increasing productivity (The importance of having a routine)

this contents was copied from soft skills the software developer's life manual ebook

The biggest time waster of all

I’m just going to come right out and say it. Stop watching television!
Seriously, stop doing it as soon as you can. Put down the remote, turn off the TiVo,
and find something else to do—anything else to do.

Other time wasters
Just eliminating that one time waster can potentially double or triple your productivity
—not to mention save you some money.

SOME OF THE BIGGEST TIME WASTERS
❂ Watching TV
❂ Social media
❂ News sites
❂ Unnecessary meetings
❂ Cooking
❂ Playing videogames (especially online games)
❂ Coffee breaks

Tracking your time
For the next week, meticulously track your time. Get an accurate estimate of how
you spend every hour of your day. Look at the data and see where your biggest
two or three time wasters are.
❂ If you have a TV habit, try and kick it for just a week. Have a “no TV” week and
see how you do. Keep track of what you spend your time doing instead of watching
TV.
❂ Figure out if you can buy back more time by hiring someone to do your yard work
or cleaning for you. (If you cut your cable, you might even be able to pay for these
services from just those savings.)

The importance of having a routine

The true secret to productivity: small things done repeatedly over a long
time period. Write 1,000 words a day, every day, and in a year you’ll have
written four novels. (The average novel is between 60,000 and 80,000 words.)

Routines make you

It seems like common sense when I write the words here, but take a look
at your own life and goals; examine the dreams and aspirations you have.
Are you making an active effort to progress toward them every day?
Don’t you think that if you created a routine that put you one step closer
toward your goals, each day, you’d eventually achieve them?

This big goal will form the basis of your routine. You’ll build your schedule around this goal. Most people have to commit 8 hours of their day to working at their job. There might not be much flexibility there, but you still have 16 hours left to schedule your day.
We’ll take another 8 hours off for sleeping, which leaves you 8 hours. Finally, we’ll take
another 2 hours off per day for eating. At worst you should have about 6 hours each day that you can allocate to what you want to achieve.

I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself :
"if today were the last day of my life, would i want to do what i am about to do today?"