Most intellectual tasks are very difficult to accomplish without strong focus and concentration. On the other hand, many people are unable stay focused and work without interruptions for a prolonged periods of time like whole day or even a couple of hours.

Results of scientific research show that even in perfect conditions where sources of external distractions are limited, people are able to stay focused and concentrated at one particular task for no longer than a period of 30-60 minutes. Studies performed in real office conditions shows even more pessimistic results. For example, Gloria Mark, associate professor at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, discloses results of her study which has been conducted on 36 managers, financial analysts, software developers, engineers and project leaders for three days. Gloria and her colleagues found out that uninterrupted continuous periods of work were no longer than about 3 minutes in average. Moreover, people interrupted themselves almost as much as they were interrupted by external sources.More...

Most people regularly experience stress from their schedules that were not implemented. Why there are differences between plans and implementations? Mostly because of drawbacks in planning procedure: actually, plans in most cases describe that things which we want to happen but ignore things which are likely or possibly to happen even against our will.

Now I want to share some simple but extremely effective time management technique that helps to make plans much closer to reality.

Actually, this technique is very simple: instead of planning try to focus on predicting. Simple, huh?

And now some explanations to show how this works. When someone tries to predict, s/he involves in the process much more factors than doing just planning. And it helps dramatically. More...

Sometimes our To-Do list makes us to feel uncomfortable about choosing Next Action to do. The most unpleasant thing is that you have to decide. But in general people do not like to make decisions and it is rather normal than not.

I'll show you how to make this decision in most painless way.More...

Most people feel overwhelmed with a number of tasks standing in front of them each day. Instead of getting things done, often we just trying to make oneself busy getting paperwork moved or something else like this, and what is just easy and not what is right.

There is only one way to overcome this situation: we have to learn how to set priorities and do what is right, not what is easy.

The Time Management Matrix also known as four-quadrant To-Do list is very simple but highly effective tool to choose from your task list that tasks that should be your next actions. This matrix was used by Dwight Eisenhower and described in detail by Steven Covey, the author of a very popular book titled "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". Randy Pausch also mentioned it in his famous Time Management Talk. Personal Motivation Calendar (PMC) implements it (you can read my intro to it here) and I'll use it to show how this approach works.More...

Sometimes we spend too much time to do some kind of work that can be delegated. If you do not have your own subordinates at work or housemaid at home, it is not necessary to wait until robots became as usual as refrigerators are. Even today we can make more free time using robots or automated services.

Here is my list. More...

Problems can't stop you. Most of all, other people can't stop you. Only you can stop you. -- Jeffrey Gitomer.

Time is limited. Are you new to this? Of course not. But how do you live with this? Maybe you are trying not to think about time like Futureheads do? But how it helps not to waste  time? More...

It is popular now to blog about empty mailbox or "Inbox Zero" approach. That idea is now hot and most people even do not realize that exists alternate ways to manage a huge amount of e-mail and keep sanity. I'll show you the one.

First of all I need to say that I get tons of e-mails every day. I have nearly two dozens of e-mail accounts organized mostly on different activities and each of them continuously brings e-mail. It is hard to say precisely, but I surely receive more than one thousand e-mails every day including e-mail lists that I am subscribed. I can handle this amount of e-mail relatively easily, but I do not try to make inbox empty - it simply would take all my time and even more.

I'll try to show you in 5 steps how to be more effective than that people who try to make their inbox empty.More...

It is summer now.  Outdoor temperature raises to unseen peaks and only air conditioner can help you to stay smooth. No doubt that temperature influences your productivity. But how? And what temperature is best for office productivity to setup your air conditioner? Let's find out.

In majority of cases existing standards for the temperature of the work environment allows wide temperature range from 65° F (18° C) to 88° F (31° C) depending on working conditions. But this range is quite lengthy and most people feel uncomfortable working outside relatively short 'comfort zone'. More...

I hate writing on paper - especially making paper todolists. I do not like to stick that little yellow sheets of paper on my workplace because it is not as helps to remember to do something as distracts my attention. Also it so easy to lost that important task list with notes written on paper that sometimes it prevents do get into work at all. And frankly I love trees.

There is very simple way not to jam mind with tasks and do not use paper at all More...

Productivity Science is a new blog for modern people that are intrested to do more work for a less time. I'll give to you unique tips and show most intresting videos on productivity, time-management and GTD. Subscribe to RSS and stay tuned!

PS. And some to add. English is not my native language. I try my best to do it well but my current language skills are too far from being perfect. Please forgive me my mistakes and do not hesistate to post corrections in comments.