This post was originally posted on June 7th, 2015 on LinkedIn, and eBestSmartWatches.com, an ecommerce store that I used to run. I just read through it today, and realized that the content still holds weight, and you can still extract value from it. After reading the article myself, I feel like it was a great refresher to be more productive in the day. Being productive is something I’m always looking to improve upon, and quite honestly I’m not that productive. Hopefully I can take my own advice after today 🙂
Don’t you wish there was more time in the day?
We live in a world where news travels instantly. You want to get more done and be more productive, but probably get an insane amount of updates throughout the day.
What you don’t know is that these barrage of updates can lead you into a black hole that sucks 15 minutes out of your day, without you even noticing!
You went to refresh your Instagram timeline, and ended up googling “can an ostrich kill a lion with one kick?”
How did you get here!?
The fact is that people don’t realize how much time they spend on their phones for reasons other than actually calling or texting.
Eliminating “dead time” can help you realize the extra hour that you didn’t know existed.
This blog post will go over the system I put in place to reduce the amount of distractions throughout my day, while still using my smartwatch to give me timely notifications.
Step 1: Identify what consumes YOUR time
How much time do you think you spend on your phone a day?
It’s probably more than you think.
In order to figure out how to gain more time in your day, you have to track what you’re spending your time on, and how much time you’re spending on it. In my case, I needed to find a way to “spy” on myself to see how long I was using my phone for, so I used an app called Moment to track the amount of time that I spent on my phone.
Once you download Moment, you need to be able to “police” yourself, and make a conscious effort to track the time spent in EACH application. For music apps like Pandora, just check how many songs you’ve listened to in the car and add that up. For social media apps, try to check the time before you get sucked into the black hole, and check it again once you escape. If that doesn’t work, then good ol’ fashion estimation will do just fine.
My Results
What I found is that I ended up pulling out my phone more frequently throughout the day, and for shorter intervals at a time as well. For example, I would catch myself responding to a text, then checking Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram before I put my phone in my pocket. It’s as if I felt obligated to check before I put my phone away. Evidently, it ended up consuming much more of my time than I originally thought.
In total,I spent about 2 hours and 18 minutes on my phone per day. I used an app called checky to figure out how many times I pulled out my phone, and it was 142 times. That’s about 58 seconds per phone check! You can see the breakdown below.
Once you figure out how much time you’re spending on your phone, and where you’re spending it, it’s time to figure out ways to reduce the amount of “dead time” in your day.
Dead time kills your productivity
The key to this exercise is that you want to reduce the amount of time wasted on your phone, WITHOUT limiting your access to important info in the social world.
I still want to be notified when a big trade goes down. Just not at random times of the day when it prevents me from getting things done.
This is the happy balance that we need to find within ourselves in order to be productive, while still staying “in tune” with the rest of the world, when it matters.
Step 2: Invest in wearable tech!
Smartwatches are relatively new, and have yet to be realized as a productivity tool for the masses. They can be used as a great tool keep you posted on what’s going on in the world. Think of a smartwatch as a filter to your phone, because it only sends you the information that you NEED to know. For example, you can receive texts and phone calls on your wrist, but you may not want to get facebook and twitter updates. You can turn off those notifications, put your phone in your pocket, and still get the texts and calls that you want, without the possibility of being sidetracked.
If you remove the things that distract you the most, then it becomes much easier to focus.
It’s kind of like fighting an addiction, but succumbing to peer pressure. If you’re addicted to meth, then it’s probably not a good idea to hang out with your junkie friends, right? Your chances of relapse increase dramatically.
Set yourself up for success, and you’ll find it much easier to achieve.
How to use your smartwatch as a tool throughout the day
Using your smartwatch as a filter to receive timely notifications is clearly the value add for people that have a full day’s schedule. You may only want to get texts from your mom, but not updates on photos that you were tagged in . Creating an “if this then that” (IFTTT)statement could be beneficial for further segmentation of your updates. This can help you get important updates that you would otherwise have to waste time and search for. An example could be getting an update from Craigslist, only once an apartment is posted within your price range. Now that’s a useful update to have!
Step 3: Batch up your phone checks
Batching up, or grouping up the times you check your phone for emails, apps, etc is absolutely necessary if you want to save time. Tim Ferriss went into detail on this in his book, the four hour work week, and talks about how email in the morning is a mind killer. He even recommends that we check and respond to email twice a day, instead of throughout the day. I’ve applied this concept to checking “everything on your phone” about twice a day.
Think about it. If you end up checking your email, or apps, first thing in the morning, you’ve already let someone else dictate how you start your day.
You end up reacting instead of attacking. Playing defense instead of offense.
Is this how you want to live?
Instead, try to accomplish your most important task in the morning. This may include creative writing, brainstorming, or even completing a 2 mile jog before breakfast.
The key to this working is that the tasks you complete have to be measurable. Instead of brainstorming topics to write about, try coming up with 5 topics to write about. Putting a number on what you’re doing is a good way to hold yourself accountable. Fight the temptation and get through it. Refreshing your timeline will feel a lot better after.
Once you finish that, then you can go crazy and spend about 15-30 minutes on your phone. This is the time to check what’s happening on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, and what ever else your heart desires. Think of it as a reward system : )
After accomplishing what you needed to to, and checking your phone, it’s time to carry on with the rest of the day. This is where the smartwatch plays a HUGE role in striking that happy balance that we talked about earlier.
From this point on in the day, your phone should not leave your pocket or purse until the night. Trust me, this is important. Of course that excludes making calls, but I’m talking about pulling out your phone just for the heck of it. If you find yourself cheating and checking your phone throughout the day, try deleting the apps after you check in the morning. This will force you to stay focused, and you can easily download them again at night. Configure your smartwatch to get the updates that you NEED to know, and save the rest of the time consuming updates until the end of the day.
In my case, I only got notified when I got a text or call. That was it. By being able to quickly glance at my wrist and determine if the text or call was worth a response, I was able to stay focused and finish what I was doing a lot faster! The advantage of glancing at your wrist for any update may seem unnecessary, but is a huge advantage that is only realize by people who have a smartwatch.
Once you get back home and the work day is done, it’s now time for another smartphone check. Now’s the time to install those apps you deleted earlier in the day if you needed an extra push. I recommend about 7 or 8 o’clock at night for a quick 20 min phone check.
What you’ll find is that it’s more fun to check your social media platforms once those notifications build up throughout the day.
It’s like celebrating Hanukkah or Christmas. Would you rather open up 1 small gift for 8 days straight, or open 8 gifts in 1 day, while getting to do fun christmas activities the other 7 days? I’m only joking of course, but there is some truth to the feeling you get when you get a social media notifications all at one time. It’s a feeling of love. A feeling that you don’t have if you hopelessly refresh your timelines ALL the time.
My results after the experiment
So after a week checking my phone for updates only TWICE a day, I found out that I saved about an hour each day. Most of the time was eliminated from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Emails, because that’s what I would mindlessly check every couple of minutes throughout the day.
My question to myself was: What did I lose by eliminating this time?
The answer? Nothing!
I still got the same updates that I would have if I checked every second of the day. The difference is that I used my smartwatch to keep me posted throughout the day, which eliminates the need to check my phone!
Conclusion
Saving time and being productive means changing the way that you live. It requires you to be disciplined and set up a system to help you accomplish your daily, quarterly, and yearly goals. The possibilities are endless, and leveraging these productivity hacks are critical to squeezing more time out of your day. Remember, the goal is not to simply cut yourself off with the rest of the world. The goal should be to increase your work output in the same or less time as before, while still being connected with the outside world, when it matters. Finding your happy balance between the two is a challenge that you need to face in order to unlock the door to productivity. Go out and make it happen.