1) Have A Solid Daily Ritual

STEP 1 (5 Minutes): Your Morning Minutes. This is your opportunity to plan ahead. Beforeturning on your computer, sit down with the to-do list you created…and decide what will makethis day highly successful…

STEP 2 (1 Minute Every Hour): Refocus. …Set your watch, phone, or computer to ring everyhour and start the work that’s listed on your calendar. When you hear the beep, take a deepbreath and ask yourself if you spent your last hour productively. Then look at your calendarand deliberately recommit to how you are going to use the next hour. Manage your day hourby hour. Don’t let the hours manage you.

STEP 3 (5 Minutes): Your Evening Minutes. At the end of your day, shut off your computer andreview how the day went, asking yourself… questions like: How did the day go? What did I learnabout myself? Is there anyone I need to update? Shoot off a couple of emails or calls to makesure you’ve communicated with the people you need to contact.

2) Make Things Automatic

The secret to getting more done is to make things automatic. Decisons exhaust you: Thecounterintuitive secret to getting things done is to make them more automatic, so they requireless energy.

It turns out we each have one reservoir of will and discipline, and it gets progressivelydepleted by any act of conscious self-regulation. In other words, if you spend energy tryingto resist a fragrant chocolate chip cookie, you’ll have less energy left over to solve a difficultproblem. Will and discipline decline inexorably as the day wears on.

Build routines and habits so that you’re not deciding, you’re just doing. When you first learn todrive it’s 1000 activities like steering, shifting, checking mirrors, braking — but with practiceyou turned it into autopilot and it’s no stress at all.

3) Checklists are magic

Be specific and make sure to include a time estimate for all tasks. A well-maintained list is anessential tool for staying grounded, for saving your energy and for doing things rather thantrying to remember what to do.

Effective to-do lists are limited to specific tasks that can be tackled right away and finishedfairly soon. Instead of listing solve client issue, spend one hour defining the scope of clientproblem.

A list should reflect a time estimate needed for each task. And it should be integrated into acalendar or schedule, to avoid planning 17 things for tomorrow which, if you added them up,are going to take 20 hours.

4) Beat Procrastination

A big part of procrastination is dread. The task seems terrible and overwhelming. Andthat’s the first issue that needs attacking: those feelings.

By breaking the problem down into smaller chunks — even comically small ones that requireonly 1 minute of activity — and doing just that one little thing, you prove to yourself the taskisn’t insurmountable.

The most motivating thing in the world is progress. Any trivial progress can motivate andboost positive emotions that will help build a productive momentum.

So this sounds good in theory but you’re probably thinking: what’s that first step and won’tthat be horribly, horribly painful? For any procrastinated task, first thing is to take one minuteand just write down the steps you need to do to finish the task.

This should be enough to kill negative emotions, build some momentum and get you going.

1)养成固定的日常习惯。

第一步(五分钟)：你的晨间时光。这是你提前计划的机会。在打开电脑之前，坐下来看看你建立的任务清单，想想做些什么会让这一整天过得充实。

第二步(每小时1分钟)：重新调整注意力。把你的手表、手机或者电脑设定为每个小时响一次铃，以此提醒你日程表上列出的事项。当你听到铃声时，做一个深呼吸，然后反躬自问刚过去的一小时是否过得有效率。接着看看你的日程表，好好重新计划下你要如何利用接下来的一个小时。以小时为节点地支配你的一天，而不要让时间支配你。

第三步(5分钟)：你的晚间时光。在一天结束的时候，关掉电脑并回忆这一天是怎么过的，扪心自问这些问题：我是怎么过这一天的?我今天学到了什么?我有什么需要改进的吗?另外，大量回复邮件和电话以保证你已经和所有需要联系的人联系过了。

2)让事情程序化。

完成更多事情的诀窍是让事情程序化。做选择会让你觉得筋疲力尽。所以想要完成更多事情，诀窍就在于让事情程序化(虽然这和我们直觉认为的不同)，程序化做事会节省你的很多精力。

我们每个人都有一个装载意志力和自控力的容器，它会随着我们有意识的自我规律行为而逐渐排空。换句话来说，假如你花精力拒绝一块美味的巧克力曲奇，你就没有精力去解决一个难题。意志力和自控力会随着时间流逝而无情地减少。

建立一些例行公事和习惯，这样你就不用总是做决定，你只是按部就班做事而已。当你第一次学驾驶时要做1000种动作，比如握方向盘，转弯，看后视镜，踩刹车——但随着练习，你把它变成了“自动驾驶”，你根本没有什么压力了。

3)检查清单很神奇

注意细节，并且确保对你所有的任务都进行时间预估。一个维护良好的任务清单是脚踏实地办事的必要条件。这样你能为做事节约精力，而不是总要试着去记住要做些什么。

有效率的任务清单要局限于那些能够马上解决并且能短时间内完成的特定任务。与其列出要解决的客户问题，不如花一个小时来确定客户问题的范围。

清单必须反映每个任务的时间预估，而且应该整合进你的日历或时间表里，以免你为明天计划总计要20小时的17件事情。

4)击败拖延症。

拖延的很大一部分是畏惧。任务看上去又难又费时。你首先要克服的就是这种感觉。

通过把这些任务分解成小块，甚至滑稽地把它们分解成1分钟一个的小任务。然后仅仅做那些小事情，你会向自己证明这些任务不是难以对付的。

世界上最激励人心的事情就是进步。任何微小的进步都会激励和促进积极情绪，而那会让你的高效工作更有劲。

理论上这听起来不错，但你也许会想：第一步是什么呢?第一步会不会非常非常的痛苦?对所有延迟的任务而言，你要做的第一件事都是花一分钟写下你完成这个任务需要做的每个步骤。

这样应该足以击败负面情绪，并为你前进建立起一些动力了。