So you want to be more productive but don’t know how?

Well, if you have a To-Do list the size of Grand Central, and you don’t mind spending your days rearranging index cards, David Allen’s GTD cult might be just what you’re looking for. Unfortunately, not all of us have the burning desire to re-sort our lives into off-brown folders. For everyone who isn’t looking for a religious experience in time management, here are a few tips to get a little more out of your day.

For The Love Of Pete Do Something

Don’t dwell on it, don’t pontificate over it, don’t consider it and don’t put it off. Just do it. Most of the time we waste is wasted putting off incredibly simple tasks. I can’t tell you how much more efficient you could be if you just bit the bullet and tackled the small stuff.

Fix Problems Don’t Create Them

Complaining gets you precisely no where. If you are faced with a problem, you can either sit around seething over it or come up with a plan of action. The seething doesn’t do much of anything, so try to waste as little time as possible doing it. If you want to know where all that free time you wish you had is going towards, at least some of it is being burned away complaining.

Big Goals Require Small Actions

Don’t know exactly what you should be doing? It doesn’t matter, do something!

Instead of randomly clicking through the endless sea of useless internet detritus, send an email that you have been putting off.

Instead of taking the third trip to the office kitchen to stare into the empty fridge, start working on that usability report.

Instead of “brainstorming” over how to increase earnings, take a crack at the massive list of customers you still need to contact.

Things will only get done if you are willing to do something.

Web 2.0 Roundup

This list could be much longer and probably could contain a more step-by-step assessment, but that’s the problem that we are trying to combat here. Productivity is all about willingness to take chances and to be wrong. It’s about doing instead of fretting and it’s about skipping through the extraneous wait times and concentrating instead on completing tasks.

Good luck.

[Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed before leaving. Photo Credit]

If you enjoyed that why not find a job or read our guide to working in the 21st century. You can also join our Kiva team or hire me for your project.