Although a lot has been said about procrastination in the blog sphere, we keep on getting email from our readers asking us to write about procrastination. In our prepared blog posts we had a series of posts (7 blog posts to be exact) about procrastination which were to be published in one week time. But since we kept on getting readers asking us about procrastination we decided to go big.

We are not going to publish the procrastination series but instead we decided to write a complete ebook about how to deal with procrastination. The ebook is called Stop Procrastination Now! and we will be giving it away for FREE. It is jam packed with information about what procrastination is, why you procrastinate, what are the effects of procrastination, how to deal with procrastination and ends up with how FruitfulTime can help you completely eliminate procrastination from your life.

We felt that procrastination is a subject that must be given attention for two reasons. First of all because as our readers you are asking about it and secondly to help you eliminate procrastination is inline with FruitfulTime’s mission statement that of “Making every second count!”

The ebook will be released next Wednesday the 23rd January. We will publish a blog post to announce the official release of Stop Procrastination Now! Subscribe to this blog to make sure you will not miss this free ebook and be the first to download it. You can subscribe to this blog by filling your email address in the form below or by using one of the methods available on the right under the Free Subscription section.

Let’s put this straight… different people concentrate in different ways. I have tried various ways to better concentrate and after a lot of trial and error I found this method works best for me. As I said it does not mean that it will work for you, but I think it is worth sharing the method anyways. However I am very positive that since it worked for me, with some effort, it will work for you too.

First of all concentration requires an effort. You have to have a mindset to concentrate. When I am busy and I need to concentrate on some work I do the following:

I close the door. I want complete silence. I don’t want to hear what others are doing in the house. The faintest noise might make me lose my concentration or make me nervous or curious about what is going on. By closing myself in a room, I eliminate such situations.

I switch OFF music. As I said complete silence works best for me. Some people prefer soft music, classical music or ambient music. I found out that having complete silence helps me immerse myself in the work I have to do.

Switch off all communication devices and methods. I switch off my instant messaging and if I don’t need internet I switch off my laptop. That way I also eliminate the sound whirring laptop fans :P. I switch off my cell phone and unplug my phone. Well, I only unplug the phone when I seriously want to concentrate.

Clear the desk. I clear the desk from all kinds of paper and other stationary. Sometimes I find myself playing with a rubber or a pen. To eliminate such situations I remove everything and only leave the stuff I absolutely need to carry out my work.

Proper lighting. I found that proper lighting is a fundamental ambient property that helps you to concentrate. I tend to like warm tropical light (slightly yellowish) since it feels warmer and less artificial than white light.

Once I enter my concentration zone I try to finish off all the tasks that I planned before I take a break. This is because to get into the concentration zone again it takes time and it does not always work. Once I finish of the task I take a long break in order to recover after an intensive session of concentration. Before I take a break though, I look at the work I managed to finish with admiration and look forward for another session of concentration
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I am writing this blog post based on my own experience fighting waste of time while working on a computer. You are all familiar with this scenario. You sit in front of your computer with all the good intentions of starting working on something, be it to write a letter, finish off an assignment, or whatever. You are all set and focused to do your best to finish the task today or at least a good chunk of it.

But then without realising you immediately get the urge to check your email. This decision is done unconsciously, just like when for example you close your eyes to avoid a speck of dust from entering your eyes. You do not know why you did it but you just have to do it.

Same thing happens with email. As soon as you switch on your computer you just have to check your email. This action in itself is not bad, but what follows is a chain reaction of actions that lead to huge losses of time.

When you read this you will smile to yourself when you realise how familiar you are to this same behaviour.

So you check your email and in your inbox you get let’s say 5 new emails. Some are spam which somehow got past your junk mail filter; others are promos from Amazon or some other online store, while others are from your friends.

So what happens is this… oh look how cool that new book or gadget being promoted in the Amazon email. Let me just check this one out, since I might be losing out on a good one time offer. So you follow the link to the Amazon product web site and then you are bombarded with recommendations like… people who bought this product also bought this other stuff. So you must check it out… and you do. Everybody does. That is why Amazon and other online stores use these techniques. Because they invested time and money to research the psychology of humans , and they know it works.

Problem is, you start a never ending loop of link hoping from one product to the other, until you finally realise that one you do not have the cash right now to buy the product and two an hour and a half has just flown by. Of course your project is still waiting on the sideline.

But hey, we are not over yet with the time wasting. Next in line you realise that you still have to check out the email from your buddy. Oh, the subject says, you must see this. This video is hilarious. And… you guessed it… you click the link to watch the video on YouTube everybody else has seen. Same thing happens, you watch the video get a good laugh (which is always good by the way) and then YouTube offers you recommendations. Related videos suddenly sprout in front of you… begging you to click them.  Then you wake up from your euphoric state and yet another hour has gone by.

So what had all started as a quick check my email thing before I start working hard on this project, ended up being a two and a half hour detour of scanning products and laughing at videos. In the meantime your task is still waiting for your kind self to dedicate sometime to it… maybe, just maybe it will get finished someday.

So my friends… from experience… the best way to be productive on your computer is to just start working on your task immediately as soon as you switch on the computer. Do not say to yourself let me check the email or that website before you begin working, or you will end up wasting precious hours of your time. At the end of the day you will feel guilt for having wasted yet another day without completing anything.

If you want to check email or a website, do it after completing your work for the day. Use this as a reward for achieving your goal for the day. In the end you will be more productive, have fun anyway and at the end of the day will feel much better with yourself.

If on your desk you have a task list raise your hand!

I am sure that most of you will raise both hands since they have more than one to do list lying idle on their desk with half of the tasks marked as ready and with the rest either postponed, changed or needing further splitting and clarification. Such an approach to keep track of your to do list is not scalable. That is, writing down tasks in the form of a to do list on a piece of paper works well for a small number of tasks, but as the number of tasks to be managed increase, the solution becomes unfeasible.

To do list software is a simple application that helps you handle your task list. With a to do list software you can enter all your tasks in a list and manage them through a polished user interface. Such an approach scales, you can change tasks’ due dates, task priorities and add and change associated notes. Some to do list software also supports reminders. The to do list software would then remind you of impending deadlines.

With today’s busy lifes, to do list software has become a necessary application to keep up with your tasks.

Ever noticed that 20% of your cupboard is used 80% of the time? Or ever wondered about your mobile phone book? You  call or sms 20% of the numbers, 80% of the time. Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist noticed this imbalance of effect. How can such a rule help us be more productive?

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Mike St. Pierre wrote a blog post on The Daily Saint about how one can be more productive at work. He noticed that a lot of the time wasted at work is due to distraction from colleagues such as useless meetings or chattering about non productive stuff. Mike suggested eight different ways how one can find good excuses to stay focused on his work and avoid such distractions. The suggestions given by Mike work, since I personally use them. One important point is that a balance has to be found in the application of such tips. The social relation with your colleagues is very important and helps overall productivity.

I found that working in batch is the best and the most productive. For instance, in order to process my email, I allocate 20 minutes during which I read and reply to all mail. Doing so, I do not incur the overhead of switching from one task to another. Also by limiting myself to a period of time to do a particular task, I found out to be more productive since I compete with myself to reach that small goal.

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In this blog post I am going to tell you how I personally manage to process all the blog posts in my reader everyday. It used to take me about 2.5 hours a day to process an average of 300 blogs posts. But with the following tips I managed to reduce it to less than one hour.

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Being organised in one’s life is very important. When you are organised you will benefit from the following advantages:

• Reduce stress in your life.
• Deliver work on time.
• Be punctual and prepared for all meetings.
• People will perceive you as a dependable, mature, and trustworthy individual.
• The above point leads to various advantages, such as increased salary or bonuses, and promotions.
• If you are a student, being organised will definitely help you get better grades.

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Note taking is a skill that every student must get the grips of. At first it might seem difficult and without pattern…but in fact there are patterns in note taking. I am going to highlight three very commonly used and effective note taking techniques.

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