Bestselling author and one of the most popular TED speakers in the world, Neil Pasricha dazzles audiences with ideas and frameworks that skyrocket happiness into the stratosphere. Pasricha draws on the latest research in happiness to increase individual performance and create a more positive and productive workplace.

He also writes a regular column for The Toronto Star. In the most recent one Pasricha offers a set of tips to make us more productive. Here’s some of that:

Phone it in

Do you have too many boring meetings in dusty rooms with boxes of stale Timbits in the middle of the table? “I’ll take the rock hard jelly one.”

Stop! Here’s my challenge. Move the recurring one-on-one you have with somebody you know really well (that boss or co-worker you like) and move the meeting to the phone. Permanently. This lets you pop in your headphones, zip on your coat and take the meeting outside.
The average person walks five kilometres an hour. That means if you can take even two meetings outside a day, then you’re getting an extra 10 kilometres of exercise. Never mind the fresh air and clarity of thought that comes from getting away from the screen.

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Maintain momentum with Momentum

Have you heard of the Google Chrome extension Momentum? People had been telling me about it for years.

“Every time you open a new browser tab it hits you with your daily goal on top of beautiful images of nature” must have sounded too simple because I never bothered with it until recently.

And now I’m in love. A rotating chilled-out picture, a personal hello, the weather outside and my daily goal!

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Get anti-social

We are all getting far too addicted to our cellphones. New research shows we’re using them for more than four hours a day. That ain’t good.

So, what do you do? Take a deep breath and follow my lead.

I deleted every single game and social media app off my phone. Yes, it was painful. But I didn’t delete my accounts. I just removed “instant access” to them from my pockets all day. No alerts, notifications, updates. Nothing.

Sure, I can still log in from my laptop and I can (and do) download the apps again when I’m on Wi-Fi and want to get in. But this means I do it once a week or so, spend meaningful time on there and then delete the app again.

Read the full story here.