow.
Write down your daily tasks at the end of each day. This is what Sharks Tank investor Kevin O’Leary did. Entrepreneur reported that he writes down three things he has to do in the morning before he goes to bed. What I discovered is that once you accomplish those three tasks, your entire day becomes productive.
Haselberger also promotes a strategy similar to this. If you plan your next day in 10 minutes, you will be able to mentally disconnect on weekends and evenings. You won’t have to exert a lot energy in the morning to get up.
