Category Archive for: ‘Time Management’
Getting up early
Getting up early and doing something important is one of the best ways to have a productive and successful day. Michael Wade shares a list of some activities that people do when they get up early. Yet the more interesting part covers things that people don’t do or don’t see as a priority activity:
- Checking e-mail
- Making phone calls
- Reviewing the previous day
What’s yours morning priority?
Structures and productivity
I was listening to a recent podcast with David Allen where he mentioned very interesting element. Many times we are building a lot very complex structures to support productivity
adding layers of tags, applications etc. In effect we limit ourselves and put more pressure to maintain this system. It becomes a drag. Whereas the opposite should be true. A good productivity system should be light and flexible allowing to fit you into changing events and requirements. You can listen to full episode here.
Continuing with this thought focus on keeping your system just right and fit for purpose.
When you have them, it’s very easy to spend few hours organizing everything in your system. Adding locations, tags, links. Making sure everything is clearly laid out. But is such approach sustainable on daily basis? Probably not.
When you look at how people get organized more often than not everything they have is halfway done. They had some free time, so they decided to organise something they mean to do a long time ago. They put a very nice looking structure of A-Z folders, marked with different colours and labels. After a while only half of the documents are done this way, the demands of the daily work took over and there is no longer any time to maintain this structure.
The same will happen with tasks. You can go full on with application like Omnifocus or Thinkingrock or Remember the Milk and fill every possible text box, add connections, notes and links, then you can dice and slice actions, projects the way you want.
After initial hurray stage this structure weighs you down and becomes a drag. It becomes apparent that filling all the boxes and putting all the tags and folders is too time consuming. It can’t be sustained in normal day when things are flying at the speed of light.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why a short list of daily tasks is so effective. It’s simple, easy, flexible and becomes great reference point for your progress throughout the day.
To conclude, tools you use should support enough to let you maintain the control of the day yet they should be light easy to use so that they don’t become a drag.
Photo by: Aislinn Ritchie
Productivity a video series
I’ve been going through some of my archives and I stumbled upon couple very interesting videos about personal productivity, GTD, self management. So I decided to share some of the best finds in this up coming series.
When I watched those videos initially there was always something worth picking up and implementing. Sometimes it was a small bit other times it was drastic and complete change to the way I’ve been working. Either way it was always worth spending sometime on it.
I’m starting with a classic. It’s David Allen talking to Google employees in 2007. Although it’s four years old I still find it useful. Enjoy.
If you can’t see the video here is the link to original YouTube source.
Keep it slow
I’m learning my lesson to keep it slow. In the last few months I had to cut down my running due to a medical problem that prevented me from hitting my standard pace.
Since I’ve resumed running I can only do it at a very low intensity and pace.This is completely new experience for me as I’m well used to pushing myself hard. First of all it’s very difficult to adjust to new lower pace. I need to be very much conscious of my speed and control it. Often times I need to remind myself to slow down. It’s not always easy because of the by internal idea that only slow people and newbies run at my pace. Need to swallow a lot of pride to feel comfortable but I’m getting there.
What this has to do with productivity?
Well a lot. As more and more stuff is coming my way, I’m learning to accept the fact that I can’t do it all. I need to make conscious hard choices about where to put my attention. Sure it’s often fun and exciting to constantly engaging in new projects and activities but this can’t last forever. At some point something gotta give. I’m learning that I can’t do it all and keep everybody happy because I’m one person.
I have my limits, my time is limited, my attention is limited. There is only so much that I can do in 8-9 hours at work. Rather than except everything and strain your limits constantly try this Delegate, say ‘No’, Delete. May not always be possible but it might be enough to buy you some time.
High volume is not sustainable in the long run. Regardless if you are researching an issue, dealing with a client, drafting a proposal if you get too many of these after a while they become a blurr. All you can remember is that you deal with this before but was it last week, two weeks ago or just on Monday?
You/I need periods of down town to absorb new information, to re-think progress etc.
So keep it slow. Remember the parable where a tortoise and a hare take part in the race. In the end slower one won.
PS. I’ve signed up for Dublin marathon in Oct ‘11. Although I’m anxious to start training and get running I’m taking it slow and gradually build up my mileage.
Photo by LabirinthX
Get unstuck and get more done
Just wanted to share two great tips that I came across very recently.
Randy Murray writes about getting better grip on your projects, getting to understand what is that a project should deliver. Quite often people procrastinate on things, put them off as much as they can simply because they don’t understand what’s required from them. They weren’t told what’s the purpose of the project. A list of actions to complete is not enough, it doesn’t provide any context to a project. It simply says get it moving, get it done.
A solution that Randy proposes is to write a project abstract. Write couple sentences outlining what’s the project about, why it’s important and who benefits from it. This might help you get a fresh energy to work on that project.
I think this is a great advise especially if all your focus is on cranking out next action steps. After a while it can become dull and boring. Making a project abstract or writing down the successful outcome (vide GTD) is a good way to remind yourself where are you going. Envisioning success can be uplifting and revitalizing. Previously dull and boring project will now look like something real and alive, it’s much easier to put your energy in it.
Second tip is from Jason Womack. In below video he talks about meetings and in the wider context making the most of your time when plans are changing. You were due to attend a meeting but it’s been cancelled. What do you do with that extra time? How do you react to a cancellation? Jason points that rather than getting busy with your email or organizing your stuff, find 2-3 things you would do if you had an extra time. You’ve just been given an extra 1h of time.
This is so simple and powerful idea that it can be easily overlooked. In majority of workplaces we are pressed for time so those unexpected “time windows” where you’re scheduled to do something else are great opportunities. I think it takes some practice to shift from busy work to working something more productive. It’s super easy to burn hour checking email.
Start thinking that you’ve been given an extra hour and make a habit of spending that time on tasks that are important to you. Keep your task list updated and current so next time someone cancels a meeting you know what to do.