In our modernworld, everyone is looking to do things faster, better, smarter, so it's nowonder that productivity hacks are incredibly popular.
現代社會，每個人做事都力求更快，更好，更強，難怪提高效率的方法廣受歡迎。
But the truth isthat there's nothing new under the sun; despite whatever the newest book,product, or guru wants to sell you, you can learn to become moreproductive with work habits people have used for many years. Apply even a fewof these and you will increase your productivity, guaranteed:
1. Define yourMITs. MIT standsfor most important task, and just by taking a few moments to identify 3–5things you must accomplish each day, you will improve your overallproductivity—because you can't focus on your important work if you don't knowwhat's important.
2. Don'tmulti-task. We live in a multi-tab, multiple device kind of world,but scientists tell us that none of us is truly a good multi-tasker. Working onone thing at a time will make you faster and less apt to make mistakes.
3. Create amorning routine (and an afternoon routine and an evening routine). Formany people, defining and sticking to a morning routine can help ensure asmooth start to the day. If you know you operate at your best when you haveexercised and had a good breakfast, making those things a priority willpositively affect the rest of your day. Likewise, routines for other times ofthe day can streamlinedaily tasks.
4. Edit your inputstreams and simplify. Most people I know wouldn't want to give up theirnewsletters, social media, or blog reading, but there are ways to make yourmedia consumption more productive. First, ruthlessly edit your media streams tothe most valuable and important ones; then, find ways to streamline yourconsumption with RSS feeds, apps like Hootsuite, and readers.
5. Besuccinct. When writing emails, get to the point quickly. A good rule of thumb is tolimit your email to five sentences or less.
5. 做到簡明扼要。當寫電子郵件時，以最快速度講重點。一個好辦法是電子郵件不要超過5句話。
6. Do importantwork. In theclassic "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," Steven Coveypresents a matrix that divides our activities into four categories: urgent andimportant, not urgent but important, urgent and unimportant, and not urgent notimportant. The key is to spend most of our time in quadrant two, doing the important work that isn't driven bycrisis.
7. Batch similartasks. The simplest example of this is choosing to process emails only once ortwice a day rather than jumping like one of Pavlov's dogs every time thecomputer dings. Identify tasks that are interrupting your flow (email, phonecalls, meetings, etc.) and schedule a time to do them all at once.
8. Eliminate,automate, delegate. Doing your best work often requires eliminating orminimizing tasks that you don't need to do. First, eliminate anything you canfrom your to do list; determine if any tasks can be automated with technologyor templates; and finally, delegate any tasks that don't need your personalattention to a coworker or assistant.
9. Work offline. The Internetis a fantastic, but tempting place. If you have difficulty avoiding its distractions, work offline ortake your work somewhere without an Internet connection to force some focus. Iget so much work done on long plane journeys and I sometimes go to a localCoffee shop for some uninterrupted work.
10. Do the thingyou want to do the least, first. Prioritizethose items youare most likely to procrastinate—your day will go much more smoothly when the phone callyou're dreading or the report you don't want to write are finished and nolonger weighing on your mind.
You don't need afancy system for productivity, just a few good, timeless habits. I'd love tohear your best productivity hacks—new or classic—in the comments.