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A neat little productivity trick...

by Brad Spencer
15 replies
Hey Warriors,

So tonight I got done watching my favorite TV show tonight and I started doing household chores. I got done with them (ugh folding clothes and doing laundry= boring)

I sat down at my computer and a little thing just bit me in the ass. I think I want to call it the "productivity bug."

What I did to "de-stress" was simply go through my desktop, consolidate icons, and watch the background get clearer and clearer.

Next, I started going through and eliminating all kinds of programs I don't use from my computer.

Now you might say..."what does this have to do with productivity?" Well here it is...

ELIMINATE THE LITTLE THINGS SO THE BIG THINGS CAN FLOW...

I wanted to emphasize this point because I feel a ton better tonight...and I basically did "nothing" that directly made me money but what it did do was allow me the "mental clarity" to focus on the big picture.

How could I do that with a million icons staring at me, loads of worthless programs that I haven't used forever, etc clogging up my mind path.

So...right now...eliminate something little that's nagging on you and might not even be conciously thought about very often but still comes up.

When things rear their ugly head...usually we tune out and don't get stuff done that DOES build our businesses.

Hope that helps someone out out there in the forum.

Cheers,

Brad
#neat #productivity #trick
  • Profile picture of the author Maddi
    Brad, that stuff actually works. Thanks for the reminder.

    Funny you posted this thread today, as today I did some clearing up too.

    Although mine wasn't entirely by choice, I had to. Skype has this thing where it just wont connect until you have enough disk space so I ended up clearing more than 3 gig of useless junk I had.

    I had tried that in the past, just clearing up my desktop increases my productivity and kind of lifts off stress and de-clutter my head.

    Thanks for the reminder.

    Maddi
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    • Profile picture of the author cheerios2009
      A few weeks ago I did a similar thing with my newsletter. I was really struggling with it. I had a hard time deciding what to write about and when.

      The thing is I am really good at SEO. So, instead of focusing on a lot of little things about Internet marketing I decided to focus my newsletter on what I do best and what I know best. SEO.

      There are so many avenues to this business that you can get lost in it. But if you focus on one thing you will go so much farther.

      A while back a product was launched that required buying domain names and setting up little mini product sites with them. In the forum there was this one guy who bought 200 domain names and was upset because he was only making $70.00 a month in Adsense.

      There was another post from a guy who had only 20 domain names set up and he was making a few hundred dollars a month in Adsense.

      The difference in these two people - I'm guessing - is that the guy who had 20 domain names spent more time in developing these sites. More time in research and most likely he also was learning something along the way.

      The guy with 200 domain names in so short a period of time would have no way of learning where he went wrong or why. Too many directions, too much to soon.

      It's hard to be productive when you are working on so many things you have no clue which is working and which is not.

      Clearing out the clutter is a good way to see the things that you need to focus on.

      Thanks for this post,
      Chrisi
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      • Profile picture of the author Brad Spencer
        Originally Posted by Maddi View Post

        Brad, that stuff actually works. Thanks for the reminder.

        Funny you posted this thread today, as today I did some clearing up too.

        Although mine wasn't entirely by choice, I had to. Skype has this thing where it just wont connect until you have enough disk space so I ended up clearing more than 3 gig of useless junk I had.

        I had tried that in the past, just clearing up my desktop increases my productivity and kind of lifts off stress and de-clutter my head.

        Thanks for the reminder.

        Maddi
        What a good motivator for cleaning up your hard drive. On the subject...you might want to get more RAM for your computer. That'll probably help.

        3GB is impressive...I think I ended up getting rid of 5GB but some of that was duplicate videos and what not...it's amazing what things will happen when we declutter our minds and (computers are minds by proxy) computers.

        CHeers,

        Brad

        Originally Posted by cheerios2009 View Post

        A few weeks ago I did a similar thing with my newsletter. I was really struggling with it. I had a hard time deciding what to write about and when.

        The thing is I am really good at SEO. So, instead of focusing on a lot of little things about Internet marketing I decided to focus my newsletter on what I do best and what I know best. SEO.

        There are so many avenues to this business that you can get lost in it. But if you focus on one thing you will go so much farther.

        A while back a product was launched that required buying domain names and setting up little mini product sites with them. In the forum there was this one guy who bought 200 domain names and was upset because he was only making $70.00 a month in Adsense.

        There was another post from a guy who had only 20 domain names set up and he was making a few hundred dollars a month in Adsense.

        The difference in these two people - I'm guessing - is that the guy who had 20 domain names spent more time in developing these sites. More time in research and most likely he also was learning something along the way.

        The guy with 200 domain names in so short a period of time would have no way of learning where he went wrong or why. Too many directions, too much to soon.

        It's hard to be productive when you are working on so many things you have no clue which is working and which is not.

        Clearing out the clutter is a good way to see the things that you need to focus on.

        Thanks for this post,
        Chrisi
        Chrisi...you're totally right. And that's what we call focus. Focus comes from knowing where you want to go and why.

        Clutter usually results from NOT having that stuff.

        So...any time you can de clutter your life...you should b/c usually where you want to go will become more obvious when you stop "running with weights tied around your feet."

        Cheers,

        Brad
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        • Profile picture of the author Rockmanfl
          yes that's an excellent motivator, I've started doing alot of the same type of things, especially putting things in separate folders so I can find thing more easily - not too mention clearing out my desktop (I can actually see the background now lol)

          I also setup anything I need for my marketing on my desktop in a few simple folders - that way it's easy to reach and I can get more done.

          Simplicity can be such a great thing
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          • Profile picture of the author jamespitt
            That was a neat reminder! Keep it up!
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          • Profile picture of the author Brad Spencer
            Originally Posted by Rockmanfl View Post

            yes that's an excellent motivator, I've started doing alot of the same type of things, especially putting things in separate folders so I can find thing more easily - not too mention clearing out my desktop (I can actually see the background now lol)

            I also setup anything I need for my marketing on my desktop in a few simple folders - that way it's easy to reach and I can get more done.

            Simplicity can be such a great thing
            "Simplicity is the Ultimate Form Of Sophistication" - Leonardo DaVinci

            Ya know the more I think about this...the more amazing I think it is. This quote has come and gone from my foremost consciousness through the years.

            But in a practical sense...if you saved 5-10 minutes a day due to a clean desktop...that's 1825-3650 minutes a year (or...30-61 hours)...

            2 Days a year!... Just by cleaning off your desktop and saving time...

            Now who'd have thunk it?

            Cheers,

            Brad
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  • Profile picture of the author jamjar919
    I know! Its amazing what simply cleaning your desktop can do!
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  • Profile picture of the author Aegir
    Prune your email & google reader subscriptions and your desktop will stay clear longer

    Recently i did both accounts i use on daily basis reduced my time spent checking these to only 30 mins a day.
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  • Profile picture of the author dylanloh
    I was just clearing out my junk recently. Not the junk on my desktop but physically cleaning out my room and removing the clutter around me. It had the same (if not even more pronounced) effect as many of you had with clearing your hard disk.

    Not only that it was physical so it was good to get a little exercise out of the way
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    • Profile picture of the author Brad Spencer
      Originally Posted by dylanloh View Post

      I was just clearing out my junk recently. Not the junk on my desktop but physically cleaning out my room and removing the clutter around me. It had the same (if not even more pronounced) effect as many of you had with clearing your hard disk.

      Not only that it was physical so it was good to get a little exercise out of the way
      I moved recently and I actually counted the # of boxes I "eliminated" by consolidating, organizing, and throwing away. I literally got rid of around 25% of my "possessions" that I was keeping for whatever reason.

      I also got rid of a computer so you can increase that from 25% to even higher. Physical clutter really is quite amazing in how it can pile up without even realizing it.

      Cheers,

      Brad
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  • Profile picture of the author nicheman
    Great post! These types of posts are exactly what make the WF stand out well among the thousands of other very insightful things!
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  • Profile picture of the author mrmanpower
    this is what we're trying to go in and do now. declutter. my main goal next week.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Field-Dodgson
    Mate I can relate!

    I sense your productivity bug may have made others, like me, realise how we accumulate stuff.

    It is like a bulldozer moving a pile of dirt in front of it - at some stage something has to give either the tracks start skidding of the engine starts struggling.

    Our computers most probably breath a huge sigh of relief when we have a clean up

    If you are like me you are an "end user" with computing. It is like a car, I use it for a purpose. I am not interested how it works etc., so I tend to abuse it!

    For example the other day I deleted my deleted emails folder. Ask me how many emails - 3428! Just silly.

    So thanks for your post Brad.
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  • Profile picture of the author jaxrefinance
    As I have read tons of books on this subject this is what I think about little things:

    The Ugly Truth: We create them as a distraction. A part of our mind doesn't want to be serious, successful, productive. He makes little things in order to get us to not do anything useful.
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    • Profile picture of the author Brad Spencer
      Originally Posted by Michael Field-Dodgson View Post

      Mate I can relate!

      I sense your productivity bug may have made others, like me, realise how we accumulate stuff.

      It is like a bulldozer moving a pile of dirt in front of it - at some stage something has to give either the tracks start skidding of the engine starts struggling.

      Our computers most probably breath a huge sigh of relief when we have a clean up

      If you are like me you are an "end user" with computing. It is like a car, I use it for a purpose. I am not interested how it works etc., so I tend to abuse it!

      For example the other day I deleted my deleted emails folder. Ask me how many emails - 3428! Just silly.

      So thanks for your post Brad.
      I have created a little Gmail trick that I do now. Since it's so sortable...I will go to the "oldest" tab and delete or archive 150-250 emails on the old side. Then I delete/archive 50-100 on the newer side. It's a good way to get rid of 10-15% of my inbox so instead of spending 2 hours sorting through stuff...I simply delete the stuff I know I'll NEVER use...

      This also prevents me from losing client emails, receipts, download instructions, etc while still decreasing the size of my inbox.

      Neat little trick as well....

      Cheers,

      Brad

      Originally Posted by jaxrefinance View Post

      As I have read tons of books on this subject this is what I think about little things:

      The Ugly Truth: We create them as a distraction. A part of our mind doesn't want to be serious, successful, productive. He makes little things in order to get us to not do anything useful.
      Amen brother...now you're talking about deep stuff. All the juicy details lie deep in our unconscious mind.

      If you meditate you can find this stuff but most people are totally disconnected from this area of the brain so it's difficult for them to access this information.

      Your "ugly" truth is just the blunt and honest truth...the only way to be

      Cheers,

      Brad
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