You have probably heard many times in your life about the concept of visualization. Typically the context is sports, or something physical: visualize the perfect golf swing, hitting the basket as time expires, etc. I’m here to tell you that visualization is far more versatile than this limited application.
Experimentation can enable you to accomplish some great things. When I talk about the concept of “experimenting,” I’m referring to the process by which you test and then refine ideas and processes.
One of the most useful productivity enhancements I’ve implemented in the last year has been a shift to use the keyboard as much as possible, and the mouse as little as possible. You might think, “Really? How does that provide a significant productivity enhancement?” Well, how long do you think you spend moving your right/left hand from the keyboard to the mouse each time you switch between them? Maybe a second? That’s not very long, what’s the big deal? It’s only a big deal because you do it so many times. If you do that switch on average about once per minute for an eight-hour work day, that is 60 * 8 = 480 seconds = 8 minutes wasted just going back and forth. That is 40 minutes each week, and 40 * 48 weeks = 1920 minutes = 32 hours each year! I know this sounds kind of ridiculous initially, but if you make a concerted effort to use the keyboard more, you will immediately start to notice how much faster you can do things on the computer, even over the period of just a few minutes.
Audio books are one of the best ways to recover a lot of otherwise wasted time each and every day. I live in Washington, D.C., where almost every one I know has a one-way commute of at least 30 minutes, and if you tell someone your commute is under an hour they will usually say “Oh, that’s pretty good.” So if you multiply 30 minutes by two drives per day, times 5 days per week, times 48 weeks per year (assuming about 4 weeks for holidays and vacations), that is 240 hours per year, or ten full days! Or you could also say thirty 8-hour working days, which is approximately how much time you spend at work in a full month. If you’re not doing something productive like listening to audio books, that is a tremendous amount of time wasted. Some people claim that their evening commute is when they wind down each day, but I also treat it as my wind-down time and still get to listen to some great books! It does not take long to become accustomed to listening to audio books on a regular basis, and you soon get to the point where you really look forward to listening to your book each morning and evening commute. Imagine that! Looking forward to your commute! Ha!
I have seen many presentations in my life, and one really bad habit that I have seen afflict presenters of all ages and experience levels are verbal fillers like Um and Uh. These little devils can find their way into every nook and cranny of your speech. Often people will not notice them directly, but if they hear a presentation with many of them and then listen to a presentation with none or only a handful, subconsciously they will hear a BIG difference.