Dan Ariely, a psychology and behavioral economics professor at Duke, shares six secrets to being more efficient. Ironically, I thought the article itself was not at all efficient—too many links and videos and other distractions trying to turn my attention someplace else. But two of the tips in particular seemed valuable, especially for high school students hoping to improve their grades:
1. Control your environment.
Great work doesn’t happen just anywhere. You’ve got to create the right environment. How do the most productive computer programmers get the job done? As Ariely puts it:
“…top performers overwhelmingly worked for companies that gave their workers the most privacy, personal space, control over their physical environments, and freedom from interruption.”
2. Email kills productivity.
Ariely points out that interruptions of any kind kill productivity. But email is the worst of the killers because as Ariely puts it:
“People think that checking email refreshes them. It doesn’t. If you want to get refreshed, close your eyes, meditate, breathe deeply, or think about some things that are important. The reality is the right way to do things is shut your email down and focus on what you’re doing.”