How to build habits to increase productivity – The ‘Bright Line Rule’ 

A bright-line rule refers to a clearly defined rule or standard. It is a rule with clear interpretation and very little wiggle room. It establishes a bright line for what the rule is saying and what it is not saying.

Most of us, myself included, could benefit from setting brighter lines in our working and professional lives. Consider some common examples:

• We might say that we want to check email less frequently. 
• We might say that we want to have less meetings. 
• We might say that we want to avoid sending attachments. 
• We might say that we want to build our network of connections. 

But what do these statements really mean?

What does it mean to check email less frequently? Are you going to “try to be better about it” and hope that works? Will you set specific days or certain times when you will be unavailable? Will you check email on weekends? Will you process email only on your computer?

Fuzzy statements make progress hard to measure, and for building habits the things we measure are the things we improve.

A Bright Line Rule is a statement that make action steps precise and obvious. Vague promises will never lead to clear results.

So rather than setting yourself a vague task such as

“I will check email less frequently”

A Bright Line Rule would be

“I will only process email between 11AM and 2PM”