This is Cammi Pham's article, published in the original medium.

Editor's note: This article is Cammi Pham, published in the medium. Through his own experience and some scientific evidence, the author suggests that sometimes hard work may not be the right path to success. The key to success is not effort but smart. Because time is a scarce commodity, sometimes it is better to do less.

Busy does not necessarily indicate that you are productive. To be productive, it's more about managing your energy than time. To run your life well. We need to learn to spend the least amount of energy to get the maximum benefit. After 7 things, I shortened my weekly working hours from 80 hours to 40 hours, but there was a lot more work to do.

1, no overtime high efficiency

5 days a week, 8 hours of work per day is Ford's 1926 discovery. The results showed that the productivity of working hours decreased from 10 hours to 8 hours per week, and the working hours from 6 days to 5 days were increased.

The overtime effect of construction projects, released by the Business Roundtable in 1980, points out that, in the short to long term, the more work you do, the less efficient and productive it will be:

If more than 60 hours of work per week continue for more than two months, the cumulative effect of declining productivity will result in a delay in the completion date, with the same number working 40 hours a week or even earlier.

The U.S. military studies show that "sleep less than 1 hours a day for a week can lead to cognitive degradation equivalent to 0.1 levels of blood alcohol."

The Secret World of Sleep states:

No matter how well you do during the day, the mood is not too high. More important is the willingness to think and act, the inhibition of impulse, the degree of optimism, empathy, EQ, and so on.

So ensuring adequate sleep is important for maintaining high levels of productivity.

The experience of many celebrities is to take naps during the day. Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon, Edison, Mrs. Roosevelt, Gine Ottry, Kennedy, Rockefeller, Churchill, Lyndon, Ronald Reagan and so on have the habit of napping.

2, don't always say "good"

According to the 20/80 principle (Pareto principle), 20% of the effort to create 80% results, but in turn 20% of the result consumes 80% of the effort. So we should focus on things that can produce 80% results and then give up on other things. So you can focus more time on the most important tasks. We should stop saying "yes" to tasks with low output and even no results.

The difference between successful people and very successful people is that the latter almost say "no" to everything.

--Buffett

This begs the question: what are we going to say "yes" to, and what are the "no" things? If you can't think of something worth taking time, try a simple separation test. Keep track of everything you do and optimize as much as you can.

Most of us often say "yes" too much, because it's much easier than rejecting. Nobody wants to be a bad person.

The 2012 consumer magazine published a study in which the researchers divided 120 people into 2 groups. A group of people trained vehicular "I can't (I Can ' t)" and the other group says "I don't (I don ' t)". The results were interesting:

The students who told themselves, "I can't eat X", chose to eat chocolate in 61% of the time and told themselves, "I don't eat
X "is only 36%. Making such a simple change in parlance can significantly improve the choice of healthy foods.

So, the next time you need to avoid saying yes, just say "I don't".

Another trick to avoid unnecessary activity is the 20-second rule: Give yourself 20 seconds to think about things you shouldn't do.

3. Don't be hands-on

I've managed a very large community, tried to do everything by myself, and finally found out I couldn't do it. I was exhausted and finally the community took over the self-management work. It's amazing how much more people do than I do. So I realized the power of the community.

We must be aware that it is important to seek help when it is needed. It is better for you to let someone who has done better take over some of your work. This will allow you to spend more time on your most important tasks. Don't waste your time on your own problem solving, let the experts help you.

Many times, even if a friend can't help you, their company can make you more productive.

4, not perfectionism

"Perfectionism is a stumbling block to productivity," says Simon Sherry, a psychology professor at the University of Dar-ho.

Perfectionism takes more time to complete a task
The perfectionist waits for the perfect moment to delay. In business terms, it's too late to wait for the perfect moment.
Perfectionism often disappears because of blinders, because it misses the big picture because it's too focused on small things.

The best moment of perfection is now.

5. Do not repeat work

According to a study by Tethys solution, a team of 5 people who spend 3%, 20%, 25%, 30%, and 70% time on repetitive work, after 2 months of productivity enhancement (with the introduction of automated software), are reduced to 3%, 10%, 15%, 15%, and 10%.

Now as long as I need to do one more thing more than 5 times, I will ask myself to find a program to do for me. It doesn't matter if you don't know how to program, then buy the program.

People often don't remember that time is money. The reason they do it by hand is usually because it is easier to do and does not need to be studied. There seems to be no problem dealing with 30 pictures, but what about 30000? You can only rely on the software to deal with it. Remember, you need to spend money to make money, and time is your most valuable commodity.

6. Decision making without guessing

If the site can be SEO, then life can also. Do not rely on wild guesses to make decisions, use data to support your decision.

There are many studies in different fields for reference. For example, do you know that 4 o'clock in the afternoon is the easiest person to be distracted? This is a study led by Robert Matchock, an assistant professor at Penn State University. Even if you can't find the data you need, it doesn't take too much time to isolate the test.

Keep asking yourself how you plan to measure and optimize everything you do.

7. Don't always work

Most people do not realize that if we focus too much on something, we will be prison and out of bounds. It's important to get out of the work from time to time and be alone. According to the power of loneliness, time alone is good for the brain and the mind:

Harvard research shows that if someone believes that they are experiencing something alone, their memories will be more permanent and more accurate. Another study suggests that solitude at a certain time can be more empathetic. While no one will question the early excesses of a solitary life that are unhealthy, a certain amount of solitude can improve the mood of the young.

It is important to leave some time for reflection. When we don't look for solutions, the latter tend to come out of the way.

Of course, we can't become more productive overnight. As with every thing in life, it also requires effort. There is no change in waiting. We all need to learn more about our bodies and find the best way to allocate energy so that we can have a more successful and happier life.