We all have more to do than we can get done, so we have to prioritize free hours and work on first things first.
No doubt, it's more effective to focus on the most important thing. The problem is: the most important things can change day-to-day, hour-to-hour.
Have you ever noticed this phenomenon happening, yet you still can't do anything about it? I'll set the stage by asking you to think of a day when you started off identifying a "priority project for the day."
1. You're at your desk, and think, "I'm going to get up and get a cup of tea/coffee."
2. You walk toward the cafeteria/room, and see a co-worker.
3. You stop to talk about the project you're both "kinda" working on...it's not a priority this week, but it's something you have in common.
4. You continue on to get your drink, only to find that there are not supplies (pick: cups, sugar, stir-straw, whatever).
5. You decide to just go back to your desk and continue working.
6. Along the way to your desk, your mobile phone rings (ok, if you're a guy this could happen, we usually carry our phone on our hip/in our pocket)...
7. You finally get back to your desk, to check e-mail to find out if anything new has come in since you left.
8. You read a note from someone asking for some information you know you can get out of a document saved on your hard drive/C: drive relatively quickly.
9. You go to find the document, only to realize you really should organize some of the files and folders you've saved recently to your desktop/hard drive.
10. You decide to save the e-mail as a draft, promising yourself you'll get back to your co-worker by the end of the business day...
Over the past decade as an educator, coach and productivity-professional, I've found that distraction is the #1 problem people face in their day-to-day work world. So, when you identify a priority for the day, how do YOU manage your tasks, your meetings, your staff and your self through the day to make sure that THAT'S the thing you get done?
Personally, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve. Here are just a couple:
1) Set a timer. Nothing engages my focus and productivity like setting a small egg-timer for 17 or 37 minutes. Yes, I set it for odd times, it just works for me. Then, as the timer counts down, I bring myself BACK to focus if ever I fall out...I can look at the clock and think: "Only 13 minutes to go...I can stay focused."
2) Find a room. Traveling is perhaps my most productive time of the week. I get to the airport early, or reserve the conference room at a hotel I'm staying in and get things done. No distractions of shelves, files, the phone ringing or new e-mails coming in. Just me, my work, and my mind all focused on one thing.
3) ...ok, one more...I commit to someone else what I want to have done, by when. Then, I ask them to call me on it...literally, I ask them to call me on the phone later that day to ask, "Hey, Jason, how are you doing on what you said you'd be doing?"
Oh yeah, it helps if you've identified your own definition of what "productivity" means to you. To me, the majority of the definition is in the example above...here's the whole thing:
I am personally productive when I do what I said I would do, in the time that I promised.
Jason,
Interesting.
I also have a similar definition of productivity that work with, with a slight difference.
To be rigorous, "what I said I would do" implies that there is someone listening (with some integrity.)
When we make promises to ourselves, however, this breaks down for lots of reasons that amount to -- we are not strong at holding ourselves to account.
I have loosened up a bit over the years (as a triathlete and engineer) to think that productivity has something to do with the living the life I am intending to live. I made this change when I moved from the US (with its predictable lifestyle) to Jamaica, where the environment is much less reliable, promises need to be revoked frequently, and keeping promises is more of a game, and less of a stressor.
F
Posted by: Francis Wade | October 02, 2007 at 02:11 PM