I need to pick my kids up from school at 2:30 pm. I should finish my tasks before that. There’s no time for chit-chats, or social networks. The pressure of my schedule helps me focus. I am convinced that I am more productive than some persons that spend 8 hours in an office. To achieve more in less time is the cost I pay for my flexibility, and something I treasure as a professional mom, and that is not so common at companies nowadays.

But lately I found a couple of articles and research that made me think that things may be changing.

El Wall Street Journal published the story of Lasse Rheingans, a german entrepreneur that owns a technology company, where the employees work 5 hours per day, but they get a full salary. His theory is based in the distinction between time spent in the office and time actually worked. The experiment starts with the premise that when distractions are eliminated and the inefficient conversations are restricted, 5 hours should be enough to finish the main activities. The employees agree to leave phones in their bags, social networks are restricted in the office and the meetings are limited to 15 minutes or less. The email is checked only twice a day.

Furthermore, a couple of weeks ago, NPR published an article about an experiment that Microsoft performed in Japan. They implemented a 4-day work week, without changing the salary. The result was a productivity boost of 40%. Also, the electricity cost was reduced by 23% and printing by 60%.

A research from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the gap between employees productivity and compensation that started in the 1970s. This publication explains the trend between 1987 and 2005, in 183 industries, where productivity and compensation are on the rise, but not in the same proportion. The higher difference is seen in Technology.

If we consider that computers, networks and internet, had impacted in the labor market between the 80s and the 90s, and the smartphones revolution started in 2000, the type of jobs that we perform nowadays is relatively new. So it is not surprising that new strategies appear to improve the way we perform them.

All this information was particularly interesting for me as I have been working part-time for several years now. I am very grateful and proud about achieving and keeping this conditions. Today I would like to share with you some productivity techniques that works for me.

Mindfulness and Meditation

There is a lot of information you can find about the benefits of being present and meditate. I just wanna say, that during meditation, the exercise of bringing the mind back when it wanders, helps a lot with concentration. I use the Calm app. Meditation is specially useful nowadays, where we are bombarded by tremendous amount of information. This causes the “Direct Attention Fatigue” Syndrome. Our brain is overwhelmed by our intents of concentrating in a single task, while we receive tons of external stimulation. And the amount of external stimulus are increased by our smartphones. Which leads me to the next topic.

Avoid distractions

Turn off the smartphone. I recommend using time-management apps to understand the impact it has in our time assignation. If you work from home, to intermittently carry out household activities is very counterproductive.

Pomodoro Session

A very simple technique but very efficient. It is named after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer. The main idea is to break down work into intervals of 25 minutes, to perform a single task. If you don’t have a timer, you could use this url.

Spotify and Headphones

If you are at the office, not everyone has the same time restrictions than you. In that case, I find very useful to use headphones. This list helps me focus: steezyasfuck.

After years looking for balance, I strongly believe productivity and flexibility are key concepts in this matter. This is crucial for professional mothers, and also for fathers, because at the end, the beneficiaries are the children and their superior interest.

I would like to know your experiences, do you have flexibility at work? What productivity or time management techniques do you use?

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash