Productivity101

1. Efficiency. Is it possible to be efficient but not productive? Oh yes. How come? Because we can get good, very good at getting stuff done, but is it the right stuff?
2. Effectiveness is about getting the right stuff done.
3. Urgent is not necessarily important.
4. Trouble is, important is often not urgent.
5. Consider the fascinating intersection of what is important and not necessarily urgent: health, financial planning, deep strategy, relationships, dreams…
6. Make it seem more logical to address that intersection by realising it is important and investing. It helps address what will ultimately will become more urgent.
7. But how do we decide what is important? How do we prioritise?
8. Set your Personal Compass.
9. There’s in time, that’s important+urgent.
10. And there’s on time. That’s important+investing. On time because you are working on yourself and/or on your company and/or on your relationship.
11. Your Personal Compass sits firmly in ON time. It’s about asking the fundamental questions about the fundamental areas in your Life.
12. Compass Point 1=Career.
13. Compass Point 2=Mind/Body Wellness.
14. Compass Point 3=Personal Finance
15. Compass Point 4=Relationships
16. Compass Point 5=Fun
17. Compass Point 6=Contribution or Give Back
18. More on Personal Compass here, in Get a Life.
19. A team of mangers had been hacking their way through the jungle for months. Every so often, one of them would question what they were doing and where they were going. The response was invariably: shut up we are making progress and covering more miles than we did last week. One early morning one young manager had had enough and got up very early and climbed a tall tree. When he finally reached the highest point he had a shock. He came down the tree as quickly as he could and called out to his colleagues who, by now were making breakfast: wrong jungle. To which the reply came: shut up: we’re making progress. Efficiency is hacking through the jungle at a great rate. Effectiveness is being in the correct jungle.
20. Super Seven Productivity Boosters:
21. (1) Pencil and paper. For ease of reflection.
22. (2) Eating a banana. For quick energy.
23. (3) A walk. For stimulation.
24. (4) A business book. For inspiration.
25. (5) A cafe. For grounding.
26. (6) A molecular building kit. For lateral thinking.
27. (7) A dart-board. For fun.
28. Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before. Franz Kafka
29. Read Matt for practical productivity plus a touch of Life philosophy.
30. And seven that can reduce productivity
31. (1) Too much efficiency. You need some slack.
32. (2) Inflexible systems. There's normally room for improvement.
33. (3) An undying belief in technology (e.g. e-mail) over people stuff (e.g. conversations).
34. (4) Board-room tables. Between people.
35. (5) Yellow stickies. Everywhere.
36. (6) 1h chunks of time in the schedule. Choose 45 minutes and have a gap before the next meeting.
37. (7) TV. Oh, yes.
38. Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time. Steven Wright
39. Relax to boost your productivity. Relax101
40. I love deadlines. Especially the whooshing sound they make as they pass by. Douglas Adams
41. The Celeb’s Guide to Productivity (1) Richard Branson : F*ck it! Let's do it.
42. The Celeb’s Guide to Productivity (2) Mohammed Ali : Don’t count the days; make the days count.
43. The Celeb’s Guide to Productivity (3) JFK: Set a clear, simple and inspiring vision.
44. The Celeb’s Guide to Productivity (4) Stephen King: 90 days. 2000 words/day. Equals one 18000 word novel.
45. The Celeb’s Guide to Productivity (5) T E Lawrence. Eat alone. Eat standing up.
46. The Celeb’s Guide to Productivity (6) Picasso. Focus on what you do well. Cubes will do nicely.
47. The Celeb’s Guide to Productivity (7) Leonardo da Vinci. Use Arte e Scienzia. Use Art and Science: use L-brain and R-brain. Boost your productivity by using the best of 'both brains'.
48. The Celeb’s Guide to Productivity (8) Neil Armstrong: Small steps can lead to giant leaps.
49. The Celeb’s Guide to Productivity (9) Isaac Newton: Newton III: "To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction".
Or send more e-mail and you will get more e-mail.
Isaac Newton clearly didn't use e-mail. No wonder he articulated gravity, identified laws of motion, clarified light and the spectrum for us and predicted the motion of planetary motion. Amongst a lot of other stuff.
50. The Celeb’s Guide to Productivity (10) The Julius Caesar Guide to Productivity Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) OR
1. Get close to what you need to do (sit at desk with computer, coffee and Bill Wyman playing on iPod)
2. Absolutely clarify it (1000 words by lunch-time).
3. Do it (fingers to keyboard).
51. The Celeb’s Guide to Productivity (11) Jack Bauer Absolutely anything can be done in 24h.
52. Productivity Strategy (1) What x When. Drop your Things to Do into your schedule.
53. Productivity Strategy (2) The list. Don’t remember (because you won’t). Capture and Review.
54. Productivity Strategy (3) The Calendar. Get perspective; look out to the horizon.
55. Productivity Strategy (4) Break, break and date. Anything can be done if it is made small and time/brain friendly enough. And then time-limited.
56. Productivity Strategy (5) Drop one; add one. Your time and energy are finite. When you add yoga, take away art class.
57. Productivity Strategy (6) Get out of the swamp and climb the mountain. Get perspective; every day. Stop for 10 minutes and think.
58. Productivity Strategy (7) Shut shop; let go. Zone your Life. Bits for work. Bit for you. Bits for the kids. Bits for you and your partner. Don’t neglect any zone.
59. Productivity Strategy (8) Slow down; be you. In particular, remember: there is no such thing as hurry-up thinking.
60. Productivity Strategy (9) Plan it; do it; review it. Kaizen or constant, never ending improvement.
61. Productivity Strategy (10) Be before you can do before you can have. When you really live-and-breathe fitness, you will be fit.
62. Productivity Strategy (11) Do less, achieve more.
63. Productivity Strategy (12) Attention-nothing happens without it.
64. Productivity Paradoxes;
65. (1)The better your capture system the more-apparently-you have to do as you are more on top of things and you have better long-term visibility. Filter, reduce and prioritise. Don't do it all; do what matters. And if you think it all matters you need tougher criteria otherwise you will burn out.
66. (2) E-mail isn't the issue. E-mail simply brings into sharp relief how devastating regular interrupts are to your greatest asset: your thinking. Remove and reduce your distracters.
67. (3) 3 If you are keen to improve your productivity, you are probably already very productive. Don't add another layer to your system/s; fine tune what you have.
68. Is it Time Management that you want or to be productive or work-life balance? There are not the same.
69. Check out Michael Sampson for top productivity tips especially in a technical environment.
70. Project Management 1: What’s the outcome of the project.? What does success look like?
71. Project Management 2: Create mini tasks each with a milestone and necessary dependencies.
72. Project Management 3: Assign a project manager. He/she is finally accountable. Make sure they know that.
73. Project Management 4: Review success and failure. Learn for next time.
74. Assertiveness 1: When you say yes to more work you say no to Lego with your daughter.
75. Assertiveness 2: To be assertive is to work together to respect both viewpoints.
76. Assertiveness 3: To be assertive is to protect one’s self esteem.
77. Assertiveness 4: To be assertive is to run one’s own life whist respecting those of others.
78. Assertiveness 5: They cannot mind-read: you need to tell them.
79. Mind your language:
80. I don't have time. You know that: make a choice about what you won't do.
81. 2. I'm being pulled in all directions. Of course. Decide the direction which meets the 3i criteria: important (meeting a goal), investing (helping in the future) and interesting (about which you have passion).
82. 3. I've got too much to do. That's because you keep adding to your portfolio. Adopt this principle: add one means I drop one. Anything else is not sustainable.
83. 4.I can't find it. Do 5 minutes a day work on systems until you can always find it.
84. 5. I'm just not organised. You didn't use to be. But how about if you drop the label and decide that you can be?
85. Productivity Vocabulary (1) LAG: good results are rarely immediately realisable.
86. Productivity Vocabulary (1) SLACK: you need some down-time to be effective.
87. Productivity Vocabulary (1) FUNGIBLE: people are not necessarily fully transferable on projects. Unlike many resources such as money they are clearly not 100% identical.
88. Get more creative to boost your productivity. Creativity101
89. Get radical on productivity. Try The Growing Life.
90. Ralph waldo Emersom
What is success?
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
And the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
And endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by
A healthy child, a garden patch
Or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed
Easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded.
91. 4 by 4 productivity
If you have ever been lucky enough to go on a proper 4 x 4 vehicle training day you'll know that a key bit of advice is as the terrain gets tough to start getting out and walking ahead to do regular 'recce's. The point being, it doen't matter how powerful your vehicle is, if it gets caught in a pot-hole you are stuffed. Period.
Productivity is a bit like that. Some of us have some powerful systems but we plow on and then it all comes un-stuck. It's vital to stop once in a while. Take a look through the schedule: what's coming up? What needs to be done for the annual conference? What about Jack's college entrance? Spot the quick-sand before it sucks you down.
92. Pencil and paper productiviy
You need a pad of paper. You need a pencil. Use it to:
1.write down what you have to do
2.write down what you want to do 3.break down anything in 1 and/or 2 which is longer than 20 minute time-slice
4.open your diary and place 1 and/or 2 and/or 3 on a page in your diary when you will do it.
93. Just Do It in the Road by the Beatles.
94 Or maybe just do nothing
95 Absolutely nothing.
96. Really nothing.
97 Try it. Just notice your breathing. The waves on the shore.
98 Look into her eyes.
99 Funny stuff. Time Mangement. Productivity. Bit like a mobius strip: try too hard and you end up where you started 17 months ago with that untidy desk. But even more untidy.
100 Be in the moment. Wherever you are: be there. Otherwise when we are at work we look forward to being at home. And when at home, we worry about work.
101 And in the end, don’t allow the search for productivity to allow you to miss Life.