How to be Crazy Productive
Hi, folks! Today, I wanted to write something a little different – simply put, I have a reputation for being crazy productive, and it’s certainly true that I get a hell of a lot of stuff done. Mostly, it’s a case of multi-tasking and squeezing as much as you can into every second that you spend awake. Today, I’m going to talk about how I go doing that.
Like I said, multi-tasking is important – for example, I memorise poetry whilst jogging, and I format web pages while watching TV. In fact, I get uncomfortable if I’m not doing multiple things – I hate going to the cinema, for example, because I get bored with nothing else to do while the film is on.
As a general rule, I follow something that I call ‘the schedule‘ – basically, I listen to music, and at the end of every song, I change activity. I start out by doing stuff which requires my computer, I follow it up by tidying the house or typing up my notes, and then I spend the third song writing before I repeat myself.
There are a few notable exceptions to the rule – for example, I always start by doing computer stuff for two songs, and I try to end after tidying stuff if I need to go outside for a cigarette. Otherwise, I repeat and repeat and repeat, and these looping circles of different activities help to ensure that I get plenty of writing done whilst getting all of the boring stuff done, too.
The schedule is vital for helping me to get stuff done at home, and whilst you could argue that it’s a symptom of obsessive compulsive disorder, I do stuff that seems even weirder, without context. When it comes to OCD, I’m probably pretty borderline, but I still maintain that alphabetising your book collection doesn’t make you obsessive – it makes you sensible. That way, when I need to find a book amongst the thousand or so that I own, I know exactly where to look.
Of course, there are plenty of other opportunities to squeeze extra stuff in – I get the majority of my reading done when I’m either on the bus to work or when I’m outside having a cigarette, and I write poetry on my cigarette breaks at work. I also work through my lunch break on my own stuff, to help me to keep on top of it.
Overall, I’d say that I typically work between 12-14 hours a day, whether it’s a weekday or it’s the weekend. A weekday just means that I have to work for eight and a half hours on somebody else’s stuff, before I can go home to work on my own.
It’s tough, I’m not going to lie – most people don’t have the dedication that it requires, which is precisely why I get more stuff done than most people. People tend to complain that they don’t have time to do stuff, then spend the evening sitting in front of a TV screen. Bullshit – if you want to do something, you’ll find the time to do it.
So there we have it – those are a few of my secret tactics to get stuff done. I have plenty more up my sleeve, but I don’t want to ramble on for too long and besides – I have other stuff to be doing! In the meantime, be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter to keep up-to-date with it all, and I’ll see you soon.
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