With the development of the Internet for so many years, besides the terrifying growth, the amount of information has made every modern person feel overwhelmed. We have to process a large amount of information every day, and the sources of information are all different, which makes people feel physically and mentally exhausted. The same is true at work. Processing a large amount of information every day can easily distract you and easily complicate things.

Under the interference of so much information, making work simpler becomes very necessary. It determines whether you can make full use of working time and give yourself more available time, instead of dealing with work every day. You can try to use some habits and tools to improve these problems.

1. Handle specific information at specific times

This applies to scenarios where fixed information is processed, such as: screening resumes, reviewing work progress, approval progress, assigning tasks, and reviewing code. For example:

• Every morning, the first half hour after arriving at work is for making a plan for the day.
• Every day, use the last half hour before the lunch break to assign new work tasks.
• Every day, use the last hour before leaving work in the afternoon to review code and check work progress.
• Every evening, use one hour to screen resumes.

This kind of work arrangement is relatively easy to establish and very easy to improve efficiency. But the difficult part lies in controlling external disturbances and how to rearrange if disrupted.

I once wanted to practice translation, so I spent more than a month translating some excellent English articles to Jianshu every night from 10 to 11. It was hard to stick to it at first, and I was often interrupted by various things. Gradually I persuaded myself to persist, understanding what I was persisting for. Pump myself up, grit my teeth and get through it. Then isolate myself in an environment, don't think about anything else, don't even think about checking news or looking at your phone. Just focus for one hour and get it done. This is a test of patience.

2. Aggregate information together

Nowadays, the information we deal with every day is very scattered, coming from various different places. I use various tools to solve the problem of information being too scattered. My main solution is aggregation. For example:

• For common news, definitely use an RSS reader, such asReeder
• All information you want to bookmark is through aPocketto bookmark
• Files used for each project are allDropboxplaced in one folder by using a service like this
• For task management, try not to use multiple platforms. If you must, build aggregation through APIs to bring them together.

In this way, you can actually handle information in one place as much as possible, instead of searching everywhere or switching between various applications or web pages to obtain information. It can already solve many problems of scattered information.

3. Share information with the team

• useTrelloorTowerUse tools like these to manage tasks and files well.
• useGmailorOutlooksuch as calendars to share schedule information
• useQuip 、Google DocsorShimoto share documents
• useSlackor our productPubu IMto share information feeds, and can even connect all the above services.

After solving information sharing, the basic work links will be connected, and many unnecessary communications will be reduced. The extra time can be used for more meaningful communication with the team, making the whole team atmosphere lively and open. Only then will work become simpler and problems easier to solve.

Final Thoughts

There are many ways to make work simple, but in the end, it all comes down to obtaining and processing information. We now all usePubu IMfor office work. We have basically abandoned email and do not need to frequently search for information, because information flows in naturally. Combined with some API interfaces developed by ourselves, it can solve 80% of the needs in the information flow, and the whole work becomes very simple.