One of the most powerful productivity weapons at your disposal is rest. If you want to be super productive you must also be super disciplined about scheduling and taking time off. Today, I want to talk about taking time off from two things: emails and RSS feeds.
Email. I've now made it two weeks in a row of not checking email for one day a week. After hearing my friend Kyle McFarlin mention this on a podcast on The Productivity Show, I thought I'd give it a try. I figured if it worked for Kyle, it could work for me. Specifically from sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday, I don't look at my email. This schedule works better for me because I like to look at my email Sunday night to get ready for Monday. It's amazing how much better this short break makes me feel.
RSS Feeds. I love be "in the know" about technology. And I hate someone bringing up something new that I haven't heard about. On the other hand, RSS feeds can be as addictive and productivity hurting as email. So my new practice is to not read RSS feeds on the weekend. Another benefit is that it's more efficient to go through 3 days worth of feeds at once. This idea like so many other great ones came from Timothy Ferris author of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.
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(For more posts like this one, visit my blog, Tech Rest – Enjoying technology and finding rest in a restless world)