I had never heard of #ideaschat until I saw it today in my Twitter feed. I noticed the chat because Laura Vanderkam was a guest.
Laura is the author of multiple productivity books, including 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast (read my full review) andWhat the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend (read my full review).
I loved the three books listed above so much that I follow Laura on my “influencers” Twitter list.
If Laura was participating in the chat, I figured I could learn something. I was correct.
Here are my three takeaways on productivity from #ideaschat:
1. Be realistic
You can’t do everything in a single day. Laura is really good at explaining in her books exactly how much time we have.
168 hours in a week. Work 40, sleep 8/night (56 per week) leaves 72 hours for other things. The time is there for what matters #ideaschat
— Laura Vanderkam (@lvanderkam) September 8, 2015
Because we have a limited amount of time, we have to ask ourselves how we really want to spend it. Then we should focus the tasks we assign ourselves on those goals.
.@chicagoideas Make sure to limit the list. There is NO POINT putting things on there you’re not going to do. Feels defeating. #ideaschat — Laura Vanderkam (@lvanderkam) September 8, 2015
2. Delegate or delete
One way to free up your own time for things that are most important to you is to determine what others can/should do that you’ve assigned to yourself.
A4. Every week, look at calendar and ask what you can ignore/minimize/outsource. 5 minute triage can buy you hours! #ideaschat — Laura Vanderkam (@lvanderkam) September 8, 2015
This tip also helps get to my third takeaway.
3. Leave white space
I’m guilty of booking up every minute in the day or thinking I can do a lot more than I actually can. We need to give ourselves downtime too.
Don’t fear white space. Don’t fill it to fill it. Open time lets you seize opportunities when they come up #ideaschat — Laura Vanderkam (@lvanderkam) September 8, 2015
While the information I learned at #ideaschat wasn’t totally new to me, it’s nice to have a refresher from time-to-time. It’s even better if these reminders come from someone like Laura who really knows what she’s talking about.
I hope future #ideaschat speakers are as impressive as today’s. The chat is from 11 a.m. to noon each Tuesday. I plan to join in again. Hopefully, I’ll see you there!
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