Top 10 Articles On Productivity And Success From The Last Year

Whether you are looking to improve how you do your job, to grow your business, or just get life under control, we can always be refining our productivity and focusing on what we need to do to be successful.

Some of us use to-do lists. Others use apps, and some just wing it. You have to do and use what works for you so we thought we would compile a list of the top 10 articles about productivity and success from the past year based on the number of social shares.

Hopefully, you will find some interesting perspectives and helpful tips to improve your productivity, be more successful, or at least have a laugh at some of the lengths people will go to be productive.

So without further adieu, here is the list:

1. Sweden is shifting to a 6-hour work day
2. Nap desks are here and it's all going to be OK
3. Complaining Is Terrible for You, According to Science
4. Late sleepers are tired of being discriminated against. And science has their back.
5. Study: Stubborn Kids Are More Likely to Be Successful
6. A programmer wrote scripts to secretly automate a lot of his job — and email his wife and make a latte
7. Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate
8. Addicted to Distraction
9. Zoning Out Can Make You More Productive
10. Work, Sleep, Family, Fitness, or Friends: Pick 3

Well, there you have it. We hope you find these articles interesting and helpful. If you have a favourite article that we missed or want to suggest additional resources then please share. We'd love to hear from you. 

Promote Productivity: a more organized home life can lead to a more productive work life

More and more people these days, myself included, find themselves bringing their work home with them. Some days it feels like seeing the clock tick to 5pm is more useful for predicting the traffic for my drive home than my workload, and I’m willing to bet many of you feel the same way. Working at home is an incredibly different animal than working at the office and that can be a problem, but it doesn’t have to be. On behalf of 1-800-Ridofit, here’s how you can set up and organize your home workspace and how that can lead to greater productivity.

First off, you’re going to need to select your workstation. It’s tempting to work all over the house, finding time and space wherever it’s available, but finding one place to work and sticking to it really is the better option. Selecting one place and working exclusively from there will ensure that you don’t start looking at your entire home as just one more place for work and lower interruptions- when people can tell that you’re working based on where you are they’ll be less likely to interrupt you. Try to select somewhere that’s at least somewhat out of the way as well so that you aren’t distracted by traffic in the room, by the door or a tv in the background. If this isn’t possible, invest in a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones. If you don’t already have them, get a spacious desk and comfortable chair, you’ll be spending a notable amount of time here, so make sure you have everything you need to be comfortable.

Next step is to assemble everything you will need for your work. Make good use of your desk’s drawers and purchase organizers if need be. Work from home is all about efficiency. You want to get to your workstation then get away from it as quickly as possible, so everything you need should be within reach. Lined paper, notebooks, stickie notes, laptop and phone chargers- make sure you don’t need to get up from your work unless you want to. The organizational aspect of your workstation is key. Not only do you not want to get up from it, but you don’t want to fiddle about looking for what you need at your desk either. Just like your office or cubicle at work, papers should be filed, materials should be organized, and your schedule or to-do list should be structured and visible.

Perhaps surprisingly, it’s just as important to keep the room neat as the desk. A cluttered environment in the background as you work can be distracting and stressful. It can hang over you mentally as you attempt to work- just one more thing to do- or distract you visually- taking up more space in your visual field and dragging your eyes away from your computer screen or notebook. Keep things as neat as you can on a day-to-day basis; clean up your station and any visible clutter when you’re done working each night. Schedule a big weekly or bi-weekly clean for the weekend as well just in case clutter sneaks up on you throughout the work week.

Four simple steps: select a workstation, acquire and organize the materials you need, de-clutter the room each day, and deep clean each week. Do all of that, restrict your work to your workstation, keep your work focused and uninterrupted and you’ll be in great shape to work efficiently and effectively from home.

4 Guiding Principles for this Year’s Spring Clean

A few weeks ago, we at 1-800 Ridofit brought you our Guide to Cleaning Before you Clean, a pre-spring cleaning primer to help you prepare your head and your home for the big job to come. Here we are now just a few days after the official first day of spring enjoying some of the nicest weather we’ve seen all year and it seems only fitting to follow up that blog with a full-blown spring cleaning post, so here are Ridofit’s 4 guiding principles for this year’s spring clean.

Plan in advance

This is without a doubt the most important part of any smooth spring clean. As you’re well aware, spring cleaning is an ordeal. It’s a lot of work- and I do mean a lot of work- so don’t use half-measures, get a plan in place before you pick up a broom, grab a garbage bag or get going on your cleaning in any capacity. Start off with a list. Write down everything you want to accomplish and the time you hope it will take. Not only will this help you structure your work but it will also help you to be more productive- every time you check something new off of the list it will feel like you’re getting more work done and you’ll be more motivated to get even more of it done.

Find a Partner

We’ve talked about this in previous posts but it really is one of the best ways to get more done in less time so it bears repeating. Particularly with a comprehensive cleaning job like a full spring clean, getting your partner, friends, family or roommates is a great idea. If you have to, offer them something small as a reward- a home cooked meal, a box of beer- something like that. But however you convince them to help out, an extra pair of hands will lighten the load and a conversation partner will quicken the pace.

Reorganize

For a big cleaning job, it can be tempting just to put things back the way they’ve always been, taking stuff that has been moved from its usual home and putting it back there. However this can cause you to gloss over one of the most important aspects of a successful spring clean- decluttering. If you’re looking to get rid of extra or unnecessary stuff around the house (as you should be) you’ll be much less likely to do so effectively if you’re just putting things away rather than actually cleaning and reorganizing. If you aren’t actively trying to work against it, it’s much easier to just put something back where it’s always been rather than getting rid of it altogether, so when you’re cleaning this spring, shake things up a little bit, give your house a fresh new look and get rid of what doesn’t fit with it.

Think outside of the Box

Don’t limit your cleaning to the obvious. Everyone wants to make sure their bathrooms, basement, and living room are in order, but take things a step further. Take things to your kitchen, bedroom and anywhere else you may have neglected and get rid of all the books, DVD’s, CD’s and clothes that you can. Take care of that room you’ve been neglecting, and as I said earlier, cleaning isn’t just about putting things back where they were before, get rid of the clothes you don’t wear, entertainment and other items that you don’t use anymore. Charity organizations do pickups in just about every neighbourhood on a regular basis and there’s always someone who could use your neglected items more than you.

There you have it. A couple of easy things to keep in mind that will speed up your spring. Plan everything out in advance and chart your progress, enlist some help, break free from the norm and shake your house up a bit, and expand your thinking when it comes to what you are and aren’t cleaning. Have fun!

Top 5 Tips To Avoid Cleaning Related Winter Woes

Sometimes winter sucks- snow is falling, the wind is howling, and all you want is to park yourself in front of a fire with a glass of hot cocoa and wait until spring. We’re just lower energy in the winter; it’s natural and it happens to the best of us. We let some things slide over the winter months- sometimes healthy eating or time at the gym, sometimes hobbies, but more often than not it’s cleanliness. It’s hard to work up the energy to keep your home in order when you’re having trouble finding enough to roll out of bed. That said, there are ways to avoid the winter cleaning blahs, and 

1-800 Rid-of-it has you covered there with our top 5 tips to avoid cleaning related winter woes.

Spice things up a bit

We tend to think of cleaning up around the house as a boring chore, just one more thing we need to do but never want to. If that’s the case, it’s time for you to rethink cleaning. Put your favourite show on or blast some music to rock out to in the background; raise the tempo and make cleaning fun again!

Get yourself a cleaning buddy

Like with just about anything else, cleaning is more likely to be a drag when you’re doing it alone, so don’t! Rather than giving your partner or kids a list of chores to get done on their own time, clean together. You can talk, laugh, and feed off of each other’s energy, and the work goes by notably faster with someone by your side.

Use cleaning to break up your work

Given road conditions, unreliable transport and the dreaded flu, winter involves a lot of working from home. If you’re anything like me, you probably have a tougher time being productive in the comfort of your own home than you do in at the office. If you are working from home and you hit a wall in your work, take some time off and clean! The change of scenery and focus should improve your productivity, if you’re lucky, l bringing order to your home will bring order to your thinking. Small chunk your work and your cleaning and both will benefit.

Set the mood

Like I mentioned earlier, sometimes all you want to do is bask in the glow of a warm fire with a hot mug of something or other and wait out winter. So why not do that and clean at the same time? Light a fire, drape yourself with a blanket and get to work! No one said cleaning needs to be unpleasant, so get comfortable and get to work.

Turn it into a workout. 

I saved this one for last because it’s the furthest from left field. Exercise!? In winter!? Isn’t the whole point of winter to overeat and neglect your body!? Well, sort of… But we’re passed the holidays now and New Year’s resolutions should be just as important as holiday habits. Try to speed clean, alternate a set of pushups or situps with each room you clean or do some heavy lifting and clean under furniture. Your cleaning will be doubly efficient and doubly beneficial and that should motivate you to get it done.

There you have it. The winter blahs don’t need to get you down, get out there and get it done.