Lift that boat, Tote that bail

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I have always been a man in a hurry.  I rushed through school.  I rushed through my careers.  I rushed development of new products and processes.  I drive quickly.  I ride my bike quickly.  My (then) wife once said that she knew of only one thing I did that wasn’t rushed…

But, too many folks think being rushed is the key to productivity.  It isn’t.  Nor is having a set schedule.  (I admit that I have a schedule- but, being the master of my ship, I can easily deviate.)  No, being productive requires us to have a plan, a set of goals, and ensuring that our activities are aimed at furthering the accomplishment of those goals and objectives.

(I also believe we must have a mission statement.  Both for our firms and ourselves.  And, every action we effect should be in concert with that mission statement.  Or, we are just fooling ourselves with fancy words and lofty promises.)

Now, I remember an awful lot of things about a plethora of subjects.  But, I still rely on codifying all the information I collect.   So, when I need to be fully cognizant of all the issues, when I need to provide substantiation to a client for a specific matter, I can employ a keyword to obtain the reference forthwith. To be honest, on a given day, this probably saves me no time; but over the course of a week, hours are saved.  Because we don’t always need that “thing” right now, but when we do, it holds everything else up.  (Feel free to contact me to discuss the indexing system we employ.)

And, as opposed to what I hear many folks doing, I create my “ToDo” list each evening.  OK.  Sometimes, I just adjust it from the day before.  But, it’s everywhere- on my phone, my tablet, my computer- and a printout is waiting on my desk for me to peruse tomorrow morning.    This ensures that I know the needs for the day.

Which brings up the next thing that is critical.   As opposed to the esteemed Steven Covey’s proclamations, we don’t set our priorities per se.  No, our life’s goals and our mission- they are our priority.  It’s our job to see those priorities in everything we do.  Sure, that means that some things are more important for us to do now, to do first- but that’s because they are critical to our long term goals and mission.

That also makes it clear we aren’t managing our time.  It might look like that to an outsider, but we are simply paying attention to what matters most.  (See?  I’m not against Steven Covey’s ideas.  I happen to like them a lot.)  And, what matters most at 9 AM is probably going to be different than what matters most at 3 PM.  Because stuff happens- and we need to accommodate those needs within our days.

When we work best?

And, we also need to recognize that we all have biological clocks.  (No, I am not talking about pregnancy.)  There are times of the day when we really can accomplish a lot, we can plow our way through (what seem to be) insurmountable obstacles at other times of the day.  For me- that’s early in the morning and mid-afternoon.  You should recognize when you work best.

One person's productivty chart

Oh, and we work best in cycles.  Just like our sleep cycle is about 90 minutes, our work cycle can be 50, 60, 80, or 90 minutes.  Keep cramming longer than 90 minutes without a break and you will find you are accomplishing far less per minute than you were before.  (I will say there are some creative efforts like painting, writing a novel, composing a piece of music- because of the nature of those efforts- and the different parts of our brain that are engaged- those cycles may be longer.)

So, determine your best cycle times.   And, when that’s elapsed?  Get up.  Take a walk.  Get a cup of coffee.  Look at your email (limit that activity to set number of minutes).

And, my last piece of advice.  Throw out that mantra to touch one piece of paper only once. Because doing something right now doesn’t mean it’s the best use of your time.  If the task requires little creative juice but just frantic activity- why not relegate that to your less productive moments?  Or, if the task that just crossed your desk (your boss handed you a memo) means you need hours of thought, and hours of action- find a place for it on your “ToDo” list.  Make it a big rock with which you need to deal, and deal with the issue (not the piece of paper) when you’ve got the focus to complete it- ONCE.

Now, go slay your dragons.

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