How to be the most productive person in your office — and still get home by 5:30 p.m by Eric Barker - The Week

Some days the to-do list seems bottomless. Just looking at it is exhausting.

We all want to know how to stop being lazy and get more done. I certainly want the answer.

So I decided to call a friend who manages to do this — and more.

Cal Newport impresses the heck out of me. Why? Well, I'm glad you asked. He's insanely productive:

1. He has a full-time job as a professor at Georgetown University, teaching classes and meeting with students.
2. He writes six (or more) peer-reviewed academic journal papers per year.
3. He's the author of four booksincluding the wonderful So Good They Can't Ignore You. And he's at work on a fifth.
4. He's married with a young child and handles all the responsibilities that come with being a husband and dad.
5. He blogs regularly about productivity and expert performance.

And yet he finishes work at 5:30 p.m. every day and rarely works weekends.

No, he does not have superpowers or a staff of 15. Okay, let's you and I both stop being jealous of his productivity for a second and learn something.

Below you'll get Cal's secrets on how you can better manage your time, stop being lazy, get more done — and be finished by 5:30. Let's get to work.

1) To-do lists are evil. Schedule everything.

To-do lists by themselves are useless. They're just the first step. You have to assign them time on your schedule. Why?

It makes you be realistic about what you can get done. It allows you to do tasks when it's efficient, not just because it's #4.

Until it's on your calendar and assigned an hour, it's just a list of wishful thinking.

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