![]() ![]() ![]() In the chaotic pace of her 70-hour work weeks, Dalton never truly took the time to process that she was on the fast-track to burnout - an increasingly common workplace phenomenon. "It goes back to the whole idea of moving from being time-focused back to being task-focused," says Dalton. Ultimately, you may end up getting fewer tasks done with a priority list, but you will get the items that truly matter checked off - and you may even get it done in fewer hours by skipping easier, less important tasks. The result: The harder, and often more important, tasks get procrastinated for days on end.ĭalton recommends "tossing your to-do list" and replacing it with what she calls a "priority list," which has just five to seven tasks, ordered by importance. That's because, Dalton says, "Our brain is going to choose the easiest tasks to check off." She says that to-do lists and back-to-back scheduling may have made her feel productive - each time she checked something off her task list, she remembers the "tiny hit of dopamine" - but they were hindering her actual output. When fixing her approach to work, Dalton quickly realized she didn't need a jam-packed, 40-hour week to complete her most important tasks. "Stop focusing on the time our team spends in their seats and instead focus on the quality of their work and really defining what success looks like." "There is nothing magical about the number 40," she says. Measure your productivity in tasks not hoursĪmong society's primary misconceptions about productivity, Dalton says loyalty to the 40-hour work week leads the way. "Rest is actually a requirement for great work to happen," says Dalton. She says that everyone should pay attention to their own individual signals of when their focus wanes. To be sure, Dalton notes that there is no "magic formula" or one-size-fits-all approach to maximizing productivity. She says that not only allows the mind enough time to enter its "state of flow" where it can produce quality work, but it also provides adequate recovery. For instance, she recommends working for 60 to 90 minutes, and no more than two hours at a time, before taking a break. Instead, Dalton advises designating larger chunks of time for work - and consequently, bigger time blocks for rest. "So every time you get to that state where the ideas are flowing, the alarm rings and you're stopping yourself." "One of the big problems is that every time you're distracted, it takes about 23 minutes to get back into that state of flow," Dalton says. ![]() But Dalton thinks it is fundamentally flawed because most people cannot just switch their focus on and off. Today, anyone can find a range of productivity apps and websites specifically built around the Pomodoro technique. You repeat that four times before you reach the ultimate reward: a 20-minute break. The strategy entails setting a 25-minute timer for focused work, after which you are rewarded with a five-minute break. The Pomodoro technique is a viral time-management hack with big names like Tom Hanks claiming it's boosted their work output. Here are her top three strategies to boost productivity, and the ones she thinks you can ditch: Trade your Pomodoro timer for actual breaks Rather than being hindered by that shorter schedule, she says it's helped her publish two books, including 2020's "The Joy of Missing Out," and become a sought-after productivity consultant and speaker.Īlong the way, Dalton has learned which productivity hacks are worth implementing - and which of them are just passing fads and distractions from what truly enhances the quality of one's work. All the while, she takes every Friday off, amounting to a 30-hour work week. The founder and former CEO of inkWELL Press, which sells planners, Dalton now advises companies on how to optimize productivity. Now, six years later, Dalton works until 3 p.m. Since then, Dalton says she has been at work "tearing down and breaking down the old systems" of her workflow. Rather than resenting her husband for taking a few minutes for himself, she realized she was angry at the fact that she couldn't afford herself that same alone time within the chaos of her daily life: "I wouldn't give myself five minutes to laugh at the radio." "I was inside ready for him to come take over for the kids so I could get more stuff done," Dalton recalls. It was clear something needed to change after she became instantly heated at her husband for spending an extra five minutes in the car in their driveway after work, listening to a program on the radio. "I'd go to bed at night, and I would feel like, 'Why didn't I get more done?'" "I was wearing myself out, exhausting myself and then wondering why I was so tired but still so unsatisfied," Dalton tells CNBC Make It. ![]()
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