Take a look at your calendar. How many 30-minute gaps can you spot between events? You can thank the automated scheduling platforms of the 1990’s and 2000’s for that. And while these gaps might seem harmless, rest assured they can add up. Take a long-term view of your month, quarter, or year, and you’ll see that these 30-minute gaps are undermining your productivity.
Productivity expert Jordan Cohen suggests using these gaps wisely:
- Take a few minutes at the start of each day to identify the gaps in your schedule.
- Schedule what you want to accomplish in each gap right on your calendar. This can be anything from lower value work that needs to get done (such as expense reports) to larger, finite tasks you’ve been dreading (such as outlining your next presentation).
- Hold yourself accountable. At the end of the day, look back on your 30-minute tasks and note which ones you’ve accomplished.
So stop looking at those 30-minute gaps in your day as empty space. They may be the key to turbocharging your productivity.
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