Productivity | Zarvana

Whether your inbox is home to a hundred or a few thousand emails – or it gets out of hand every once in a while, you can use these 6 searches to get it clear again.

You’ve been using Gmail or Outlook for years, but there’s a good chance you aren’t using these time-saving features.

Flipped Meetings: How to Make Meetings Shorter and More Effective

Schools began flipping classrooms 15+ years ago with great results. It’s time for the business community to catch up so professionals can enjoy shorter and more effective meetings.

Most professionals replaced in-person meetings with Zoom calls when the world shifted to remote work based on a simple assumption that turns out to be wrong.

We intuitively know that the end of the year can be a special time to reflect on the year ending, rest, and plan for the upcoming year, but we often fail to pursue the right goals with the right tools.

Science of Productivity: How Sequencing of Tasks Affecting Productivity

Taking ownership for your work may seem insignificant. However, emerging research shows that this simple mindset shift can lead to gains that overcome the advantages of better process design.

Science of Productivity: Power of Ownership

Taking ownership for your work may seem insignificant. However, emerging research shows that this simple mindset shift can lead to gains that overcome the advantages of better process design.

Research from the firm Vega Factor helps answer a key question about how you stay motivated: do you pursue pleasurable activities or meaningful ones?

Do you think it’s easy to pick your most creative idea? Unfortunately, you’re likely not. Find out which idea you’re picking and how to pick your most creative idea.

Science of Productivity: Unintended Consequneces of Negotiation

Those aspiring to greater productivity would assume that winning negotiations would be in line with their goals, but the effect of losing on others changes the score.

The 1-2 words you use to sign an email may seem insignificant, but they actually have a big effect on how likely people are to respond.

For the final set of willpower workouts, your task is to come up with your own Summit Challenge. Learn what Matt is going to attempt that feels impossible for him.

Willpower Workout 31-35: Cutting out procrastination

Procrastination is the antithesis of willpower. In this week’s workouts, we’ll work on cutting it out and re-calibrating our awareness so that we can root out even more procrastination in the future.

Willpower Workout 26-30: How to Quit Later

We quit before we need to because we think when we have reached our limit when we haven’t. To quit later, we must engaged our willpower to explore our limits.

The more focus time you carve out in your day, the higher quality and higher impact work you’ll create. But it takes willpower to make the space for it & then stay focused during it.

Willpower workout: Memorization challenge

Memorization, especially in the midst of distractions, requires a high level of focus, which requires willpower.

Willpower workout: Doing very easy tasks

Most of our willpower workouts have focused on doing hard tasks. But doing very easy tasks often requires as much willpower as the hard ones.

Willpower workout 18: Resisting bad habits

Defeating bad habits isn’t a pure exercise in willpower, but deploying your willpower to push back against a bad habit is a good way to stretch your willpower.

Willpower workout 17: Overcoming temptation

To remain productive and effective at work, you must know how to face and overcome temptation. This is one of the primary jobs willpower is intended to play.

Willpower Workout: Enduring the physical discomfort of fasting

Fasting from food and non-water beverages is one of the greatest tests of your willpower not only because you want food, but you also must operate in a state of depletion.

Discouragement saps our motivation, forcing us to draw on more willpower to get even the simplest tasks done. This workout hands you a double dose of discouragement.

Willpower Workout 14: Going without sleep

Going without sleep is one of the most willpower-depleting exercises. Can you do it and maintain your performance on a visual perception and memory test?

Willpower workout 13: Stretching habit-forming muscle

Forming habits is a key long-term strategy to reduce the use of your willpower, but forming habits takes willpower. Here’s one way to build it.

Willpower workout: Overcoming cognitve defaults and bad habits

Bad habits and good create neural pathways in our brains that make it easy for us to do them again. In this workout, we’ll push back against a cognitive default like the ones bad habits create.

Have you ever submitted to the power of disgust and skipped eating a food when you were expected to eat it? In this willpower workout, you’ll have to fight through it.

Willpower workout 10: Giving and receiving constructive feedback

Most of us have strong emotional resistance to delivering honest, constructive feedback and soliciting it for ourselves, though we recognize the value of it. In this workout, you’ll need to get over that resistance.

Willpower workout 9: Going beyond failure

To explore your limits, you must go until you fail. Only in failure will you know where your true limits are. This willpower workout helps you push your limits.

Willpower workout 8: Do your least motivating task

In this willpower workout, you’ll take a task you’ve been putting off for weeks because you lack intrinsic motivation to do it and you’ll get it done using science-based techniques.

Willpower workout 7: Coldwater challenge

Coldwater or ice baths are an increasingly popular health fad and long-standing willpower-building tactic. Can you go this cold for this long?

Willpower Workout: Focusing admist distractions

The modern professional is inundated with distractions and interruptions. Today, exercise your ability to focus amid distractions and switch between tasks.

Willpower workout: Pushing through when depleted

When we feel like we have “nothing left,” we think we have reached our limit. This willpower workout helps you keep going even when you feel depleted.

Willpower Workout: Staying Productive Without Progress

Visible signs of progress keep us motivated because we feel that what we’re doing is meaningful. Remove signs of progress and you’ll need to fight to maintain your willpower.

The last two workouts have tested your mind and body. In this willpower workout, your emotions will be put to the test. Can you find something positive in someone you disagree with?

The 1-2 words you use to sign an email may seem insignificant, but they actually have a big effect on how likely people are to respond.

In this second willpower workout, you’ll experience the challenge of concentrating as your body approaches exhaustion. You’ll need to develop systems to complete this workout successfully.

The agile methodology for project management has become increasingly popular. New research from Harvard shows whether it actually bolsters innovation.

Here is the first willpower workout of our 40-day Explore Your Limits Challenge. Come ready to overcome boredom!

To cross the distance between where you are and your goals, you’ll willpower. Join us for these willpower workouts and upgrade your ability to do hard things.

Are critical thinking skills just a gift some are born with and others are not? Or do more life experiences simply make you a better critical thinker?

When given the choice, should you invest money to get more time or invest your time to earn more money? Research from Harvard Business School provides an answer.

If you want to accomplish your goals faster or escape burnout, figure out how to work less & get the same done. Here’s how other companies are cutting full days/week.

Why your employees don't care about productivity

Over half of employees give the minimum effort required. Here’s one major reason why & how to get your employees to care about productivity.

Zarvana CEO Matt Plummer shares concise insights to a range of questions on leadership development and excelling at work while maintaining a healthy personal life.

Science from Stanford shows why Zoom and other video calls may be wearing you out.

Moving between open applications is one of the most common tasks of knowledge workers. These simple shortcuts enable you to do it twice as fast.

You’re almost definitely spending more time in meetings than you would like. Learn these principles in order to skip unproductive meetings.

The time you spend finding files may seem negligible, but 57% of professionals waste an hour a day on it. These two practices dramatically reduce that time.

If you focus primarily on when a task is due and not how long it will take to accomplish, you’re probably making these three prioritization mistakes.

Productive online communication is not easy today. There are too many tools, too little guidance, & counterproductive norms. Here’s how to change it.

When you shift to remote work, your instinct likely is to schedule more meetings. Instead, use this opportunity to right-size your time spent in meetings.

What to Do When You Break Your Habit Streak

Expect that you’ll break your habit streak. Breaking it isn’t the problem; it’s what you do when you break it that matters.

Tracking progress is the key to creating lasting habits. Here’s how Zarvana can help you monitor your progress.

Perfectionism paralysis costs a lot of time with little impact. Here’s how to overcome this mentality without lowering your standards.

Clumped Towel Fallacy - A Counterproductive Mindset

Many skip or put off tasks that once delayed, create ongoing consequences. Here’s how to overcome this counterproductive mindset.

Productivity growth is pointless if you can’t sustain it. The Buddy System is a simple, easy-to-use approach to making sure your improvements last.

If you’re like most people, you spend too much time reading and too little time applying what you’ve read. Accept our challenge to use the productivity tool, information fast, to overcome this.

Choose professional development priorities

Here’s how to use your Time-Finder productivity diagnostic results to determine your professional development priorities.

There are millions of tips promising to boost your productivity. The Time-Finder productivity diagnostic helps you figure out where to start.

Efficiency and effectiveness may seem like productivity synonyms, but they actually each represent a separate dimension of productivity with their own key for improvement.

Perfectionism can seem like a noble pursuit, but in reality, it costs you more time for less time impact. Here’s how to overcome perfectionist tendencies.

Some may associate productivity with a bland, rushed way of life, but productivity and happiness are actually connected. Here’s how.

There are a lot of management tools, but the work plan is one of the most fundamental because it determines when you need to start & finish work.

Most professionals don’t spend the professional development budget their companies offer them. Don’t make this mistake.

A shortened 4-day workweek forces employees to do this one thing most professionals never do. That’s what led to Microsoft’s productivity gains.

A psychological phenomenon known as cognitive tunneling can blind you to your real priorities, leading you to check your email when you have more important work to do.

How you define productivity determines how you become more productive. Start with this new productivity definition that is holistic, objective, anti-burnout.

We all want to get better at our jobs, have more time, build better relationships, and contribute more to society. Here’s the science behind how to do it.

Does it feel like half of your people are obsessed with productivity, while the other half don’t care? Here’s how to change that.

The key to disagreeing effectively is to make others feel good about themselves, something people-pleasers excel at.

Do you ever notice opportunities to save time, but put them off, expecting to tackle a bunch of opportunities all at once? Here’s why that doesn’t work.

Most people organize their to-do lists around due dates. Here’s why that is counterproductive.

Compelling entertainment options are eroding people’s willpower. Businesses and individuals will do well to get ahead of this growing challenge.

Many have put their faith in to-do lists to ensure they get important work done without seeing results. Here’s why.

Four counterproductive beliefs often undermine your best attempts to boost your productivity. Replace them before trying another hack.

The ills of email notifications are widely known, yet many continue to keep them on because turning them off produces so much anxiety. Here’s how to silence notifications and keep your calm.

The cost of interruptions in the workplace is clear. So are the solutions.

Email notifications cost people a lot of time, but many worry that turning them off will lead them to miss something important. Here’s a workaround.

The average professional spends 28% of the workday reading and answering email. With 5 practices, you can cut it in half.

Extensive research shows the value of engaged employees. A productive mindset contributes to engagement.

When hoping to boost our productivity, we tend to look to the latest app or tech product, when there are countless ways to save time simply by changing our behaviors.

There are vast amounts of research on professional development, but often, we reject the research in favor of what feels right to us.

Boosting your productivity often requires you to invest a little time now to save more later. Most of us do the opposite.

We burn out when we become exhausted. This can happen in any job. One antidote is to get your work done faster.

These 5 actions are the summary of compelling research on how to do email management productively.

The world of productivity and time-management is filled with gurus. Here’s why we decided not to be one of them.

Planning and running large, ambiguous projects present many opportunities to lose time. The scientific method is a proven, efficient solution to this challenge.

Snoozing will cause us to spend more time in our inboxes rather than less and lead us to use our inboxes as a to-do list, a productivity no-no.

We’re consuming more information, but learning less. Here are the 3 trends causing this and how to reverse them.

We’re consuming more information than we ever have, but getting less for it. Here’s how to reverse this trend.

Many of us have mindsets that keep us from becoming more productive. Perfectionism is one of the most insidious.

Burnout seems like an inevitable part of a job at a top tier management consulting firm, but it doesn’t have to be if you learn how to be more productive.