A one-step guide to becoming more productive

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of website and books devoted to helping people be more productive. Many of these guides have multiple steps and can become quite complex (so complex that I think many people waste more time than they save on their quest for productivity). What I offer now is not complex. In fact, I do not think it could be simpler. In just one step I’m sure you will immediately become much more productive.

Here we go.

Many times we find ourselves needing to visit some website to accomplish a task (e.g. schedule a payment from your online bank account). So, we open an internet browser and are greeted with something like this.

Once this is finished loading we’re confronted with a host of distractions. I should see how things are going with that oil spill. Who is this person President Obama nominated to the Supreme Court? Did the Celtics win last night? Hey, my old roommate is online-I should see how he’s doing.

As soon as that web page loads, there are loads of things to lure us away from doing whatever it was that we originally set off to do.

Fortunately there is an easy fix to this, just don’t tell the people at Yahoo!. All you need to do is open your browser’s preferences menu, look for the default “Home Page” setting, and delete whatever web address is listed. It should look something like this.

Now when you open your browser you’ll be greeted by this productivity-enhancing sight rather than the siren of distraction seen above.

Now when you decide to go pay that bill online you’ll open the browser and be much more likely to go straight to your bank’s website and get on with your day’s tasks. If you’re looking to increase your productivity, you’re just one step away from getting there.

So what do you think? Would this help increase your productivity? Has it? Can you live without your iGoogle or Yahoo! home page? Let us know in the comments.

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