How a productivity purge can help you build an efficient daily schedule

How a productivity purge can help you build an efficient daily scheduleHow a productivity purge can help you build an efficient daily scheduleRoutines are good. The best approach to make something a habit if you plan on doing it daily, weekly or monthly, is to build a system for getting it done.Efficient daily gebtheits are known to save time and advance goals.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreAnnie Dillard once said, a schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.There are even great apps that do what they say they will simplify yur routine and help you focus on your real work.An effective daily schedule can help you get things done consistently with a nadir of stress, whilst you maximize your energy and time.For best results, schedule your day around your energy. Observe your energy patterns, and work on high-value tasks when you are most active. If a given regular task is big and scary, schedule it in the mornings.Aim to get to the point where your routine work is getting done with a minimum of thinking, so you can turn your attention to other tasks.Most people rely on scheduling methods including The Time Blocking Method, The Most Important Task Method (MIT), The Pomodoro Technique, 90-Minute Focus Sessions, and others to get more things done.There is no perfect schedule.Creating your most personal and productive schedule might mean creating hybrids of some of these methods. Churchill, for example, worked late into the night and broke up his day with naps.Its all about finding the right fit.But when you depend on overly rigid autopilot routine for too long, you can become stressed, overwhelmed and ineffective over time.Theres nothing wrong with using an autopilot schedulethe problem is when it stands in the way of your best work, or perso nal efficiency.The brain islazy.Living on autopilot for too long makes you lean towards the most comfortable thinking or working mode, which is often not the best way to work.The rise of online scheduling is making it even harder for people to stop, and measure the effectiveness of their auto-pilot routines and schedules.It pays to purge your routine once a while to make sure its saving you time and helping you achieve your goals as planned.Purging your schedule is about getting a handle on your time and keeping it tidy going forward. Get back in the drivers seat. Good time and energy management is something you practice.Dont autopilot the same tasks over and over again when they not delivering the expected results you want. These tasksnumerous as they may besometimes rarely move the needle. They make very little progress even though we may be busy the whole day or week.The key is not to prioritize whats on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities, says Stephen Covey inThe Se ven Habits of Highly Effective People.When your schedule is getting too predictableyour calendar is full of too many repetitive activities, you never pause to reflect on how you are doing or feeling, and you follow your plan without thinking, or making room for improvisations, and self-care, you might be due a productivity purge.The aim of a productivity purge is to reduce unnecessary repetition and improve your autopilot routines.You want to be in control of your schedule, not the other way around.Autopilot is a growing problem, says Dr. fruchtmark Williamson, Director of Action for Happiness and contributor to the study.It has gone from being an evolutionary protection mechanism that stopped our brains overloading, to our default mode of operating whereby we sleep-walk into our choices. It has seeped into more and more areas of our lives and relationships making us feel out of control, says Williamson.When it feels like your routine is becoming too overwhelming, its the best time to stop, reflect and measure.A pause creates space to start paying attention and ask yourself a few questions to access your resultsAre you focused or distracted? Why?Are you getting closer to both your short and long term goals?Its an opportunity to analyze every task or action, and identify items you can move around, delegate, slice, spread out, or even stop working on right away if its not helping you get closer to your goals.Sometimes it pays to cross some items out, add new ones, and come up with a better plan for getting things done going forward.Purge your schedule and take control of how you invest your time.Jocelyn K. Gleirecommendsbuilding white space into your schedule.We need white space in our daily lives just as much as we need it in our designs because the concept carries over If our lives are over-cluttered and over-booked, we cant focus properly on anything. Whats more, this way of working actually shrinks our ability to think creatively.Free up time to focus on wha ts really important in your life and career. Resist the temptation to add more whilst you focus on your most important tasks.By purging your routine regularly, youll end up making real progress on your long-term goals.The productivity purge is a necessary piece of project gardening. By doing these regularly, you keep yourself focused on whats important. You get at least one month after every purge in which serious work gets done on a small number of projects, says Cal Newport, author ofDigital Minimalism Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World.As you embrace the purging habit, your brain will get used to this action, and help you get back on track when you wasting time unconsciously without knowing it.Your personal efficiency depends on scheduled productivity purge.I use this practice to declutter my routine every month.Closing thoughtsAre you struggling to stay productive throughout your work day? Perhaps you are finding it hard to focus because of excess clutter. It can be tough to get things done when you feel as though your schedule is taking over your life.It might seem irrelevant and unimportant to set aside time to pause and purge unnecessary tasks from your routine when you have a lot to do.But that time to analyze your routine, measure your results and make that important change may be the fresh start you need to get more done.This article first appeared on Medium.